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

Balotelli's probably been a net positive to City over the season and Tevez/Dzeko don't look like doing much so dropping him now is tantamount to conceding the title and kinda dumb. Fine him, sell him in the Summer, whatever.

It's all Mancini's fault really. Shouldnt have fumbled the Tevez situation and become reliant on Balotelli in the first place.

Aguero still amazing obv.

mario balotelli has the potential to be one of the greatest strikers in the world, no question. he'll never fulfil that potential obv, but whatever.

ba has had an amazing season. gone off the boil a bit of late, but then again so has david silva, player of the year for my money (maybe rvp should be considered as well tho).

kinda feel like dzeko's been heavily undersold considering he's performed in probably as many games as either the silky and admirable aguero and the cult panto villain never-really-bothered balotelli this season. Were citeh to have tried to accommodate the former pairing earlier in the season at the expense of the latter clown they'd be in better shape imo

rvi by a st poty, not rly in q

yeah p much

balotelli is a 4real weirdo and already a near-great player and its nice to see him being true to himself and not living up to the expectations of cocksuckers like lineker who want him to be an occasionally endearing clown

i mean parse the antics from what prof wenger would call footballistics and he has 13 goals in 21 epl games

sure theres a few penalties but he is just about the best penalty taker around, messi misses more

he is 6'3 and fast, he is technically better than just about any #9 ever played in england, he has instinctive sense of how to isolate defenders and beat them, he can play as support striker and inside forward too

it really would be a huge achievement/ignominy to be so deranged that he cannot be trusted not to kick the shit out of random defenders and has to go play for brescia or something

I'm clearly watching a different player

ya

Seriously though, he very rarely stands out for me (off the ball antics aside). Obviously he's got a measure of ability and he is only 21 but "technically better than just about any #9 ever played in England"? I just don't know what a statement like that is based on

it ought to be completely obvious

not really. Give me some examples of this supposedly unparalleled technical ability

(and i'll admit the shoulder thing was cool)

eugh piecemeal empiricists are the worst, go watch youtube vids, find one with the worst eurotechno soundtrack and shareware visual fx and watch him run the show for inter primavera

oh shut up

i dont think he is quite as skilful as rvp or berbatov but he has a natural felicity with a ball that drogba, rooney and torres dont gave

also u watch a team that have been historically successful while playing at most two or three really technical players at any one time and thus dont rly need to appreciate technique

p much if u cant see this u are dumb

Balotelli is awesome and in dire need of immediate direction to keep himfrom wasting his talent. Getting carded so much is a sign of not 'reading' the game very well.

ah, so your desire to paint Utd as the enemies of good football has actually taken on a retrospective dimension now?

they have sometimes played good football but more through speed and moral courage (c) john giles to attack, and they have played crap football with players like veron and berbatov, the two things dont necessarily go together

ahh that side footed goal against united followed by the 'why always me?' t-shirt. amazing.

chris, we are impatiently awaiting the promised pictures of alex mcleish

now i've seen them on my laptop they're nowhere near as good as i thought they were when i was viewing them on my camera. i'll upload them later anyway. he shouts an awful lot does alex mcleish.

i like how he does terribly and plays the most dour football imaginable but then just about saves himself by doing something half-creditable liking drawing at anfield

he is one of lifes winners, remember that

aw thread got good while i was under hotel arrest.

Utd have, tbf, had a steady policy for some years now of cutting out general technical competence in favour of high effectiveness, imo. But that may well have been a blueprint smuggled in under a matalan jacket.

I've seen a good bit of balotelli, he's got more chops than ameobi the elder, i don't think i've seen it demonstrated that he's any more gifted than ameobi the younger though.

Technical competence vs high effectiveness is an idiot's false dichotomy. They may not be Messi or Ronaldo but I don't think you can deny the technique in what players like Valencia or Nani do. United started the season playing pretty technical tippy-tappy stuff and when that fell apart they regrouped in a much more workmanlike form but really keeping a clear head and not shitting themselves is what will win them the title.

Would quite like a bit of that high effectiveness at Spurs right now tbh.

xpost Alex McLeish and the awful way he plays football has made him the only opposition manager I have shouted at this season. Not properly abusive, just informing him he is a disgrace for what he's done to a once great football team. I'm pretty sure he doesn't give a fuck about what I think though.

it is shocking tho, but i blame Lerner or whoever decided to appoint him

Having appointed McLeish, where you go from there is the interesting question for me. You've already burned your bridges with football, yet there's no obvious way to escalate your new philosophy.

I accept McLeish was not helped by having decent players sold. But, still … Any Villa fans here who've watched them frequently care to comment?

ffs matt, i think anyone would allow nani's technical ability, i'd call that a fairly dishonest way to argue the point tbh.

and yes, there's no arguing with the results as long as other managers fail to find that level of numbing efficiency

'that level' is utterly remarkable, being generous to Utd for once. If they're motivated enough to win all their remaining games they'll actually beat Mourinho's 95-point mark

We've lost a hell of a lot of interest through the long-streak-of-wins-to-clinch-the-title becoming routine nowadays though. The white-knuckle stuff rarely happens at the end now - sides have some unexpected draw in February and it turns out there was never any way to recover.

well, yeah, that's been my point about the rafa 2nd for years

my villa-supporting mates have all taken up cycling

Just realised the Tottenham Norwich game is a 3pm - thought it was this evening. Stupid public holidays (that I don't get). Probably best I'm at work though - I don't think it's one I'd want to watch. Think Spurs pace will absolutely destroy us today.

Technical competence vs high effectiveness is an idiot's false dichotomy. They may not be Messi or Ronaldo but I don't think you can deny the technique in what players like Valencia or Nani do. United started the season playing pretty technical tippy-tappy stuff and when that fell apart they regrouped in a much more workmanlike form but really keeping a clear head and not shitting themselves is what will win them the title.

Would quite like a bit of that high effectiveness at Spurs right now tbh.

― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Monday, April 9, 2012 11:12 AM (1 hour ago)

this is p retarded, given that i was exactly parsing 'technique' with 'success' in describing how balotelli is more skilful than torres and drogba, players who have been the best #9 in the world for a time. nani is technically almost identical to ronaldo, though less 'effective'.

utd aren't winning the title at all, city have lost it, and it's about more than just a relative lack of confidence/winning mentality

the midfield doesn't keep possession so they have become a 'broken team' again, silva and touré no longer provide fluidity between midfield and forwards

players are played in different positions, nasri and milner are shunted around all over the place, pizarro was attacking mid for 20 mins yesterday then shoved back in front of the defence

the forwards are all below-par since the spring, not necessarily drastically bad, which has to be attributed to mancini and his incoherent system that means players can never rely on other players do be in certain places or do different things

I hate the notion that one team doesn't win a title, another team loses it. It's bollocks, and it diminishes the achievement of the team that does win the title.

This season, if United win the title, they will have done so by winning more games and getting more points than anyone else. You can say City imploded, and maybe so, but the point is that United didn't.

they will have done so by winning more games and getting more points than anyone else

srsly! and yes im diminishing the achievment of the title winners, i dont think ferguson has had to do nearly as much to (nearly) win this as he did in say 06/07 or 08/09

citeh havent imploded at all, they have been declining gradually for about six months and it's got as much to do with tactical entropy as mind games, tevez, balotelli and all that

Well, United were thoroughly pushed until the last few weeks - it's not like the title was sown up in January. The one point where I'd agree with you is that all the top teams are weaker this season, and United have got to this point by being more efficient than everyone else against the lesser teams. But that's still them positively winning it - City would have had to have been absolutely fucking stellar to match United's run over the last three months.

they have lost ten points vs sunderland, stoke and swansea in that time, i dont think winning those would make citeh somehow stellar

it would have been pretty impressive, sure, which would describe utd since january, but then that followed a period when they lost at home to blackburn and were thoroughly sonned by newcastle

i dont think ferguson has had to do nearly as much to (nearly) win this as he did in say 06/07 or 08/09

06/07 yes - very strong Chelsea team that had broken all records, United had to hit the ground running and keep it going all the way
08/09 not really - iirc United started poorly then drifted towards the top on the back of a strong defence and overcame a Liverpool team that didn't really look all that good until (ironically) they had dropped to second place

yeah i was a bit unsure of that after i posted it, city will probably end up with around the same number of points liverpool did that season

the last few weeks will have something to say, it united avoid defeat against city and run up a solid 8+ point differential that will be a p good achievement

they will however be disappointed if they are to be beaten by a proud etihad outfit who will know what beating ferguson's men means to their faithful

been a bit of a mishmash today huh

Hotel released us btw

Adriano?

http://i.imgur.com/8JoBJ.jpg

King looking dreadful today. We're going to choke this.

updates pls!