EURO 2012

premature but my team of the tournament so far

--------------------Casillas--------------------

--Lahm---------Pepe--------Hummels-------Coentrao

---------------Pirlo-------Kheidira--------------

---Ronaldo-----------Ozil--------------Iniesta---

-------------------Ibrihimovic-------------------

Has Ronaldo playing out of position and Lahm too(kinda). Mountinho can feel hard done by and Gomez can play his way in tonight I guess. Perhaps Jordi Alba unlucky as well. Pretty obvious team really.

cronaldo rw?

Yeah I know. Just trying to shoehorn him and Iniesta into the same team. It's like Gerrard and Lampard all over again! ;)

iniesta am, ozil rw, ronaldo lw

iniesta is just awesome, player of the tournament contender playing in maybe his third best position

i think ozil has looked alright playing wide / inside right for madrid a few times

Yes that's better
xp

                          rui patricio
boateng           corluka                   papadopoulos  
                                                                    alba
                             tymoschuk
            zyryanov                       modric
               
srna
                                                        konoplyanka
                             gomez        

bit indie

that's not supposed to be the best players, there's no ron vlaar for a start, but they are at least good players & with an emphasis on eastern europeans players who performed well in flawed sides or without much experience or out of normal position / playing style

you wouldn't change them for any of the England team

Is that you 'Arry?

Btw Ismael, did your dad enjoy the QF?

redknapp has just sold corluka to lokomotiv for £5.5m ftr

just didnt fancy im

ha no it only went through yesterday so that would have been levy i guess

Corluka didn't perform that well except in the Spain game which was perfectly suited to him (ie it was about having exceptional positional sense and not having to worry too much about being skinned for pace).

Would love to retain Corluka but guess he wants to leave by now?

xps I only spoke to him briefly from some airport or other, but he said it was definitely the best game he saw (he was also at Poland-Russia and Portugal-Czech Rep). He did say he had a cracking view of the penalties, from a point opposite the dugouts and towards the end where they were taken. Hopefully there'll be a photo or two of england agony that I can post for general amusement.

thought provoking idea -- all managers are fired/suspended in may, chief exec buys/sells whoever he likes, (re)appoints manager in july

Wait, he was at Greece-Russia; it was *in* Poland.

it's plausible that arry's still going around wheelin and/or dealin, raking in money selling spurs players.

Corluka didn't perform that well except in the Spain game = yeah playing out of position alongside a bundesliga II player and conceding 1 dodgy goal vs spain is pretty damn good, also conceded only 1 vs italy

raking you say xpost

corluka didn't even perform well against ireland

SING-SONG UPDATE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dydAICgkWX0&

playing vs ireland = weighted about 1/20th of playing vs spain or italy

Coentrao has been excellent. Where does he play?

Real Madrid as Marcelo's back-up.

A 30m backup

he's a better defender than marcelo and that's being reflected in their playing time

they are both shit vs barcelona though

what is ronaldo wearing here exactly?

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/88cs7Tt2eYQl4s7aC3A4IA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTUwMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/sptussowexperts/x610-7.jpeg

I''m sad that Tomas Mueller hasn't made more of an impression this time; he was my favoruite player at the WC2010, reminded me of Rudd Gullit with all his running and passing, passing and running, and goalscoring. I preferred him to Ozil back then but he's been a bit of a bit-player.

Cronny seems to have tucked the legs of his shorts up under the gusset. He's a classy lad.

playing vs ireland = weighted about 1/20th of playing vs spain or italy

yeah makes sense, playing badly against the worst team in the tournament, giving them a repeated platform to score their only goal of the tournament the only way they were ever likely to, and then failing to stop your man (noted physical presence and goal threat sean st ledger) from outmuscling you, that all doesn't matter.

There will be a England player in the "team of the tournament", there nearly always is, no matter what

EBJT

stevie g still joint leader with 3 assists

I''m sad that Tomas Mueller hasn't made more of an impression this time; he was my favoruite player at the WC2010, reminded me of Rudd Gullit with all his running and passing, passing and running, and goalscoring. I preferred him to Ozil back then but he's been a bit of a bit-player.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, June 28, 2012 3:06 PM (2 minutes ago)

yeah i sympathize with all that, but he was also in uncanny goalscoring form at the world cup

he has been alright though, and will be interesting to see how he does vs chiellini who is supposed to be playing leftback tonight

just goes to show how good mcgeady really is

          given 
g johnson   k papadopoulos    sivok    Ignashevich
robben      milner      nasri     ronaldo
     van persie   rooney

almeida >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> twp

ach ken my fuckin eyes

a bit harsh for cron to be in that team tbh but then, MESSI :*

Is Reus not favored to keep his place after excellent game v Greece?

Milner didn't play in the middle either so that seems a tad unfair

Be close but Loew trusts Mueller more I think, especially defensively. LB for Italy got a lot of joy vs England.
xp

Thought G Johnson had a decent tourney (although I would stan for him I guess)

left a permanent gap for italy to attack iirc

but then that could have been the whole defence tbf

i haven't seen any rumours about the team selection vs italy

i'd probably favour muller for his track record and combination play, reus on this form has higher upside but not the same solidity if things get difficult and he is denied space