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

i think it's stupid now that there's a squad limit. it's not so stupid in terms of clubs depending for their league status on other teams being arsed to turn up.

It's harsh but thems the breaks. As you say, with a squad limit how can you really define what a weakened team is?

If Blackpool were serious about staying up they'd put Allardyce or Hughes in charge for the last game.

Or Steve Bruce or Roy Keane, doesn't really matter who.

i'm more bothered by the fact that Wolves and Blackpool got singled out for mid-season games when bigger clubs have been consistently allowed to play effectively "weakened" teams before European games. i got no beef with the clubs, this is why you have a squad.

I agree completely

OT but having 23-man squads for international tournaments is stupidly bloated when 25 is more than enough to get any club through a season

well it's not 25 is it? 25 over 21s or whatever...part of the point of the squad rule, which i think is good, was to encourage clubs to develop more of their own players

True. Picking an XI of just kids could be worthy of punishment in that case.

also thought international squad also takes into account that you play a little more frequently than in a league?

usually at the end of a season when the players are all knackered/crocked too

Pfft, like having actual walking wounded or at least positional improvisation - rather than just knackered-but-basically-competent primadonnnas - wouldn't improve modern world cups.

Pfft, like having actual walking wounded or at least positional improvisation - rather than just knackered-but-basically-competent primadonnnas - wouldn't improve modern world cups.

Could you explain this, I can't parse it for some reason.

i know that where i work i'm allowed be shit if i'm in more than 90 mins two days a week

A bit rich of Wenger to accuse the FA of putting Wilshere's health at risk when he's made him play nearly 50 matches for Arsenal this season.

yeah, and he's a delicate young lad who seems to get kicked on the regular

and some of them against stoke

Basically that smaller squads might introduce a pleasing random element into things by forcing tactical improvisation in face of injuries, instead of just playing second-choices everywhere. Obviously I haven't thought it through even slightly.

OptaJoe Opta Sports
3729 - @Jack_Wilshere has played 3729 mins of competitive football for Arsenal this season, only L.Koscielny has played more (3817). Worn.
4 hours ago

Nice of Arsene to worry about the lad.

Wait why is Warnock second-favourite? Are QPR about to do something insanely self-destructive like sacking him, failing to lure Sven and ending up with Glenn Roeder?

― Matt DC, Thursday, 19 May 2011 13:56 (57 minutes ago) Bookmark

barely have the strength to outline this but basically it's another media echochamber vortex going on with everyone making up whatever the fuck they like cos there's never ever been a more open field for "plausible" scurrilous rumours than qpr 2011

the facts - actually no, it's just one fact - is that the board have been having meetings this week, probably about sandwiches and stuff

xpost What was Wenger thinking exactly, that Capello would intervene and not let Pearce select him? Can the senior manager pull rank on youth teams like that even if he wants to? I don't know my FA politics too well.

and Warnock has strong opinions about the choice of sandwiches? (xp)

I think anyone who's not playing against Blackpool should be made to take a note from their mum explaining why they can't play.

But even if United put out a weakened team it'll still be a competitive one, probably not dissimilar to the team that put four goals past Schalke in a Champions League semi-final. What Wolves did last season was basically going "fuck it, we aren't going to beat United, let's just not bother", which is actually anti-competitive.

"I am being saved for an important goal next week"

xp

what wolves did was lose 1-0 to one of the strongest teams in the league, using a team picked exclusively from their pool of registered full-time professional foitballers

Any movement from the above statement is, imo, cuntishness of the highest.

apart from to correct spelling mistakes

I always knew you were a fan of this Man United side, Darragh.

and the scoreline lol

It was one nil for a while or s'thing tho right

it was 3-0 in the end but our reject squad outplayed them for the first 40 minutes. still, it's good to know that the fielding a weakened team rule only applies if your squad players aren't as good as United

nah i'm no fan but requiring wolves to beat them is the worst bullshit i think i've ever heard out of the fa

oh hang on wasn't it Spurs we beat on the following weekend?

feel the foitball

Holloway should take the opportunity to field a weakened Blackpool XI himself and get one over on the FA that way

"Weakened" is such a weasel word is the problem. Setting a minimum number of full squad players wd at least avoid arguments of interpretation.

lol would be awesome

gotta play at least 6 or 7 grown-ups.

be a nightmare for Arsenal mind.

yeah the wolves thing is total bullshit. part of managing a team is managing them for the whole season and using the resources you have to get the maximum possible points. maybe it is anti-competitive for wolves to play a second string against man u, but there are plenty of anti-competitive things in that league.

oh come on, there should be a rule that once a player has played more than 1 game for a higher rank international team that there is no point having them in a lower team and should stop being 'developed' there when another youngster could benefit. wilshere could technically be called up from the u16s to the u21s and the proper England side but he's already an essential member of the full strength England side, so why the hell have him anywhere else? or is it that Wenger is not treating this like that and just being pissy about his player being warn out?

'already an essential member of the full strenght england side'

oh yeah he helped them to ..... that time?

Re: my post above I feel that the senior England manager *should* be able to pull rank on youth teams. But I doubt it actually works that way.

sort out the gerrard/lampard problem?

In a couple of post World Cup friendlies he has become "essential" and sorted out the Gerrard/Lampard problem? Really?

ya sure why not

Ya the way he slotted into that "full strength England team" to play Denmark (that had nine changes from the France defeat) was amazing right up until he was hooked at half time.

Given that both Gerrard and Lampard are decidedly no longer in their imperial phase I doubt that problem even exists any more.

That said, Wilshere should be first-choice XI for England.

I agree - he should also show up without a word of complaint if selected for U21 duty.

The time was ripe for introduction of 'imperial phase' to footy, good work there.

Regardless of how essential Wilshere is yet, does anyone who supports England (the senior side) want him playing U21 matches this summer, after the season he's had?

Don't really care.