Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

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.

Dunno not as if riera has been outstanding elsewhere is it?

Yeah that's true, but I dunno, he had ability at least, maybe he needed a certain type of management.

Lloris, Adebayor and Dempsey all on the bench, Gallas starts again.

was clint on int. duty midweek?

yes

http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Clint-Dempsey-Makes-Face-at-Jamaican-Player.gif

Hmm, this looks surprisingly similar to the team that couldn't break down Norwich.

i can see how his face would be fatigued
xp

Bale's face is too big for his haircut

Hmm, this looks surprisingly similar to the team that couldn't break down Norwich.

― Matt DC, Sunday, September 16, 2012 10:52 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dembele in place of livermore should help

has federici been dropped?

yes, some talk of injury but also that he was available

ty

niall quinn talking about dembele's performances so far for spurs. I thought he'd only played once?

think he was talking about him for fulham

can't get used to this spurs kit btw

beauty

great goal

was that gylfi with the sweet pass

even if defoe scuffed it

Spurs looking very good so far I must say

yes was gylfi

kit is weird, should have more yellow on it

almost genius

great touch

just a little too cool for school

ffs

jesus have reading got ONE decent keeper?

maybe they should buy Gomes

they keep bigging up reading set play's but they've been uniformly terrible thus far.

Naughton and Sandro look pretty shakey. We're giving away too many setpieces.

That said it was asking a lot for 35 year old to cope with Lennon.

thought spurs looked great for 25 mins.

"dem-bell"

bedtime for me but I am confident in the way only a non-spurs fan could be that they will go on to win this 3-1.

Quinn is immensely irritating

Yeah good first half but Spurs HAVE played well in every game this season except against Norwich. I'm a bit worried about our inability to kill this off given amble opportunity so far.

amble opportunity = thudd time

Has the fucking band always been a Reading thing?