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Edit: Oh yeah..it's March. For those who are not schoolteachers, "it's March" is a solemn statement that "maybe I will actually survive this school year without being killed or killing someone."
*still not counting any chickens*
BTW Paolo Guerrero is the early favourite for the "stupidist red card of 2012" award. Cut down the opposing GK from behind. No chance at getting the ball. Studs up, knee high. Just awful.
OTOH, the two penalties they had conceded at that point were what I would call the dictionary definition of 'soft'.
And Palermo might be hiring AVB by the end of the day. Complete defensive capitulation in progress v. Milan at home. Balzaretti doing quite the Peyton Manning impersonation today on suspension.
Because there is much more money to be had in Prem. Or at Bayern, they have never been shy about looting the Bundesliga.
They already have half a dozen or so previously fired managers under contract. Expect a retread.
I do not know this place of which you speak.
Hey, my early afternoon Messi fix is missing. Whine. Beer and whine. The good news, however, is that Xavi looks much more fit...dancing around nicely.
Why would you want to watch him at an insurance company? I'll stick to watching him at the Westfalenstadion.
I watched him carefully in the first half. He was playing out of position (holding mid, just above the central two) and obviously had been told to mark YaYa Toure. I'd have to say that's got to be an incredibly difficult job. He actually held his position well and challenged Toure. When he got the ball, he distributed it well. The one mark against him was that Toure isolated him in the midfield twice and beat him for pace. That was, shall we say, undesireable, but could happen to most players. Neither occasion ended in a goal.
I'm not a Ream fan, but in my view he was perfectly cromulent, as the saying goes, in the first half. If I get to the second half, I'll see if I change my mind.
There's a bit of a logjam at midfield once Gotze returns. You've got Gotze, Shinji, Kuba, Grobkreutz, and Perisic; IMO all are capable of starting for good Bundesliga/EPL/La Liga/Serie A teams. From what I remember B?aszczykowski was *very* close to leaving the club because of lack of playing time while Gotze was healthy; he's more than justified his starting role since Gotze went down.
Barrios might want to move to get more playing time with another club, but I wouldn't consider him an important member of the team.
There were rumors of Lewy going to Liverpool over the winter but seeing as though L'Pool seems to be the place where strikers go to die (Carroll, Torres) or become racists (Suarez) I don't want that to happen.
Criminal assault by Guerrero against Stuttgart's keeper.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
OTOH, with Roberto di Matteo taking over as caretaker manager, my FM oracle AVB-Wenger swap for next season is still on!
Just brutal, as I said. No idea what the hell he was thinking. Are they actually charging him with anything though? I haven't read that anywhere...
He just didn't do a thorough enough job, I think AVB deserved what he got but they also really need to arrange a public flogging of the old guard before bundling them off to Leeds.
If only the players had celebrated with AVB after goals, all would be well in the land! Can you not see that?!
Pogrevnyak has a couple of more goals for Fulham.
I thought they'd give him a full summer transfer window to rework the squad. Chelsea have some work to do to get in line with FFP and throwing tens of millions of pounds at managers isn't going to help them. The next manager has a tough job ahead--the players they want to cast off don't have much sell value and the players they'll need to replace them with will be expensive. I can easily see them going into the purgatory Liverpool have been in the last few years.
They're doing more and more articles on the MLS. I guess they want to be to go-to site for American soccer fans which isn't a bad plan, really.
Anyone else struggling with FSC in HD? My normal def channel is fine, but all the Fox and Gol TV hi def channels are all ###### up.
Please stop shooting at your teammates standing on the goal line and try the rest of the net instead.
Much obliged,
Spurs fans
Utter shite for another 20 minutes and then another sucker punch completely against the run of play. Nice ####### defense from Spurs for another week.
Scolari
AVB
They probably have a template in Word for that.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln (noted Wolves fan), how was...?
- Ursus - going back to the last thread, I'm inclined to take your word on the Cavani vs Lavezzi debate. Admittedly, the majority of Napoli games I've seen this year and last have been either their Champions League ties or bigger Serie A fixtures, where Napoli are mostly content playing on the counter. I haven't seen them in many games where they're playing 'lesser' sides and are forced to take the game to the opposition. Given their relative lack of success in these games, I'd guess it's here where the inconsistency comes into play.
- Is Benitez the replacement for AVB? Certainly appears that way. Ugh. I was kind of holding out hope that Rafa would somehow make his way back to Liverpool -- KD bows out gracefully after a season or two, in my more-than-optimistic dream -- but I can't really blame him for jumping at the Chelsea job.
- Fernando Torres didn't die at Liverpool. He was arguably the best striker in the world from 2007-2010 -- a great combination of pace, power, technical skill and finishing ability. From the start of calendar year 2010, though, he hasn't been the same, so the demise definitely started while he was still wearing red.
- Ibrahimovic ruined my chance to get a good look at Miccoli (kind of an oddly shaped fellow -- almost like a younger Cuauhtemoc Blanco). I'm using "ruined" facetiously, of course -- that was a pretty neat hat-trick from Ibra. His second goal was brilliant -- defenders backed off leaving Ibra a few yards of space, and he's able to curl it into the far corner, with Palermo's GK not moving an inch.
- Not sure what's left to say about this Liverpool team. I've been waiting the whole season for this hitting posts thing to 'even itself out', but it hasn't. Two more yesterday, plus a missed penalty, plus a missed tap-in after the penalty, plus a whiff from Martin Kelly from three yards out... I don't know what more to say. All of the players that Comolli and FSG have brought in look like squad players at best, save for Suarez and Enrique(*). This was the year to grab that fourth CL spot -- Chelsea's imploding, and Arsenal don't really strike fear into you -- and they've fallen on their face in the league. I'm curious to see how much money Comolli gets to make changes this summer -- they've got the new kit deal with Warrior, but I can see FSG being a bit gun-shy after seeing so much spent on mediocrity last summer.
(*)This is a bit of a simplification. Henderson is young and useful; Adam didn't cost a whole lot, and is probably a useful player if he's got a couple of midfielders flanking him who can cover for his lack of athleticism/defensive skills.
It was being continually rushed back for Liverpool, then the 2010 World Cup and injury which killed him off. It just didn't become 100% apparent until he signed for Chelsea.
I'm watching them play a very mediocre road team, and they certainly seem utterly broken. Zanetti is one of my favorite players to watch. Forlan seems enthused to kickstart things. Still, they just don't got it.
Insights?
Edit: I just saw an "attacking" bit of play in which Lucio was playing trequartista. Really. Hard to remember that game against Bayern way back when...
I also called Carroll to Liverpool as an epic failure, but that's not really that surprising so I don't think I can claim all that much credit there.
They're very old, and seem oddly out of synch on top of it. I guess it's obvious they could be playing better, but they have a tough rebuilding project ahead of them.
I haven't had a chance to look at all of it, and certainly don't know all the teams in MLS, but at first glance it looks pretty decent...the Colorado section is more accurate than most US articles. Even the mlssoccer.com Rapids preview had position and spelling errors.
With the NYTimes going partial pay-site, the Guardian might be the go-to site for lots of other stuff, too.
What a ####-show this has become. Anyone who watched that West Brom match can see that the players dishonorably gave up on AVB, and thus ended his reign. I'm not usually one for clearing the decks, but I don't see how you can allow the old crew of Lampard, Cole, Malouda, Terry and Drogba to lead this club.
Rafa wouldn't be a bad choice. I've always loved his tactics, though not the most exciting. I actually think his 4-2-3-1 would have worked much better for this Chelsea squad as currently constructed. AVB played with it a few times, but ultimately was too tied to his 4-3-3 to try something new.
Also, Capello is one of the rumored. We know that he has one fan on the team.
I actually admire Stuart Pearce for his selection in the Holland game. He (mostly) cleaned out the dead wood. Whoever the new England boss is will need to do the same.
Who even wants that job? If you win a title you're only delaying getting fired until when you fail to win another one. Plus you have to put up with a core group of players that are noted ########, and aging ones at that. There is nothing appealing about managing Chelsea except the paycheck.
That seems like a pretty big appeal.
Depends. For Rafa Benitez, yes. For the other two names being tossed around, Guardiola and Mourinho, is it really worth it? I don't think so. They'll get paid whoever they go.
Guardiola may go there because he feels like he's accomplished all he can at Barcelona and wants a fresh challenge. Mourinho may go there because he wants to return to manage in the Premier League and live in England. I don't think that either of those are particularly compelling reasons and I don't expect either of them to be Chelsea's manager in July, but there are conceivable reasons for either of them may wind up at Stamford Bridge.
Btw, now that AVB has been fired, Benitez would be an even bigger disaster. At least AVB looks good in that suit.
The players just quit. It was pathetic. Out of that list, I would consider Terry staying (for continuity) to lead a "second group" of Chelsea players, but it's probably impossible for the players to get an idea of on-pitch quit/revolt without Terry's quiet approval.
The next manager has to come in, and clean house. Get rid of anybody who blows, and/or malcontent. I can live with 4-5 years of Thursday Night Channel Five. I can't live with the inmates running the asylum.
Somewhat sad to see go: Drogba, Meireles
Can't believe I own your shirt you gutless pricks: JT, Lampard
Undecided: Ashley Cole (He's not actually intellectually capable of leading a rebellion)
You were garbage but I still love you: Torres, Paulo Ferriera
FWIW, Lavezzi was Napoli's best player in Parma yesterday, even if his winner was tainted by offside.
Inter are a shambles. Yesterday's first half seemed to be dedicated to creating as many ridiculously good chances in front of Julio Cesar as possible, and the second half comeback against a very limited Catania side didn't fool anyone. The largest single problem is Sneijder's abrupt and shocking loss of form, which has created a giant hole in midfield, but the entire team is underperforming and time is very much not on their side. The parallels to Chelsea on the field (i.e., without the revolt of the old guard, but likely with the same undermining of the current administration by the ex-manager in Madrid) are rather striking. They need to rebuild, but patience has never been one of Moratti's virtues.
The Guardian's online focus on US content goes well beyond football. They are trying to do for "quality" Anglophone journalism what the Daily Mail has done for gossip. It's made the Mail the most popular on-line newspaper in the world, and could work for the Grauniad, particularly given the paywall at the New York Times.
The largest single problem is Sneijder's abrupt and shocking loss of form, which has created a giant hole in midfield, but the entire team is underperforming and time is very much not on their side.
Gasperini has said he was all set to sell Sneijder with Moratti's approval but it was vetoed by someone in the hierarchy. How does that happen if the coach and owner are on the same page? But yeah, it was clear from early on Inter didn't have the players to compete this year. One advantage for Mourinho's reputation is he doesn't stick around long enough to have to do a tear down of any of his team's, I guess.
I'm thinking it's far more likely that they'll try to rebuild on the run. I don't see a reality check from ownership as being at all likely.
Don't get me wrong, I see it likely to end in tears. But that seems likely no matter what. It's not like there's a great next generation being blocked by the old guard. Do they actually have any elite young talent? I don't see it.
I think I'd look for a coach with good soft skills to get what they can from the old guard and plan for a year or two down the road. But then there would be a real temptation to bring in some expensive veterans and while that might "work" (as in keep them on the fringe of the title/CL race) it will certainly hold back Chelsea 2.0
The next couple of years looks like a lousy time for Chealsea fans no matter what.
It's hard to feel sorry for them. A couple of years in Europa while re-loading for another dynasty? Boo freaking hoo.
It comes from the satirical magazine Private eye. The Guardian was once notorious for spelling errors (eg Brazilian star Socrates described as "50 crates").
The Guardian is losing tens of millions of pounds a year, is sacking journalists by the boatload, and its content on the internet remains free. It's nuts.
Very few English football fans would weep for Chelsea. They are the poster boys of what people who remember the pre EPL days dislike about the modern game.
The fact that Jose has never torn down one of his teams is what makes the idea of him going back to the Bridge so intriguing. He is reported to have repeatedly told both Lampard and Terry that they were "the best player in the world" during his first tenure. The spectre of his "betraying" them appeals to the opera fan in me (Jose would be a baritone, like Scarpia in Tosca).
Everywhere is going to be a step back in some sense, but this is as big job as there is available, City and United are set and all the other clubs have equal status with Chelsea at best. I would assume that either of those guys would be given a pretty large transfer kitty as an inducement to join.
Geneva paper reporting that Roman met Yogi Low in a Geneva hotel this morning.
In my view, he's much more likely to end up at Arsenal or Tottenham, should he go to England.
Ego. Where ever they go they'll get paid, they'll get a stack of cash for transfers on an already talented team and they'll be in Champions League so that stuff doesn't matter. But winning at Chelsea, turning that team around would stroke their egos like no other job right now, for different reasons for each man. Yes, it seems absurd on it's face that those two would need their egos stroked, but never underestimate a coach's desire to make himself even bigger than he already is. The history of sport is littered with coaches taking huge missteps in attempts to bolster themselves.
The only way that will happen is if it's a manager with clout, because if someone with out tries to do that, they'll lose all the rope they had. After all, Villas-Boas benched Lampard and it contributed to him losing his job. But no one with clout will (at least, should) take that job, so it's not going to fix itself.
I don't care either way for Villas-Boas, but I hope that Chelsea re-insert the old guard into the starting lineup with regularity and continue to lose.
Just saying.
Must... resist...
Agreed. On the other hand, Mourinho has just as talented a squad and Guardiola has, head to head, dominated Mourinho. That's worth something.
Talent isn't everything. Most of the Barca players have been playing together, in the same system in both club and international play, since they were all teenagers. That is a huge, huge advantage.
It's a pity Felix Magath is currently employed. I can't think of a clearer way for Abramovich to say "nyet" to the old guard.
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