The Soccer Thread

[Sharkweather]

Still two points up, cant complain.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

The Tottenham/Everton game today was madness.

 

[davie]

Disappointed that Chelsea lost. Need them to take the title away from Man Utd.

 

[Senser81]

The thing is, I highly doubt Rafa gets the sack before the end of the year. Who will replace him? I've seen Reds fans calling for Guus, but he just signed on as Technical Director at Chelsea and I doubt he will burn Roman so soon after. Is there any other club out there that would let their coach go in the middle of the season?

Free agents I can think of off the top of my head that might have the pedigree- Juande Ramos? The Spurs disaster is likely too fresh. Michael Laudrup? Fired after a miserable start at Saturn. Louis van Gaal after he gets the Bayern sack?

If anyone gives me a good idea of who can step into Liverpool and give them a real shot of a top four finish, I'll gladly listen

True. They aren't going to replace Rafa this year.

Getting knocked out of the Champions League so early is disappointing, but, IMO, its not all that surprising. Go through Liverpool's lineup on a man-by-man basis...they aren't very good.

Having to watch this year's Liverpool team play without Torres has been brutal. Even a few years ago when Liverpool had an over-the-hill Robbie Fowler up front, they had more scoring punch than this team. I've already stated my dislike for the pussies such as Insua, Lucas, Aurellio, etc. With Torres out, you now see how little depth Liverpool has.

In their last game against Blackburn, Ngog and El Zhar got significant minutes. Thats fine for a Youth League exhibition, but those two shouldn't even be seeing the pitch at all this year, much less playing major roles. Does anyone think Ngog and El Zhar would be playing on a ManU, Chelsea, or Arsenal?

 

[calgaryballer]

True. They aren't going to replace Rafa this year.

Getting knocked out of the Champions League so early is disappointing, but, IMO, its not all that surprising. Go through Liverpool's lineup on a man-by-man basis...they aren't very good.

Having to watch this year's Liverpool team play without Torres has been brutal. Even a few years ago when Liverpool had an over-the-hill Robbie Fowler up front, they had more scoring punch than this team. I've already stated my dislike for the pussies such as Insua, Lucas, Aurellio, etc. With Torres out, you now see how little depth Liverpool has.

In their last game against Blackburn, Ngog and El Zhar got significant minutes. Thats fine for a Youth League exhibition, but those two shouldn't even be seeing the pitch at all this year, much less playing major roles. Does anyone think Ngog and El Zhar would be playing on a ManU, Chelsea, or Arsenal?

N'Gog might play at Arsenal because he is young and French

But you're right, the depth at Liverpool is terrible. Glen Johnson has been an impressive presence at right back, but you have to wonder if the 40 million spent on him and Aquilani couldn't have been used to build the squad.

The purchase of Aquilani has to be one of Rafa's biggest blunders. When healthy, he may be a 20+ million player. But past form doesn't indicate he is healthy all that often. When Arsene buys injury prone players, he gets them at knockdown prices. Rafa somehow missed the message on that one

 

[Archer]

Newcastle won again at the weekend moved four points clear

Pancrate got his first goal for the club and looked ok

Coventry next

 

[davie]

Juve beat Inter 2-1 on Saturday in a nice scrappy game, Lolter Samuel probably the dirtiest player in the game. Inter only 4 points clear now.

AC won 3-0 at home to Sampdoria, who have really fallen off the pace after a great start.

Other significant result
Livorno 0-2 Chievo. Cristiano Lucarelli sent off, couldn't understand the Italian commentary but I think it was for protesting too strongly.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

Newcastle 7 points clear now. What a past few months it's been.

 

[Tearz49ers]

N'Gog might play at Arsenal because he is young and French

But you're right, the depth at Liverpool is terrible. Glen Johnson has been an impressive presence at right back, but you have to wonder if the 40 million spent on him and Aquilani couldn't have been used to build the squad.

The purchase of Aquilani has to be one of Rafa's biggest blunders. When healthy, he may be a 20+ million player. But past form doesn't indicate he is healthy all that often. When Arsene buys injury prone players, he gets them at knockdown prices. Rafa somehow missed the message on that one

What you also have to take into account is just this March he signed a new four-year contract earning around £20M. His buy out clause if they were to sack him would be huge somwhere around £10M and Liverpool dont have that spare cash to just throw away or atleast they dont at this present time.

The Depth at Liverpool is terrible yes, I really can't name any off their youth players like I could with say United and Arsenal and Also Chelsea.

The signing of Aquilani was not well planned out, it was a rush buy to try and replace Alonso and as of now it really hasn't worked out for Rafa.

 

[calgaryballer]

What you also have to take into account is just this March he signed a new four-year contract earning around £20M. His buy out clause if they were to sack him would be huge somwhere around £10M and Liverpool dont have that spare cash to just throw away or atleast they dont at this present time.

The Depth at Liverpool is terrible yes, I really can't name any off their youth players like I could with say United and Arsenal and Also Chelsea.

The signing of Aquilani was not well planned out, it was a rush buy to try and replace Alonso and as of now it really hasn't worked out for Rafa.

Liverpool does have some highly regarded (at least in their circles) youngsters, like Jay Spearing, but I don't know if they will ever make a break through. Rafa doesn't exactly trust the kids unless he absolutely has to, and by then, they are so inexperienced they make giant mistakes (like Darby against Fiorentina)

 

[Tearz49ers]

Liverpool does have some highly regarded (at least in their circles) youngsters, like Jay Spearing, but I don't know if they will ever make a break through. Rafa doesn't exactly trust the kids unless he absolutely has to, and by then, they are so inexperienced they make giant mistakes (like Darby against Fiorentina)

As we all know the only way for them to gain experiance is to play in games such as those against Burnley or lower league opponents. Also that would allow him to rest players like Gerrard in those games.

 

[Vinsane]

Who played Soccer in High School, Intramural leagues, or Soccer Clubs? And what position did you/do you play?

When I was in High School we started a club team, as our school would not recognize us as a school sport. So basically we played nothing but friendlies/scrimmages. Our record never counted towards anything but we were able to play all the good high school teams in our area, and though they took it as a scrimmage we were playing to win. So on more then one occasion we were able to get one over on some of the top schools in our area.

I want to find a league/club here in San Antonio but haven't looked, yet. Also wouldn't mind once I get my degree to get into coaching.

I also played primarily Keeper/Defender/Sweeper and Midfield.

 

[calgaryballer]

I'm suprised there has been no mention of Donovan to Everton (at least that I've seen). What happens when this fails for him as well? That will be three top clups in Europe that he has flamed out at (with Bayern's brass saying he wasn't fit for their shirt).

He's obviously too good for the MLS, but when does he accept that he's not good enough for the top leagues in Europe? It almost seems he needs to go play in Holland, or a low-mid table side in Spain, where he will get more time on the ball.

Maybe he'll prove me wrong and be a saviour for Moyes, but on the balance of history, I doubt it

 

[davie]

Who played Soccer in High School, Intramural leagues, or Soccer Clubs? And what position did you/do you play?

I played for the high school team from 13 until I was 17 when I had 4 patella (knee cap) dislocations which ruined my cruciate ligaments and kept me out for basically 2 and a half years. I used to play centre midfield. Now I play for a local amateur team in the centre of defence because I don't have the stamina for midfield. Match fitness is coming back slowly though and I should be back in midfield by the end of the season.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

Who played Soccer in High School, Intramural leagues, or Soccer Clubs? And what position did you/do you play?

I played club for pretty much my whole life, and high school for four years. Also did intramural and am on an rec indoor team.

Bounced around a lot of different positions. I was usually LWF, or just a striker until high school. Then my travel and high school coaches had the brilliant idea of moving me to centerback and leftback, neither panned out. Although, I was pretty good at centerback. Then I was forward my last year of club, which was pretty succesful, and left mid in senior year, which blew. I wasn't really bad at any of the positions, but I was ten times better up top. I play there for my indoor team right now and have more goals than games played, so doing alright.

On the Landycakes/Everton talks, it's extremely intriguing. I wanted him to move to France, Protugal, Holland, or even Spain, because I think he fits well in their style of play, but I don't think he'll necessarily fail, nor do I think he did at Beyern. He played quite a few good games for them, and was very impressive, then the chairman comes out and says they won't sign him full time because they have enough attacking options. Then why sign him in the first fucking place? He was doomed from the start there. As long as he's given a good run of games, I think he could succeed in England, but I'm not exactly expecting it either.

 

[calgaryballer]

Hughes out, Roberto Mancini in

 

[davie]

Hughes out, Roberto Mancini in

The News Of The World paper today has his successes in their description of him. About how he delivered Coppa Italia (Italy's equivalent to the Carling Cup in terms of popularity and how much people don't care about it) to Fiorentina and Lazio. "3" Serie A titles with Inter - 1 of them was given, another was won when Milan started on -8 points and Juve were in Serie B. It also afforded Inter the luxury of buying Juventus players who refused to play in Serie B, Patrick Vieira for example. The third Serie A title is the only one I'd say he deserves credit for.

While he was at Fiorentina they went into huge debt (not his fault) and were relegated, while becoming Florentia Viola or some other name. Despite selling off a lot of their big names it looked like they could survive with a young Adriano looking good on loan from Inter and goals from Enrico Chiesa, even with Roberto occasionally playing because of the financial trouble the club were in.

Lazio won the Serie A title in 2000 under Sven Goran Eriksson who then left to coach England. Lazio replaced Eriksson with Dino Zoff who had taken Italy to the extra-time final loss in Euro 2000. Zoff failed and was replaced by Mancini after one season. Mancini managed to take Lazio back to winning ways and had them playing attractive, attacking football despite their financial problems (their chairman had been found guilty of fraud, I think) forcing them to sell off the likes of Juan Veron, Pavel Nedved, Alessandro Nesta, Sinisa Mihajlovic, Hernan Crespo.

I think he did his best work while he was at Lazio, I'm interested to see how well he does with Man City.

 

[Archer]

Newcastle win 2-0

10pts clear in first now

 

[1ke]

As far as Mancinci at City...its at least he doesnt have to come in a buy a bunch of people. Sell, maybe, but they have a lot of goal scorers.

As for Utd....They looked like shit yesterday. I had to taper my anger a but though, with the team they put out it was semi understandable.

The best news to com out of that game was that the Hammers held their London rivals to a draw.

 

[Bigpapa42]

Good Prem weekend, at least for Arsenal. Decent win given the injuries, plus both Chelsea and Manchester United dropped points!