Football - Soccer

[Carl Gorka]

What a shocker by Everton, ,oh well,guess they can focus on the Premier now..

Fireeater,bet you cant wait till christmas when you get another shot at Benni ,I mean Teddys 39,Aliadieres injury prone,which leaves you with only 2 reliable options up front..

By the way,do you think they should keep Sven,[Nireland 1-England 0 ],and if not who should be his replacement.. .

PS Shouldnt you be wishing harm on Spurs?

Of course I wish harm on spurs...that goes without saying But as one of the favourites for relegation, you can't be too charitable towards anyone.

The transfer window is always an interesting time and who knows who'll be avalaible by then. The biggest worry for clubs like West Ham is the lack of comtacts their relatively inexperienced managers have made. Survival in the first year or two is about having a settled group with a good team spirit and then bring in the quality, replacing only a player or 2 at a time. If things start going badly, I'm not sure how Alan Pardew will be able to resolve things.

Sven....hmmmmm. I don't know, perhaps he should go but then again, the players are all a bunch of prima donnas who don't seem to wear national pride when they go out to play. Which manager is going to instill that into them?

[stevenlhs]

Of course I wish harm on spurs...that goes without saying But as one of the favourites for relegation, you can't be too charitable towards anyone.

The transfer window is always an interesting time and who knows who'll be avalaible by then. The biggest worry for clubs like West Ham is the lack of comtacts their relatively inexperienced managers have made. Survival in the first year or two is about having a settled group with a good team spirit and then bring in the quality, replacing only a player or 2 at a time. If things start going badly, I'm not sure how Alan Pardew will be able to resolve things.

Sven....hmmmmm. I don't know, perhaps he should go but then again, the players are all a bunch of prima donnas who don't seem to wear national pride when they go out to play. Which manager is going to instill that into them?

I think Spurs will do better this season - Martin Jol seems to have the team playing well as a unit. I'm a big fan of Edgar Davids - although he's a bit old now, he still adds a lot of defensive bite to the midfield.

About Sven - I think he's lost the players support - they may be prima donnas but you need someone who they want to play for and can make them play as a team. England have too many players of the same mould in key positions.

Brazil have a good team now, based on attacking options in midfield as well as forwards. They'll be a tough team to beat as most who play them will try and sit back and defend. Recipe for disaster.

[four four two]

Will a little club like Wigan stay up?,or are they just off to a rosy start only to become cellar dwellers by christmas time?

Newcastles purchase of Owen should see them finish at least 14th,but Sunderland I think could be in for a LONG season...

[Carl Gorka]

I think Spurs will do better this season - Martin Jol seems to have the team playing well as a unit. I'm a big fan of Edgar Davids - although he's a bit old now, he still adds a lot of defensive bite to the midfield.

About Sven - I think he's lost the players support - they may be prima donnas but you need someone who they want to play for and can make them play as a team. England have too many players of the same mould in key positions.

Brazil have a good team now, based on attacking options in midfield as well as forwards. They'll be a tough team to beat as most who play them will try and sit back and defend. Recipe for disaster.

Davids can be inspirational on the field, but can sow trouble behind the scenes. He'll make big demands on the whole of the Spurs team and management which I hope will cause trouble for them before the season is out.

[Carl Gorka]

Will a little club like Wigan stay up?,or are they just off to a rosy start only to become cellar dwellers by christmas time?

Newcastles purchase of Owen should see them finish at least 14th,but Sunderland I think could be in for a LONG season...

Wigan will find it tough because of a lack of squad depth. But at least the fans of other teams can look forward to some good pies for lunch

[four four two]

Match report on WORLD U17 CHAMPIONSHIP...

Australia has lost to Turkey 0-1, the European champions.
Using a 2-5-3 formation , Australia failed to utilise their flanks,giving them major problems in breaking down Turkeys midfield. For me man of the match was the Australian goalkeeper,he made 2 crucial saves . I wouldnt be surprised if he is Australias number 1 or 2 keeper by 2010.

The other teams in our group are Mexico and Uruguay, Mexico beat Uruguay 2-0 this morning,didnt see the game[ 5am start,too tired ]

We play Mexico next,on tuesday I think.

[McTaggart]

Everton will struggle this season and will battle in a sea of mediocrity which comprises the Premier League. Outside of Chelsea,Arsenal,Man U and possibly Liverpool the standard drops off alarmingly.This is evident also in the Serie A and the Spanish League. Nearly all the talent is concentrated in the top four/five teams. British football teams are made up of very fit hackers with minimal technique and even less tactical ideas.The English selectors have demonstrated over the last 50 years that they will not pick a brilliant ball-playing player,just two that come to mind were Len Shackleton (Sunderland) and Stan Bowles(QPR) these players were consistantly ignored ,replaced by less gifted players,"too fancy" or " too slow" doesn't get the high/long ball into the mixer often enough to suit the kick and rush style that is the hallmark of British football. There will be others who have been over-looked,some may come to mind. Talking about diving,the Prince of divers,Fillipo Inzaghi is going around for one more season,Brazil, for all the talent etc. they possess, also indulge in cheating,witness Rivaldo miserable behavior in the semi-finals against Turkey,getting a fellow professional sent off,by conning the Ref. One thing that the europeans teams and the south american teams acknowledge is that the British teams play with honour.

[four four two]

If the Premier League is mediocre, why do UEFA give them FOUR qualifying spots? Which league if not the engish,spanish,italian is the best in europe? Germany? France ,Scotland eh Mctaggart!

[McTaggart]

sorry old chap, but it appears that you have missed the point. They get four qualifying places because they are numerically quite strong.That called economic reality. Which league is the strongest? well,the answer is none or all of them at different times. If you look back you will see periods where the Italian teams were dominant to be succeed by say Spanish or English teams. But you will notice that the same names kept coming up. This proves that it is not really accurate to talk about which league is the strongest etc. But my claim still holds that if you look objectively at the Premier League,down below the top four or five teams,they become truly awful. and even look at the record of say Arsenal when they go to play continental teams they barely scrap by viz. when they played Thun and last season look how they performed in the various caups that they played in. They were comphrehensivly out play by minor teams from France and Germany..Please don't mention Scotland as a football nation. Their top two teams would hardly survive in the Championship League

[Carl Gorka]

Everton will struggle this season and will battle in a sea of mediocrity which comprises the Premier League. Outside of Chelsea,Arsenal,Man U and possibly Liverpool the standard drops off alarmingly.This is evident also in the Serie A and the Spanish League. Nearly all the talent is concentrated in the top four/five teams. British football teams are made up of very fit hackers with minimal technique and even less tactical ideas.

I think Everton will be OK as there are enough worse teams than them. It is unfair to cite the Premiership as mediocre. The top teams have top quality squads which makes them stand out over the season, but "mediocre" teams like Charlton, Fulham, Newcastle (though maybe not this year ), Man City etc can upset the big teams given a full team, and team confidence. The problems for these "mediocre" teams comes when injuries and suspensions deprive them of their key players.

And I think Alan Curbishley is as tactically and strategicaly aware a manager as any around the World. I think fans of teams such as Fulham, Charlton, Man City and West Ham would dispute that their teams have "minimal technique and even less tactical ideas". But each team will try to play to their strengths, whatever they may be.

[Carl Gorka]

But my claim still holds that if you look objectively at the Premier League,down below the top four or five teams,they become truly awful.

Rubbish. Most Premier teams would perform well in any league in the World, except perhaps Italy, Spain and France.

[McTaggart]

I would like to believe that too but more often than not when a Premiership team plays abroad,so to speak,they are often embarrassed. I am not alone thinking like this,just read what Craig Foster says on SBS's The World Game site. Now he was not a bad player and held his own in what is a very competive comp,by his own admission he was never a super star but did alright.I am not saying that there are no talented players in the Premier League that would be silly,it is just they way they are coached. When I lived in London,many years ago, I watched on of the most entertaining and celebrated sides ever to take the field and that was Tottenham Hotspurs. They introduced a new style of football known as "push and run" and they won trophy and league honours etc,but the team grew old and so did the manager and sadly it all disappeared. West Ham tried to play football in the same way and succeed for a while.Arsenal a year or two ago had the same style. I would like your thoughts on this.

[four four two]

Bolton,a true underdog team if there ever was one, isnt being "disgraced" at the moment.

[Carl Gorka]

I would like to believe that too but more often than not when a Premiership team plays abroad,so to speak,they are often embarrassed. I am not alone thinking like this,just read what Craig Foster says on SBS's The World Game site. Now he was not a bad player and held his own in what is a very competive comp,by his own admission he was never a super star but did alright.I am not saying that there are no talented players in the Premier League that would be silly,it is just they way they are coached. When I lived in London,many years ago, I watched on of the most entertaining and celebrated sides ever to take the field and that was Tottenham Hotspurs. They introduced a new style of football known as "push and run" and they won trophy and league honours etc,but the team grew old and so did the manager and sadly it all disappeared. West Ham tried to play football in the same way and succeed for a while.Arsenal a year or two ago had the same style. I would like your thoughts on this.

The last great Tottenham team I remember was the 80's team based around Hoddle. While they played pretty football, they tended to make one pass too many and squanderd many chances. The same can be said of various West Ham teams over the years. The style of football a team plays will be dictated by the quality of their players. Thus Wimbledon became a decent club, even winning the FA cup and playing in the premiership with a long ball game and a very physical approach. But football in the UK has changed dramatically even in the past 10 years. The speed of the game has always been fast, but now it is 90 minutes at lightening speed. This makes it difficult to play anything other than a direct approach. Even the best Arsenal teams of the past 5 years have been direct in their approach, when needed. What I feel most sad about the way the game is played nowadays is the lack of width most teams employ. That is why players like Roben, and Giggs a few years ago, stand out. The lack of wing play brings everything tight in the middle of the field and it is amazing how many teams just try to bash their way through the central channels, more like Rugby League.


Ban wingbacks

[Carl Gorka]

Bolton,a true underdog team if there ever was one, isnt being "disgraced" at the moment.

Sam Allardyce has proved himself a true genius. He has worked with little and turned Bolton into a decent club. And JJ Akocha is the most exciting player that the Premiership has yet seen, but many managers wouldn't have trusted his commitment.