Euro 2008 (Official Man City LOL Thread)

[badtaste]

Bresciano and Holman scored, China 0 - 2 Australia. The Chinese crowd was absolutely in love with Viduka, gave him a standing ovation and any time he touched the ball they cheered and gasped in amazment (to be fair 'Dukes was on fire).

To think that Chelsea nearly spent £32m on Gerrard. Actually, I think with a Makélélé behind them they could play together. But not when wearing white or red it appears.

Well up for Scotland - Italy this week.

Just saw the highlights on Sports Tonight. Too bad Viduka didn't score though. Bresciano's lead up to his goal was very nice.

Gerrard is still good. He just sucks (really sucks) for England. Yeah, I'm going to sleep over the England-Andorra game, and just wake up for the Italy-Scotland game. Should be interesting.

Oh yeah, Brazil beat Chile 4-0. Dunga's formation of putting Ronnie and kaka behind Robinho worked a treat.

[poorquality]

Portugal 4-0 Belgium

Ronaldo scored twice, good to see his form is sticking with him in all competitions.

[rik]

I'd rather see Lampard dropped over Gerrard for England.

[talk show host]

Woo, another inept performance from England. You have to wonder what possible benefit McClaren is seeing and which everyone else is obviously blind to, in persisting with such a shoddy midfield.

Gerrard and Lampard should both be fighting for a single spot. Other teams are perfectly able to cope with leaving some of their star men on the bench so why not England. That way everyone can play in their favoured positions and maybe then they can start playing something approaching competently!

I'm sure it would help whoever he decides to shove up front for the next game too, if they had just a little service.

But hey, at least Robinson seemed to decide last night that punting the ball up to the opposition defenders isn't always the best option, and actually passing the ball to someone in white helps us keep possession for a bit while we pass it aimlessly along the back four.

[Britney Diva]

Woo, another inept performance from England. You have to wonder what possible benefit McClaren is seeing and which everyone else is obviously blind to, in persisting with such a shoddy midfield.
haha I read an article today saying "oh how we need Beckham." I never thought I'd read those words again.

I think McLaren is in a lose-lose situation. He was able to drop Beckham because public opinion had turned against him, but I don't think he could do the same with Lampard or Gerrard. There'd be uproar and the English press/public have this nasty habit of picking the international team to the detriment of results.

It's not just midfield though: why has Paul Robinson not been dropped? He's useless. David James is in the form of his life, although obviously not far from retirement. Foster and Green are both more talented goalkeepers and in better form. I don't get it. And the three-at-the-back stuff in Croatia.

Why am I so upset about this? I'm not even English!

[munky_magik]

Outraged by persistent stupidity?

[Britney Diva]

Maybe I just hate redheads

[Frankie]

I know I am.

I mean Sven and Graham talor both had better starts in the england job than McClaren.

[Pinhead13]

:eek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIBrIv_7x-U&mode=related&search=

[rik]

:eek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIBrIv_7x-U&mode=related&search=
That was pretty damn awesome.

[badtaste]

I'm taking a long break (perhaps permanent) from MX, so I just want to thank y'all for providing me with discussion about football.

So adios.

[angry armadillo]

lampard was fine to be in the israel game even though i am of the opinion he is surplus to requirements generally in the england team.


israel were putting 10 men in the box, so you really need to attack

my opinion would have been to have subbed off hargreaves (who wasnt having the best game, lets be fair)

and have the mid field as

left wing - Downing
centre mids - Gerrard and Lampard
right wing - Lennon

they were all sitting in their box so whats the point in a holding midfielder... have 4 attacking guys including 2 wingers for once and perhaps we will get somewhere.

[Frankie]

That would seem the best combo in midfield for the Andorra game. Switch around for the other teams who are more adventurous.

[Britney Diva]

Gerrard and Lampard might work against Andorra but against a good team they'd be hopeless. McLaren brought in Hargreaves because he knows neither is capable of defending, against decent opposition you'd be slaughtered.

[RedMorningLight]

Gerrard and Lampard might work against Andorra but against a good team they'd be hopeless. McLaren brought in Hargreaves because he knows neither is capable of defending, against decent opposition you'd be slaughtered.

This is true but maybe it would also be a decent time to drop Lampard and try keeping a (Downing, Hargreaves, Gerrard, Lennon) midfield settled for the next few games. I just dont think Lampard has performed at all well for England since the Euro2004 tournament and Gerrard displays alot more passion and drive when wearing the England shirt...we need players who display the classic English grit aswell as having the technical abilities. Also, Wayne Bridge needs to come in for Ashley Cole on a permanent basis for England, anyone agree?

[Dead Star]

Not looking forward to tonight.

Not going to have much nails left i bet

http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/newsscript.pl?record=864

Also Our best player gone to Celtic for £750k Best of luck to him, thanks for the memories Skippy. :')

[Britney Diva]

I agree on Bridge but I think Lampard is a better player. Not that Gerrard would ever be dropped haha

[poorquality]

Lampard has been ruled out, now I'm happy, mainly because it forces McLaren to play gerrard with either hargreaves or carrick, so we get a chance to see how England do without playing 2 identical central mids.

If we can't beat andorra now though...we're screwed.

[RedMorningLight]

0 - 0 .....oh dear, I think i may be switching channels

[Minus The Flair]

Lampard has been ruled out, now I'm happy, mainly because it forces McLaren to play gerrard with either hargreaves or carrick, so we get a chance to see how England do without playing 2 identical central mids.

If we can't beat andorra now though...we're screwed.

Oh...crap.

Watching England has become so depressing and boring. Urgggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[Dead Star]

I expected to get beaten tonight :(

[poorquality]

3-0

though crap performance...why are England so overratted my the media? They expect them to win everything :S

[talk show host]

oh god we sounded awful

[Minus The Flair]

They are overrated but they, like most teams, should be expected to beat teams like Andorra, Israel and Croatia.

[Timm]

germany lost 0-1 against denmark >_<

but it's okay seeing that denmark played with their best 11 while germany changed the team from the czech game on 8 postitions, only subs/newbs playing.

I think the english team needs a swift kick in the butt by their trainer. 0-0 against andorra (!) in the first half?!

[munky_magik]

Yeah, we never really looked like getting anything from that game. Our defense just didn't have the edge it needed when dealing with Toni.

I think Gerrard should always be played in the middle. England seem to have so many more options when he plays there.

[talk show host]

Eh, i'm sure Lampard will just come straight back into the team for the next game. Gerrard looked alright but he still had an appalling first half and the passing from pretty much everyone was horrible. The goals finally coming probably had more to do with Andorra's fitness waning than anything else.

And Rooney really needs to take a break from internationals or something and come back when there's a manager who can keep his temper in check :/

[poorquality]

Andorra played dirty tactics, trying to rile rooney and gerrard up, but to be fair they only reacted verbally, it was cashley cole who reacted physically and was lucky to not be sent.

[Britney Diva]

England were just as bad, really. Gerrard could have been sent off for tackling over the top and for that horrendous dive; Defoe could have been sent off for his slap on the Andorran defender and Rooney always runs the risk of being sent off on account of being the stupidest person on the planet.

[nowhesingsnowhesobs]

I think the andorra game clearly established that downing shouldn't even be in the squad. Playing two wingers is all well and good, as long as one isn't complete cack.

And why can't Rooney be left on the bench?

[RandyfromPennywise]

Agree about the Wayne Bridge comment. My views on that subject have been expressed before.

England. Er I'll start that again shall I? McLaren has no tactical knowledge, obviously, that he has imparted to his players. The movement was possibly the worst I've ever seen at international level. It was literally:

Johnson: "I'm playing up front so I'll sit on one of their centre-backs and wait for a cross or long-ball"
Rooney: "I might as well do the same"
Downing: "I'm not that good but I'll try to put some crosses in"
Gerrard: "I'm going to have to do this by myself. So what is it I am supposed to do exactly?"
Hargreaves: "I'll stay defensive and try to play. Who with though?"
Lennon: "I'll show some initiative. Anyone with me? Anyone? No?"

The formation was so static. There was no intricate passing triangles, one-twos, it was a tactical disgrace. And the English attitude of 'where's the passion?' was completely ridiculous. Actually, is ridiculous. The fans should be asking "WHERE'S THE ****ING TACTICAL PLAN, WHERE'S THE INTERNATIONAL-CLASS COACHING?"

Ah whatever.

And I must say that Andorra's behaviour was some of the worst I've seen since Uruguay 18 months ago. That striker, Joan someone, if I was playing, I'd have waited til after the match and punched the living **** outta the little cunt. FIFA needs to do something about behaviour like that. How is that tolerated?

[Minus The Flair]

I miss Liverpool's Michael Owen :(. Actually, I even miss current Owen, he wasn't too much help before but I think we need someone like him, or him back.

[Frankie]

Deffo miss owen. Our best striker by far, hope he starts to play reguarly and gets back in the swing of things again.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Mmmm. Still don't see how Defoe is constantly overlooked. You know one thing I was thinking when watching that awful, awful 90 minutes yesterday was "England could do with a playmaker, a #10, Kaká type, because there is so much space between the midfield and attack and they are not linking at all". So you know maybe you gus could try playing the Roon in behind a front two. Maybe you could try a 4-3-1-2 formation, would be well narrow though and we all know how you English geesaaahs love them crosses and getting it wide and running up the wing to nowhere. But maybe it could work, don't know.

'Keeper
Neville Ferdinand Terry Bridge
Hargreaves
Gerrard Lampard
Rooney
Defoe Owen (Johnson... Crouch?)

Meh, it's so much more fun talking about the Australian team than the shitty English one. Bresciano is king, he would walk in to the English team, you could actually use a player like him. (One who plays well for his national team.)

[poorquality]

Compare Rooney with Ronaldo...both excellent for their club...but only Ronaldo pulling the same form internationally aswell as domestically B)

[Britney Diva]

Well Rooney's just hacing a torrid season all round. When England have needed him, during the last two major championships for instance, he's outshone everyone.

[Minus The Flair]

What's happening with Joe Cole? He's been out for so long I almost forgot he was alive, but there's another player we could really do with.

[talk show host]

Yeah, we need Joe Cole back. He's one of the only creative players we have and probably England's best performer before he got injured. I think he's expected back soon but he probably won't be back to his best until next season at least.

[Untitled]

erwwwwwwwww.

ITV have the rights for the FA cup, and England matchs, how **** is that? there football coverage is appauling.

[talk show host]

It's really annoying. The BBC are hardly stellar but ITV piss me off no end.

Adverts galore and Andy ****ing Townsend. Goody.

[RedMorningLight]

"England could do with a playmaker, a #10, Kaká type, because there is so much space between the midfield and attack and they are not linking at all". So you know maybe you gus could try playing the Roon in behind a front two. Maybe you could try a 4-3-1-2 formation, would be well narrow though and we all know how you English geesaaahs love them crosses and getting it wide and running up the wing to nowhere. But maybe it could work, don't know.


That is a very good point, maybe we should play Rooney in front of strong, narrow-ish midfield three and see how the players adapt to that. The problem is, I cant see that being adopted my the current coaching staff so it seems a little too much like a dream right now.

[Minus The Flair]

What do you lot think of the whole 'England needs Beckham' thing. I know it's hardly likely he'll be recalled, but the fans definitely seem to want him back, I'm not sure though.

[poorquality]

When he played they called for him to be dropped, when he's dropped they call for him to come back...to be honest I think England fans need a reality check more than they need Beckham.

We are no where near as good as the media like to pretend we are.

[Britney Diva]

I wouldn't be hugely surprised if he's recalled. I reckon McLaren picks his team based on public polls.

[Frankie]

Nice idea Randy about the 4-3-1-2. It would suit Rooney down to a t. Having 2 strikers like Johnson and Owen would benefit as they both play off the shoulder of the defender. Joe Cole could even play there, infact I'd say a "playmaker" role would suit him more than playing left wing as he almost always cuts inside anyway. With Gerrard and Lampard going forward it could work. Lennon and Downing are contributing enough for my liking and Downing's form for Middlesbrough has been sketchy this season and the last part of the last. Even so if playing 4-3-1-2 doesn't work it can be changed around easily to a regular 4-4-2.

But let's be realistic after having 5 years of tactical incompetence from McClaren at the boro (negative 4-5-1 at home, playing players out of position) and with the situation hes in at present changing the formation is unlikely to happen.

And as for beckham, he'd worsen the situation that we're already in, deffo don't want to see him back.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Scott McDonald to Celtic. Mmmm, good move for him. I'll find it hard to cheer for him, but I do want him to do very well. Hopefully he'll only stay there for a season and move on.

England - the players, individually, are good. The team - tactically - is poor.

EDIT: Yeah, Joey Cole would be great in that #10 role I'd imagine, causing mayhem running at defenders and doing tricks, but yeah you're right, McLaren probably won't do anything, and just call for more passion and the fans to get behind the team. It's interesting that Hiddink can take South Korea to a World Cup semi-final, and McLaren can't coach England to score against Andorra in a half of football. I think the excessive calls that 'the gaffer has to be English' were ridiculous. Are Mourinho, Wenger, Benítez, Jol, even Ferguson, English? Are Rijkaard, Lippi, Ancelotti, Capello, Cúper, Del Bosque or Big Phil English?

[talk show host]

The problems with England run far deeper than not having Beckham in the side. The fact that he can occassionally score from a set-piece and scored or set up goals in the world cup isn't a good enough reason to bring him back; infact it just shows how hopeless England had become when he was our main goal threat. It was one thing McClaren got right in dropping him, even if it was more a PR stunt than anything else and the focus now should be on trying to get the team to actually play together with some cohesion.

It would be short-sighted too seeing as he isn't getting any younger, and probably better for him too to stay away while the fans are calling for him because they would inevitably turn on him again when it turns out he can't actually save the team.

[RedMorningLight]

The deep problems that are talked of are all mentality and tactical wise. If we look across the country there are easily enough talented and often very skillful players who have grown up, learning from talented foreign players and also retaining classic 'english' attributes. It's just our coaches are at fault, not knowing how to employ these attributes, Joe Cole is a classic example, a massively talented creative player who entertains, but when playing for England our coaches have quite often had him stuck out on the wing with the instruction to cut in and hit right-footed crosses all day long. Until tactics are changed, and a mentality of encouraging attacking, creative, and world-class standard passing is introduced we will probably keep finding things difficult. Defensively we're pretty damn solid though :)

[RandyfromPennywise]

You are correct. There's nothing wrong with having the bottle and that, in fact it's great, but tactics are the most important thing. If you could get the tactics right (or that should be, actually get some tactics) and play with passion, bottle and courage then you'd be doing well. Too much gung-ho, let's bloody attack, right now! mentality and not enough "let's outsmart these guys and create an opening with brilliant passing exchanges, quick movement of the ball and players" mentality.

[RedMorningLight]

Yeah definately. I think possibly the England staff should look to Musicianforums to mastermind the qualification into Euro 2008 :p

[Dead Star]

Scott McDonald to Celtic. Mmmm, good move for him. I'll find it hard to cheer for him, but I do want him to do very well. Hopefully he'll only stay there for a season and move on.


:(:(:(

He'll warm the bench well I think

[Timm]

best paid players 2006
1. Ronaldinho 23,5 Mio. Euro
2. David Beckham 23,2
3. Ronaldo 18,6
4. Wayne Rooney 13,7
5. Michael Ballack 13,4
6. Thierry Henry 12,6
7. Zinedine Zidane 12,4
8. Fabio Cannavaro 11,6
9. John Terry 11,4
10. Steven Gerrard 11,3.

richest clubs 2006:
1. Manchester United 1,137 billion Euro
2. Real Madrid 811 millionen Euro
3. Arsenal London 716
4. Bayern München 655
5. AC Mailand 644
6. Juventus Turin 443
7. Inter Mailand 434
8. FC Chelsea 420
9. FC Barcelona 418
10. FC Schalke 04 369

all according to forbes magazine
:-O @ manU

[Britney Diva]

AC Mailand?

[Timm]

whoops ac milan :p
got the list from a german site

[RandyfromPennywise]

Is that on like overall earnings (I'm talking about the players here), as in wages, sponsorships and everything? If it's just on wages, I am under the impression that the top players earn roughly similar wages, for instance Ronaldinho is on somewhere in the range of £120,000 per week, Ballack (ridiculously) is on £130,000, Gerrard's new contract is supposed to be £100,000 a week, same as what Mourinho's wage is and what Sven's was. But if it's for overall endorsements then yeah that's interesting... especially that Henry earnt more than Zidane, and Terry more than Lampard.

Beckham's new wage in LA is astronomical. It's absolutely absurd. It's somewhere in the vacinity of £500,000 a week. What was is, £120m over 5 years? So that's £24m a year, so yeah £450,000 to £500,000 a week, just on his wage. That is so crazy that a 35-year-old Beckham will be getting paid four times as much as Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo, and to make it more ridiculous, while playing in the US! Bloody crazy.

Haha, McLaren looking on Sputnik for coaching advice. At least by doing so he'd have taken the first step and admitted there's a problem.

And on McDonald, yeah he will, most likely. But if he takes his chance he could get a run in the side. I mean it's not like he's competing with Drogba and Eto'o for a place in the side :p But yeah at Motherwell was the first time he's ever had regular football, so I hope he either gets it a Celtic, or ideally moves to Rangers in a year and scores 30 a season for 10 seasons.

EDIT: Yeah thought that was from a site from your motherland. Milan is strange, it seems to be different in a lot of languages, more than other cities. It's Milão in Portuguese. Inter Milão sounds really cool, they should change there name to that.

[Dead Star]

And on McDonald, yeah he will, most likely. But if he takes his chance he could get a run in the side. I mean it's not like he's competing with Drogba and Eto'o for a place in the side :p But yeah at Motherwell was the first time he's ever had regular football, so I hope he either gets it a Celtic, or ideally moves to Rangers in a year and scores 30 a season for 10 seasons.

He isn't much of a team player though which I have noticed, and I think celtic like playing team football. With Motherwell I can safely say he is the only one in our team with lots of Premier League ability (the rest of our team wouldnt be out of place in the 1st division) and therefore I feel that he deems himself to be a one man team. I really don't like him, but he is without a doubt our best player, although can be extremely frustrating to watch at times due to his arrogance.

Celtic have the best strikeforce in the SPL by miles too, Venegoor of Hesselink himself is an absolute gun of a player. I don't see McDonald breaking into the first team at all.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Yeah you are right, I just enjoy putting Celtic and their players down.

To be honest I've seen very little of Macca. He's played twice for our national side and obviously I've never seen him play a club game. I immediately loved the lad when, listening on Clyde 2 internet radio, I heard "MCDONALD HAS SCORED" to deny Celtic the title and see the Gers win the League (quite undeservedly it needs to be said) back in 2005. That was one of my most memorable listens to a radio call ever. We had no tv coverage of it but my brother and I scoped out Clyde 2 during that season, and it was about midnight on a Sunday night from memory, I was doing an essay for Uni and I had headphones in listening to it because the computer was next to my mum's bedroom in those days, and then YEES RANGERS ARE CHAMPIONS, was so stoked.

So that is my little story of why Scott McDonald is a legend (apart from the obvious fact that almost everyone who's played for Australia is a legend).

[Dead Star]

Yeah you are right, I just enjoy putting Celtic and their players down.

To be honest I've seen very little of Macca. He's played twice for our national side and obviously I've never seen him play a club game. I immediately loved the lad when, listening on Clyde 2 internet radio, I heard "MCDONALD HAS SCORED" to deny Celtic the title and see the Gers win the League (quite undeservedly it needs to be said) back in 2005. That was one of my most memorable listens to a radio call ever. We had no tv coverage of it but my brother and I scoped out Clyde 2 during that season, and it was about midnight on a Sunday night from memory, I was doing an essay for Uni and I had headphones in listening to it because the computer was next to my mum's bedroom in those days, and then YEES RANGERS ARE CHAMPIONS, was so stoked.

So that is my little story of why Scott McDonald is a legend (apart from the obvious fact that almost everyone who's played for Australia is a legend).

Thats known as "Skippy Sunday" here :lol:

I hope he doesn't play another game for us this season. Most of our strikers are out due to injury though, it'll be interesting to see what kind of reception he gets tomorrow.

[Timm]

Beckham's new wage in LA is astronomical. It's absolutely absurd. It's somewhere in the vacinity of £500,000 a week. What was is, £120m over 5 years? So that's £24m a year, so yeah £450,000 to £500,000 a week, just on his wage. That is so crazy that a 35-year-old Beckham will be getting paid four times as much as Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo, and to make it more ridiculous, while playing in the US! Bloody crazy.


as far as I know he gets 250 000 000 € over 5 years which is 170 000 000 £ :amaze:

the really absurd thing is that the rest of the team gets <6000 $ a month. good for their team spirit :lol:

[RandyfromPennywise]

McDonald - yeah no matter what he does from now on, those two goals were pretty remarkable. I'd say he'll probably be the least-hated Celtic player from Rangers fans.

And yeah, Timm, the Becks situation is crazy. I mean the MLS wages, yeah they are good wages compared to the average person, same as most countries, but they aren't that big. Like you say, $1500 a week would be an average wage. Whoever put up that money for Beckham is an absolute ignorant, rich fool. He could have paid for fifty thousand young guns from Brazil or the next 20 Landon Donovans with that money.

[nowhesingsnowhesobs]

I think Beckham's wage is only hypothetical - most of it will come from his own image rights.

[Frankie]

Back to club football :)

Liverpool are ahead 2-0 against the arsehole at half time.

[poorquality]

Liverpool 4-1 Arsenal FT Good game to watch...First club hattrick for Crouch and 3 good goals too.

United take on Blackburn today, I'm going for 3-0 to United..Ronaldo and Rooney on the scoresheet.

I'll see you all after the game.

[Frankie]

Boro losing 2-0 to west ahm and Blackburn upsetting Man Utd atm

[poorquality]

Man Utd 4-1 Blackburn

Second half apparently United were unstoppable...and that man again created atleast 2 of the goals...Ronaldo B)

EDIT: After reading the BBC report It seems I was grossly misinformed and I'm not sure about Ronaldos involvement in the goals, until I see the match on MoTD I'm leaving this here. :D

EDIT2: After watching it, Ronaldo set up the 2nd goal and provided the unholdable shot for the 3rd :)

One sided second half

[rik]

Newcastle just lost to Man city at home. We are so ****.

[Britney Diva]

haha Arsenal

Ronaldo was very good in the second half, but Scholes was just immense. The Blackburn defence was shocking, Friedel kept out at least three certain goals.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Thank God Kalou got that one. I was pretty pumped when that one went in, thought I'd wake someone up considering it was 4 in the morning. Title is still on. But we need United to really to start losing some of their form, otherwise it's their title.

Champions League (European and Asian!) this week. Massive game for Adelaide United on Wednesday night, I think I'll piss training off to go to it. We are playing a Korean team, we have to win. And I think Chelsea will take care of Valencia over the two legs, I'm pretty confident.

[Surtr]

Ronaldo was very good in the second half, but Scholes was just immense. The Blackburn defence was shocking, Friedel kept out at least three certain goals.

This.

Scholes was an unstoppable force!

[Frankie]

Shame he quit international football the bastard.

[poorquality]

Even if he wasn't retired, McClaren would still manage to mess it up by playing him with Gerrard or Lampard instead of Hargreaves or Carrick

[Britney Diva]

Scholes would fit perfectly into McLaren's plan to build a team of 11 Steven Gerrards.

[talk show host]

Haha.

Ugh, Reading lost today to a penalty from what sounds like an unfortunate handball by Halford on his debut. I haven't seen it yet but by all accounts we were hanging on for dear life in the second half so I guess I can't complain about the scoreline. We seem to be in a bit of a slump at the moment and slipping down the table. It'd be nice to stay in the top half though.

Hahnemann was injured too, not sure how serious. Could really be a blessing or a curse depending on whether Federici shows the form of the first FA cup leg against United or the second :/

[Dead Star]

Does anyone in here play Football Manager?

[Surtr]

Does anyone in here play Football Manager?

No, what is it?

Explain J.

[Dead Star]

No, what is it?

Explain J.

PC game where you basically manage a club team and see how well you can do.

Is extremely easy or hard depending on which club you go.

I'm giving Motherwell a shot atm

Updated with Screenshots:

http://i12.tinypic.com/44srp1y.jpg
http://i3.tinypic.com/4btbajk.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/29qjfox.jpg
http://i11.tinypic.com/2z5jhxd.jpg

[RandyfromPennywise]

Does anyone play FM? TRUE FKEN OATH. Best game ever, and basically the only game worth dedicating time to. I hadn't played it for a while but I whipped out 2006 last week and started with Paris Saint-Germain. I am absolutely fking sucking, seriously I brought in about a dozen players but am down fighting against relegation and will probably get the sack soon. Best signings for Paris have been Glen Johnson on loan, Nicolas Anelka from Fenerbahçe for £8m and João Moutinho from sporting for £9m. Biggest flop so far has been Kim Källström from Rennes for like £8m or something, he's been absolute rubbish. Dhorasoo has been awesome though.

[Dead Star]

I'm pleased with Motherwell atm 2nd in the league in February is no mean feat.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Yeah well in, I've never played Scottish league. Actually I was with Rangers once but I got bored of it after a while, made some good signings though, Glen Johnson was so good.

I find it hard to play any league other than England, although France is going well at the moment. And I'd play Australia if I had the new FM 2007. I could play with a team I support I reckon but my knowledge leans towards England - which isn't necessarily a good thing - so I'm inclined to play in England more than other leagues.

[Dead Star]

I've had a good game with boro, and won the prem with Everton before.

I like to scour south america for new talent. some real gems there.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Yeah there are awesome players but it's often really hard to sign them, because of work permits and allowances on foreign players an that. In the newer versions the Brazilian clubs are much richer than they used to be. In the old games you could buy the best from Brazil for stuff all, now they're all like 2 or 3 mil. I found the best youngsters were from Portugal and France in the older versions but now they are all over the place.

[RedMorningLight]

All the cheapest youngsters used to be from Eastern Europe, i'll never forget my epic Roma save when I was about 13. Had a guy called Maxim Tsigalko from Belarus, signed him for about 95k, scored about 20 in his first season and then was top scorer in the league every season after that, that I played on that save. Those players come around once in a blue moon!

[RandyfromPennywise]

Yeah there were awesome players from Eastern Europe, but it was the catch 22 because in the older games you needed work permits to sign them which were often hard to get. My Halifax team back in the 2000/2001 CM was the best ever, I played that game for 13 seasons.

[talk show host]

I only had CM 03/04 and haven't played it for ages so I can't remember many players but I do remember Lionel Morgan being immense. I always bought him at the start of every game because he played for Wimbledon who were in horrible debt and had to let their players go for cheap. I think he cost about 200k or something but he must have been one of the best players in the game.

[RandyfromPennywise]

03/04 was awesome. Complete overhaul of the game came in 02/03 and 03/04 was killer, I bought Rosický for £40m, and he was worth every penny. He averaged a rating of around 8 for three seasons in a row, banged home goals from 30 yards all the time, he was awesome. That's half the reason why I love that fella.

[Frankie]

CM 4 was the best. I bought Ronaldinho for £4m from PSG and Ricardo Quaresma for £500,000. Steals.


My current team is:

Schwarzer
G. Johnson Woodgate Pogatetz Taylor
Quaresma F. Adu L. Cattermole S. Downing
D. Nugent Zigic

Zigic given the right supply from the wingers is guarenteed to get atleast 10+ headed goals per season. Nugent I play just behind Zigic which works well he picks up the knock downs more often than not and has a good shooting.

[angry armadillo]

I have FM07, my liverpool save fooked itself with errors but i had an amazing team

GK: Reina (Wang Dalei)
DL: Riise, Aurellio, Philip Lahm
DC: Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards, Verdan Corluka, Daniel Agger
DR: Rafinha, Cristian Zaccardo, Philip Lahm

DMC's: Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso (was trying to sign Denilson off arsenal too)

AMR: Gerrard, Rafinha (re-trained) Pasquale Foggia, Alexandre Pato (re-trained)
AMC: Gerrard!
AML: Mark Gonzalez, Andres Guardado, Pasquale Foggia

FC's: Lukas Podolski, Sergio Aguero, Alexandre Pato, Peter Crouch, Dirk Kuyt


Aguero scores a goal a game with ease if you pair him with Crouch.

I would have probably won everything if my save game didnt mess up.

I am currently playing as Valencia but I might change to Partick Thistle and take them to european glory lol

[angry armadillo]

some screens of my liverpool first season if i remember right.

http://i16.tinypic.com/485ung9.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9425/liveproolmanuleaugecupym2.jpg
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1503/liverpoolpremuy7.jpg
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6564/totyky7.jpg
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/7765/squadliverpools1endyp3.jpg

[Frankie]

I'll get some screen shots of my team as soon as I have completed my current season :)

[RandyfromPennywise]

My best ever moment was Champo League semi final v Arsenal, second-leg, 1-1 first leg score at the Bridge, down 2-4 (3-5 on aggregate) with 5 minutes to go in the tie, all is looking lost. Change to a 2-3-5 formation, Gudjohnsen the gun sets up Crespo, brings it back to 3-4, 4-5 on agg, that is the 90th minute. Into injury time. Big John Terry is thrown forward in a last-ditch attempt to get to 4-4. 4 minutes of stoppage time. 93:30 shocking pass from Sol Campbell, straight to Lampard in midfield, beats Fabregas and plays a through-ball for Gudjohnsen who is making a beautiful diagonal run, couldn't be, surely... the ball gets through and Gudjohnsen dinks it over Lehmann CHELSEA ARE THROUGH ON AWAY GOALS GLORY TO THE BLUES WHAT A TACTICAL SWITCH FROM THE GAFFER, SURELY THE MOST GLORIOUS VICTORY EVER IN FOOTBALL MANAGER OR IN REAL LIFE, CHELSEA ARE THROUGH TO THE FINAL!

I was so fking pumped when Guddy scored that goal. We won on away goals, 5-5 on aggregate. Then I beat Bayern on penalties in the final. That season I won every trophy, Charity Shield, League Cup, Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. That semi was the best ever.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Arteta's a very good player, his technique is superb. If he was quicker, like as quick as Agbonlahor, he could really be fantastic, although he's more of a centre-mid. If he was quick and was well 'ard he'd be as good as Roy Keane. Decent match, 1-1.

[poorquality]

Anyone see the Man Utd Under-18s take on Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup semi-final second leg?

What a game, went in 1-0 down on agg, then Arsenal scored making it 2-0 on agg...United managed to pull one back making it 1-1 on the night, but 2-1 to Arsenal...then in typical united fasion, 92nd minute goal putting united 2-1 up...and 2-2 on agg...meaning extra time.

Arsenal scored in the first half of extra time, making it 3-2 (2-2 on the night) to them on agg. But united scored in the first few minutes of the 2nd half injury time meaning they were 3-2 up on the night but still only equal on agg....penalties surely? No...United pull out all the stops, creating their 4th of the night, and winning the game 4-3 on agg (4-2 on the night)

Best under 18 match I've ever seen.

[Surtr]

That sounds insane..:eek:

Without a doubt an insane game I'm sure!

[RandyfromPennywise]

You're talking about my game on Football Manager, right?

[Britney Diva]

so how about that real football eh

[angry armadillo]

Liverpool tonight.

Im thinking the tactic will go back to something like how we played against barca, 2 holding centre mids, not very attacking wide mids

i think we will try to sneak a 1-0 or something, long balls to crouch, if bellamy is fit have him running around to pick up the lay offs from crouch


then hopefully when they come to anfield we will do the formation we used against arsenal and get down those wings which was really successful.


'mon the reds!

[RedMorningLight]

Riise to score again I think, that guy is absolute class. He didn't play at the weekend I dont think so its pretty certain he will start, who do you think will start up top?

[talk show host]

according to talksport earlier, they were saying Kuyt's starting with Crouch on the bench

edit: ok they got it wrong, crouch and kuyt start

[angry armadillo]

goal for gerrard, get in you beauty

i would settle for 1-0 if liverpool control the rest of the game as they have done, then psv will shudder at the thought of coming to anfield for sure.

[rik]

Easy win that for Liverpool.

[talk show host]

bit of a boring game to be honest. Riise's goal was nice.

[RandyfromPennywise]

The Milan - Bayern game was much more entertaining. I had planned to watch the Scouse game and then watch the Milan game after, but I pissed that off soon after kick-off and put the Milan game on the big tele and had the Scouse on the small tv. I watched more of the Milan game that's for sure. Pirlo was pulling the strings beautifully. Don't think the last one was a penalty. Certainly didn't look it, but I saw one angle which might have given some weight to the claim but it was harsh nonetheless. But the ref didn't give one which he should've in the first half. Bayern are probably favourites now. And the Scouse definitely through. PSV were limp, they missed there three starting players who were out.

[angry armadillo]

glad bayern equalised, but defo cant wait to go to anfield next week and see the 2nd leg :D

[rik]

The Milan - Bayern game was much more entertaining. I had planned to watch the Scouse game and then watch the Milan game after, but I pissed that off soon after kick-off and put the Milan game on the big tele and had the Scouse on the small tv. I watched more of the Milan game that's for sure. Pirlo was pulling the strings beautifully. Don't think the last one was a penalty. Certainly didn't look it, but I saw one angle which might have given some weight to the claim but it was harsh nonetheless. But the ref didn't give one which he should've in the first half. Bayern are probably favourites now. And the Scouse definitely through. PSV were limp, they missed there three starting players who were out.

That looked a penalty, though the ref actually made the right decision. The defender made a good tackle.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Got the double-tv action going again, CFC of course on the big screen with sound. Really disappointed Essien isn't ready to play, that's a big loss. Kalou almost scored a cracker, but yeah if we had Essien in midfield... Surprised The Special One has dropped Maka for this one too.

EDIT: Oh shyte that's one of the goals of the season.

[Britney Diva]

Take a bow Paul Scholes...

[poorquality]

No complaints over the sending off, 4 seperate challenges each could of warrented yellows...gutting though.

And to top it off lose a goal late in the half 1-0 down...oh well, hope the United magic can revive us and get us that vital away goal.

[Britney Diva]

Roma hadn't a hope of scoring until Scholes was sent off. The tie shifted from an almost certain United win to a situation where we may have to win 3 or 4-0 at home unless we can contain them tonight.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Mancini's sick, one of my favourite wide players. Scholes, you'll miss 'im in the return leg as well. Oh shi here we go 2nd half.

[RedMorningLight]

I'm glad i got my Riise prediction right yesterday, it was definately on the cards. Paul Scholes was really stupid in that first half, it was a deliberate counter attack stopper for the second one so its hard to say Roma wouldn't have had good opportunities before he was sent off as they were clattered a few times on the break. Still, hoping Man Utd can keep it at 1-0 or even equalise as I have to show a bit of support for the English teams. Mancini is looking good, that left footed cross made the goal.

[RandyfromPennywise]

I like this technology they've got where they track how far each player runs. Drog had covered 6 1/2 kms in the first 50 minutes.

We need JOE COLE ON NOW.

[poorquality]

I like that too...after about 70ish minutes ronaldo covered about 8600metres I think it was (roughly)

2-1 to Roma..much better than 1-0, away goal is ours, and at OT we're pretty sure to beat them.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Gee United were lucky with that defending for Rooney's goal. Was it de Rossi? What the hell was that lunge? Just stand up son. Really bad.

Both of these return legs are going to be amazing games, I get the feeling that Roma will score at OT and things will get interesting. Chelsea, well there won't be many goals you wouldn't think, 1-2 or 1-1 or 1-0, but I have faith.

[Britney Diva]

Paul Scholes was really stupid in that first half, it was a deliberate counter attack stopper for the second one so its hard to say Roma wouldn't have had good opportunities before he was sent off as they were clattered a few times on the break.
Not really though, Roma had no invention up front. Even against ten men they only created a fraction of the chances they should have; the second goal was a rebound from one of the 98797987987987 long range shots they took. I think the tackle on Totti was stupid too, there's no need to break down a counter attack on the half way line like that, especially when you know you're going to walk for it.

[poorquality]

Uniteds goal was brilliant B) Ronaldo took two guys out of the game, (one guy twice), perfect pass to Solskjaer, and perfectly weighted cross to Rooney, who took it calmly on the chest before burying it...I don't see the luck involved... :S

Unless you mean the defender who Rooney took out of the game by Chesting it down infront of him while the defender had too much momentum and went flying past.

[Britney Diva]

Yeah, that was de Rossi I think.

[talk show host]

Scholes was pretty stupid tonight. Ronaldo played well and it was good to see Rooney get a goal. United should get through, not so sure about Chelsea though. I want to see Silva's goal too.

Oh and Italian police beating on the United fans apparently. What a surprise!

[poorquality]

The man u fans shouldnt of reacted, the Italian fans were provoking them after Roma scored, but the United fans should of realised all the security was on their side of the fence not Roma fans...so any reaction will be dealt with swiftly.

[talk show host]

they shouldn't have reacted but that doesn't excuse the actions of the police. I just saw it on the news and they were really battering them.

no such punishment for the roma fans though.

[Frankie]

The Roma fans are really bad when it comes to stuff like. Whens it stuff to do with another teams country misbehaving UEFA are lenient but I almost guarantee if any English supporters behaved like that over here that club would probably get a ban. The roma fans aginst boro last year in the UEFA cup roamed around after the game looking to start trouble with numerous boro fans and stabbed one bloke in the shoulder.

[RedMorningLight]

Not really though, Roma had no invention up front. Even against ten men they only created a fraction of the chances they should have; the second goal was a rebound from one of the 98797987987987 long range shots they took.

Italian teams have a real knack of scoring goals like that which shows the more you put the ball in the box at pace, the higher your chances are of getting 'luck' like that. Sometimes teams really do not inject enough pace into their passing and shooting in and around the box.

[Britney Diva]

they shouldn't have reacted but that doesn't excuse the actions of the police. I just saw it on the news and they were really battering them.
They didn't try anything again, did they? Not saying it was justified or whatever, but if that barrier had been scaled or knocked down it would have been very nasty.

I almost guarantee if any English supporters behaved like that over here that club would probably get a ban.
Doubt it. UEFA's taken no action against English hooligans on dozens of occasions.

Sometimes teams really do not inject enough pace into their passing and shooting in and around the box.
True, but some teams just have no imagination and resort to 30 yard shots at every opportunity.

[Untitled]

The Roma fans are really bad when it comes to stuff like. Whens it stuff to do with another teams country misbehaving UEFA are lenient but I almost guarantee if any English supporters behaved like that over here that club would probably get a ban. The roma fans aginst boro last year in the UEFA cup roamed around after the game looking to start trouble with numerous boro fans and stabbed one bloke in the shoulder.

The year before, the roma fans stabbed like 3 or 4 Liverpool fans in there match, its getting pretty stupid tbh. Utd sent letters out to everyone with tickets and put messages on there website saying to be carefull of trouble because it was probable.

[talk show host]

They didn't try anything again, did they? Not saying it was justified or whatever, but if that barrier had been scaled or knocked down it would have been very nasty.



That's true, but going after only one set of fans, especially with such force, doesn't really seem conducive to creating a better atmosphere.

[Britney Diva]

It's a matter of numbers, I'm sure. It's a lot easier to pacify a small group of United fans in a small enclosed space than a huge set of Roma fans in the surrounding area.

[Dead Star]

I have yet to see Valencias goal yet :(

[Manticore Guy]

This is a bad day. Man U lost to Roma, which was ridiculous. They should not have lost.

Chelsea vs. Valencia I wasn't too sure who would win that one to be honest, but a tie isn't too bad. At least Chelsea didn't ****ing lose.

[talk show host]

It's a matter of numbers, I'm sure. It's a lot easier to pacify a small group of United fans in a small enclosed space than a huge set of Roma fans in the surrounding area.

Yeah that makes sense. There's no word of anything happening after the game at least so I guess it worked. You'd probably make a better peace enforcer than me :p

I have yet to see Valencias goal yet :(

It was swell.

This is a bad day. Man U lost to Roma, which was ridiculous. They should not have lost.

Chelsea vs. Valencia I wasn't too sure who would win that one to be honest, but a tie isn't too bad. At least Chelsea didn't ****ing lose.

Not really ridiculous. They were down to 10 men after thirty minutes losing arguably their most influential player. If Roma hadn't squandered their chances it could have been much worse for United. They're still clear favourites to go through so it's not all bad.

[angry armadillo]

im glad that chelsea and man u didnt get great results (relative to liverpool anyway) as i would say roma and valencia are easier opponents.

although man u only need 1-0 at home to win so that shouldnt be the hardest task, i think chelski might struggle to get a result out of spain though.

'mon liverpool.


oh and the violence was a shame (but they're only mancs so o well \o/)

[poorquality]

We never have that sort of trouble in any premiership grounds...why? Because of CCTV and common sense, people say only the yobs travel abroad...but reality check, those yobs go to the home games too, but they're smart enough not to do anything other than verbal abuse (which is considered normal in a football match) because every action will be on a camera somewhere. Using OT as an example...they have 1 or 2 rows of security seperating the home and away fans, that is all, yet i've never seen violence errupt there in any game i've been to.

Europe needs to catch on.

[Britney Diva]

It's only really Italy, and perhaps Spain. And Scotland, always the Scots.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

It's almost always Italy...the italian supporters are the worst fans in the world in my opinion.


Oh and hi guys :wave:

[Frankie]

We never have that sort of trouble in any premiership grounds...why? Because of CCTV and common sense, people say only the yobs travel abroad...but reality check, those yobs go to the home games too, but they're smart enough not to do anything other than verbal abuse (which is considered normal in a football match) because every action will be on a camera somewhere. Using OT as an example...they have 1 or 2 rows of security seperating the home and away fans, that is all, yet i've never seen violence errupt there in any game i've been to.

Europe needs to catch on.

That and because or Stadia are a hell of a lot humane than others in europe. Case in point Lille's stadium still has perimeter fence. These were abandoned along with the inhumane treatment of fans after hillsborough.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

To be fair, I think the fence at the Roma game was alright, it was only there to seperate the home and away fans. What I thought was wrong about the whole night was that the police were only on Uniteds side, so nothing happened to the Roma fans.

[DonMancini]

To be fair, I think the fence at the Roma game was alright, it was only there to seperate the home and away fans. What I thought was wrong about the whole night was that the police were only on Uniteds side, so nothing happened to the Roma fans.

At first I thought it was pretty bad too, but I also read somewhere (as was previously mentioned in this thread) that they did it because there was a much smaller number of ManU fans than Roma fans, and that trying to contain a crowd of 30 000 roma fans would have been near impossible. And from the video I saw the police were only hitting people who were close to the barricade, they weren't further in the crowd beating people up, which leads to the conclusion that those people charged the police and barrier.

I am REALLY not excusing the Roma fans though, those Ultras NEED to be dealt with right now, perhaps exclusions from attending games for awhile would cool them down. They are tarnishing the reputation of their team and are giving a bad name to Italians in general whereas they are only a minority (not to mention that they are wayy too violent when football is only a sport.

What I would like to see would be a Totti or an important Roma figure telling them to relax and behave.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

At first I thought it was pretty bad too, but I also read somewhere (as was previously mentioned in this thread) that they did it because there was a much smaller number of ManU fans than Roma fans, and that trying to contain a crowd of 30 000 roma fans would have been near impossible. And from the video I saw the police were only hitting people who were close to the barricade, they weren't further in the crowd beating people up, which leads to the conclusion that those people charged the police and barrier.

I am REALLY not excusing the Roma fans though, those Ultras NEED to be dealt with right now, perhaps exclusions from attending games for awhile would cool them down. They are tarnishing the reputation of their team and are giving a bad name to Italians in general whereas they are only a minority (not to mention that they are wayy too violent when football is only a sport.

What I would like to see would be a Totti or an important Roma figure telling them to relax and behave.


I agree with that completely...though I'm starting to think those few select fans care more about inciting violence than following their team, so I don't know how much of an effect Totti or another Roma figure will have on them.

[Britney Diva]

Jesus, Spurs have been cheated out of two goals.

More violence in Seville, this time drunk Spurs fans throwing chairs at a small group of policemen.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Kanouté scores, had to be.

Alkmaar 0-0 Bremen. Average game so far. I should go downstairs and watch the Spurs game on satelite but I can't be arsed getting out of bed. It is 5 in the morning so lay off! And I'm recording it for later viewing anyway. But considering I will know the score I'd say I ain't going to watch it.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

Jesus, Spurs have been cheated out of two goals.

More violence in Seville, this time drunk Spurs fans throwing chairs at a small group of policemen.



Worrying that really....the only constant between 2 games now, has been English fans...two games, two different oppositions from two different countries....yet violence...English fans are the only consistant thing.

[Britney Diva]

OK apparently the referee explained his decision. The penalty was given for the "second contact" after he'd knocked the ball away because apparently Adriano was going to go ahead and score a goal without the ball? That is honestly one of the most shocking decisions I've ever witnessed.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

OK apparently the referee explained his decision. The penalty was given for the "second contact" after he'd knocked the ball away because apparently Adriano was going to go ahead and score a goal without the ball? That is honestly one of the most shocking decisions I've ever witnessed.

When I originally saw your previous post about it, I was going to defend the ref, as on first view it looked a penalty, and it was only after being able to see a replay that we saw he got the ball first, something which the ref doesn't get the luxury of...

...but after that excuse...I don't know what to say...is he just trying to defend his choice? Surely it'd be better and more honest to just say "I'm sorry, I got it wrong, I only had one look at it and had to make a dicision in the split second and from where I was it looked a penalty, but after seeing a replay I can see he won the ball"

[Britney Diva]

Well anyone could have seen he won the ball, it went in the opposite direction. It was just a horrendous decision from any position on the pitch.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

There was no question he got the ball, it was wether or not he thought he got the player first or not, I thought he took the player out until I saw a replay :S

[Britney Diva]

It would be kind of impossible to get the player first, surely? The only way the ball could go backwards is if he got the ball first.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

Depends how the ref saw it I suppose, from his angle it might of looked different, as I said he gets 1 split second to make his decision, we get multiple replays.

[RandyfromPennywise]

Is there something wrong with the site, I have to sign back in every 30 seconds.

Benfica's my tip to win the comp.

[TakeWarning]

Kanouté scores, had to be.

Alkmaar 0-0 Bremen. Average game so far. I should go downstairs and watch the Spurs game on satelite but I can't be arsed getting out of bed. It is 5 in the morning so lay off! And I'm recording it for later viewing anyway. But considering I will know the score I'd say I ain't going to watch it.

What channel was the Spurs game on?

Is it repeated?

[rik]

When I originally saw your previous post about it, I was going to defend the ref, as on first view it looked a penalty, and it was only after being able to see a replay that we saw he got the ball first, something which the ref doesn't get the luxury of..
To be honest, I don't see how anyone could've thought that was a penalty. Replay or no replay.
It was a shocking decision by the ref, his reasoning for giving the penalty was even more shocking.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

To be honest, I don't see how anyone could've thought that was a penalty. Replay or no replay.
It was a shocking decision by the ref, his reasoning for giving the penalty was even more shocking.

I agree with the shocking reasoning, but I honestly thought on first view it was a penalty, I maybe the only one but, without a replay to show me, I'd of given it :S

Good thing i'm not a ref really.

[Frankie]

get in boro 2-1 up. Chelesea put more pressure on Utd with a 1-0 win over Spurs.

[Dead Star]

go boro

motherwell are holding smelltic to 0-0 at half time, with smelltic looking the weaker side.

[Frankie]

4-1 eaaaaasssyyyyy :D

[rik]

Yeerr, good result over Sheffield today, I wasn't sure if we'd win. I was watching soccer saturday, went mental when Taylor got the winner. Puts Sheffield into the relegation zone.

I haven't been able to really look forward to Match of the Day for a while now.

West Ham beat Arsenal at the Emirates, apparently it's incredible how Arsenal didn't score, had something like 30 shots on goal.



Portsmouth just beat Man U 2-1, closing the gap at the top to just three points. United could've clinched the draw right at the death through Alan Smith, good save by James though.

United weren't great, none of the players really had a great game, personally I think it was the worst i've seen Giggs play in a long time, gave the ball away a lot.
Van Der Sar was at fault for both the goals as well, first one he should've pushed the ball out anywhere but right in front of him, he did the same thing in Roma which also cost united a goal. Second one he shouldn't have come out to try and get the ball, he should've seen Rio was easily dealing with it.

[Minus The Flair]

Urgh, well I guess that United Premiership defeat had to come sooner or later, I was fairly certain we'd lose again before the campaign finished. Havn't seen the match though, so can't comment, but it seems like we missed way too many chances.

[Britney Diva]

Portsmouth deserved it, really. The first goal was a shot vds should have caught and Ferdinand didn't seem to bothered about clearing it and the second was miscommunication between the same two. We didn't have a whole lot of chances, except for short periods.

[angry armadillo]

brill performance from David James which gave portsmouth the 3 points.

man u dominated play, silly mistakes cost them the game.


i dunno if the second goal was VDS fault, if he called that he would collect the ball its rios fault for passing it, and vice versa, you dont really know.

either way good result. ;)

[talk show host]

Going by the 5live commentary, United were playing pretty much all their attacking players out of position in the second half. It's going to make the title race a lot more interesting now though.

Reading have now gone 6 games without a win. It sounded like a good game today though and I guess you can't really argue with a loss against Liverpool. At least we're still playing well and there are some hopefully winnable fixtures coming up so we can start getting some points again. I think Coppell needs to give Harper a rest and bring in Gunnarsson for a stint. Harper's been pretty anonymous for the last few games whereas Gunnarsson's played well whenever he comes on and he adds some muscle to the midfield.

[Britney Diva]

Gunnarsson played the whole game. Reading were abysmal in the first half and Liverpool should have closed the game out then, but in the second half Reading were the better side and very unlucky to come away with nothing.

[talk show host]

Yeah I know he did but that was at the expense of Halford, who's maybe lacking a bit of fitness so it's understandable. I'd just rather see him partner Sidwell.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

Personally I felt Uniteds loss was in Fergies hands, as he played a team today with Tuesdays game in mind, instead of playing our strongest available 11 from the start. We only have one month left of the premiership, it's no time to be taking chances, play your best possible 11 every game, as every game is vital.

In my opinion he should of started with:

Van der sar
O'Shea Brown Ferdinand Heinze
Ronaldo SCholes Carrick Giggs
Solskjaer Rooney

If Giggs wasn't cutting it (against roma he was poor), I think he should of played Solskjear right mid, and ronaldo on left, with Rooney and Smith upfront.

All in all I think his team selection with Tuesday in mind cost United the game.

Also there's no place in the United team for Richardson, he'd be alright at a midtable side, but he's no where near consistant enough for a top 3 side, everytime he's played this season, he's had to be subbed early due to playing poor.

[TakeWarning]

Personally I felt Uniteds loss was in Fergies hands, as he played a team today with Tuesdays game in mind, instead of playing our strongest available 11 from the start. We only have one month left of the premiership, it's no time to be taking chances, play your best possible 11 every game, as every game is vital.
In my opinion he should of started with:

Van der sar
O'Shea Brown Ferdinand Heinze
Ronaldo SCholes Carrick Giggs
Solskjaer Rooney

If Giggs wasn't cutting it (against roma he was poor), I think he should of played Solskjear right mid, and ronaldo on left, with Rooney and Smith upfront.

All in all I think his team selection with Tuesday in mind cost United the game.

Also there's no place in the United team for Richardson, he'd be alright at a midtable side, but he's no where near consistant enough for a top 3 side, everytime he's played this season, he's had to be subbed early due to playing poor.

It's not that easy to play your strongest 11 every game when you've got the Premiership, Champion's League and the FA Cup. Eventually all the players will need a rest. And with the depth in their suad that Man U have, they should be able to beat weaker teams with about half the First 11 missing.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

It really is that easy though....forget about every competition you're in, you play a match to win THAT match, you ignore what games you've got coming up until you get past the one before it. As far as i'm concerned, Man U should of treated that game as if it was the Premiership decider and fielded their strongest possible 11...if someone gets a knock or whatever, deal with it the next game, that's what the squad is for, not to fill in when you're worried about a game in a few days.

While Man U should be able to beat weaker teams with their squad players, Portsmouth aren't exactly weak, especially playing them at their ground, besides, you can never guarentee a win, West Ham beat Utd, West Ham beat Arsenal...you must show every team the same respect and field you're best available side, then if you lose atleast you can say you played your best side and didn't manage it, instead of saying "Oh we played a lot of fringe players today" as if that's somebody elses fault.

Oh and also, what if Utd lose to Roma now? Knocked out of the Champions League, and because he rested players FOR the Roma game, they might of thrown the Premiership. Two competitions it could cost United.

Not saying it will though, i'm looking at worst case scenario.

I will always say you play your strongest available 11 no matter what opposition (Except league cup (under championship opposition), charity matches etc etc). It's not only in Uniteds best interests (As they can make any resting substitutions they need when they're 2-0 up instead of having to bring them on because they're 1-0 down) but it gives the opposition respect.

[DonMancini]

This might sound like an off-topic question, but I'm going to be in London from May 2nd to May 7th, and do you guys know any good sports bar or pub where I could go watch a match? Match that seems most interesting is Arsenal vs. Chelsea on the 6th.

[Britney Diva]

It's not only in Uniteds best interests (As they can make any resting substitutions they need when they're 2-0 up instead of having to bring them on because they're 1-0 down) but it gives the opposition respect.
Who cares about giving the opposition respect? Some games are easier than others, and Portsmouth is definitely an easier match than Roma. He needed to rest some players and he did, and it didn't pay off. And anyway, the loss was down to mistakes by the defence, which was unchanged from the last few games.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

If we'd of started with our strongest attacking line up chances are we'd of been 1-0 or 2-0 up before Portsmouth got their first, or even if not you'd expect United to be able to pull it back.

Rest players when the jobs done, get the lead then make a sub to rest a player, not go behind then bring a player who you wanted to rest on...think of it, he wanted to rest Giggs, now Giggs has had to play the last 45 and then Roma...the rest was a waste of time.

[rik]

Hindsight is a great thing. I'm sure if United had won the match many wouldn't be saying, 'Yer, they won. But it was risky to rest those players'.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

To be fair when I saw the starting 11 I thought he shouldn't of rested those players, as I always do. Win or Lose I still think it's a mistake.

[Britney Diva]

You have to rest players. Ten men played for over an hour against Roma, that really saps the energy, especially for people like Giggs whose pushing on in years and Solskjaer who hasn't even regained full fitness after an injury. I don't think you're taking into account how ineffective tired players can be. Richardson probably isn't good enough to play for United, but he made a nuisance of himself for the 60 minutes he was on the field and chased down a lot of balls Giggs probably couldn't have managed.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

Richardson was subbed at half time not even on 60 minutes, because he did nothing. I know the game saps energy from the older players, but when your replacement left winger isn't fit to don the shirt, then you don't play him.

I would much rather, that if they did have to play someone else in his position, that they would give Eagles a run out, because he's shown signs of being a good player, and he can't possibly be worse than Richardson

[Dead Star]

This might sound like an off-topic question, but I'm going to be in London from May 2nd to May 7th, and do you guys know any good sports bar or pub where I could go watch a match? Match that seems most interesting is Arsenal vs. Chelsea on the 6th.

every pub in the city will have the game on

Try not to go to ones which are full of a certain support though, that can get messy.

[angry armadillo]

This might sound like an off-topic question, but I'm going to be in London from May 2nd to May 7th, and do you guys know any good sports bar or pub where I could go watch a match? Match that seems most interesting is Arsenal vs. Chelsea on the 6th.lol pretty much every pub in london will have that game on just pick one that looks cool

[talk show host]

My God, Watford 3-1 up over Portsmouth.

United should take notes :o

edit: 4-1

[rik]

Newcastle 0 - 0 Arsenal

Not a great match by any means, Arsenal were god awful. Though could've knicked the win near the end with two great blocks off the line by Nobby, I love Nobby.

We were probably the better team with Milner hitting the bar probably our best chance, though not being biased 0 - 0 is probably a fair score.

[ChodaBoy]

A win today for Man City means the last 5 games are LWWDW, hopefully a few more points and they will definately stay up - and then maybe (just maybe) the board will decide to spend decent money on some players rather than just the cash they have in their back pocket

[Frankie]

Man CIty beat Fulham 3-1 and IMO are safe. Fancy charlton to beat the drop and either West Ham, Wigan or Sheff Utd to go down with Watford.

[ChodaBoy]

Well the next 2 games are difficult, Liverpool (H) and Arsenal (A). I would be more than happy with a point from each game (although its unlikely). The 2 games after that are pretty much must-win, Watford (A) and Villa (H).

The 2 games after are Man U and Spurs, but hopefully they wont have much meaning by the time they come around.

A suprise win for Watford today, but it must be too far gone now. Only 6 points behind but have played an extra game.

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

Watford are playing well now that they are playing without pressure as they're pretty much down

[talk show host]

I'm not sure Charlton will beat the drop, they've got a horrible run-in and hopefully we'll beat them tonight :D

I think West Ham could stay up but there's not much to choose from between the bottom four or five. It's too late for Watford though.

[metal-militia]

I think Charlton will stay up. I'd love to see Wigan go down.

Anyone see Saints lose 2-1 to Sunderland today? Suppose we lost to the better team, and I expect Sunderland to at least go up automatically.

[Britney Diva]

I think it'll take a miracle to keep Sunderland off the top, they just look immense right now. Edwards' goal was terrific.

[metal-militia]

Both goals were good. I'm so sick of seeing our defence backing off players though.
We go to Birmingham next week and I reckon we'll have to win to have any chance of getting a play off place.

[Britney Diva]

Please do!

[RandyfromPennywise]

Awesome. Awesome.

[angry armadillo]

I reckon the mancs will sneak through tonight and chelsea will go out.

Valencia rested their first team this last weekend and chelsea didnt, spain also have home advantage, and with the recent troubles with supporters it might provide a larger distraction than usual perhaps.

I think the mancs will sneak it, they only have to score 1-0 to go through so shouldnt be the hardest thing, although if roma can get an away goal its game on.

unfortunately im out tonight so i cant watch

although i will be at anfield tomorrow, i just hope liverpool give us a bit of entertainment seeing as we are 3-0 up.


oh i dont know much about milan or munich, but i am rooting for munich to go through, owen hargreaves is :cool:

[REINER]

Roma is getting tooled. 19 minutes in and its 3-0.

[Echleon]

4-0 United rofl

[talk show host]

jeez, United are slaughtering them. 4 brilliant goals.

[Cecillianne]

wtf happened to roma. i switched to the chelsea game for ten minutes and pop pop pop goes man u.

i saw the 4th goal, defending's godawful.

[Echleon]

hahaha 5-0

[Cecillianne]

6 - 0

you've got to be ****ing kidding me haha

[REINER]

7-1, hahahahahah wow. Roma is playing like **** today.

[Echleon]

7-1... rofl my waffle.

[Cecillianne]

1 - 2, essien's goal. unbelievable. how do chelsea do it, they keep knicking those last minute goals

[Echleon]

Amazing.

Man U 7-1 Victory, Chelsea last minute winner.

[Frankie]

LOL 3 english teams it would appear have gotten into the Semis

[Echleon]

That's because England owns :)

[talk show host]

Carrick's goals were wonderful. Ronaldo didn't play too badly either.

[Britney Diva]

Man that Roma keeper is a stick. Totti was useless as usual.

[Dead Star]

wow wtf man utd

[rik]

Incredible by Man Utd. Typical of Chelsea.

[Cecillianne]

Essien: We came here to win and i think we deserved the 3 points yea.

ahahaha.

[ATM]

Haha what a game, Roma looked terribly out of form.

[ChodaBoy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/f/fulham/6543541.stm

Coleman is gone, a little unfair really. They had a chance of staying up, and putting the assistant manager in place very rarely works

[Britney Diva]

Riksy, but Lawrie Sanchez is a great manager. It took him 5 years to turn around NI's fortunes though, so I'm not sure what kind of impact he'll have. Fulham do look like the side best equipped to score goals out of the five that are fighting to stay up (assuming Watford are gone already, which they are.)

[talk show host]

Didn't really see that one coming. That's pretty harsh.

[DonMancini]

Jesus roma got buttraped.

[ATM]

Yea, pretty much. Christian Ronaldo has such a punchable face.

[TakeWarning]

Incredible game between Man U and Roma. I'm really looking forward to the semi-final between Man U and Bayern/AC. Should be a good one. I'm glad to see Chelsea go through, even though I thoroughly dislike them. I guess it's because they're English.

It's surprising to see Chris Coleman go, he's been at Fulham for a hell of a long time, but they've been getting progressively worse for a while now.

[Manticore Guy]

Today was a fantastic day. Just awesome to witness it as I wanted both Man U and Chelsea to win.

[Britney Diva]

The big question is over whether United can perform like that again this season. We've been atrocious in the Champions League all season, then we pull tonight's performance out.

[rik]

I'm shocked about Chris Coleman, didn't see that coming at all.


Michael Owen played against Gretna yesterday, he scored and apparently looked fit and sharp throughout all of the 70 mins he played, great news.

[Frankie]

Coleman's been there exactly 4 years so I don't know what Alfayid was expecting him into considering they've sold there 2 best players (in Malbranque and Luis Boa Morte) and aren't given very big budgets.

[Lizparker]

Yea, pretty much. Christian Ronaldo has such a punchable face.

please.. beg me to differ! He's got a nice face so don't punch it -.-'
And also this is just jealousy of course!

[Cecillianne]

Owen's looking good. England's missed him.

can't wait for the Munich Milan game tonight. confident Liverpool can do a good one over Eindhoven, 2-0 would be nice.

[The_Passenger]

Man that Roma keeper is a stick. Totti was useless as usual.

I've never understood what was so great about him either.

Both os last night's games were good, here's hopign that teh two tonigth will be just as entertaining.

[Timm]

my guess

bayern - milan 1:1
liverpool - eindhoven (X>2):0

:smash:

[Britney Diva]

I predict Milan-Bayern will be exciting, but not due to the quality of football, while PSV-Liverpool will be a 0-0 draw with neither team trying particularly hard to win.

[Angry Balled Fists!]

oh man when owens back newcastle will be banging lol apart from he will leave this summer i think.

[Britney Diva]

I predict Milan-Bayern will be exciting, but not due to the quality of football, while PSV-Liverpool will be a 0-0 draw with neither team trying particularly hard to win.
All right except for the 1-0 I think :cool:

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

Man Utd vs AC Milan
Liverpool vs Chelsea

Another Italian team for United to hopefully knock out.

I don't mind who goes through the other Semi.

[Ganondorf]

England rules European football.

[angry armadillo]

Liverpool vs whoever in the final i dont mind who goes through we will have them both, I would like to see the Mancs coz we have already had Milan ;)

Liverpool played to win the aggregate yesterday, it wasnt particularly exciting football, but they had a job to do and they did it so chelsea here we come.

Yea, pretty much. Christian Ronaldo has such a punchable face yep \:D/

[Wigga Stole My Bike]

I kind of hope United don't get Liverpool, mainly because at OT Man U dominated Liverpool completely, then at Anfield Liverpool dominated but United got the goal, so 3rd times the Charm for Liverpool?

[rik]

oh man when owens back newcastle will be banging lol apart from he will leave this summer i think.
I really can't see him leaving this summer, he's played something like 10 games in the two seasons he's been here. I don't think he'd feel right picking up his wages for the whole of this season and not playing, and then just taking off when the seasons over.

Also, Martins and Owen upfront next year is making me very excited. I'd be devastated if one of them left this summer.



I want to see a Liverpool - Man U final. I really want to see Liverpool beat Chelsea as they've been much the more exciting team this tournament and deserve to make the final, that and the fact I despise Chelsea. And I'd love to see Man U in it, purely for the fact of an all English final.

[Cecillianne]

anfield was amazing last night. rafa's chant was loud and clear on TV for at least 5 mins. dull game though.

i think milan can beat man u. man u's 7 goals don't convince me that they can do as well as that night for the 2 legs with milan.

[Britney Diva]

Milan have a lot of old legs, if United play at even half the pace they did on Tuesday they won't have a chance. I'm not convinced Milan are a better side than Roma either. Stronger defensively, yeah, but maybe not overall.

[angry armadillo]

anfield was amazing last night. rafa's chant was loud and clear on TV for at least 5 mins. dull game though.i was there :)

i have been sat in work all day going 'rafa rafa benitez' \o/


I will scan/post pics later.

[Angry Balled Fists!]

I really can't see him leaving this summer, he's played something like 10 games in the two seasons he's been here. I don't think he'd feel right picking up his wages for the whole of this season and not playing, and then just taking off when the seasons over.

Also, Martins and Owen upfront next year is making me very excited. I'd be devastated if one of them left this summer.



I want to see a Liverpool - Man U final. I really want to see Liverpool beat Chelsea as they've been much the more exciting team this tournament and deserve to make the final, that and the fact I despise Chelsea. And I'd love to see Man U in it, purely for the fact of an all English final.

yea but im not sure if he will care. i hope he stays we will have one of if not the best striking partnerships in the prem next year.

[Frankie]

AC Milan's team is a dad' army most of there players are 31/32 Maldini's 38 ffs. Only real young player is Kaka. I think it'll be Man Utd Vs Chelsea in the final.

[Minus The Flair]

And my God, wouldn't that be sweet. I think the 3 MU - CH games in 2 weeks is actually gunna happen. Awesome. United will win them all. And Mourinho will be hilariously angry.

[RedMorningLight]

That would be a hilarious situation, and the papers would have an absolute field day covering that. The talk between Mourinho and Fergie would reach new levels for winding each other up. I have a feeling Liverpool will beat Chelsea, I mean I'd quite like that to happen and then I wouldn't rule AC Milan out against ManUtd. The Roma game was an amazing performance and I won't deny that Utd are pretty breathtaking to watch at the moment. However, Milan are such a professional and well drilled side that they are very capable of grinding out results in one off games and also we cant just presume Utd will carry on performing too that level for the rest of the season.

[Dead Star]

The tottenham game on now is a peach.

go spurs

[Britney Diva]

Spurs only have themselves to blame. What a terrible start. The referee didn't help though, he didn't have a clue what was going on.

[TakeWarning]

Spurs missed so many opportunities, we could have easily got the required 4 goals there.

[RandyfromPennywise]

I want to see a Liverpool - Man U final. I really want to see Liverpool beat Chelsea as they've been much the more exciting team this tournament and deserve to make the final, that and the fact I despise Chelsea. And I'd love to see Man U in it, purely for the fact of an all English final.

You think Liverscum have been more exciting? Their group stage matches, away to PSV and Bordeaux, were absolutely ****-house. By my reckoning all of Chelsea's games have been somewhat exciting. You're just being biased towards Liverpool. And that's fine. But it's not true to say that they have been more exciting when really they've had many boring games.

Got the first game of the proper League season tomorrow, I'm starting at centre-back for my new club. It's ok, but I was hoping to be playing in midfield, but whatever. I'm playing in the state amateur league this year, division one so should be interesting to see the jump in quality. The best part is the socks. Seriously, our socks are the best football socks I've ever seen/had. They are awesome.

I'm not convinced Milan are better than Roma You are forgetting one thing: experience. Roma has sick players in many positions, but Milan have experienced players in every position. Don't underestimate them. Kaká is one of two players capable of matching Cristiano Ronaldo's attacking abilities right now.

[angry armadillo]

id wouldnt say its asking to much to say chelseas style of play is more boring than liverpools, but its whatever gets the results out of the players you have that counts so it doesnt really matter

i think liverpool will have chelsea in the semis, you cant really predict these things with logic its just a gut feeling.

i want to say man u milan will be close, because they lost to roma and lets be fair 7-1 is a one off so it should be close


im rooting for a liverpool milan final again \:D/

[munky_magik]

Spurs missed so many opportunities, we could have easily got the required 4 goals there.
I think Sevilla probably missed more opportunites. It should've been about 4-0 by half time.

Decent game to watch, anyway.