Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

was the spellchecker's work tbh, normally I just mash s, z and c randomly

Büttner with a solo goal!

Nicky Buttner and Paul Scholes, rolling back the years.

The Chelsea BMX chestplate jersey is getting on my nerves.

rly enjoy watching hazard on this team

totally

Zamora you twat! Shoot the damn ball.

Nick Powell debut goal! and it's a beauty

at present, anticipating a 6-1 loss

― William Bloody Swygart, Saturday, September 15, 2012 8:50 AM (6 hours ago)

cazorla is so boss, walcott... not so much

2-0 Villa! Debut goal from Benteke! Shiiiit, I can't believe we're actually going to win a game. Convincingly. Had honest-to-god forgotten what this felt like.,

Villa won because I didn't watch it.

who needs dembele and dempsey when you have sidwell and baird?

Liverpool have done pretty well in the first quarter of each game so far

what a waste of money

Second quarter, however...

reina not covering himself in glory there again

A pitchside ad there in support of Korea's Americas Cup team!

Gerrard and Reina both have to go

yep, i'd definitely take fletcher over falcao.

I am in love with Esteban Granero.

it's actually been coming

Suarez is borderline despicable. Talented, but despicable nonetheless.

Eh? Has he done something tonight I've missed?

Shelvey's impressed me this season - I really wasn't expecting that.

Oddly... I've seen us so, so much worse than that. James Ward-Prowse belongs at this level. Nathaniel Clyne's gonna grow into it (with someone better than Puncheon in front of him he'll be a terror). It wasn't a good day to chuck Yoshida in at the deep end, Ramirez had solid touches but isn't up to speed yet (and we looked a lot better going forward with him - not £12m better, though), Rodriguez certainly wasn't appreciably worse than Lambert...

But why we didn't sign a viable first-team goalkeeper I do not know. We needed another left-back, another centre-back, someone to go down the opposite wing to Lallana... we didn't need Steven sodding Davis, who is maybe a step up from Dean Hammond but will not get a game when Corky's back. I dunno. We tried, but defensively we were essentially useless. Villa next. They've just beaten Swansea. Erk.

Oh, and Cazorla's awesome. Because you needed me to tell you that.

Suarez is just being Suarez - yellow for diving, going down if someone breathes on him and begging for a call, scoring a fine goal, skying a header over the bar. The usual.

I just forget when it's been a while between my viewing of Liverpool what a little villain he is.

Stoke seem to be playing something approaching football this year, no long throws today, crouch goal was an obvious handball though

nice of the MUFC fans to sing their delightful 'always the victim' ditty this weekend

yes, that was not nice to hear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6MnAo9V6mo

omg the main dude singing in this

so bad in so many ways

That was sung today? FFS

I'll take a draw out of today. Ship steady at least, horrible to see about those chants, next week is going to be really ugly, pool v man u is nastier than I ever recall right now.

nasty stuff from Odemwingie

he seems so chill normally

Berbatov berbatov berbatoooooov. I can't believe we have Berbatov.

that was almost exactly the same place on the field where shearer kicked neil ennons head in

heres hoping he can replicate that

i was just about to ask if Shearer was going to apologise for his career

what a goal from that villa player!

fuck off Gary. Excellent Nilsson use

yeah i think yaya might be just a bit more than a BIG BRUTE

"It would have been a poignant win"

so a draw can't be poignant then?

Oh, and Walcott and Ox made a point of coming over to applaud the Saints fans at the end, which I thought was very classy of them. Ox's future is hella bright.

Cazorla is an unusual player to watch. It was like every time he got the ball yesterday he looked like he was taking the wrong option, only to emerge with the ball anyway or play an unexpected, dangerous pass into unnoticed space. Not too many have that quality - Messi obviously, maybe Suarez when he's on form.

suarez definitely. albert rieira was like that for a month or two when he first came to liverpool too. whatever happened to that guy?

He had a fantastic first season, lots of big goals. What infuriated me with rafa was his inability to keep everyone happy. Beni noon and Riera both got lots of key goals in 08/09 and he then alienated both and replaced them with untested youth winger Nobody.

Like how much better than Downing was Riera?

Contrast with fergie, who is incredibly good at keeping a big squad motivated.

It helps there that United is the only English club with both historical prestige and massive contemporary success, so players want to force their way into the team, unless they're so good that Barca/Madrid becomes and option, or basically on the way down.

Spurs had their problems in this regard as well, even when we're successful we're just not good enough to make sitting on the bench an exciting option for most players. Liverpool should have been better at the Rafa era when they were at least theoretically in with a chance of the title and in the CL. Even Chelsea's turnover of squad players is fairly rapid, losers like Paulo Ferreira not withstanding.

The Riera/Benayoun thing is doubly weird because Liverpool were obviously crying out for wingers at the time and both of them were decent creative options.

Then you look at Roberto Mancini with an excellent first team and a collection of massively overpaid squad players who couldn't give less of a shit about the club if they tried. I suppose it helps that everyone gets plenty of game time at United and Ferguson very rarely has a settled first choice XI.