*Official* English Football Season 2014-15

[grecian]

Debuchy could be out for the season apparently. Which is just ridiculous. At least it should force Wenger to buy a defender.

If only you owned a decent right-back performing in a near top-of-the-table side, oh well.....

 

[Cabinet96]

We do and he played well today. We're OK at RB. We could bring Jenko back but I'm not sure we really need to and I'm not sure he's better than his younger alternatives. It does reduce the quality of the first XI and stretch the defensive options further though. Debuchy had basically become our 3rd centre back.


With regards to the top four I'm pretty confident the remaining two slots (behind Chavs and City) will be made up from the current 3-5. Southampton winning today was probably bad for Arsenal. I think we have to accept they're probably not going anywhere soon, their defence is mean as ****. Though I do wish Arsenal would kill two birds with one stone and try to sign and Schneiderlin.

 

[sledger]

I always wondered why Jenkinson was never at least given a go at centre back tbh. Must have terrible positioning or something, as seems to have all of the necessary tools otherwise.

 

[Pothas]

It will probably still be Utd and Arsenal which would be very dull but the way Southampton have responded to that bad run really does make you think they have a chance. I really hope they do it because you have seen teams like Everton and Newcaslte have excellent seasons and just miss out and then really struggle the following year, it obviously does not have to go that way for Southampton but I would still worry for them if they ended up 5th.

 

[Pothas]

Barca v Atletico is going to be so good.

 

[Cabinet96]

Heard Atletico were 5/1 to win tonight. They never learn.

 

[Uppercut]

It will probably still be Utd and Arsenal which would be very dull but the way Southampton have responded to that bad run really does make you think they have a chance. I really hope they do it because you have seen teams like Everton and Newcaslte have excellent seasons and just miss out and then really struggle the following year, it obviously does not have to go that way for Southampton but I would still worry for them if they ended up 5th.

I think Everton or Newcastle's points tallies from those years might do it this time around, though.

 

[GIMH]

I think Everton or Newcastle's points tallies from those years might do it this time around, though.

Part of the reason I still think yer scousers are in the race. Any team in that top eight strings a run together and they should be good

 

[sledger]

Rakitic is so good.

 

[sledger]

This whole thing is getting really tedious, but I thought this piece was really good:

Ched Evans' 'mob rule' card is a cheap trick by an unrepentant rapist - Telegraph

 

[GIMH]

Yeah read that the other day, good piece, in fact most of the mainstream papers have written well and fairly on Ched.

 

[dogwalker]

Why did Messi wear his Father Christmas pyjamas to the Ballon d'Or awards? No wonder they didn't give him the bauble.

 

[duffer]

Sanogoals to Palace then? Probably better than Chamakh so hope he gets some game time.

 

[duffer]

Manchester United pay highest wages in Premier League, Manchester City second and Chelsea third | Football News | ESPN.co.uk
.
Glad we aren't above Chelsea in the wage front. We're apparently 4th in Europe in match day revenue so if we can get some sort of parity on other sponsorships we might be able to compete with the really big boys.

Lol at United it they finish fifth this season though

 

[Cabinet96]

That telegraph article in September which said we had a higher wage bill than Chelsea has been used countless times to slate Arsenal this season and it was wrong. Not really impressed tbh.

 

[sledger]

That telegraph article in September which said we had a higher wage bill than Chelsea has been used countless times to slate Arsenal this season and it was wrong. Not really impressed tbh.

Just lazy and stupid journalism. Details re: the accounts of all registered companies are public information (subject to you requesting access), so there was never any excuse for getting it wrong.

 

[Cabinet96]

This article on Ronaldo is quite old but it's really cool: Player Focus: Cristiano Ronaldo's Exponential Growth

Young Ronaldo scored less than young Giggs, Beckham, Overmars, Reus, Mata, Hazard, Robben etc. Peak Ronaldo scored more than peak Henry, van Nistelrooy, Shearer, Ronaldo, etc. Completely unprecedented development and speaks so much volumes about how hard he works. Sure he was always talented, but he wasn't a really talented goalscorer, yet he developed into one of the most prolific scorers there's ever been.

 

[sledger]

Young Ronaldo reminded me a bit of one of those cricketers who always got middling/average sort of scores, but gave you the impression that sooner or later they'd probably go big and blow the doors off, and once/if they did, there'd be more or less no stopping them.

It's also worth noting that football as a game has changed a fair deal since he started his career. In his earlier years it was still quite common for teams to play 4-4-2 with traditional, dribble and cross-type wingers. The way the game began to favour more advanced wingers/inside & wide forwards around the time he began to really kick on is probably not a coincidence for mine (mind you, I suppose you could argue he was one of the players driving that change). You would also generally expect players of his type to have their best years between the years that he became unstoppable tbf.

Not that I'm trying to downplay his achievements or disagree with you anything - I am sure he has worked extremely hard - I think there's just quite a few factors that have contributed to his success.

 

[Cabinet96]

None of the other wingers who scored more than him at the same age grew that much though, so the age thing is kind of irrelevant. Fair shout on the tactical shift though, never really thought about that. It's gone ever further as he's now playing as the left striker in a 4-4-2, inside James or Isco.

Meanwhile Arsenal are set to be signing a DM who's nearly 18 months younger than me. Surreal.

 

[sledger]

None of the other wingers who scored more than him at the same age grew that much though, so the age thing is kind of irrelevant. Fair shout on the tactical shift though, never really thought about that. It's gone ever further as he's now playing as the left striker in a 4-4-2, inside James or Isco.

Meanwhile Arsenal are set to be signing a DM who's nearly 18 months younger than me. Surreal.

Tbf most of the good wingers that were around at the same time were for the most part already in their prime anyway, and quite a lot of them experienced a similar shift, but to other positions. Players like Nedved, Pires and Giggs ended up moving into deeper central positions, and others like Zambrotta ended up becoming fullbacks. From memory most of the wingers of comparable age to Ronaldo seemed to be unable to really respond to the way the game went and/or got found out as being crap (though, on a semi-related note, I maintain had Reyes not wimped out of the Premiership, and not been stupid enough to fall for that Real Madrid prank phone call, and stayed at Arsenal to play with Henry for a few more years he would have actually turned out a whole lot better than he did). The fact that Ronaldo actually excelled, rather than faded away, is testament to him really.

The disappearance of the traditional winger is something that seems to go unnoticed a bit, unlike the disappearance of the traditional centre forward come to think of it.