Inasmuch as I saw that match through Setanta’s supposed “unprecedented weather conditions” (that strangely didn’t affect Sky at all), it was fucking rubbish. I swear, there can’t be a manager on the planet who does more frustrating substitutions than Benitez. No cutting edge? Well, take off Keane; fine. But bring on Ngog? With all of his two minutes of Premiership experience? With Babel waiting on the bench? Oh, but we can’t bring on Babel - we’ve turned him into a left winger, despite the fact he considers himself a striker. So we could only bring him on for Riera, because that’s where he plays now. Plus, he’s actually not shit - so you don’t want to give him more than 13 minutes to influence the match. Heaven forfend.
Gah.
Fucking GAH.
Would it be possible to employ a deputy manager solely for the second half of matches?
I was convinced it wouldn’t just be me who wondered at the point of this! He’s supposed to be a target man, and a goal scorer; how can he do either if he is delivering a corner. He should be second only to Van De Saar, or whoever’s in net, when it comes to the last person taking corners.
Fergie, tell the feckin’ spud head to get in the middle, or to adopt a Scholesy type role on the edge of the box!!! Anywhere, but by the corner flag!
Babel is pretty mediocre honestly. N’gog just looks crap, never seen anything impressive from him. Bringing on Babel for Keane wasn’t exactly likely to work either. They just don’t have a good target man/lone striker. No clue why they bought Keane (or ripped themselves off regardless). Torres/Alonso/Gerrard are their only players with a little imagination at all, and obviously they’ve lost one of them (and Benitez wanted to sell another?!?! Insanity). Just can’t rely on 2 people to create something. If Stevie Me gets injured now, they’re really up shit creek.
Agreed United look most likely to win, but they still look a little iffy at times, like losing their minds second half vs Everton & Hull, and there’s that wildcard of wandering off to Japan, might screw them up. If the blues and both red scum (sorry:)) can drop a few more points, and they all look up to it, this race could be quite fun!
I dunno about Vidic, I think he gets away with a lot of fouls* due to the United shirt, I’m not sure how he’d be if he couldn’t do that.
*specifically often shoves people off the ball, which the dumbass commentators call “showing good strength” or some such bollocks, despite doing it whilst not in possession of the ball.
Heh, that was hilarious. I do tend to believe him when he says he thought he heard something - he just pulls out of the header as if he thinks play has stopped. No way the ref could avoid carding him, though.
Anyway. I think Babel would be a lot better right now if he hadn’t been played massively out of position ever since we bought him - he’s still very young, and I can’t imagine this is helping his development. He’s showed enough flashes of quality that I believe there’s a really good player there trying to get out. I get quite tired with Benitez’s apparent desire to “turn players into” something they’re not. Then when we finally buy a player specifically for a role (Riera) and lo! as if by magic we’re vastly improved, even if Riera on his own is never going to trouble the Ballon d’Or shortlisters.
Agreed re: his wanting to get rid of Alonso. Madness. And trying to swap him plus cash for an older, shitter version of himself? The ways of the Benitez are mysterious, that’s for sure.
I must insist that the mantle of the red shite be conferred on its rightful owners, Liverpool FC. They are both redder, and shitier, than Man U. They even refer to themselves as the RS, you can hear this if you’re out and about in the city, it’s pretty much accepted football parlance these days.
Roy Keane has just gone btw. Once again, Roy’s bottle deserts him. I’d have never figured Roy for a bottler given the way he played the game, but he’s flaked out at Sunderland, just like he did for Ireland. 70 million spent on shite, by and large, and he’s started 27 different players this season. Stand by for dog-walking escapades on football focus.
Well, United certainly left it 'til late today!!! <LOL>
Interesting day: everything according to form, more or less. Stoke City the only real surprise. I think things are starting to comfortably set in as they likely will finish.
Posh are entrenching themselves in the play-off zone. We’re now 4 points clear of 7th place (Leeds, HAH!), 3 points away from automatic promotion. We still can’t overtake the damn Dons though.
I throw my support behind Man U in the Premiership but I don’t share the hate that is directed at the way Sunderland played. I have no problem with a team throwing 11 men behind the ball for 90 mins if it’s the only way they can get a point. Hell, if I pulled that off in Football Manager I would be ecstatic!
Despite my bringing my son up in the proper way, taking him to Maine Road at an early age, the bugger turns to me at about age 11 and informs me he supports sodding Leeds.
I doubt he’s of my loins:p
I asked this before: Is Barry FRy still in charge at Posh, porn and all;)
He’s the ‘Director of Football’, which seems an honourary role… He’s hardly mentioned any more, I think he’s given up trying to control things (as evidenced by our promotion and good form).
