NAMING RIGHTS THREAD: Liverpool really won't win the Premiership 2010-2011

lol what did he say?

he's an idiot

9 red cards last season for sunderland is a record apparently

baseless victim complex, bashes ref condescendingly for being inexperienced, defends thug Cattermole

i love the way on sky they were all "does a referee consider a player's reputation in this situation"

me and my friends imagined it becoming a high minded moral debate with andy gray saying "what if joe cole were a convicted rapist, should he then be sent off for this sort of tackle?"

"what if a player had done an interview in a magazine that week claiming he would foul an arsenal player viciously but make it appear as though it were not a foul?"

Oooh MOTD (...2) on the iplayer! Is MOTD on it as well?

yeah think it is from this year, it's been due to be for ages and ages.

ZONAL FUCKING MARKING!

lol, get over it man.

maradona for villa! plz plz plz randy, make it happen.

I'm just, like, I mean, ARGH! It's kind of the cornerstone of everything that is wrong with 99% of football punditry, analysis, critique. I'm astounded that these people, who used to play the fucking game!, don't understand something that's really incredibly easy to get to grips with. The stats show that Liverpool's zonal marking was, in general, incredibly effective under Rafa. And the fact that Lawro said that Gerrard was marking an area, i.e. a ZONE, just makes even more of a mockery of his punditry. I mean ffs! lols.

It's Lawro mate... if you are gonna get annoyed once then you've lost.

i know, you're right. ok. i promise not to say the 'z' word or to comment on rubbish football analysis AT ALL for the rest of the season.

Nah, go for it. I'm just saying go steady or you may have a heart attack when something actually big and worth getting yr pitchfork out happens.

That's my resolution too Chris.

Tbh, following it has been a bit like cutting my nose off to spite my face. Other than the two live games I've only been able to watch a few seconds of football focus. Switched that on and Lawro couldn't even watch the Icelandic fish celebration without moaning. I realised v quickly that there was no way I could tackle motd without getting the urge to kill, so it's currently off-limits entirely.

At least the live games have the crowd noise up high enough that I can ignore Gray if I so choose.

("all very well until someone sprains their ankle doing it" was Lawro's verdict btw)

ha, I knew after that bit I'd come here to find you exploding, Chris.

I was only half-watching MOTD2, was there no 2 good 2 bad or did I just miss it?

no 2g2b ;_;

has been replaced with "ten things we miss" list that was just dull and taken from a 90s danny baker video

i haven't heard anything about the second half of liverpool/arsen cept result. chamakh looked pretty poor tbh- thought jovacenacevicen looked really good though.

cole's tackle prob borderline red- very high, very late, scissored the leg of the standing man.

wilshere's was late, but he pulled his foot out and on replay hardly made contact. was yellow.

no real comparison imo.

In so far as one game reveals anything, I was pleased with Liverpool - writing off their top four chances is crazy talk. I wouldn't talk them up as winners, it'd take a league of pre-modern scrappiness for them to get close, though they looked competent and spirited and those had to be the first hurdles this year.

Everything that was wrong with Arsenal is still wrong with Arsenal. There was a tortuous period midway through the second half where Sagna was free wide on every attack, and didn't get played in once.

i think for any one of everton, liverpool or spurs to get a CL spot this year arsenal will need to perform well below par all season.

Not sure about that - or at least we might have a different view of where par is, but they might well look different with van Persie back and Chamakh bedded in. They'll need to hit the odd cross though.

chamakh really didn't look very good yesterday. too early to make a call on him.

both teams starting 4-5-1 is a bit depressing, even for a big game.

I thought it was 4-2-3-1? (like I can tell the difference)

451 incorporates 4231 imo tbh

Have a £10 bet with a friend that Chamakh will score 15 this season, not panicking yet.

yeah early days to be fair to him. wouldn't have thought that the lone striker role was gonna suit him tho.

He should be good for that i'd've thought - first-choice striker in a side well capable of bullying the lower orders? (so long as they don't insist on the 'two banks of four' thing). Bendtner must've been close to double figures last year, and he was crocked for a fair bit of it and is Bendtner.

erm chris surely all your zonal marking cheerleading proves is that it's a totally viable defensive system that your glorious leader rafa was rubbish at implementing?

nu motd2 was really shit btw, felt like i was watching cbbc with all the crap culture-ref "features"

like, let's commentate... in black and white! say what you like about hansen and shearer but hopefully they will kick this nonsense in the balls sharpish.

i think chris's point is that zonal marking worked very well for the majority of rafa's time?

tho i seem to remember that for the start of last season something like 3/4 of goals conceded were from set pieces, tbh?

personnel issues anyway, imo. i'm not that sure that skrtel is any good, and i'm pretty sure that carragher will break records for sendings off this season.

It's between Carragher and Dunne, isn't it? Cattermole must be in line to break it over the course of his career though, guy's a thug.

Should probably have had an insurance policy in my Chamakh bet that it's void if Cattermole or some Wolves player breaks his leg.

erm chris surely all your zonal marking cheerleading proves is that it's a totally viable defensive system that your glorious leader rafa was rubbish at implementing?

― r|t|c, Monday, 16 August 2010 11:53 (16 minutes ago)

Hm, not really. In 05/06 and 06/07, Liverpool conceded fewer goals that anyone else from set-pieces, and they did so defending zones, and in 04/05, Rafa's first year at the club, and when the players were still getting used to the system, only 2 goals were conceded from corners.

no talk yet about my newly adopted premiership team, FULHAM????? c'mon they are a tantalizing group of lads

Yeah Liverpool were pretty difficult to score against for most of Rafa's time in power, it was only last season that things really went tits up and a lot of that can be attributed to injuries plus Carragher getting old and crap.

personnel issues anyway, imo. i'm not that sure that skrtel is any good, and i'm pretty sure that carragher will break records for sendings off this season.

It's between Carragher and Dunne, isn't it?

Balotelli, dudes.

Can't find stats for 2007 to 2010, but I'd put money on 08/09 being a good year for us an' all.

alright then, if you say so.

trying to recall other observations about the weekend but all i can come up with is that steven fletcher looked uncomfortably similar to mark hateley all of a sudden.

i think for any one of everton, liverpool or spurs to get a CL spot this year arsenal will need to perform well below par all season.

Still absurdly overrating Man City here. Not saying they won't, but I'm not seeing much evidence that Mancini has a clue what his best team is, and they are hugely reliant on new signings adapting to the Premiership properly.

Gotta start leaving Carra out now and get Agger and Skrtel playing together.

City looked like a bunch of strangers in the first half on Saturday, but they were already finding their feet in the second. Should stick with Adebayor up front I reckon (should really stick with Bellamy and bring back Robinho, but these appear no longer to be options). I've got them down to win the league, so they'd better sort it out quick smart.

I had assumed Fulham-Bolton was dull, but the report makes it sound alright - anything with Bobby Z attempting the unexpected has to be good. I expect it got all of twenty seconds on motd.

4-5-1 for a big game was fine, esp. considering both teams were really only left with one trad. centre forward (Torres and van Persie unfit, Bendtner injured and Liverpool have no-one else). I think Chamakh looked very good in the first half but once Nasri and Arshavin decided to sit out the game he had less of a link to do anything.

Other thoughts from the weekend-

motd2 looks dead already, mah just 101gg my sunday highlights from now on. At least Ronan's Sportsround sketches are funny.

Stewart Downing scored, so naturally I feel a bit uncertain about everything I thought I knew about football.

lol at Bellamy going back to Cardiff instead of Spurs.

i am psyched to see bobby z in the flesh

what i need to know is:

- is mark hughes all that
- is konchesky all that
- is dempsey declining
- who should i watch for (besides this new keeper who looked v impressive v bolton)

oh and:

- is bellamy all that

- yes, for what he is
- limited defensively but can put a smile on your face when he's on form
- no
- bobby obv, etuhu is super underrated, whoever fulham buy to replace schwarzer because in reality lol back-up keepers
- yes

Bellamy is indeed all that. He's got his own (quite old) thread, where he's none too popular.

craig bellamy

I love him though.

I think you should become a cheerleader for Phillipe Senderos for lolz.

The other thing about City right now is that there's hardly any width in that squad. Adam Johnson looks much better than SWP but who else is there? Can't see the full backs bombing forward much under Mancini. You can get away with a lack of width if you have a high-quality passing midfield but City have a high quality destructive midfield really. Not seeing enough creativity - maybe they can drop David Silva back into midfield and stick more upfront but it still feels like a poorly balanced squad with a lot of egos.

For all the Bellamy love (and he would be an amazing signing for Fulham and probably Spurs, although Man City won't see to us), he's never been that prolific, has he?

thank you a hoy hoy!

xposts i can cheer for him to try and stay healthy for more than 10 seconds i guess

senderos wd have been bargain of the season if a) woy stayed and b) he wasn't dead.