2011-2012 English Football Season and STEWART DOWNING WHAT ON EARTH Thread

[Old Manus]

Looking at the table, I think what's happened here is that Newcastle are overachieving somewhat this season and (SPOILER)Everton are only above Liverpool by virtue of two quick wins over West Brom and the Swans, and that'll soon equal itself out. Then above that, you've got Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and Man City/Utd. The fact is, those five teams are just better teams than Liverpool at the moment.

If you ignore Newcastle and (SPOILER)Everton for now, the next team up is Chelsea and you just have to compare their squads. Chelsea have proven scorers in Drogba, Sturridge et al (we'll forget Torres), as well as a top class midfield with Mata, Essien, Meireles and so on. Put that side by side with Liverpool's grossly unintimidating lineup of Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson and I can't really place Liverpool above them in the table. They have two players who are truly world class in Suarez and Kuyt, but other than that it's just a merry-go-round of average players with the exception of pensioner Steven Gerrard.

From this we can deduce that they are probably on paper the sixth best team in the league, and are two places away from it because of bad form, good form from the two teams above them, and I'm sure Suarez's eight game ban didn't help much. (SPOILER)Actually this one is just a joke. Carry on. You guys just need to step back and reassess your goals before any tribal chief killing.

[charliepanayi]

Dear Barcelona

Please thrash Chelsea in the semi-finals. Or just beat them anyway.

Thanks

Charlie

[Loony BoB]

I dunno, I've never liked Chelsea but at least they aren't running smug anymore, so it allows me to ignore them. Barcelona, on the other hand, are all kinds of smug. Most of the people I know would like them to lose, if only because it's more fun to have about eight teams who are all just as good as each other at the top of the CL than one team who is miles better than the rest. So everyone at work is hoping for Bayern to win the Champion's League, but will settle for Real Madrid. Nobody wants Chelsea or Barca to win, but they would take Chelsea over Barca if only so it's not another predictable year.

[charliepanayi]

These people are mad. My order of preference is:

Bayern
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Abandoning the tournament this year
Chelsea

I don't care about predictable (and it's not so predictable, no team has won back to back European Cups in over twenty years), I do care about the prospect of John Terry lifting the European Cup. That said if Chelsea want to make the final and lose agonisingly again, I'm all for that.

[Psychotic]

Charlie

YOU. I might've known!

You fat mothersmurfer, get the smurf out of my midfield and back to Blackpool. £10m for your corners? I'll give you a god damn freddo for you to never take another corner again. Can't even beat the first man you tubby pile of incompetence you.

Also your list of winners is almost correct, just swap Barca for Real. Xabi Alonso > Javier Mascherano.

[Rocket Edge]

I agree with BoB. I have always disliked Barca for that very reason, smugness! They are the very team to go and complain about something that happened to them & say nothing when they did the same thing they are talking about. :/ They are also the most boring team to watch when they play at home. Unless your a supporter I don't understand how a match that is one way traffic & 80% possession makes for an entertaining game. No amount of slick passing or a moment or two from Messi can make up for that in my book. Give me a competitive PL game any day. I personally would love for Chelsea to batter them. Highly unlikely but you can always hope.

The thoughts of Terry lifting the European Cup (although horrible) shouldn't evade the fact that there are members of the Chelsea squad who deserve a CL medal. I would prefer Bayern to win it, but yeah, anyone apart from Barcelona.

[charliepanayi]

People who don't like Barcelona - you're not obliged to like Barcelona, yes they engage in gamesmanship etc (who doesn't?), but frankly I'm mystified that people can actively dislike them. I can imagine if this were the 70s you'd be complaining about Total Football being overrated or too 'smug'.

Maybe I'm just grateful to a team who have spared me having to watch Man Utd win two more European Cups. Plus why should we be the only team to get stuffed by them repeatedly anyway. Everyone else should suffer!

[Loony BoB]

People who don't like Barcelona - you're not obliged to like Barcelona, yes they engage in gamesmanship etc (who doesn't?), but frankly I'm mystified that people can actively dislike them. I can imagine if this were the 70s you'd be complaining about Total Football being overrated or too 'smug'.

Why can't you understand people disliking Barcelona? Can you understand people disliking any other team? What about Manchester United? Chelsea? Real Madrid? Can you understand people disliking any of them? Why?

[Old Manus]

It's simple. You dislike any team that Cristiano Ronaldo has played or will play in.

And a word on yesterday: Toothless.

[Loony BoB]

Gutted at the Liverpool win, not because of Liverpool, but because I want Blackburn to stay up, especially over Bolton. Hopefully they can get those points they need.

Also, oh Kenny, what will you do next? More Liverpool games on Sky, please. And let Andy Burton do the post-match interviews all the time.

[Psychotic]

why is it that Liverpool Do A Thing provokes more replies to this thread than any other event in football?

Anyway yeah BIG ANDY. I am also very pleased for Brad Jones after the sad events surrounding his son.

[Loony BoB]

why is it that Liverpool Do A Thing provokes more replies to this thread than any other event in football?

Because nobody else is doing anything amusing.

[Psychotic]

Mario Balotelli.

The Spurs Implosion.

Fernando Torres.

Wolves!

Liverpool beat Blackburn 3-2 is hardly prime footballe comedie.

[Loony BoB]

No, but if a manager first attempts to walk away half way through an interview and then threatens to bar a reporter from a future press conference to his face on live TV, it's always a little funny.

We don't have José anymore and not many managers these days are having a Keegan, so we have to make do with what we have!

And last time I checked, we have talked a lot about Balotelli and Torres. Wolves and Spurs struggling doesn't really amuse me much, but if we're talking serious football, I think Spurs have possibly the easiest run-in out of all the clubs in the league. Their CL spot is pretty safe as far as I'm concerned so I don't think they're going to lose out all that much from their recent form.

Wolves? Eh, going down. That's all there is to say about them at the moment, it's not rocket science. If I had to pick three teams to go down right now, I'd take Bolton, Wigan and Wolves. Just not Blackburn, if only for my mate's sake. And pleeeeeeeeease, Blackpool, win the playoffs again and come up. I want me some Ian Holloway.

[Psychotic]

Wolves are funny because they fired their manager, then said it was not a job for a novice, and then, welp.