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

Ashley Cole

niiice

Chelsea are boiling over

spurs woeful 2nd half

Meireles & Luiz both having a kick within a minute

bale forces al habsi into cracking save after 60 yard run. Just the two so far then.

pish

Pogba is on and impressing

Swansea kind of deserve that for sitting back instead of going for the throat. I hate that, but thought Swansea were probably good enough to do it.

drenthe has to walk for that

It's bloody annoying though, they had a number of two-on-twos that they took backwards instead.

drenthe has to walk for that

Yeah, should have done. City not getting many decisions tonight. Not that I want them to.

hull/blackpool moment

saw the drenthe tackle from another angle

has to walk

it's a pretty sad indictment of, i guess Chelsea, and perhaps the league generally, that if things stay as they are tonight, despite fucking up ENDLESSLY, Liverpool are still right in with a shot at a CL place

While this is trextent big extent, Liverpool's fuck ups are mostly drawing-instead-of-winning. They've lost less than everyone bar the Manchester clubs and Spiders (but only by one). Spurs' position is the outlier really, it shows how much you gain by winning-instead-of-drawing.

chelsea's two points dropped tonight will be more significant that the point they gained

that was very encouraging stuff from Pogba. Valencia magnificent again.

it's a pretty sad indictment of, i guess Chelsea, and perhaps the league generally, that if things stay as they are tonight, despite fucking up ENDLESSLY, Liverpool are still right in with a shot at a CL place.

arsenal, chelsea, liverpool all struggling to deal with a much-improved overall quality of opposition in the league, imo. spurs and city have improved hugely over the past two years, only utd in the top six have stayed static, and fuck knows how.

get in

pleased we're getting a title race; horrified that Utd are in it

otm

God bless you Everton and your dour attritional shitkickers. Pretty much a perfect evening.

Except now we're back in the title race. And now I have to hope again.

That isn't liverpool's problem, though, it's the crap teams we've been struggling against. True for Arsenal & Chelsea though.

we're not in any title race

it's a pretty sad indictment of, i guess Chelsea, and perhaps the league generally, that if things stay as they are tonight, despite fucking up ENDLESSLY, Liverpool are still right in with a shot at a CL place.

You probably could have said that in other seasons as well, though. Going back about 5 years or so Liverpool and Arsenal both had a season or two when they were mostly rubbish yet still managed to climb up into the top four by the end of the season. Finishing fourth isn't necessarily that difficult - it would be more of an indictment if Liverpool looked like winning the league this season.

arsenal, chelsea, liverpool all struggling to deal with a much-improved overall quality of opposition in the league

this doesn't reflect their performances at all. these three clubs are all worse than they've been in recent years, the worst arguably apart from liverpool who are prob marginally better than the last two dire seasons.

no way do i agree it's about better opposition, have you watched liverpool?

just takin' a break from reading to say ronan otm
also darragh otm

football eh

they can't both be otm!

neither otm

everyone's otm!

well done all

oh i was referring specifically to this:

we're not in any title race

rather than the thing he said that ronan argued convincingly against. sorry for the confusion.

I'd've been curious to see Liverpool in the CL this year, by some miracle. It's the Rafa thing again of playing the big games well and having no idea what to do the rest of the time.

How many points have Swansea taken off the top six or seven so far this season?

Okay, I see it - if Spurs are still there in April then they're in it; 'til then it's a decent side enjoying a remarkable run.

chelsea's two points dropped tonight will be more significant that the point they gained

― teaky frigger (darraghmac), dinsdag 31 januari 2012 22:48 (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is raising my spirits here, thans deems <3

Three v Arsenal, one each v Liverpool and Tottenham?

I'd've been curious to see Liverpool in the CL this year, by some miracle. It's the Rafa thing again of playing the big games well and having no idea what to do the rest of the time.

was thinking about this recently. worth remembering that rafa was woeful against the other top four sides at the start, then sort of clicked into gear.

i think a lot of the supposedly encouraging signs about lfc are actually just bollocks based on post-rafa hangover in terms of style/tactics/personnel.

like "liverpool have a good defence"=a conservative setup, concede less and score less, the goals they do concede frequently involve awful defending.

-"they just need to turn those draws into wins"- see above, they do need to do this but the answer to all their problems is removing the rafa "negate the opposition" bullshit mentality and completely adopting the idea that they dictate the play and that's how they win games.

judging by man u at the weekend and the recent games against city they're still using this counter-attack negativity crutch.

'Arry just on SSN saying they wouldn't Pienaar wasn't allowed go on loan because they couldn't get "the lad from Jooventus"

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy: "The fans' reaction is fully understood and the last 35 minutes were unacceptable. We were getting a real chasing but they're a great bunch of lads, work their socks off for me and the club. The shape that I had was making it difficult, but I was never going to keep it 4-5-1, defend and lose 2-0, so I take the blame for the last 35 minutes."
There was a banner unfurled at Molineux calling for McCarthy to leave. Unless they were very quick with their handiwork, that suggests dissatisfaction based on more than the final half-hour.

i trained with the bloke doing this min by min - nice zing on mccarthy there.

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand on former Old Trafford midfielder Darron Gibson's Everton winner against Manchester City which allowed Manchester United to go level on points at the top of the table: "He will be getting a text message from me later to say well done.

should really tweet him a link to this interview instead, save the money.

xp That's why I find it incredibly hard to judge how far away we are from being a really good side tbh. We can hold our own against anyone decent, except if they're really on-song I suppose, but what's needed to win consistently? It could be as little as Lucas back + a finisher, so long as they were set up right.

better wingers maybe...i think also though they've nothing really coming through the middle of midfield in attacking areas either. there's not enough danger/pace in the midfield generally.

Rio leaking texts in advance, that's New Labourite in its media sophistication

Agree with that, but it's across-the-board so what, replace the whole midfield? I don't know. I do wish Meireles was still there though, he gave angles and such like Henderson never will.

Morrison's salary will start at around £12,000 a week with this possibly increasing to as much as £65,000. The rising sliding scale will be triggered only if West Ham regain their Premier League status. Then, after a certain number of top-flight starts, his salary would rise incrementally towards the £65,000 ceiling

Damn - you get kind of immune to salary talk, but this makes me quite envious, imagining this lot racking up exponentially. It's some comfort to know he'll just piss it all away.

Ryan Nelsen to the Spiders, possibly

this doesn't reflect their performances at all. these three clubs are all worse than they've been in recent years,

sorry, had to change a wash, cook up a stirfry

spurs have signed saha- confirmed

anyway, i don't know- it could be just as simple as you can tell by watching just liverpool in a game and be able to say that, yes, liverpool are worse. i suspect that the bottom/mid-bottom teams are substantially better than they have been in other recent seasons though, and i don't think that it's just as easy as comparing one team across different periods either, is all.

i've no idea why i've detailed my activities there, mind was on natalie sawyers yellow dress tbph