do these fucks never learn

toure is better than busquets, but not at dm, and certainly not as dm at barca

Song is also not a dm, and neither is thudd. They just hang round there while performing other functions

like do u get anything about football

― http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg (nakhchivan), Thursday, 16 June 2011 15:02 (5 minutes ago)

this is the one where they throw the ball, wear helmets and text pictures of their weiners, right?

touré will never be as good at any given role as busquets is at his

featuring delap, cech and shelvey, yeah xp

:-)

if u srsly believe barcelona overpromote their own youngsters at the expense of bought players u might want to consider former new messi bojan krkic whose agent is currently complaining he is getting shafted by barca who are trying to sell him to udinese against his will

DM at Barca is kinda different to being DM anywhere else though because they keep posession so well there just aren't as many opposition attacks to break up. Be interesting to see how Busquets would do behind midfielders that aren't Xavi and Iniesta.

In any other team Toure or Mascherano would be the better pick. Obviously Busquets is by miles a better passer of the ball than Mascherano, even if Masch is as good at positioning and better at tackling.

I mean obviously Barca are the best team in 20 years so who are we to judge but...

busquet's main attributes are his close control and positioning, his passing is usually pretty simple

How many simple passes have you seen Mascherano fuck up though?

i kinda hate busquets, wanted them to keep touré and thought mascherano would displace him this season, but the last season confirmed he is just insanely good at what he does, and i think 80% of that is transferrable to another top level side

then again my idea was that barca could do without without a dedicated deep lying, purely destructive midfielder hence my pref for touré as a kinda roving box to box type alongside x & i

but seeing busquets this season i doubt even fabregas is good enough to displace busquets and change the system of their midfield

cesc is going because xavi is getting on and iniesta hasn't the greatest injury record, not because of the cunt

idk if he is going

think arsenal would be happy to sell for a good price but barca have their own financial issues so

if it does happen, he will get enough games to keep him from bitching but assuming x & i are fit, their starting xi for big games will remain the same imo

xavi is getting on, is he

xavi could play for longer than scholes imo. He simply doesn't get tackled.

wouldn't mind seeing x & i vs xi england u-21 players in a possession competition

you'd want busquets there to keep the naughty stuff out of it, and alves there to run around a lot, dive and provide fuck-all end product

alves usually has one of the best assist records in la liga

he is one of those rare players whose obnoxiousness makes them even more useful, he is really exceptionally good at diving/feigning/sly fouls

the last time i played for barca i got six assists

Yeah but i created more "goal-scoring chances"

Didn't Xavi and Iniesta start out at Barca as deeper-lying mids, more about short distribution than "playmaking"? Could see Busquets expanding his passing range and becoming a direct heir to one or the other of them. He's a dick but really, really good.

true Number None but that was home to Oviedo in the cup...I wouldn't be giving up the day job

i lolled nn, i lolled

xavi was more of a guardiola type early in his career yeah

when iniesta was breaking through, rijkaard tended to favour a 2-1 midfield with deco as a dedicated attacking mid, so most of iniesta's opportunity's came in the '2' behind him, then by 2006 or so he got quite a few games at left wing

i don't think either of them played with as restricted a defensive role as busquets currently does, nor were they as good at retrieving possession

i can see him playing further ahead through his career, but i doubt he will ever be employed there on a permanent basis

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/273513/Theo-Walcott-to-be-new-Lionel-Messi

Walcott is confident he has the skill, pace and firepower to do for Arsenal what the little Argy does for Barcelona, playing as a striker rather than as a winger

made a nice cross for 2-0 today but Pique or Abidal would've finished the chances he missed

“The yellow cards are just a case of showing passion – and perhaps a little bit of frustration – with the way things have been going this season.

that article highlights the lack of any sense of how formations work, there was another bbc article a few weeks ago suggesting walcott be played in a free role behind van persie where he could flitter about and presumably fire off savicevic style sliderule passes every two minutes

France are over-rated. I was a bit disappointed with them. How many of their players would get into the England team?

jamie redknapp after one creditable result by england

to answer him, ferdinand, hart and ashley cole would get in an entente cordiale xi

i don't think you can make a reasonable case for any of the others, twp would get in as a supporting striker but most teams don't play one and as a #9 benzema is now above him

barry might be the closest, for all his limitations he is a regla in a title winning team

even then france have toulalan, alou diarra, lasanna diarra, yann m'vila, cabaye, flamini, matuidi etc

Pires goes for Hart, Terry and Rooney. Inclusion of Clichy is a puzzler

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jun/07/robert-pires-france-england-euro-2012

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

MANCHESTER CITY could enter the fray to sign Real Madrid’s coveted youngster Raphael Varane.

The Frenchman has been given a more regular run out at the Bernebeu by Jose Mourinho this season, and he has been getting a number of alluring glances from Europe’s top clubs.

And his performance in last week’s Copa del Rey first-leg semi-final meeting against Barcelona, in which he headed home the equaliser, made many clubs sit up and take notice.

City may plot a move for him, as they are planning a major overhaul of the squad in the summer and Joleon Lescott is tipped to leave the Etihad.

I heard Jamie Redknapp say on Super Sunday that Bale is 'absolutely world class', that he's 'as good as Ronaldo'.

I don't often disagree with Jamie, but I think it's got to the stage where you can say that Bale is better than Ronaldo because he's simply unplayable.

That's not to denigrate Ronaldo, who has got all the tricks and dynamite in his boots - but so has Bale.

What Bale's got that Ronaldo hasn't is incredible strength and power; Ronaldo is quick but when Bale gets up a head of steam, there's no stopping him.

http://www.skysports.com/opinion/story/0,25212,12088_8477969,00.html

stick to the shit puns Jeff

‘The problem we’ve got is that we think we should be competing against them on their terms – being technical and playing from the back.

‘Well, hang about, England have always been a country based on passion and motivation, getting in people’s faces. Yes we can play football. But you go back to Euro 96, we played some fantastic sides. There’s no-one more technical than the Dutch and we beat them just by being on the front foot with passion and, yeah, a bit of quality.

‘Bulldog spirit is what English football is based on. If you can add technical players to that then great but don’t think it’s all got to be technical. Don’t change the culture. Can we add to it? But keep the passion and motivation.

‘That’s what we’re good at and yet we’re trying to go from that and change our whole culture of the English game that’s been there for God knows how long.

‘That’s the problem. What happened to the passion, to being on the front foot, to closing down? Has that gone out of the window now all of a sudden? Because when we do that we’re good.

jesus fucking christ the retard actually uses the word 'eyetie'

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6heA4SKBJ0#t=288

top of the Championship nakh, can't knock it

a bit harsh chiding someone for using 'eyetie' in the same sentence you drop the 'r' bomb

Gretar steinsson ‏@gretz1982 30m
England's u21 trailing to Finland u21 due to the amount of foreigners in the Premier League #Immigration

"The unpalatable truth," wrote the Swedish journalist Ceve Linde in Idrottsbladet, "is that English soccer has gradually deteriorated, finally fallen off its pedestal and now keeps rolling downwards. The sorriest feature in the drama is that the English, with very few exceptions, cannot get themselves to recognise what has happened. In their self-satisfaction and conceit they still fancy themselves the first in the football world and their defeats sheer accidents.

"The fact is that English soccer has an enormous amount to learn from the rest of the world, about training, courses, tactics, organisation and strategy … 'England must find her traditional spirit' they are writing now. This is easily said but how shall this be found again in a country which has been hit so hard by two world wars and which has been forced by national weakness to let go her possessions all over the world? The same tiredness is to be found in English soccer. This perfectly understandable lack of strength, however, is mated with a haughtiness which to an outsider appears unpleasant, even frightening …"

After the 1951 tour of South America, Winterbottom knew the tide was against him. "Some good players are coming through," he said, "but in team play we are way behind. From match to match there are too many changes to make planning possible."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/nov/25/hungary-england-1953-alf-ramsey

i know that's from half a century ago and all but it does add to the long-harboured suspicion that (based on the odd quote here and there admittedly) fitba journalism that is not from england is often of a much higher standard

forced by national weakness to let go her possessions all over the world

maybe they should have sterilised more minorities

NOTTS County need the same fighting spirit as Carl Froch, says boss Shaun Derry.

The Magpies lost 1-0 at Shrewsbury Town to stay rock bottom of League One hours before Froch recovered from a first-round knockdown to defend his two world titles against George Groves in Manchester.

And ahead of their trip to Bradford City tonight (7.45pm), Derry joked he might even get on the phone to four-time world champion Froch and get him into Meadow Lane to inspire even more fight in his players – even though 'The Cobra' is a Nottingham Forest fan.

"Cor yeah, we'd like to have a one-on-one with him," said Derry.

"We'll get him in. We'll get him in a black and white shirt, he'll be alright for an afternoon."

"Ultimately it's hard work, there's no shortcuts to any success here and I've said that to the boys," he said.

"I've said 'don't question what we're trying to do, believe in it, come together as a group'.

"I don't know how to dress it up any other way, it's black and white for me – hard work and togetherness, these are major factors that are going to get Notts County in a better place.

"Damn hard work, there's no easy way and they know that, I stress that every single day.

"Every minute I have with them I tell them how hard it's going to be, but they'll love it at the end of it, I know they will."

Janis as asst manager

my dad's report of County from their recent visit to the Wolves is that they're pretty close to Froch in all the key areas