Ah, thanks for that, great site, just what I needed. Bookmarked for life. I love their reading of Mueller's role. Brilliant.

It's a great site. You'll no doubt come across it on there anyway in time, but you might find this a good read.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/04/...ix-point-lead/

thanks. i remember that game as very frustrating, like having a 3-day case of constipation (sorta). horrid! now i understand better why.

also, finally this shit lets me spread more deserved rep. about time!

--

im gonna be looking at that site a lot during the euros.

So Joey Barton gets a twelve match ban. Surely no club will be interested in him now. If he really was that good on the pitch he might've been able to ride it (as Cantona and Di Canio did with similar bans) but I've never seen him as anything other than a mid-table journeyman, at best. He just isn't worth the hassle.

Also, saw this on the Footballspeak site. Purely speculative, obviously, but it's their Euro 2012 pre-tournament dream team, based on the squads for the qualified teams. Some I'd agree with, some I wouldn't but an interesting choice, nonetheless. They've gone for a 4-5-1 formation, with a defensive midfielder:

GK - Joe Hart (England/Man City)
RB - Phillip Lahm (Germany/Bayern Munich)
CB - Georgio Chiellini (Italy/Juventus)
CB - Gerard Pique (Spain/Barcelona)
LB - Daniel Agger (Denmark/Liverpool)
DM - Bastian Schweinstieger (Germany/Bayern Munich)
LM - Christiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid)
CM - Andres Iniesta (Spain/Barcelona)
CM - Xavi (Spain/Barcelona)
RM - Franck Ribery (France/Bayern Munich)
ST - Robin Van Persie (Holland/Arsenal)

I agree with the formation and haven't seen enough of some players to say either way (Chiellini and Lahm) but would definitely replace Agger with Ashley Cole. I don't know about the midfield though. Schweinsteiger seems a bit wasted in the defensive midfield role (where does he play for Bayern?) but don't know who I'd have there in his place (Busquets?). I'd still want Schweinsteiger to play. I'm just not sure where or who I'd have him replace. I'm still not sure about Ribery and Iniesta seems to have had a dip in form so I might replace him, too. Xavi and C Ronaldo pretty much pick themselves (although I'd have Ronaldo on the Right and maybe switch Ribery to the Left) and I have to agree with their choice of Van Persie. Maybe Neuer for Hart but I've no problem with either choice.

Anyway, obviously just a bit of fun, really.

Norway v England

Can't really draw any conclusions from a friendly like this, although it being Hodgeson's first game in charge lent it a little more significance than usual. Despite England fielding a quite second-string side, I didn't see anything tonight to make me change my overall thoughts either way about their chances in the Euros. Very average against a pretty poor Norway. Only real points of optimism were Ashley Young and seeing Oxlade-Chamberlain for 10 minutes at the end. And I'm wondering if Phil Jones isn't better suited to midfield than he is defence.

Listen, the official mood of the Euro 2012 Championships is Pessimism (C)
The only conclusion we are allowed to draw from tonights game is that we have done well to not sink further into the mire, so if you dare express anything other than complete despair you will be deported at dawn.

Oxlade Chamberlain appears to be our main hope - this after a few good sub appearances for Arsenal, whilst when hes started he's been mostly poor (understandably, he is still a boy).

The best chance we have of doing anything is playing like Greece did in 2004 and shutting up shop and hoping for a miracle.

Oh, if anything I'm even more pessimistic now. The problem is the second string we put out today isn't that inferior to our likely first 11 so if they struggled, I don't see it being much different when the 'superstars' arrive. We're shit. It's that simple.

I'm with you, I want Hodgeson pumping Zorba the Greek non-stop out of the team bus stereo.

I thought leighton baines played really well, which was nice as ive never had faith in him. And carroll and young linked nicely at times too. I think this was the first time they have played together in that formation so thats promising

I thought phil jones looked really bad and nervous. Micah Richards must be going spare...

Well I haven't seen that many games.
For Lille, I seem to remember only one, during which he played 20-30 minutes.
He could be seen, he didn't act like a superstar casted with a bunch of no-goods and helped the team.
I saw other snippets, and he looked good. I didn't expect that from him. I thought he'd either collapse or cause problems (big talent, big ego, that connection).

Too young to be compared to Robert Pires when he went to Villareal, but close.

His stay might have done him good.

That looks like Euro 2008 dream team prior to the kick off (apart from Hart and Agger). Or 2004. Since Ribéry died a year later.

They've played it too safe.

I've never thought of Cole as a particularly egotistical guy , not a troublemaker at all, as far as I know. (I make both claims relative to other footballers, obviously.) His big problem has always been the massive hype he received early in his career, which he's never really lived up to. He is incredibly talented and technically very good, but he goes missing in games and a lot of coaches struggle to find a place for him in their set-up. He needs the kind of free role that Messi gets without really being good enough to warrant it. I'd like to see him back at West Ham, though. It's still the only club that I think has really taken him to its heart (he came out of their Academy).


I agree that it seems a bit out of date, but then I'd replace Agger with Ashley Cole, which is dragging things even further back into the past.

Ribery's another of those players I have to respect but can only remember seeing play really well maybe once or twice. (see also Ibrahimovic)

There must be something about Micah Richards we don't know. Fans and pundits seem mostly united in wondering why he wasn't selected but it can't just be coincidence that neither Cappello, Mancini and now Hodgeson have shown much faith in him.

He is good friends with joey barton

It'll be interesting to see who Hodgeson chooses to replace Barry. Rumours that it'll be Henderson, although he could choose another defender so the door's not completely shut on Richards yet. I'd take almost anyone over Henderson, though.

France-Iceland : 3-2

Weird defending from France; they had a sole defensive midfielder though, in a very attack-oriented 11.
From 2 down, they got to win.

Iceland had pace, Evra had none. I hope Clichy will get the nod over him.

Ribéry scored the second, his first blue goal in 3 years (he was a sub and felt concerned all the time - this showed when the camera was panning over the bench).
Two assists for Giroud, used as a sub again. Sadly he only went into the team recenttly, and no Benzéma-Giroud has been tested yet.

Ben Arfa was so so. Ménez was more than so so. Cabaye seemed good.
Valbuena did well, as a sub.

Debuchy scored, and madman Rami scored the winner.

***

Barry out... Henderson in wouldn't look good, his first outing was a disaster. As a frog, I'd recommand him.

I don't understand that Richards stuff either; he has pace, is impressive and delivered at least 5 assists for City, where he didn't play all games...

I'm wondering if it might not be a personality issue with Richards. Glenn Johnson gets picked for Right Back with a very similar style, without, imo, being anywhere near as good.

I really rate Evra but he does seem to have hit a bit of bad form towards the end of the season. Both players at their best I'd take Evra over Clichy but right now I'd agree, Clichy.

I'd take clichy every time. I was really suprised to see Evra was still part of the set up after the world cup fiasco. And even despite that i think clichy is as good in defence but better going forward

Sepp Blatter's making a cunt of himself again, trying to find an alternative to the penalty shootout, forgetting that it's often the most exciting part of a game. Cock.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...shootouts.html

possible takeover at leeds, god i hope that its true and its someone decent. it will probably turn out to be more of master bates scheming but we live in hope!

It looks like a potentially interesting move. It seems that the deal is a joint one of an American company and the Leeds Supporters Trust, coming together to oust Bates. If it comes off (and if I understand the situation correctly) I imagine it'd be good for the long term stability of Leeds but unlikely to bring in the kind of money that Chelsea's or Man City's did. And if it gets rid of Bates that has to be the main thing.

France-Serbia : 2-0

Ribéry looked like his former self, and Malouda scored too.
Clichy was involved in the first goal; I hope Blanc will consider this when it comes to the left flank berth.

Glad to hear Parker is expected to be fully fit in time for the france game

But disapointed to read that roy might keep the door open for michael carrick. Fuck michael carric i'd rather have Jordan Henderson. Fuck michael carrick and his sulky "im not playing unless im first choice" bollocks. Hes not even that good. James Milner is miles ahead of michael fucking carrick.

I'm not sure about Parker. He'll go but he won't play full games. He's already on injections. We are well and truly fucked. The squad is shit. A midfield that includes Downing and Henderson as potential starters is just embarrassing. We're back to the dark days when the likes of Carlton Palmer were getting England caps. All this talk about doing a Greece, I don't even think we look good enough to do a Greece at the moment. Looking at us now I honestly think we'll have done well if we get past the group stage.

i saw part of this game and then the summary-- awesome goals!

Scott Parker is knackered, if he really was the WW1 fighter pilot his haircut suggests he would have been shot down by the Red Baron in about April.

All this talk of the war, the thing I'm definitely not looking forward to in the Euros is having to listen to that fucking brass band playing The Great Escape during every bastard England game. I'd be going absolutely mental if I was sat near those cunts. And besides that, they're just embarrassing. I can barely stomach the Three Lions thing but that brass band make me cringe every time I hear them. Let them spoil the Olympics if they want but I hope the FA sees sense and breaks all ties with the fuckers.

Everyones been fed up of the brass band for years, but its the kind of thing the FA loves to latch onto as if it signifies a great English tradition or something, and now that theyve been around for so long they cant let them go. Especially over fucking Jubilee weekend.

Well, England v Belgium this evening so we'll see if they serenade us through that.

I got tickets through a friend for the swiss qualifier at wembley and the seats were a few rows forward from them in the next block along.
I was suprised as to how little it bothered me. On tv they are more annoying than mark lawrenceson but in the flesh they just blended into the background noise.
Or maybe my irritability and annoyance was taken up by the poor football? (Until ashley young came on...)

oh damn, austria 1 ahead barely 2 minutes on. not that i expect either team to be a star, but eh. game is on right now.

England v Belgium

A decent win and we seem pretty well organised, but we're still giving possession away far too easily. A win is a win but I dunno, I just can't summon any kind of enthusiasm for this England side. Cole and Parker were their usual solid selves and Welbeck surely has to be picked ahead of Carroll but Oxlade-Chamberlain was quiet, and fuck knows how Gerrard got man of the match.

This was the first time I'd seen Eden Hazard and thought he was pretty meh, really, although I appreciate he's probably a different player altogether when he's with Lille.

Oxlade Chamberlain showed how he isnt ready to start games.
Wellbeck deserved MOTM

If we remember before Capello quit the big complaint was "Oh we're so shit we cant keep posession". Now for the most part people are saying "Yeah, we're shit and we cant keep posession. Lets just try and work around it". Ths pessimism is much more productive than overplaying how good the team is, they havent got the talent at the moment, but they can be organised and grind it out.

Yeah, I agree about being able to grind it out. Two clean sheets can't be sniffed at either. We still haven't seen how Hodgeson would react to having to chase a game, though. Hardly his fault but it's all been a bit too according-to-plan so far.

Hopefully of interest to some of you, the people at that ZonalMarking website I linked the other day have come up with their own European team of the season. I don't know all the players listed but it's definitely a far more interesting line-up than the other one I linked.




First Team:

Joe Hart, Manchester City
Stephan Lichtsteiner, Juventus
Vincent Kompany, Manchester City
Mats Hummels, Dortmund
Jordi Alba, Valencia
Andrea Pirlo, Juventus
Yaya Touré, Manchester City
Santi Cazorla, Málaga
Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid
Lionel Messi, Barcelona
Falcao, Atlético Madrid


Substitutes:

Gianluigi Buffon, Juventus
Lukasz Piszczek, Dortmund
Thiago Silva, Milan
Sergio Ramos, Real Madrid
Giorgio Chiellini, Juventus
Xavi Hernandez, Barcelona
Arturo Vidal, Juventus
Marco Reus, Borussia Mönchengladbach
David Silva, Manchester City
Robin van Persie, Arsenal
Olivier Giroud, Montpellier


Here's the link for more info ...

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/05/...e-year-201112/

Hard to know how to feel after that. So far all 3 strikers look ok. Defoe will always be dangerous, welbeck had a good game and took a very good goal, and i thought carrol looked good against Norway, linking up with ashley young nicely. Young looked rubbish today though, slow and easily gave away possesion.
I dont think we have a problem defensively and up front we are dangerous. We just cant seem to get the ball up to our strickers. Which is odd because gerrard, parker and milner are really good too.
Im gonna blame walcot and downing

I think our defence looks ok. Ashley Cole is obviously superb and I really rate Cahill. Personally I'd start Lescott ahead of Terry but so long as he stays fit and behaves himself, he does work well with Cahill and is greatly helped by Parker sitting just behind the midfield. I still don't like Glenn Johnson. A strong winger will tear him apart. He's fine when we're chasing a game but I don't trust him if we're trying to defend a lead. I think we still really miss Gary Neville in that position.

Our forwards will always score if given the chance but the problem, as you say, is our midfield. Gerrard's not the player he was and Milner's decent but not one to turn a game around. I still have a soft spot for Wallcot but he's obviously not a player you can rely on, and Oxlade Chamberlain seems another tournament away from showing his real potential. Young does go missing and makes mistakes but (as we saw today) he's always capable of doing something out of the blue, making him probably our most dangerous midfielder at the moment. But I think the midfield will generally struggle to create chances and likely get heavily overrun by the better teams. Our best bet may be with set-pieces. We have a fair bit of height and Terry, Cahill, Carroll, etc are always dangerous when it comes to corners.

Cahill is out, and Martin Kelley is in. Apparently Micah Richards also ruled himself out when he wasn't picked first time. Prick.
Still think we'll be ok with Lescott and Jagielca. It is a shame though

Id have Lescott and Cahill all day, they both play understudy in their club life but they rise to the challenge for England. If Kyle Walker was fit he's my no1 all day long, he isnt a great defender like Cole yet but he seems like much more of a live wire who's ready to learn and get better than Glen Johnson who just looks comfy as fuck

and youre singing my tune about Gary Neville, ive always loved him. He has the kind of face that people dislike, but he's a thousand times more passionate than some prat like Phil Jones.