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

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!

norwich denied a blatant pen, spurs go down the other end and equalise.

Just watching the BBC ticker - a strong penalty claim? We've had a fair few turned down this season, but also been lucky Holt's busy, busy hands haven't cost us more so I'll probably not moan too much...

love to see nakh defending the ring against all comers, esp otm wrt 'piecemeal empiricists' & city's decline vs myth of implosion

decent penalty claim, lovely pass from livermore and a delightful defoe chip

wait they'd scored?

Spurs pretty shocking defensively, the Norwich goal was a double-clanger and I fear we're watching Ledley's last season, his composure has gone completely and neither centreback could deal with Grant Holt at all. Now Kaboul's injured and we have a potentially horrifying King-Nelsen pairing at the back.

Modric can't take corners for shit. Our best hope is that Norwich overcommit and/or get knackered. Maybe need Sandro on as well as Livermore.

lovely finish from defoe though

Urgh. Another penalty shout for Norwich, then Spurs hit the crossbar, according to my trusty BBC feed.

norwich take the lead

nice strike from bennett

Wooooo

If you did a recent form table for the Prem how low down would City, Spurs and Liverpool be? (I assume Wolves would be bottom)

liverpool 2nd from bottom iirc, would guess spurs around 13th.

Coming into the game today, Spurs only won 3 of the last 10 (and 4 draws I think it was - was checking against Norwich's W-D-L of 3-2-5).

Newcastle have scored so are now level on points with Spurs, as it stands. If Chelsea win their game in hand they'll all be on 59.

i'm doing charity work i dont deserve this ffs

Massive massive slow choke going on here. This could turn out to be worse than the lasagne season.

Really good run by Ben Arfa for that goal.

and now Cisse has sealed the points. Oh, Bolton.