Kenny Dalglish Won't Be Delivering the Module: English Premiership 2011-12

Did the Madrid no.10 shirt really go Figo>Robinho>Sneijder>Lass Diarra?

kaka doesn't have it anymore, off the pace and doesn't have the ~glide~ he had back when he was imperious

would probably still do OK but doubt he'd set the league alight

the fat's not a massive issue really but he def doesn't have the /it/ he once had

How long a bad period can a player have before it can safely be said that he is in permanent decline? I agree with cozen about the 'glide' no longer being there for kaka. Then again Raul went through about a season and a half at Madrid where, to me at least, he went from excellent, passsed decent, into poor, before turning it around and if not quite getting back to his imperious best still returned to being really good.

Rooney went around 10 months of being outright bad before returning to form. I'd argue that Ribiery had a pretty dramatic decline also before working his way back.

Obviously age will lead to decline but Rooney, Ribiery, and Kaka aren't exactly old. The obvious one atm is Torres. Is this what he is now? Or will he return to his LFC form?

Gerrard

God yeah. I think I probably underrated Gerrard for a while due to some pissy resentment on my part at how much Sky/MOTD etc over-praised him and seemed to believe that he WAS Liverpool. Now he is playing down to those expectations. He's obviously been one of our best players but in the last couple of seasons it seems like such a hard job to actually fit him into the team in a position he likes. And the amount of time he gives the ball away will never cease to infuriate me.

Adebayor! Adebayooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrr! He's back on TV! On ITV4!

I think a lot of these come down to pace really. If a player's game is built around being quick, then when injuries or age take away the little burst that makes him quicker than average, he'd better have something else there to make up for it. Michael Owen didn't have that much more to him, but my guess is Kaka's got a lot more. Torres I don't know, I suspect he's lost just a tiny amount but that's where the killer edge is.

Ones that are clearly just form, like Rooney, are mystifying to me. If it were confidence I could understand that, but I don't think he ever lost that, even his first touch was shocking for a good while.

people seem incredibly eager to write gerrard off.

6 years

Gerrard has been badly managed for a long time maybe - after years of being Mr Liverpool who will save them for disaster he seems to think he deserves a free role whatever happens, and he just doesn't seem like a team player any more.

Obviously that won't happen when he gets back because if you were to give any player a free role at Liverpool now that would be Suarez and Gerrard, but fuck that noise generally.

Also players just get complacent or their head goes into the wrong place - Rooney and Ribery for pretty obvious reasons. Actually I've not seen Ribery play for a while but he's pretty much never justified his hype when I have.

Rooney was a perfect of storm of factors last season I reckon - coming back from injury, shit World Cup behind him, self-imposed personal issues, protracted transfer saga etc. His head was never going to be right, he clearly wasn't concentrating anywhere near 100% on his game. That would be a worry long-term for anyone managing Rooney.

free roles are for teams chasing 10th with one talismanic attacking talent.

holla

been there, tbf, been there

Sometimes I still miss Ginola.

btw 'Arry in the Guardian this morning reckons Modric is staying fer sure and that's the end of that. AVB on Sky said the difference btw Chelsea's offer and what Spurs will accept was too wide for the deal to happen.

Ginola? I was thinking Steffen Freund.

he made my top 22 ballot for that thing sam never did

Harry's been smacked down good & proper there. Professing self delighted, no mention of the stronger team he was planning to build, etc.

Is that the end of that then?

It's probably not the end of that. Hope Modric actually picks himself up and doesn't piss and whine and play like shit for an entire season.

Adebayor signing on its own should make a massive difference. Anyone know anything about Iago Falque?

Delighted that Levy's ad a word. Took too long tbh.

Modric will play and will be fine.

Adebayor-Crouch switch worth minimum twelve league goals between scored and play around the box.

Fourth.

Only fourth? You ought to be better off than the time you did get fourth.

City and United both better than that season though, and I don't like our chances of finshing about Chelsea.

I mean City and Liverpool. United are irrelevant to how well we do, especially as they always beat us whatever happens.

we're ahead of lfc now imo, but it's close.

Not a hope in hell spurs finish 4th.

I get the feeling it's not a very happy ship at the moment, the look on Kranjcar's face last night just screamed "can I be bothered?"

I don't think that players like Kranjcar and Defoe (ie good enough to play a part if not first XI) are likely to be effectively motivated by an entire summer's worth of "We consider you to be deadwood and are trying to move you on" stories. That's before you consider what the Modric saga must be doing.

Kranjcar looked like Ashton Kutcher yesterday.

9th, and and an FA Cup qf this season I think, good old days :(

I think there'll be three fighting for 1st (City, Utd, Chelsea) and three fighting for 4th (Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal). Anyone's guess how each of those groups pans out.

Seems accurate.

idk there's a diffidence to chelsea and a cuntyness to liverpool that makes me think the latter will finish higher

This Charmless Man

Asked about his England contingent, Ferguson said: "It is fantastic. The FA may realise who has produced more players for their country than any club in the world.

"Maybe they will get some joy from it and realise how important we are to England instead of treating us like s***.

re: iago - i believe he is the spiritual successor to quaresma in that he had oodles of talent but his mentality is so warped that he'll never have a good run of games. or so has been the word on him for a while now.

Asked about his England contingent, Ferguson said: "It is fantastic. The FA may realise who has produced more players for their country than any club in the world.

"Maybe they will get some joy from it and realise how important we are to England instead of treating us like s***.

fergie is west ham boss?

the real motivator for most of these guys, once transfer window shuts, is to be picked when they merit it. Can understand krancjar and pavlyuchenko being unhapoy, less so defoe or crouch. Modric dissatisfied for different reasons, but though i love him v much i have to say that a couple more goals/kilkers through balls against the limited opposition we faltered against last year might have had him still playing in a cl team.

Talk of offering him a new contract is nonsense. He doesn't want to ad won't be here in two years, so wtf give him a pay rise in the interim?

This is based on the premise that i don't think not moving will affect his performances over the season.

actually

Club providing the most England internationals in total [42]
Aston Villa, 72 (as of 9 February 2011)

from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_national_football_team_records

West Ham aren't in the top ten as far as I recall

trained youths or what?

Since when?

Most appearances without ever playing at the European Championship finals [22]
Rio Ferdinand, 81, 15 November 1997 – 4 June 2011

blimey

I think it's "first capped while playing for that club."

Since ever.

No fewer than 21 of Villa's 72 England internationals played just once for the national team during their time at the club, and 13 of these had only a single cap in their careers. In these statistical records, Scott Carson in 2007 also goes on to the record of Aston Villa players who have turned out for England, despite being on loan from Liverpool at the time.

hands off Carson

that's how he appears in the records too

I find it slightly amusing that everyone on here rates Rooney again.

hands off Carson

Not sure how you can claim him for Arsenal

everyone?

Well, give it another couple of months

no....