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

("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.

i know it's been said, but are city gonna play with 3 destructive centre midfielders every game? they won't get far like that.

other than that re city, though matt- defence was solid (tho we had our chances and should have had a peno) and when mancini decides on a settled attack (if he does) they'll be ahead of everyone who was chasing CL football last season.

"I need it to happen. I've had a couple of chats with Mark Hughes and it's delicately poised.

"Who wouldn't be keen to go to Arsenal? At this stage in my career it's an amazing opportunity to play at that level and one I really want to take.

"It's taken a long time. On one hand you understand them not wanting to disrupt too many things, but I want things resolved as quickly as possible.

"Only time will tell whether that happens or not."

nothing has happened to make it more likely, says hughes.

city won't sell bellamy to us, nor given to ye. spoilsports.

is this common in club football, that you get players just talking completely out of school? in american sports the players' agents would slam the door on that kind of chitchat, reckoning it's bad form and thus brings the value of the player down. not to mention that schwarzer, well, might have to actually play for fulham this season!

it's fairly common, maybe more so than it used to be though.

not sure schwarzer is worried about his future sell-on fees at the age of 52 oe w/e- and his agent would get one last payday over any move.

Silva's not really strong enough to play in the centre is he? Or at least will have to spend some time adapting like Modric. Other than him their most creative midfielder is... Barry? Jesus why are they in for Milner when they could just go for Gourcuff or van der Vaart or someone.

they have bellamy and robinho, adapted wingers.

silva isn't a central player, no.

reckoning it's bad form and thus brings the value of the player down.

agent makes more if he actually moves in signing bonuses etc.

is this common in club football, that you get players just talking completely out of school? in american sports the players' agents would slam the door on that kind of chitchat, reckoning it's bad form and thus brings the value of the player down. not to mention that schwarzer, well, might have to actually play for fulham this season!

This happens all the time in basketball though! I guess generally with bigger stars than Schwartzer admittedly.

Jesus why are they in for Milner when they could just go for Gourcuff or van der Vaart or someone.

I'd forgotten about Milner upthread, he might make a difference. Gourcuff probably exactly the wrong sort of player for Man City right now, massively talented but inconsistent, prone to going missing and with no experience of playing in the Premiership. VDV could do it though.

But yeah, there won't be many teams beating City this season - not many managed it last season and they're likely to be much more solid this year. If I were Man City I'd just play 4-3-3 with as much firepower upfront as possible - play Tevez, Adebayor and Balotelli all at once and watch teams shit themselves.

I've been working on the basis that Robinho isn't coming back - any reason to suspect different?

craig bellamy thread just reminded me of something I'd cast from my memory: juninho at celtic