Premier League 2012-2013

[blue05]

Anyway - seems my lot won last night.

Seems the second half line up was what AVB should have fielded in the first half...........

... my jury is still not convinced on our new manager

If he does well NEXT week against Manure, I'll start to be impressed.

Yes, that just about sums up my attitude as well. Very unconvincing so far, and it seems to have taken 5 games for it to sink in that Defoe is not the ideal lone target man. With the fixtures we had to open the season, we should have had near enough 15 points from 15.

There are a few plus points though: Vertonghen looks very comfortable on the ball and I think he and Kaboul will form a solid partnership in central defence. Both of them can take the ball forward as well as contributing the occasional goal. Caulker is coming through nicely too. I'm still confused why Dawson seems to have fallen so drastically out of favour.

In the past couple of games, Naughton has shown that he's a very capable replacement for Assou Ekotou. Now they're both out, of course, but hopefully not for long, and Saturday's 2nd half back 4 set-up looked reasonable.

Midfield - on paper, almost an embarrassment of riches, but without Modric and vdV we don't really have enough creative genius. Sandro is playing well, but he's a stopper. Membele has potential. Dempsey - jury's out. Bale needs to spend less time drifting to the right, especially without Assou-Ekotou.

Forward. We all love Defoe. Sort of. But we need another Lineker. I'd have taken Berbatov back in a shot at 5-6m quid.

God bless Friedel and all who sail in him. Hope he stay 1st choice (on merit) until the end of the season. I certainly don't miss Gomes.

As for next week - let's hope Man U play like they did against Liverpool.

If United play like they played yesterday then they are easily beatable, they were woeful

[sateeb]

Agreed...Even Fergie said they were poor. Doesn't bode well for The Kopsters then does it.

[redzonerocker]

Wahey, 2 players go in 2 footed, Liverpool player wins the ball, Liverpool player gets sent off.

Gotta love the Premier league.

I have to disagree, Shelvey does launch in, but not 2 footed, Evans certainly did!
I think the only reason he got red was that Evans got injured.

[BaaBaa.]

Was he injured? I thought It was more like Shelvey has got a pair.

[BaaBaa.]

Membele has potential.

If he gets near Dembeles level he'll be top drawer.

[blue05]

Was he injured? I thought It was more like Shelvey has got a pair.

His studs were showing, its a red under current rules end of

[blue05]

"We have made Hugo aware that whenever Brad has a bad game we won't drop him," Villas-Boas said.

Quote comes from bbc, makes me have even more doubts about boas.

So if Brad has a howler and throws in 5 he is still not going to drop him? Possibly another story here in that the new goalie was signed by the club without the want of the manager?

[BaaBaa.]

Was he injured? I thought It was more like Shelvey has got a pair.

His studs were showing, its a red under current rules end of

Didn't say his studs weren't showing. Still at the discretion of the ref.

[redzonerocker]

Was he injured? I thought It was more like Shelvey has got a pair.

Well, let's just say Evans came off second best in the challenge & Shelvey in the ref's decision

[BaaBaa.]

Was he injured? I thought It was more like Shelvey has got a pair.

Well, let's just say Evans came off second best in the challenge & Shelvey in the ref's decision

Apparently Shelvey pointed at Fergie and said "you control the game and the referee" as he was walking off.

[redzonerocker]

His studs were showing, its a red under current rules end of

Most tackles made have the studs showing at some point, it has to be deemed malicious.

You could quite easily apply that to Shelvey yesterday, but there is still the point that Evans went into the challenge 2 footed, which under current rules is a red card, whether you get injured or not

I wonder if the FA panel will review it? . . .

[redzonerocker]

Apparently Shelvey pointed at Fergie and said "you control the game and the referee" as he was walking off.

I think ferdinand had an influence on the decision, following Halsey around sniping, he's such a sneaky p***k
I noticed Halsey was getting instructions from his earpiece too, probably from fergie

[BaaBaa.]

I'm not arguing Shelveys case, I'm just sick to death of inconsistency, it's every week .

Them lot benefit more often than not.

Shelvey gave Ferdinand an ear full too . The ****

[GLCQuantum]

Just finished watching 'Classic Match' which is shown frequently on True (though first time I've watched one today). It was a game between Chelsea and Arsenal in the 96/97 season. The outcome was 3-3... a cracking match it was too!

This is the first time for a while that I've sat down and watched a good bit of 90's football. The immediate thing I noticed was that it was a contact sport played by men. Though technically not as advanced as it is today, players mostly got straight back up after 'a strong and fair challenge' (I believe 'a questionable challenge' is the correct vernacular nowadays) and fought to get the ball back if they'd lost it.

A stark contrast to today's game for sure.

[GLCQuantum]

The new talking point after the weekend is...

How do you make a strong sliding tackle without 'showing' your studs

One comment from a TV show was... 'take the studs off' . Defensive coaches of today are at a loss as of how to teach passionate youngsters playing the game how you can tackle nowadays. This is coming from experts of the game so not me....