The Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (4 Viewers)

[matt#1]

Man United FTW!!!!

For anyone who still cares about the English football team...Peter Crouch will partner Jermain Defoe up front on Wednesday after Steve McClaren named his side to face Greece at Old Trafford.

West Ham's Dean Ashton, who was in contention for a starting place has been ruled out by an ankle injury sustained during training on Tuesday.

So McClaren names the Liverpool front man and Tottenham's Defoe for the match to mark the start of his reign as Head Coach.

McClaren said: "Dean suffered an injury halfway through the session and he is currently having a scan in hospital.

"It has really clouded the morning because I had intended to start him, but these things happen in football."

Steven Gerrard will be used on the right as McClaren looks for a replacement for David Beckham.

He added: "Steve will be used on the right. He played there for Liverpool last season and scored 23 goals.

"He is happy to play anywhere. What I want is to look at a few different things over the match."

Team: Paul Robinson, Gary Neville, John Terry (captain), Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole; Steven Gerrard, Owen Hargreaves, Frank Lampard, Stewart Downing; Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe.

...That actually looks pretty good. It solves the problem of Lamps and Gerrard playing the same role in midfield anyway. I would replace Downing with Joe Cole and Crouch with Rooney once they return from injury/suspension though.

 

[Benny_]

So you beat Chelsea in the Community Shield, and now the league is like there for the taking...? Please don't forget that there are bigger clubs than Chelsea around in England.

Yeah, Liverpool

It'll be close this season, although United and Liverpool both need to sign a striker. I'm thinking Chelsea will drop more points if Mourinho decides to sacrifice Makelele to accomodate Ballack. We'll see how good Terry really is without the world's best DM mopping up in front of him.

 

[matt#1]

I agree that both Liverpool and Man United both need a striker. Liverpool will probably get Kuyt...but hopefully Fergie is looking at Adriano and Obafemi Martins as well.

 

[Benny_]

I think Adriano will still be top dog at Inter. Martins will surely leave, ditto Recoba, leaving them with a strikeforce of : Crespo, Adriano, Zlatan and Cruz. Scary stuff. On the other hand I hear Corinthians are at the bottom of the Brazilian league, that bodes well for United if they're still interested in Tevez/Mascherano. Tevez isn't really an out and out goal scorer ala RvN though. He's a bit too similar to Rooney. What about Trezeguet? He averages 20+ league goals a season in the Serie A, and shouldn't be much more than about £10m or there abouts. He's still got a good ..5 or 6 years left. Pretty skillful, physical enough to hold up the ball.. a bit like a poor man's Van Nistelrooy really Alternatively, Julio Baptista's probably also going to be in need of a new home pretty soon. He wanted to come to England before didn't he? Considering his crappy first season and the clear surplus of strikers at Real, he might leave for around the same price.

 

[LMF^^]

Baptista would prob be involved in the Reyes deal between Madrid and Arsenal.

Quite a few ppl say we need another striker, well to a certain extent yes. If Saha gets injured then we're screwed. But if he stays healthy, then I'm confident he can do the job. I remember the goal he scored against Bolton last season, pure class.

Mascherano would be excitin, as we seem to be stallin over the Senna deal. Villarreal seems to want quite a sum for him.

 

[Benny_]

Well.. if you have faith in some of your old timers like Giggs, Scholes and Solskjaer to chip in with 10 goals each, there'll be enough coming from midfield to cover the loss of RvN anyway. Fergie seems to be thinking that anyway.

 

[Italian Hotshot]

Apparently alot of EPL clubs were interested, but still thought that he was 21. He had been 21 for like the last four years he has spent at Inter! Shifty scamming Nigerians! :rofl:

Pompey offering £12.8m is a tad over what he is worth imo, Liverpool seem to have a no need for strikers and Spurs dont require him even if they want to sign every player under 25 on the transfer list. Guess it is just down to Newcastle and Portsmouth?

 

[Benny_]

Harry Redknapp is an idiot. Whoever their sugar daddy is, he's a fool to trust him with so much money. Wouldn't be surprised at all if they were relegated to be honest.

 

[RUB!X]

foolish to not try to sign d'allesandro, he looked the goods ...
portsmouth also signing kanu ...

 

[LMF^^]

Any word on Maxi Rodriguez's future? I think he was Argentina's best player by far in the WC...

Athletico he went I think. I believe D'Alassandro is also there, not too sure.

 

[matt#1]

Scholes and Rooney are banned for 3 matches after the FA decided not to lift their bans after they were both red carded in the pre-season Amsterdam tournament. They will be eligible to play in the opening match against Fulham but will miss the following 3 games.

I watched the match where Rooney was red carded...and I can honestly tell you that Rooney would have been unfortunate to have even received a yellow card for that same challenge in a league match, let alone a red card in a pre-season friendly. Absolute fucking bullshit decision by the FA (I'm sure that stands for Fucking Assholes. Rooney is definitely becoming a victim of his reputation.

The only positive I can think of is that Fergie might make more signings now in order to avoid another poor start to the season. . Surely he is at the very least going to sign one of Senna, Hargreaves, Mascherano, Diarra, Tevez, Adriano. Fergie has been very disappointing in the transfer market thus far...and that is putting it very lightly.

In some positive news: Australia 2-0 Kuwait. Australia has now qualified for the Asian Cup .

 

[Led-Zep]

average performance by the 3rd string soccerroos, the fact that it took 75 mins to score against a fairly decent looking kuwait team, altho they have let it shit load of goals in last 6 games, says alot for the A league players and their qualities. But i suppose the fact that they have only been together for a short period of time is an excuse,..none the less it was typical of how Australia used to play pre-guus era...long balls, slow paced..

Im very annoyed that the FFA couldnt adopt or at least educate the coaches and development from juniors through to adults, in the Dutch way, im so sick of the old english style that we play and is evident in juniors, state leagues and a league..I kno this will take some time, but we need youth development and fast.

BTW i had no idea that gettin a red card in a "Friendly" got u banned from league matches..when did that come into play..its stupid.

 

[LMF^^]

Refs give reports after their matches, and it was a tournament. The Dutch FA referred it to the English FA and them kunts at Soho Square are just fuckin out of their heads. So Gerrard can get away with red cards at the same tournament but Scholes and Rooney can't...? Fuckin disgusting decision.

Australia played crap really, but that's understandable. A-League season haven't started yet and they had lil time to prepare. At least we won, that's the most important part.

 

[withoutaface]

Seems Liverpool are going to sign Kuyt now, so if Bellamy can perform as well they'll finally have a decent strike partnership, though not of the same calibre as Chelsea or Arsenal. Regardless this should mean they have a place in the top 3 sewn up.

Arsenal need to sign Gallas, if only to add depth to the backline and as a mentor for players such as Djourou and Senderos. Flamini last season was probably the club's best performing left back, though again a fully developed player is needed because Flamini is still developing and will inevitably hit rough patches, and Gallas can fulfill this role also. Other developing LB options include Hoyte and Traore, but it'll probably be a couple of years before either of them is world class. Wenger's decision not to sign any backs is probably not so much of a failure as many have speculated, given his ability to develop young players is second to none.

 

[LMF^^]

Development takes time, and in the current world of football it's unlikely that a team of mainly young'ns can win you trophies. At least not many that I can think of, except the great Busby Babes of Manchester United.

There haven't been much news on Senna, I think he'll stay at Villarreal now. Owen Hargreaves is bein closely linked to a move to United but Bayern aren't interested, I think it would be a good move for both Owen and United if it materialises.

On the Asian qualifiers, China needed a last min penalty to win against Singapore, hahaha what an embarrassment. Things just keeps gettin worse and worse for us Chinese supporters.

 

[withoutaface]

Development takes time, and in the current world of football it's unlikely that a team of mainly young'ns can win you trophies. At least not many that I can think of, except the great Busby Babes of Manchester United.

There haven't been much news on Senna, I think he'll stay at Villarreal now. Owen Hargreaves is bein closely linked to a move to United but Bayern aren't interested, I think it would be a good move for both Owen and United if it materialises.

On the Asian qualifiers, China needed a last min penalty to win against Singapore, hahaha what an embarrassment. Things just keeps gettin worse and worse for us Chinese supporters.

If you look at the first choice XI though you'd have
Lehmann

Eboue/Lauren Senderos/Djourou Toure Flamini/Clichy

Rosicky Gilberto Fabregas Ljunberg

vPersie Henry

The first choice team I wouldn't say is composed primarily of young, underdeveloped players, except for two spots in the back line, given that Cesc and vP, while not at their full potential yet, are both world class players.

 

[Benny_]

For me the weakness in the Arsenal side remains to be a really solid DM. No one can seem to stop singing praises about Cesc, but against some of the more physical sides I doubt he'll get the support he needs in Gilberto. A top side like Arsenal needs better. The likes of Makelele, Essien, Sissoko, Gerrard, Senna (should he sign) and even Zokora will make mincemeat of the Arsenal midfield.. and that's just the DMs in the top sides.

The wings are also potentially a bother for Wenger.. Ljunberg's best days are behind him, Rosicky is untested in the EPL, Pires has moved on, Reyes is moving on. If the rumours about Arsenal moving for Ribery are true it's not a worry, but still, nothing terribly brilliant there either.

I'm not going to write Arsenal off, but let's face it, everyone's basing their expectations of a decent challenge from them on the expectations that Wenger's fledglings will all take another step up yet again this year.. the

 

[crazy_blonde]

Australia played crap really, but that's understandable. A-League season haven't started yet and they had lil time to prepare. At least we won, that's the most important part.

Agreed...

Now was it just me or were the antics of the Kuwait goalkeeper entertaining? In the first half he was doing stupid arm windmill things when the ball was up the other end...and then when he did save a shot (standing up) he decides to go for a jump/slide about 2m forward....maybe it was just me :S

 

[withoutaface]

For me the weakness in the Arsenal side remains to be a really solid DM. No one can seem to stop singing praises about Cesc, but against some of the more physical sides I doubt he'll get the support he needs in Gilberto. A top side like Arsenal needs better. The likes of Makelele, Essien, Sissoko, Gerrard, Senna (should he sign) and even Zokora will make mincemeat of the Arsenal midfield.. and that's just the DMs in the top sides.

The wings are also potentially a bother for Wenger.. Ljunberg's best days are behind him, Rosicky is untested in the EPL, Pires has moved on, Reyes is moving on. If the rumours about Arsenal moving for Ribery are true it's not a worry, but still, nothing terribly brilliant there either.

I'm not going to write Arsenal off, but let's face it, everyone's basing their expectations of a decent challenge from them on the expectations that Wenger's fledglings will all take another step up yet again this year.. the

Gilberto's not as good as Makelele, I'll grant that, but his UCL performances last year were brilliant, marking players like Riquelme completely out of the game. He had poor EPL form, but a lot of that can be attributed to being surrounded by an underdeveloped team. If he doesn't perform in the EPL this season, Lauren can play DM because I think Wenger will be reluctant to bench Eboue given how well he played the RB position in the latter half of last season.

Wingers in the side at the moment are Rosicky, Ljunberg, Hleb and van Persie, the last of whom is more naturally a wing player than a striker and if Adebayor hits form, or Wenger plays 4-5-1, I think that's where he will be played.

As for taking another step up, Fabregas is already imo close to on par with Lampard, Gerrard and the like, Eboue is also brilliant, the only players we'll need to improve further are two to play in the CB/LB positions, which can be further reduced if we acquire Gallas. I don't think we'll catch Chelsea this season, but believe third place is a very distinct possibility, depending of course on who Man U sign between now and the start of September.

 

[Benny_]

Hm.. Fabregas already close to on par with Lampard and Gerrard, that's a huge statement considering that he's not even part of the first choice CM pairing for Spain. No doubt he's got a massive future, but I still think people are getting a bit ahead of themselves about him. It's like saying Messi is already almost on par with Ronaldinho or Zidane. He might be on his way, but there's still some way to travel.

Also he's pretty different to both Gerrard and Lampard, so it's difficult to compare.