Liverpool still won't win the premiership (2007/08 edition)

!

mourinho still paying off referees, nice to see

Worst penalty decision ever. Malouda is a cheat.

Well, by all accounts Malouda wasn't actually appealing for it.

Essien has also apparently received two yellow cards without being sent off...

Liverpool have conceded twice as many pens in the first two games of this league season as they did in the whole of 06-07. Now, I can't believe Liverpool defenders genuinely only committed one foul in their own box in 38 games last season so, maybe, there's some cosmic balancing goin' on. Having said that, daftest pen since...Gerrard was fouled by a phantom in the Sheff U box last August.

sickening.

Fuck off Styles.

Ha ha ha.

Soft penalty at Anfield shock! Revenge for when Molby upended wee Pat Nevin in 87 and the ref played on...

We never forget.

Mourinho in 'still banging on about the 2005 Champions League' shocker.

I guess sometimes ridiculous decisions go against you and sometimes Steven Gerrard gets a free kick on the edge of the penalty area for bumping into somebody and then asking for a free kick.

Nah, they got fucking rinsed, Torres looks useful though.

"You're So Violent" Jens Lehmann continues to amuse.

Somebody really needs to make a GIF of Ferguson standing up in triumph thinking Tevez had scored and then slowly adopting the wounded outrage of a child whose ice cream's just fallen onto the floor.

'Somebody really needs to make a GIF of Ferguson standing up in triumph thinking Tevez had scored and then slowly adopting the wounded outrage of a child whose ice cream's just fallen onto the floor.'

This was the best bit of the weekend.

I dunno, I quite enjoyed Wenger's traditional ejection of toys from pram at a Blackburn side who had the temerity to kick Arsenal a bit, like everyone's been doing for years.

Even the broadsheets are full of reports that Martin Jol's days at Spurs are numbered and he's going to be bumped off Ranieri-style in favour of Juande Ramos. Which would make me sad unless we suddenly start winning things, and even then. Although the Independent is linking HARRY REDKNAPP with the job which surely equates to either a journalist or source being on crack.

The Ferguson GIF should probably also be accompanied by that Simple Plan "how could this happen to me" song

United-Spurs on Sunday is looking like a win-win.

Yeah Wenger is such a complete knob. Every time they go north and lose he's speaking in that hurt disbelieving way and saying "they....did not let us play" as if the team should just say "now it's your turn, come forth and attack us! jolly good!"

I watched MOTD2 looking forward to some sort of murderball slugfest and all I got was this lousy football match.

Also, Lineker on MOTD2 was a bummer. He did nothing with Fergie's coitus moment. Nothing.

I thought he'd have pushed Hanson further on the whole "WTF were you doing playing with candewax Alan?" thing.

or candle wax, even

I dunno, Hansen looked slightly traumatised to the point that he might have punched Lineker if pushed. They probably had to keep Adrian Chiles away for his own good.

I've been away, but from what I can gather United have dominated their three games, but seem incapable of scoring. Is that a fair analysis? With Rooney and Ronaldo out (and Saha, but then he never seems to be fit anyway) (and Smith and Rossi sold, but I don't know how much difference either of them would make) that could be a situation which isn't about to improve. In the last few years whoever has won the league has steamrollered their way to such a massive points total that (if that was to happen again this season) you would have to feel tempted to write United off for the league already, BUT I'm starting to get the feeling that this season isn't going to be like that. I think this one could actually be a lot more competitive with a lot more dropped points all round.

1xFerguson.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Chris1989/4zaq593.gif

Hobb - that's a pretty fair analysis. You were all over Reading in the first game of the season, for example. I'm not sure quite why this is, considering that, even without a conventional striker, you were scoring goals for fun from pretty much all positions on the pitch.

Paul Scholes' goal was a belter though.

There's a good pre-season piece by Rob Smyth in the Guardian saying United would struggle because of lack of Saha or Saha replacement and I think the same. Watching Rooney scurry around in the cup final chasing lost balls and having to do all his own work cos Chelsea played deep - a performance that Fergie thought was excellent - made me realise how much you needed a proper striker testing the back line not a euro mountain of inside-forwards.

United were immense last year before xmas with Saha, but after Xmas - bar one or two exceptional performances - I thought they were quite gettable. They'll still batter some of the more naive teams, but most managers are canny enough to realise that if you play deeper you can stop United doing you on the break as they did so often last year. Reading basically kept 10 men behind the ball and United had a lot of the ball but didn't carve out any real openings.

Liverpool looking impressive; Chelsea nowhere near best but ominous. Arsenal: wimps.

Chelsea look like the could be carved open by some plucky attacking teams this season. They really miss having Makelele there and the system they're playing now doesn't really accommodate a replacement.

could someone pinpoint exactly why john obi mikel's face is so preposterous? i really am having trouble with it.

i imagine mourinho will probably persist with the harum scarum until abramovich can't take no more.

xabi alonso is not very good any more, much as it pains the world to say it: discuss

Yeah, I was surprised Maka didn't play yesterday and Essien at right back was a big bad (poss designed to force Roman's hand re Alves), but we'll be more solid when Terry and Carvalho get back together and we've a lot more to offer going forward than last season.

xpost- i dunno. we'd have alonso at spurs, that's for sure.

re: man city 'getting battered' general consensus- does anyone else think that, on the contrary, they looked very comfortable for most of the game. very nice passing and movement, and good discipline not to gett carried away in possession.

micah richards for england CB in the friendlies?

richards should get a game defo

Alonso hasn't looked right in so long. It's a shame. He gives the ball away constantly. Probably since the FA Cup final against West Ham, or maybe even before that.

was nani a bit rubbish or is that just me?

ha nani was terrible. slowed down every attack and wanted all day to put in very poor crosses.

going to my first ever premiership match on sunday at old trafford.

jol out.

there's only the one friendly isn't there? srsly though, neither team on wednesday is going to be any cop as far as i can see, half the germans have pulled out as well...

0-0 written all over it maniche

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/6954211.stm
Styles dropped for being crap

Carragher in that photo is actually almost as funny as Ferguson.

They're overdue to fire Mark "Fuck Off" Halsey into the sun, while they're at it.

Carragher looks way camp.

Banished to the Championship. That's the last time Liverpool will concede a penalty this season.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2152906,00.html

pretty shit.

Defensive injury crises and managerial-board ructions are so last year...

Sky Sports are saying they've put a bid in for Juan Riquelme...

Riquelme: "They won't let that Ramos bid me."

This is really not right at all. Judging by the massive chorus of 'I love Martin Jol, Martin Jol loves me' on Saturday (before we even scored) I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Also I'm kind of reeling at seeing what I thought was a stable, well run club moving in the right direction making a decision that frankly looks like a club in panic and could backfire badly.

We'll miss you Papa Bear.

Ridiculous. Either Levy thinks Jol has been consistently underachieving by dragging Spurs up to fifth place after 15 years of mediocrity (in which case he's wrong, and anyway - why not sack him at the end of last season and let the new man handle the summer signings?) or he thinks two defeats at the start of the season are the end of the world. This smacks of Man City sacking Peter Reid.

It is silly isn't it. Jol's doing better than Alex Ferguson!!

so is it true that the real reason is the board buying bent against jols wishes?

still unexplained, the lack of creative midfielder

good news for blackburn and man city, and...newcastle....and....ARSENAL

maybe they just got bored of making "omgwtfjol" jokes

Actually the more I think about this the angrier I am - he's not even getting the opportunity to show what he can do most of the new signings, let alone a fully fit defence.

It just makes the club look ruthless and desperate, and we'll be a laughing stock when we fail to qualify for the Champions League this season.

Jol will probably lead Spurs to victory against Man Utd now.