English Football Thread! 2007-2008 Season

[Loony BoB]

It would suck if we lost to Liverpool. Thank god we eased past 'em! I'd hate to be a fan of a team that lost to Liverpool.

EDIT: Will this be the last time we see an unchanged side from Rafa?

EDIT: Ideal situation... Almunia makes two more saves, injures himself in the process. Substituted. Hleb scores and sets up lots of other chances for rest of the game, and outplays everyone on the pitch. All in vain, as Chelsea score two late equalisers just after he's substituted. Almunia: 10 points (2 bonus) and Hleb: 12 points (3 bonus). Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea. United top the table but I get craploads of fantasy football points. Come on, you football Gods...

EDIT: Screw you Van Persie! Robbed me of a Hleb assist just before Hleb got subbed. At least Hleb can keep his clean sheet point. And even if Arsenal overtake United, at least Almunia's done me well.

[Psychotic]

Well...I'm not really a fan of a team that has lost to Liverpool either, so y'know.

And yeah, you beat us, but that doesn't change the fact that you're a big bunch of stinky boy kissers.

[Hazzard]

Yes, Arsenal won a gritty game which was scrappy for the whole ninety minutes. We could of capitalized on many easy opportunities, it just proved that Van Persie, Hleb and Fabz were pretty rusty after their injuries. The defense kept Chelsea at bay, and at the end of the day we got the 3 points. Good result for the Gunners!

However, would of been nice if Liverpool drew or won against the Red Devils, but I guess they weren't good enough. Oh well...

[charliepanayi]

Good win today, thanks to Cech for choosing this game to make a rare bad mistake. We needed that after last weekend especially. I'm still worried about our next few games though, we'll need to keep winning at this rate to keep Man Utd at bay.

I don't think Chelsea or even Liverpool are out of it by any means, they just can afford less mistakes now. But Chelsea are very tough to beat and Liverpool...well you never know what you're going to get with Liverpool and Benitez's tactics. The French rugby union team is less unpredictable sometimes!

[Heath]

Up to sixth and twelve games unbeaten too. Can't complain. Tough game next though (Man Utd away) but I think if we can go to Stamford Bridge and get a point with a bit of luck we could get the same at Old Trafford.

[Hazzard]

Liverpool definitely don't need any more signings. Benetiz needs to learn not to add, add, add to the squad, and learn to let his players gel with the teammates they have at present. He should settle with the group of players he has at the moment, let Babel start a few more games, and boom! Liverpool will be back in the title race in no time. Their starting to cooperate a lot better as a team, seeing as Fernando Torres has secured the main striker spot.

Man Utd don't really need that traditional number 9 who Big Alex has been searching for, I think the Teves - Rooney connection will only get better for now on, but it will hinder Arsenal, especially when you think of the Red Devil's golden defense.

Arsenal need to buy a new right midfielder in the upcoming transfer window, Eboue is ruining our fluent play while the counter attack takes place, he doesn't have that end product playing in the position he does. We'll never win the Premiership with him on the right, we need a natural and technically adept player to feature on the right, maybe we can shift Hleb back there - Van Persie can play just behind Adebayor, Walcott can leap on now and again for some experience along with Bendtler. But just in case of another injury crisis for Vanz, we really need to purchase a new Attacking Right Midfielder.

[Jess]

I didn't do this on Saturday? Dammit.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to see Newcastle win away. Hey!

[Loony BoB]

Chi-ching! United now have four decent strikers. I think. Okay, he plays for Angola and aparrently gets 25 goals per season in the Angolan league. I have no idea how good that means he is. Now I can officially join the bandwagon of fans moaning about the African Nations Cup though!

Hello, Manucho Gonçalves.

[Heath]

Now I can officially join the bandwagon of fans moaning about the African Nations Cup though!

Bloody Africa thinking it's so big with it's bloody tournaments every two bloody years that take away bloody decent players like Yakubu, Yobo, Pienaar and Anichebe with it's bloody tournament that Nigeria and South bloody Africa are competing in.

[charliepanayi]

I wish we could have gotten Inter (who usually implode in Europe) rather than Milan (who play above themselves in Europe). We'll give it our best shot though.

Phew, too close today, thanks to Almunia for saving us. But if we can eke out results when playing badly occasionally I'm OK with that. A lot of improvement is needed against Portsmouth and Everton however.

[Jess]

That was close.

[Heath]

Bit disappointed not to get a point from the game which it sounds like we deserved, but I can't say I expected us to get much from the game. Quite disappointed that United have beat us twice courtesy of late goals. Onward and upward again, I hope. Here's hoping we can reach 14 matches unbeaten next!

[The Captain]

I have a general question:

As an outside to English Football, (An American, in case you don't know), I am curious about one thing that I keep reading: Aren't midfielders supposed to play defense? I get that strikers rarely play great defense, but part of a midfielders job is to control the ball and stop it from penetrating into the their own defense. I've watched Kaka and C. Ronaldo a lot and they are Superior, SUPERIOR offensive players, operating on a level very few can, yet they are weak at defense and seem to not make much of an effort there. Shouldn't that count against them when judging overall talent? I get that goals from midfield are hard to come by, but all offense and no defense and you basically have Frank Lampard, so why are they considered the best players in the world if there is a huge weakness in their game?

To give an example: Michael Jordan is considered the BEST basketball player of all time not just because of his offense, but because he could lock you down defensively like few can and that rare combo made him the best. Likewise Wayne Gretzky in hockey is the BEST not just because of his offense, but becuase he was maybe one of the best help defenders ever, though slight, he would find ways to deflect shots and to poke the puck at just the right moment to prevent shots on goal, in essence, a good team defender. Willie Mays in baseball is another example of an legendary player on both offense and defense.

It just seems to me that in a two-way sport, where the player plays both offense and defense, that in order for them to be getting the accolades that are put on both Kaka and Ronaldo (Best Ever, etc), they should be at least adequate on defense, yet they just aren't.

Thoughts?


Take care all.

[Heath]

It's because midfield is, ultimately, one of the most versatile places on the pitch. Of course midfielders do try and prevent the ball from getting into their own halves, but some midfielders are specifically geered much more towards attacking like you said. However there are specific 'defensive midfield' players who act a go-between between the defence and the midfield such as Lee Carsley at Everton. I think the thing is that players like Ronaldo and the like are considered the best in their position is because a goal scoring midfielder with flair is much more fun to watch and impressive than a no thrills but gets the job done holding or defensive midfielder. Obviously midfielders do chip in in defence when needs be though.

[Loony BoB]

Yeah, Heath is right. If you employ a defensive midfielder solely for the purpose of aiding the defence, then why would you want to have your attacking midfielders defend as well?

There's also the matter of what the manager wants a player to do. For example, Ronaldo may be a midfielder, but when we are defending, you'll find that he is often basically given the role of a striker while one of Rooney or Tevez will drop back. This is because if there is any way that the ball should be taken away from the opposition, you want your fastest men far up the pitch so you can quickly get the ball to them and they can then quickly take the ball past the opposition defence and get a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. If there are two players, all the better - two-on-one!

Having said that, Ronaldo does get the ball off opposition - he's just basically a 100% attacking player, so even when defending, he'll not do what most defenders do - that is, boot the ball away from the defender or slide in with a hard tackle to, well, boot the ball away from the defender. Instead, he'll prefer to steal the ball through quick footwork, and then you'll find that he still won't boot it up to the other end of the pitch - he'd prefer to keep the ball until he can either get a goal, make a cross or pass it to another United player. Even if there are three players right around him, he'll probably back himself to get it past them or else get fouled while trying. But yeah, he refuses to simply give away the ball, I've noticed that much, he'll just keep it to United players. After all, if the opposition don't have the ball, they can't score a goal.

The best defence is offence.

Still, every team will generally be able to get themselves into a position where nine of their players can be used in defence. For United, there are two players who I prefer to see attacking than defending. Ronaldo and Scholes. Ronaldo because he's so dangerous on the break, and Scholes because, er, he can't tackle without getting a card.