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2011-12 Football/Soccer Thread

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Not sure Meireles is the answer to the CM problems. He's too lightweight to play in the centre, at least in the rather physical EPL
 
Ramires is much more lighter than Mereiles and naturally faster when it comes to sprinting.My point is Ramires is faster but also more fragile than Mereiles yet he has worked well for us so far just like he did for brazil in the copa.In fact his speed and fragility have fetched us many game changing set pieces.How can you not say that Raul will make a similar if not greater impact on chelsea's game?
 
Meireles is very injury prone and pulls out of challenges very often. In contrast, Ramires, while also being light-weight has a lot of natural strength and is never afraid of getting stuck in challenges. Ramires' work-rate is second to none and is extremely fit.

I suppose Chelsea could operate with no creative central midfielders. Torres worked best when he had both Alonso and Stevie G providing the assists and I think Mata could be the one to provide those because he tends to drop deep sometimes and has a deadly through ball.
 
Well not everyone's perfect and Meireles is better than Ramires when it comes to goal scoring even though his main function as a midfielder is support.I guess we could use that since Lampard isn't the goalscorer he used to be.
 
Goal scoring is not really Meireles' forte. Yes he had this purple patch where he scored like 5 goals in 5 game IIRC but what sets him apart is his intelligent passing and link-up play as well as his clever movement off the ball.
Would have liked him to stay but he wasn't even getting in the team. And that's with Gerrard still on the sidelines! But I just love how Kenny has been handled Torres and Raul. You want to leave? Ok, no problem.

Overall the real winners on dead-line day are QPR and Stoke while Arsenal did an ok job (I exaggerated by saying it was terrible).

In the end, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United responsible for two-thirds of the £485m spent on players in summer transfer window. Just shows why the PL is the strongest and most competitive league in the world.

Apart from 6 teams perfectly capable of competing in the CL if it wasn't for the fact that only 4 teams can qualify (they should make it 5 IMO, the PL just has TOO much quality).

Even the ''smaller teams'' have assembled some excellent, excellent squads.

Newcastle have done a very good job tbh. They lost two influential players in Barton and Nolan but you could argue whether or not they could continue playing at the same level. They bought talented young players that could be dangerous opponents if they can gel together. Time will tell.

Fulham got a terrific player in Brian Ruiz. Could easily get in the Inter Milan first XI.

Blackburn have got a monster of a central defense partnership. Scott Dann + Chris Samba is going to be very hard to break down.

Wolves have one of the best first XIs in the league. Expecting them to finish at the top of the table. What a purchase Roger Johnson was! Would have liked to see him at Liverpool.

The only team I haven't been impressed with is Sunderland. Fat head seems to favour quantity over quality...
 
Yes, we get to keep Cahill until at least January, plus we signed Ngog from Liverpool on a 3-year-deal, and Gael Kakuta from Chelsea on-loan until January.

I'm really surprised about Merieles' transfer to Chelsea though
 
Newcastle seem to looking foreign for most of their transfers, Ba is the only buy from England they've made. Lots of French flavor to their deals.

Stoke has brought in quite a few strikers.......

QPR has mainly bought discards from others. Barton, Traore, SWP, etc.

I'm really interested in seeing how Bendtner responds to a coach that goes tougher on him than Wenger ever could. Will he buckle, or will he unleash his self proclaimed world class ability?

Oh and golf equipment stores on Merseyside rejoice.
 
Meireles to Chelsea is somewhat surprising, obviously he was their third choice 'creative' midfield player after their other two bids failed. I think this will hinder Liverpool in the same way the Alonso sale did, I quite rated Meireles but I'm unsure if he'll cut it at Chelsea in the end. We'll see.

I for one, expected Liverpool's strongest front six to look more like this:

Lucas
Gerrard Meireles
Kuyt Suárez Downing​

Perhaps Andy Carroll over Kuyt quite often and Suárez out wide slightly. Either way, their bench had the options of Henderson, Adam, Maxi, and Carroll/Kuyt. I only ever saw Henderson and Adam as squad players rather than constant first 11 starters, but now it looks as though one of them will have to be.

Liverpool's best line up for me now is probably Henderson, Gerrard, Lucas, Downing in midfield, with Suárez up top and Carroll or Kuyt supporting him. It's also flexible, which is a good thing. However, I still think the loss of Meireles could be the difference between Liverpool finishing in the Top 4 and not. But luckily for Liverpool and their fans, Spurs and Arsenal are shit.
 
Chelsea's line up should be Mata,Lampard and Mereiles/Ramires in midfield with Lukaku,Torres and Anelka up front.Our defense is the old but sturdy wall of Cole,Terry,Ivanovic/Alex and Bosingwa.I hope Cech recovers soon we need him;Hilario just isn't cutting atm.I wish Essein recovers ASAP too.We could probably play a 4-4-2 with both Meireles and Ramires in midfield with Anelka/Torres/Drogba and Lukaku up front.
 
Arteta and Benayoun coming probs mean that Ramsey could be loaned out in January. Just too crowded in midfield right now for the kid to play. Can't wait now for Wilshere to come back, we need him badly right now.

There's no denying that offensively Arsenal are weaker that last year, but the defense has certainly improved enough. Sagna/Mertesacker/Vermaelen/Santos looks better than Sagna/Koscielny/Vermaelen/Clichy, no? At least Squillaci is now completely in the background, since Koscielny and Djourou should be the first choice backups.

By the way, 5 new signings and not one of them French. I don't know what to make of this.
 
I don't think Ramsey will be loaned out; Arteta, Benayoun, Ramsey and Wilshere is just the right number of players competing for 2 positions with Song and Frimpong fighting for the defensive midfield spot. I think Oxlade-Chamberlain or Ryo could be loaned out because we are way overloaded in wingers. Gervinho, Walcott, Arshavin, Park and Rosicky are already competing for only 2 places. The defence looks fine now, but injuries will probably mean we end up with Djourou and Koscielny anyway :rollseyes:

I'm a bit concerned about RVP right now because he has absolutely no competition for a starting place (Chamack and Park are filler) and we all know what happened to Cesc and Nasri when that happened...
 
Havak said:
Meireles to Chelsea is somewhat surprising, obviously he was their third choice 'creative' midfield player after their other two bids failed. I think this will hinder Liverpool in the same way the Alonso sale did, I quite rated Meireles but I'm unsure if he'll cut it at Chelsea in the end. We'll see.

I for one, expected Liverpool's strongest front six to look more like this:

Lucas
Gerrard Meireles
Kuyt Suárez Downing​

Perhaps Andy Carroll over Kuyt quite often and Suárez out wide slightly. Either way, their bench had the options of Henderson, Adam, Maxi, and Carroll/Kuyt. I only ever saw Henderson and Adam as squad players rather than constant first 11 starters, but now it looks as though one of them will have to be.

Liverpool's best line up for me now is probably Henderson, Gerrard, Lucas, Downing in midfield, with Suárez up top and Carroll or Kuyt supporting him. It's also flexible, which is a good thing. However, I still think the loss of Meireles could be the difference between Liverpool finishing in the Top 4 and not. But luckily for Liverpool and their fans, Spurs and Arsenal are shit.
Click to expand...

For me, Liverpool's best front 6 is in a 4-2-3-1:

Lucas Adam
Gerrard Suarez Downing
Carroll​

Meireles for me was always going to be nothing more than a squad player.
 
Just bought Dzeko, guarantee he stops scoring now!!

Also I've been away on holiday so this is actually old news but Brighton signed Ryan Harley from Swansea, any thoughts on him akuchi? He's had a good first two games apparently, but I haven't had a chance to see him yet.
 
Nosferalto said:
For me, Liverpool's best front 6 is in a 4-2-3-1:

Lucas Adam
Gerrard Suarez Downing
Carroll​

Meireles for me was always going to be nothing more than a squad player.
Click to expand...

I think Meireles is better than Henderson and Adam and offers something different, those two players are just a worse version of Gerrard IMO, which is why I thought Meireles would be the main man alongside Gerrard, with Lucas sitting.

Gerrard wouldn't be played out of position on the right in that formation, it'd be Suárez to be shoved out wide and only because he can play there and the other players in that side have one position they need to play in. Carroll's £35m price tag greatly exaggerates what he will be most of the time for Liverpool - a Plan B.

Liverpool will play Henderson, Kuyt, or Suárez as more of a wider player when Carroll is in the team. Downing will play on the opposite flank. Suárez can go left or right, and Maxi can come in to do the same.

Henderson Gerrard Lucas Downing
Suárez Carroll

Lucas
Henderson Gerrard
Suárez Carroll Downing​

This is the way I see Liverpool wanting to set up in the majority of games they play, maybe more-so at home. But it's a formation that is easily adjustable from 442 to 433 which allows Liverpool to combat teams in midfield, or simply go out and play, saying "we're better than you" in a 442. This is exactly what Liverpool did against Bolton except with Adam over Gerrard and Kuyt over Carroll, and they won 3-1 (only giving away a cheap late goal in a game they controlled from start to finish).

Adam, Maxi, and Kuyt/Carroll are the benched players to come on and hopefully change the game. And their other new attacking option is Bellamy...
 
If you see how Liverpool are playing right now, Henderson is occupying a Right Midfield position, who I expect to be replaced by Gerrard.

I know that both of them aren't traditional ''wingers'' but Dalgish likes to use a dynamic Midfielder with a good engine on one wing and another more pacey player on the other. For example, in his 88-89 title winning Liverpool team, a central midfielder Ray Houghton was frequently used on the right side of MF with John Barnes being used on the left.

The result is usually a rather rigid looking 4-4-2 that's actually more of a fluid 4-2-3-1. If you watch the first three games, in a slow build up play, Henderson usually waits for the overlap (this is where an attack FB like Johnson is useful) and moves to a more central position to rack up men in the middle. Suarez can also drift to the right.

The reason I don't like to see Suarez playing out wide is because I want him to have a free-role where he can roam and confuse defenders (who don't know if they should pick him out).

Tbh, the formation is not important in this Liverpool side because they play a very fluid type of football and identifying the formation becomes rather hard. The choice of players on the field is probably more important.

The big question is whether Carroll can fit into a team playing fluid football. I personally think it's not his fault. Players tend to play a long more often when Carroll is on the field. I've even seen people cross the ball to Andy when they could play him a simple pass to his feet. For now, £35m or not, he has to earn his place back in the team.
 
England beating Bulgaria away 2-0 (in Euro 2012 quals) barely 25mins into the match. Goalscorers were Gary Cahill (hehe) and Wayne Rooney.

Make that 3. Rooney scored again just before half-time.
 
england are not really doing much though.. way too much passing it about at the back and losing possesion in the final third, third goal was a good move though.. about time.
 
Holland on 9-0 with 10 minutes to go lol, RVP on 4...

Only went and put this bet on yesterday:

Holland to beat San Marino
Argentina to beat Venezuela
Turkey to beat Kazakhstan
Italy to beat Faroe Islands
Germany to beat Austria
Portugal to beat Cyprus
Uruguay to beat Ukraine

£20 on, £106.60 back ;) Very pleased when Turkey and Uruguay brought it back late. Just need Italy and Portugal to not concede and I'm sound ;)

Edit: Yeahhhhhh boiiiiiii. Free money
 
England won because of terrible defending for the first and the third. The second wasn't really the player's fault because the manager went for zonal marking at set-piece which is a bit suicidal if you ask me. Terrible selection from Crapello tbh. Walcott in the starting XI on the wing was just shocking. Glen Johnson is injured, he would have started but Richards > Smalling...

Phil Jones and Carroll not even on the bench :P

@ Arsenal fans: Am I right or wrong for saying that RVP is being used in the wrong way at Arsenal? Watching him today just showed how much of a creative powerhouse he actually is (along with decent finishing). Isn't he wasted in a classic CF role he's playing at Arsenal. Today he played off Huntelaar and was dropping deep and just ran the show alongside Sneijder.
Shouldn't he be used in a ''false 9'' role (similar to Messi at Barca or Totti at Roma) where he influences the game more. To me, he seems a bit isolated at times at Arsenal. You might be asking yourself who plays up-front then but Gervinho was playing as a striker and we all know how much better Walcott is when he plays up-front (except for Crapello). Both of those guys can drift to wide positions as well when needed. Thoughts?
 
Yeah definitely. I've always felt that Walcott looked awkward on the wings and RVP is more of a technical player who likes to influence matches in a deeper role. He even said himself that helping the team and creating chances for the team was his favourite thing and scoring goals was just a bonus.

But maybe because Fabregas pretty much claimed the attacking midfield role (Nasri, RVP, Ramsey, Wilshere all had to be played around Fabregas) so RVP was always played as a lone striker. With the departure of Fabregas (although very sad and a huge loss) I was hoping that RVP could drop a bit deeper supporting Walcott playing upfront. Gervinho has looked good on the wings and he is much more assured as a winger. Walcott simply cannot take someone on, or cross a ball to save his life. His biggest assets are his amazing pace, his decent ability to control a pass, and a half decent finish: everything needed to be a devastating goal poacher. Why can't Wenger see this? We have plenty of wingers too, it's not like Walcott has to be drafted in to fill a place...

On the subject of England, I'm so glad Rooney is finally playing well after so long. It was a solid defensive performance which is the most important thing and Parker and Barry were solid. It's an Italian's way to set up a team and it is the right way for England imo. We don't have Messi or Xavi or Sneijder so let's just get a solid defence together and hit them with our pace in Young, Walcott, Downing and Rooney. I'm not going to moan about England this time, at least this time Capello seemed to set up the team with a clear strategy and purpose. P.S. yay for Wales, Bellamy and Ramsey!
 
too much negativity, we have players from teams that are scoring for fun in the premier league, so why in god name do we have people passing it backwards
 
Fucking hell is there no pleasing some people. We killed it early, and were professional about everything, and it was refreshing to see Smalling and Cahill actually sounding enthusiastic and excited about playing for their country in the interview afterwards.

Lampard's as good as dropped now, just need to get rid of Terry for Jones and Cole for Baines and then maybe the team will be able to play without any past burdens on their shoulders. Capello should just ask Rooney what he wants to do and build the rest of the team around him.
 
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