Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tintanegrafotos/sets/72157630953983114/

ahhh that's better

it's nice to finally have a player in the hoops with a body of talktobastianbitch style morbid tumblr gif fixation to sift through

http://i.imgur.com/WAETO.jpg

i mean

It is impossible not to love Esteban Granero. I look forward to gazing upon him once more on Wednesday evening.

xpost Spurs' home kit is a horror too (so's QPR's, I accept). The shorts are too near black. In fact, this is a horror season for kits all round. The following all fail:
Arsenal (the tricolor sleeves)
Man U (the tartan)
Fulham (the pinstripe)
Saints (the lack of stripes)
QPR (too many hoops)
Spurs (shorts too dark)
Swansea (gold trim only works if you're winning stuff. It looks good, but it's presumptuous. Chelsea at least won the CL before putting on gold trim)
Everton (ridiculous huge white cuffs)
Reading (they're not even hoops, are they?)
Wigan (like Newcastle last season, it's two white stripes on the front of a solid-coloured shirt, not a striped shirt)

Newcastle's is an improvement on last season's monstrosity, but this time it's too white rather than too black.

Kelly out 'til new year, Lucas still out 'til new year, Agger maybe out for the season, Shelvey suspended, Borini out for a bit. 20 points from 24 games this year. It's always darkest just before dawn.

yikes. I feel a bit bad about yesterday's result tbh

incredibly unlucky with the injuries adding on to everything else. still, they played very well yesterday.

plus there's always the kit deal

great to see suso get on. him and sterling have looked so composed and have slotted in really well, great credit to them and the academy staff. shitty refereeing really pissing me off.

plus there's always the kit deal

must try harder

yeah nbs you are really shit at this, can you just get back in your box and leave it to the pros

grrrrrrrr

I still don't know what prompted this new posting strategy, incessantly pressing the opposition higher up the thread.

maybe now number none's taken the first team spot he's trying too hard to impress coming off the bench with the reducers

;)

Shelvey seems like a bit of dick. He's since deleted this

@shelveyJ. I have also apologised to sir Alex , just where I come from people don't grass people up to get someone sent off.

also like that he uses a watermarked photo as his twitter pic

haha i lolled on the train this morning when i saw that shelvey quote

something about calling fergie a grass is so preposterously great and juvenile

Have I misunderstood the concept of 'grass'? I always thought it was where you brought the entire crime to the law's attention, not just the perp, e.g. existence & location of big brother's stash. Shelvey's crime was scarcely clandestine.

shitty refereeing really pissing me off

It was interesting that the MOTD2 panel unanimously backed the ref on all three big decisions, whereas GNev on Sky at half-time was surprised at the red card (saying that Evans had gone in in a similar manner). I don't know what he said post-match because I switched over to the cycling.

He said your zings are increasingly disappointing

Studied neutrality, that's what that is. He can't be seen to laugh at all of them.

Spurs' home kit is a horror too (so's QPR's, I accept). The shorts are too near black.

??
spurs home shorts are white

something about calling fergie a grass is so preposterously great and juvenile

He also shouted "your mum".

where I come from people don't grass people up to get someone sent off

this would seem to be an abuse of the Crimestoppers number tbf

Agger and Borini both okay btw.

Agger is okay i suppose. Borini is rubbish though

Liverpool defender Daniel Agger cleared of knee ligament damage & Fabio Borini cleared of fracture after scan on ankle #SSN

cleared in a court of medical health

this post continues to haunt my thoughts

the worry about borini is that he doesn't really have a burst of pace or a trick up his sleeve, his qualities are more about anticipation and knowing-how-to-play, and the EPL isn't always friendly to players who know how to play football

― Unlike humans, dogs don't talk shit (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 2 September 2012 17:00 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

xpost Their shorts are white? EVEN WORSE! They were that very dark near-black last season, weren't they? And the trim's too dark. Bah humbug! Bring back Admiral!

if there's such a thing as spiritual kit-makers, Hummel are Spurs'

Was it on here that someone argued that you could name pretty much any 11 from any team in the Prem and there wouldnt be a single one that Yaya Toure couldnt bulldoze through the middle of? I really liked that, because its so fucking OTM

― Windsor Davies, Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:13 PM (6 days ago)

I was thinking about this re Utd's crappy midfield, then Football Weekly riffing on same across most of the top sides today. Has a tacit agreement somehow come into being in the epl that this is how the game's to be here from now on? We attack then you attack, and forget the bit in the middle; like basketball with fewer goals.

There's always been a bit of that I guess, what with it being all blood & thunder compared to the continent for years, but Utd deliberately neglecting the midfield when everyone can see it is just weird.

What I'm wondering is what happens when somebody goes and puts together an excellent midfield, like Everton have and Arsenal might. Do they clean up?

funny that one of Everton's midfield mainstays is a Utd reject

sorry, two of Everton's midfield

That reminds me - where's Saha now? Is he at Spurs or Everton or elsewhere or injured?

Sunderland

went to Sunderland, though I think he might be injured

I was thinking about this re Utd's crappy midfield, then Football Weekly riffing on same across most of the top sides today. Has a tacit agreement somehow come into being in the epl that this is how the game's to be here from now on? We attack then you attack, and forget the bit in the middle; like basketball with fewer goals.

― Ismael Klata, Monday, September 24, 2012 9:44 PM (6 minutes ago)

not seeing this at all as a general pattern....the best sides this year arsenal/everton derive a lot from midfield solidity

manchester united is a specific issue.....couple years ago ferguson doubtless envisaged fletcher/anderson becoming their primary cms, but fletcher having a degenerative weight wasting disease and anderson having a generative weight wasteman disease have seen paid to that

so he improvises.....darwin, i ching &c &c

Arsenal completely dominated possession against the title holders yesterday but they never look like scoring against deep-lying defences.

yeah but because of gervinho et al rather than the midfield

gervy adding ten layers of falsity to the false 9

fletcher having a degenerative weight wasting disease and anderson having a generative weight wasteman disease

you've been saving that one up haven't you?

He really was awful. If Walcott comes back in and plays centrally he'll look a deadly marksman in comparison. I still expect Giroud to come good, but Gervinho ...

that first touch in the first half needs to be made into a gif

ha i searched and found this one instead

http://i.minus.com/iFCvsg2csLeew.gif

I'm sure we've done the "Fergie can't sign midfielders" thing before. Given the quality of signings in every other position, there haven't really been any who have been unanimously viewed as successes, certainly no one near Keane/Scholes level.

In the last 10 years I mean. At least.

Ball-winning, bossing'n'distributing central midfielders - no. Attacking wingers - yes.

Vidic out for 2 months. Is Jones out as well?