Football (Soccer) 2006/2007 Season

[Goldy]

So the speculation has already started over the transfers of Mascherano and Tevez
with many Tabloids getting their two cents in.

It will be interesting to see if either or both move in the January Transfer Window or next Summer.

[Exile]

Hey John, Leroy Lita is going to light up the premiership I tell you! Go Reading! Alright maybe not light up but you know.

I was pretty stunned at the West Ham signings to be honest, I didn't believe them at first I thought a) my brother was lieing and b) the football websites I read were conspiring to inflict disbelief upon me. I hear that West Ham have an investor who owns the rights to both Tevez and Mascherano, even if the Argentinians are coming over to show off their skills in a big league and use it to jump onto bigger clubs in the future with big contract deals which perhaps they couldn't get straight away otherwise this is great for the hammers. Suddenly my West Ham for the uefa cup prediction earlier on in this thread looks a lot smarter, eh guys? Best not to count your chickens before they hatch, other Argentinians have struggled over here but I think these two could be something special. It's such a coup for the comparitively small West Ham to grab these guys, honestly.

I'm very interested by the Baptista deal, I've always heard good things about this guy and he has scored quite a few goals in the spanish league in the past. I'm not a big fan of Reyes and to be honest I'd be happier if he took his whining permanently to Spain soon.

Tottenham's moves I find a little unimpressive, Malbranque is pretty good, same with Chimbonda but they aren't all too significantly better than what they had available really. Loaning Routledge is the best thing for him since he's the same kind of player as Lennon but not quite as good, the kid was great on the right wing for Palace but without first team football for a fair while that's got to be hurting his progress, I hope he can find his way onto the Fulham starting team soon because he was a fun player to watch. I guess I'm being a bit harsh on Tottenham, they essentially grabbed two smaller clubs best players here and they could flourish, I don't know, we'll see.

Ashley Cole finally goes to Chelsea, about time too. Gallas had been unhappy at Chelsea and everyone knew this. I personally think he's the more significant part of this move, I think him at centre back and someone like Clichy at left back makes the Arsenal defence better than they were with Ashley Cole and another £5 million for Arsenal to play with is good news. Wenger has always had success with his fellow Frenchman and now Gallas is out of Chelsea I think he'll establish himself quickly as one of the top centre-backs playing in England today, I really do.

Solksjaer has been saying he wants to retire at Manchester United for the last 5 years or something, honestly I think the club's loyalty to him is refreshing. He's also been a good player for them when he's been fit while other strikers have come and gone over time Solksjaer I suppose is happy with being the substitute and that can be an important quality, you don't want depressive people around your team down on the club because they aren't getting all the starts they want. I was never a big fan of Manchester United getting Saha to be honest with you but his goal scoring record of late has been pretty impressive, I guess he's there to stay in the line up these days.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Exile]

I can't believe no one's posted since I was holding off on mentioning anything about the England game the other day until someone put a post in between mine and this one but no one has, you cruel insensitive folks.

England played Andorra on the weekend, it was a fun game for me to watch but not so much the neutrals since it was so heavily one-sided in England's favour. The final score was 5-0 and that was one of the more conservative predictions made before the match (pundits were calling 7-0 as 'par'). Personally I was very happy with 5 goals, England rarely seem to completely thrash teams, if you look at the world cup qualifiers Poland were racking up higher scores against the weak teams, like Azerbaijan who Poland beat 8-0 while England beat them 1-0 and 2-0, than England ever managed and I think it's fair to say England are a better side than Poland (England beat Poland twice in qualification).

Gerrard seems to be working pretty well playing over on the right hand side of the pitch really, his goal had a pretty nice finish I thought, a really hard shot across the goal. Crouch took his chances and I can't ask much more than that while Dafoe put in a couple as well, still I'd like to see some more of Andy Johnson playing in a game, he was lively when he got onto the pitch and created some chances with his running but never got a clear chance himself. Lennon is still being a bit of a super sub at the moment and him and Downing on the wings is going really well for England but obviously Lennon isn't starting because there's Gerrard on the right and Downing has come in since Joe Cole's injured. I wonder whether Cole will bump Downing out of the starting line up straight away, Cole isn't so much a natural wing player like Downing but he did play there really well and that's what matters, the thing is Downing was a Middlesboro player with McLaren so I'm not sure how that will play out exactly.

My other thoughts at the moment as I type this are with Lennon and Gerrard playing on the right and Beckham still a potential selection (he could still be in the squad I think but his dropping was more McLaren making a point I felt), does this spell the end for Shaun Wright-Phillips' England chances? He was on the verge of breaking into the team a couple of years ago when he was at his zenith with Manchester City and the popularity of Beckham in terms of football at least was somewhat declining but now we haven't seen him playing much since his move to Chelsea. At least he has youth on his side but with the addition emergance of Aaron Lennon things don't look so great for SWP anymore.

Macedonia should make for a tougher game at least, England beat them 2-1 last time they played winning the game with a Beckham penalty, the team aren't pushovers at any rate and hopefully we'll get a proper look at how the England team fare against a better quality of opponents. While they impressed against Greece who were European championship winners not so long ago I think this is a bigger test for them since it's in a fully competitive match against reasonable opposition unlike the Andorra game. I'm still expecting a win for this, I'm just not expecting so many goals and maybe not a clean sheet for England either in this one, though I hope for one of course.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Goldy]

I was too annoyed to post anything.....even though Germany were the better team that was such a soft goal to lose by!

As for England, they beat Andorra so i will reserve judgement until they come up against better opposition.

Macedonia should provide a sterner test, but not too much though.......after all have they really improved all that much? They did lose to Andorra before! So i expect England to win with minimum effort.

Now, what about Lampard? His form is still bad! Will McClaren ever drop him and give Lennon a chance or someone else a chance?

[Exile]

Not a chance on dropping Lampard at least in the immediate future since he (McLaren) has just come out with a statement defending the guy and saying he's been playing very well. John Terry backed it up by saying he's been playing great but then those two are best mates so you can't get much from that - anyway as far as I know Lampard is still a hell of a player and things have been fine with him in central midfield, not spectacular but never detrimental to us.

Yes he hasn't been scoring as much, he did get one goal against Greece, does Lampard have to score to be useful though? Well he is a very attacking midfielder as a general rule and a goalscorer but his passing is still good for sure, I think he'll find his touch soon he was our top scorer in the World Cup qualifiers and having someone able to pop up with a timely goal in midfield is pretty useful I think. I could be wrong of course, maybe he won't pick up form for some time but it's difficult to imagine when you take a look at the player in question just last season he was really at the top of his game getting goals and setting them up all the time.

How good has Hargreaves been for England lately? I'm not sure if his recent England games are a result of him having a point to prove or if he really plays this well week in, week out for Bayern but wow, I swear he wasn't this good when he first started playing for England - the guy is all over the place making great challenges and keeping possesion, now talking of form he is a really impressive player right now.

Ah, I did see the Germany goal, it was pretty unfortunate, was it Given in goal? He came very close but he stepped to his right first then the ball took the big deflection and if you've ever played in goal you know it's hard to move to the right and then immediately dive left, it's awkward and you're left with your weight on the wrong foot so you have to get all the way back across yourself. Very harsh on the keeper that one.

Maybe I should mention Solksjaer scored two goals for Norway against Hungary? Not the greatest team hungary but Kiraly isn't too bad a goalkeeper I think so Solksjaer can't be playing badly! I didn't see the goals unfortunately so they might be rubbish but he still got two at least I can say that for sure.

Did you see the Brazil game? That was pretty good in places, Kaka's goal was one hell of a run. That Elano kid seemed pretty solid as well, his first goal was by no means fantastic but he did enough for it and the second wasn't bad either. These Brazillians are too numerous and skilful the seem to have a new next best thing every year. Wagner Love played very well too when he came on, strange blue hair though. Like I said, too many good Brazillians.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Fundertaker]

[Aurelien]

The problem/dilemma when it comes to Lampard is this, if he's doing great at his club, why shouldn't he play for the national team? Many people said that he can't replicate his club form at international level. I'm not going to bother to look at stats and compare, but how else can a manager pick players if not by judging how they perform at club level? (Unless we're talking about Sven "I've never seen Walcott played but I'll pick him anyways" Goran-Eriksson) Let's face it, Lampard's performance at club level is good enough to merit him a place in the national team. Sure he might not be able to replicate that form, but also keep in mind that England is no Chelsea (and vice versa). See how horrible Ronaldinho was for Brazil at the World Cup? He's still one of the best players in the world none the less for what he did with Barcelona.

When it comes to Hargreaves, I think it's down to the fact that he now played differently than he was before. That World Cup was his stage to show the world what he can do, and when presented with that chance, he took it and ran away with it. Now he's the first choice for holding midfielder position in England. He ran all over the pitch and played every game as if it's the final of World Cup. That's the kind of play that made people noticed him. Once he fell back to slow down his performance again, people would then lose interest in him again.

One player that really interests me in England squad is Mr.Crouchy. Is he good? Is he THAT good? Or is he just mediocre? Despite his goalscoring record (which is magnificent on paper), I'm still not convinced. A player like him should indeed be able to dominate and bully smaller nations, but all that is meaningless if he can't perform against bigger nations. Playing against Gallas, Cannavaro, Lucio, Ayala, etc would be different than playing against Andorra defenders (seriously, what do we expect from a nation that has total population of an Old Trafford's capacity? I should move there and get naturalized just so I can play football)

And PF, yes it was Given on the goal against Germany. I'm serious here, he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, and I'm really sad that he might never see success because his club and nation are just not good enough. I'm actually very surprised that we haven't seen big clubs making serious bids to get him off Newcastle.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Goldy]

Peter Crouch is scoring goals and he will always be judged on that. If he keeps scoring he will keep playing and avoid criticism. He is good but i do not think he is great. It will be interesting to see him against better defenders.

Shay Given is a great keeper and i agree with you Pessy, i am surprised that no one has make a move for him earlier.
That save from Podolski in the first half was amazing, i was sure it was going to go in but somehow Given got down and palmed it out.

[Exile]

You see in the past it's always been Gerrard who has had that criticism levelled at him, he does it for his club why can't he do it for England but now we've switched to the other top quality midfielder we have. I personally think Lampard has been ok, as I said before not spectacular but never a detriment. He can and will turn it back up I think because he has in the past always been good for us and well I have little else to base my opinion of him on other than past performances. He's not particularly old so I can't imagine his career is on the downslope already, this is likely just a poor turn of form.

Goldmember has hit the nail on the head, as long as Crouch keeps scoring his popularity will stay high. I think he's been the beneficiary of some fortuitous events, one of his goals against Greece was already going in before he touched it (incidentally it was Lampard who would have been credited with the goal otherwise I think), his height is a threat but the man cannot jump when on the run very well at all, he's ok if standing still. I also don't think much of his actual heading ability, I think two of his recent efforts have taken about a week to reach the net since he gets no power on them and they've sort of floated up and in.

It's very strange considering all this that he's got so many goals as he has, until he stops scoring though he's earnt his place and his robot dancing sort of endeared him to everyone as well I think. Same as you I'd like to see him against better defenders, he's been on and off the pitch for Liverpool so far this season as Benitez plays around with his strikers making use of Kuyt, Crouch, Fowler and Bellamy. He is the top scorer though with two goals so far in 3 starts and 1 appearance as substitute which isn't too bad I guess. He has 9 goals in 33 games for Liverpool incidentally, though his start at that club was appauling and he really struggled to get the first one, since then he's been a lot better for them really.

I almost forgot to write about Given, I pretty much agree with you two about how good he is and he's been consistently good for a long time as well. Certainly Manchester United could have used him when they were going through their goalie roundabout post-Schmeichel but in fairness it always seems like Newcastle should be a good team they just never are in actual practice.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Aurelien]

The problem with Lampard is not necessarily his age. It's just his goalscoring record. What makes him "great" at Chelsea is the rate of goals he scores. He's pretty much scoring at equal rate with any decent forward in EPL. However, this is also keeping in mind that Chelsea played a lot more matches than England. And for every Manchester United and Arsenal that he doesn't score at, we have two Fulhams and Charltons where he scores twice. It is much easier to get back to form in club matches (because there are so many games) compared to national team.

So the problem with Lampard is that his contribution seems to be the goals he scored and nothing else. When he doesn't score, people just don't seem to notice him at all. So people then jump to the bandwagon that he's not good enough and so on. Compared to Ronaldinho for example, people don't really expect him to score a lot when playing for Brazil. As long as he managed to be the playmaker well, people wouldn't question his merit for being in the team. Same goes with Riquelme for Argentina, Ballack for Germany, Zidane for France, etc. But things are very different for Lampard, and it's very difficult for him to win over the fans if he can't score for England at least almost as often as he does for Chelsea.

Regarding Crouchy, I'm still pessimistic. His popularity would indeed still be high as long as he scores. But really, what good is he if he can only score against the minnows? England needs someone who can score against the big nations because England has always seem to be having a lot of trouble against the bigger nations in international competition despite having a great squad on paper. I'm actually quite scared when looking at England's list of forwards. Owen, Rooney, Crouch, Defoe, Johnson, and Bent. That's 6 very good forwards. However, England needs a world-class one and not just very good ones. The question simply becomes can Crouchy be a world-class player?

Going back to Shay Given, if I'm a manager of a big club, the only possible reason why I'm not making bid on him is his lack of height. That's the only reason that I can think of. He's short (for a goalkeeper) and sometimes height can be the difference between saving or conceeding goals. But then again, the guy seems to be enjoying his stay in Newcastle and seems like his loyalty lies there too.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Fundertaker]

[Aurelien]

The thing why I don't think having 6 very good strikers is good enough is because of the very limited amount of games that national teams get. In a year, you'd be playing like 6 or so games. To really gel together, to really get into the mood, it takes time. If one plays bad, you'd get headache on deciding who to send in as they're pretty much equal quality (bar Rooney and Owen which both are better than the other four). Also notice that other than Crouch, they're all a bit similar in playstyle from one another too which can be bad since replacing one with another might not make any difference at all on the pitch.

I still remember Jardel (boy oh boy I used to think why he didn't get international caps as many as he should .. but then I realized that he's just not that good for Brazil ... neither for Bolton *shudder*)

The problem with Crouch is this, he scores most of his goals against the smaller teams. To the manager and fans, that's good and that means that he does have the right to occupy 1 spot up front in the squad. But if he can't perform as good against the stronger teams, then all those "I score X amount of goals before (against smaller teams)" would mean nothing. Playing against smaller team would not be a proper reflection of his level of performance. That's why we see Jardel great at Porto but awful outside Portugal (no offense intended for Portugal btw), Kezman was great at PSV but struggling badly once he moved to Chelsea/Atletico, Kluivert was great at Ajax but struggling at Milan/Barcelona/Newcastle/Valencia. And so on (remember Pascal "Player of the Year in French Ligue 1" Cygan?). This is why I'm worried with Crouch's selection. I'm afraid that he won't be able to perform against big teams, but people are oblivious to his mediocre ability because he performed well against smaller nations.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Fundertaker]

It could also be that he can't handle the pressure. It's very common for players who "climbed the ladder" like Crouch to feel "small" (Crouch small?) when next to great players/teams and that takes quality from their play. That can be resolved with more games against those said big teams so that he can habituate himself to it, or it could happen the reverse and he can't go at it anymore. Like a do or break test. It's the only plausible way I can see.
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Tinto: Kicking Asses is our Speciality


This post is officially Fundertaker Approved

[Exile]

Crouch scored again today against Macedonia, sadly the game was on Sky so I'm only getting to watch the highlights now. From what I've read so far though it was a bit of a battle in all. Crouch's goal was a good finish with his feet after the ball bounded around the Macedonian goal area. He got an overhead kick sort of that bounced off the underside of the bar, it wasn't a super-impressive overhead kick just a reasonable finish.

Haha, he tried to tackle someone and his legs, good lord they are long. He just sort of fell over and scissored the other player, I think he got booked for it. Anyway he's still getting his goals so his position is safe for another day I suppose.

Anyway another win for England but it wasn't a hugely impressive one I guess.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Aurelien]

Man this is too awesome, you should all read it if you haven't done so http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8750_1478586,00.html

Yep Crouchy scored again, but I'm still not impressed by how England played. I'm sure that Macedonia is improving over the years, but still .. England should be able to really dominate especially that Macedonia didn't even play with intention to only defend. I think that at best, Crouchy is a bit of better version of Emile Heskey. Kind of like how you upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 2000.

I really feel bad for Defoe though. I really like him as a player, but might be convinced that he might be not good enough. I'd still like to see more of Crouch-Defoe up front though. Too bad that once Rooney returns, then most likely it's going to be Crouch-Roony up front instead and Defoe would return to his "10-20 minute play as substitute when England tries to defend their 1-0 lead" or something like that.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008