Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

Kosovo ruined everything

They're harder to come by now fewer teams play 4-4-2 and if you have one striker it's better to play one with a lot more to their game, so the very idea of them has gone out of fashion now. Even in teams that still play 4-4-2, you still see Danny Welbeck getting a lot more play that Javier Hernandez despite the latter being a much better goalscorer.

Cole's miss ratio felt tremendous at the time, plus Yorke must've developed a hunch from carrying him

The whole "needs five chances to score" thing was total bullshit. Andy Cole was an amazing finisher. Of course he missed sitters, as do all strikers who get themselves in great positions over and over again, including Shearer.

The whole thing about strikers being a dying breed is depressing. We'd better shift Hooper quick before the market disappears completely. I've noticed lately he's coming deep for the ball and scoring fewer goals, like he needs to convince people there's more to his game. I'd rather he stayed in selfish cunt mode tbh.

The whole "needs five chances to score" thing was total bullshit. Andy Cole was an amazing finisher.

Yeah, I think I said this to Dave Boyle on here many years ago. He had one shit season (his first full one at United, 95/96) where he kept snatching at chances and missing) and the whole reputation comes from that.

you might be right, a lot of the 90s is a blur, but i def remember at one time breathing a sigh of relief when the ball fell to Cole during dangerous passages of play

I reckon it's all down to the one game at West Ham, if he'd scored then he'd've got let off a bad run afterwards; whereas the bad run confirmed the hapless aura of that day.

Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1989–1992 Arsenal 1 (0)
1991 → Fulham (loan) 13 (3)
1992–1993 Bristol City 41 (20)
1993–1995 Newcastle United 70 (55)

1995–2001	Manchester United	195	(93)
2001–2004	Blackburn 	83	(27)
2004–2005	Fulham	        31	(12)
2005–2006	Manchester City	22	(9)
2006–2007	Portsmouth	18	(3)
2007 → Birmingham City (loan)	5	(1)
2007–2008	Sunderland	7	(0)
2008	→ Burnley (loan)	13	(6)
2008	Nottingham Forest	10	(0)
Total		                509	 (229)

missed 1145 chances iirc

gah fucked that up

missed 340 in 85 games for newcastle

Goal poachers are never overrated

Probably true but then there's Kris Boyd

half of those 6 burnley goals were from a bastard vintage last hurrah performance at loftus road

Along with Collymore, Sheringham, Wright, Cole, Owen, Ferdinand and probably some others I've forgotten it really was an amazing crop of goalscorers England had at their disposal.

Stan Collymore look a bit of an odd one out there. Was he that good for Liverpool / Forest? 97-98 was the first season I ever watched, and the guy was pretty much my first exposure to the "type" of the gifted arsehole capable of suddenly and apparently out of nothing being very very good, better than anyone else on the pitch, but content to spend 99% of the time wandering about looking like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world but on the pitch. But in spite of my fondish memories of him as a mercurial rogue with a chequered private life, wikipedia investigations assure me that he only scored 7 league goals during his 4 years at the club, what the fuck is that? Always knew he was a waste of money but never thought of Stan the Man as a million-a-goal flop.

Strange that when it comes to mid-late '90s Villa strikers it's Savo Milosevic that eats all the criticism. Collymore seems to get away with it in comparison. Except for the whole battering his girlfriends and going out dogging thing, of course, he caught a fair bit of flak for that stuff. Tho probs not enough love for some of his punditry - http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/stan-collymore/Stan-Collymore-column-Why-Arsenal-star-Nicklas-Bendtner-will-be-a-Premier-League-superstar-plus-it-s-time-for-Aston-Villa-s-back-up-boys-to-shine-article355273.html

I do believe Bendtner will be one of the top strikers in the Premier League in two or three years’ time.

And I will be the first to say to Arsenal fans that I told them so.

stan collymore is tough to measure, potentially as good as any of them (i mean shearer stands out for sheer effectiveness and consistency, not sure how potential goes into the mix) but obviously a fucking shambles mentally throughout what would have been his peak. but talent not in question vs say fowler, sheringham et all imo, definitely up there.

Collymore and Redman are the only two MTV Cribs I've seen that were clearly filmed in their own house rather than a rented mansion. I don't watch it much right enough.

Anyway, first impressions are everything in this game. Collymore (autocorrect: folly ore) emerged a beast, a pre-Ronaldo Ronaldo, so everything afterwards was an aberration, a betrayal of his true state. Whereas Diego Forlan, Savo Milosevic and David de Gea, those will always be bad players.

The receptionist at a holiday hotel in St. Lucia looked slightly puzzled when she took down a telephone message for Liverpool manager Roy Evans. It said: "The Man from Del Monte would like to say Yes."

When Roy read the coded message, which had been delivered to his room, he was ecstatic. It meant his major summer target, Stan Collymore, had agreed to join the Reds.

"The cloak-and-dagger stuff was necessary, even if it did give people the impression that I was a dealer in canned fruit! We didn't want the news broadcasting until he had actually put pen to paper. He was the man we wanted and the market price had to be met. Other clubs were also bidding. I believe a great relationship will be built up between Stan and our supporters."

That explains the cup final suits.

and the rise of jason lee at forest in his stead

hahaha

Whereas Diego Forlan, Savo Milosevic and David de Gea, those will always be bad players.

the Bale-style makeover can help a player get over this. Maybe de Gea should become a right back.

Slaying foreigners for merrie englande is a way out of the funk, it's true. Didn't Bale's naissance start with the Inter game? De Gea gets some delayed respect for denying Madrid recently. Forlan's golden boots are worth nowt.

My Villa-supporting mate, ecstatic at the news of Collymore's signing, bet me a fiver that he would score 40 goals for Villa that season. Candy off a baby.

Rooney is also 5th all-time in assists in the PL. I doubt Owen even reached double figures. Not that you care (and of course 90% of those assists were just him giving the ball to Ronaldo etc etc)

iirc Franco di Santo gets an assist for that fiasco on Sunday

brilliant strike drew an equally brilliant save iirc

Didn't Bale's naissance start with the Inter game?

no.

#0 otm, in the end

thought i'd save you the trouble

I meant when did Bale™ move from being hapless big baby to force of nature. Obviously he was always a genius.

he's still a big baby, he was only hapless that one time under ramos against ?udinese? but he wasn't alone in that

If Spurs didn't redesign their squad every year in the image of a new manager, they could actually turn out to be pretty good. Stability got Everton to where they are. If this summer you just get rid of the absolute overpriced rubbish (Bent, Bentley, Bale, Pavlychenko, Hutton etc.), hold on to your best players (your Modrics, Woodgates, Corlukas, etc.) and build smartly around them, you would be quite a formidable team. Redknapp seems to be the perfect man to do such a job, unfortunately.

Bet you still end up with no proper left backs or left wingers though.

― a hoy hoy, Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:13 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i hate that argument, absolutely hate it.

recruiting a capable manager in the first place got everton to where they were now.

― Old Big 'OOS (AKA the Cupwinner) (darraghmac), Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:14 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm sure the board of Hamburg SV would agree with you there

― Sacco, Vanzetti, Passantino... (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:16 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*Bent, Bentley, Bale, Pavlychenko, Hutton etc*

Gareth Bale will win premier leagues in his career.

Pavlyuchenko is as rubbish as any 16 goal debut season while not getting a game striker i've ever seen.

Bent, if given the right type of service, scores goals. We're not really set up to give him the right type so yeah he could go.

Bentley and Hutton? would take 10m the pair.

― Old Big 'OOS (AKA the Cupwinner) (darraghmac), Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:18 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha yes, I'd forgotten there was some epic learning-to-crawl in there once, what exactly happened in that game? I was thinking more his run of forty consecutive defeats or whatever it was.

Gareth Bale will win premier leagues in his career

That's the quote that's stuck with me ever since! Except I'm sure it was 'will win premier league games'

how the cunt did you cunts manage to start a bale discush again ffs

^

form player in the universe, unless you wanna maybe count jermaine jenas sunshine

look bruv we've got two whole weeks of this international shit to fill with guff, you don't pull the lcd lever two days in

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore) wrote this on thread PFA Team of the season on board I Love Everything on Mar 23, 2003

Haha, thanks Paul. I think it would be hard to realistically claim that any Bristol Rovers players belong in this team. I'd vote for Henry as player of the year, I think. I agree about Jenas - the hype for Rooney is excessive given what he has achieved so far (before today he hadn't even played 90 minutes in the last three months or so!), but he'll win.

early jenas mention here, but pre-cambrian ilf was all for boy ahead of scholes

Mark C (Mark C) wrote this on thread if you were sven / kerr / vogts/ whatever on board I Love Everything on 01-Apr-2003

Drop Heskey, play Rooney alongside Owen. Never, ever allow Gerrard to be injured again. Teach Paul Scholes how to pass or drop him - replace with Jenas.

o_O

Old ILF really loved the Toon version of Jenas eh.

I'm looking into a whole other world here, where Newcastle are pushing for titles as long as they can keep hold of Jenas and Ameobi.

Newcastle went on to finish 5th, just 34 points behind Arsenal and 3 ahead of Charlton.

In fairness, Jenas was really good in his first few months at Newcastle.

His first full year tbfttl, and fine at spurs til asked to be the enforcer

Think I disagree on principle with digging up old posts to show how wrong we were 5-10 years ago. It's not like there aren't far worse examples from more recently (lol early Emannuel Frimpong love). These are part and parcel of the game.

I'm not trying to show anyone up, I think it's great looking back and trying to remember how you felt before you realised payer x was a wasteman.

*player

Kevin Doyle dropped by text

all together now......

Xp matt it's not to lol at, for the most part, it's lol 'oh weird, remember when that was a thing"

Think I disagree on principle with digging up old posts to show how wrong we were 5-10 years ago. It's not like there aren't far worse examples from more recently (lol early Emannuel Frimpong love). These are part and parcel of the game.

http://cdn.eplindex.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/fernando-torres-liverpool.jpg