The College Dropout

Agreed. Scholes is a brilliant player but he's gotten away with a lot. He hasn't garnered a reputation for being dirty yet he's amassed something like a dozen red cards and could easily have had more. The fact that he's small and little also helps him to be honest. He's lucky to have not seriously injured someone in his career. A Patrick Vieira challenge of similar proportions would look much worse because of stature.

FWIW my definition of a target man is perhaps unconventional - for me a target man has a lack of movement on the pitch if you like...has a singular way of playing and fighting the CB's for the ball within the width of the 18 yard box he's a target man because the rest of the team always know where he is, they don't need to be looking which side of the pitch he's ventured into before playing the pass 'cause he's always in the same sort of area ready to battle for the ball mick harford was a target man, for example That's like saying for a winger you have to be small quick and constantly whip in crosses. Robben has been the best winger in the World last season and he hardly ever uses his right foot despite playing their for both club and country. Or that a poacher can't have any strong physical characteristics. If you fulfil the role, you can be used as that kind of player no matter what else you can do.

People have already mentioned Drogba. Adebayour is basically Drogba-lite, does he only count as a target man because he's kinda shit? Crouch regular in a team that finished 4th. Adebayour was a regular in a team regularly challenging in the latter stages of CL and Premiership.

If a decent part of your role in a football team is to win headers (from a targeted long ball), hold up the ball and bring others into play you're a target man. In this day and age you also probably need other skills but that still makes you a target man. Drogba Crouch Llorente Klose RVP's role for Holland was basically a target man. He was just shit at it. Van Nistelrooy did that role excellently in Euro 2008 though. Dzeko Adebayor Santa Cruz

I dunno like, that first game today made me want to put my head through a wall until the goal saved me. Then again the first half of the North Korea game was captivating, as a neutral. I still think the negatives of 0-0s are far more freqent than the positives. A 0-0 against Man Utd. on th first day of the season would be a beautiful affair. It would most likely be us defending all game and we'd do it beautifully.

That would have been good..... France have been rather like the pompous arrogant Dutch players of the late 80s and 90s Thought they only had to turn up, no discipline, no respect for their coach, swaggering pack of dipsticks. Took them years to get their act back together. Yeah the Dutch side of the 00's have been much better than the World Cup semi finalists and EURO Cup winners of the 80's and 90's.

Apart from 2 or 3 all the 2nd round of group games have been good and exciting. Aussie match was good. Serbian match was good. Mexico-France. After a slow start it's becoming really good. 0-0's can be beautiful affairs. Even if it's just 1 team attacking and another defending.

ZzzZZzzzZZzZZZZzzzZZz f***ing Vuvuzelas.

Why has nobody mentioned the fact that part of the reason Rooney has scored so many goals is because the team is built around him? The Manchester United system is built to maximize the amount of scoring opportunities he has. He hasn't had as many assists because he's usually the highest up the pitch, he's meant to be the one finishing off the chances. The style of player Berbatov is, is meant to help provide for the top striker. Valencia is constantly beating his man and delivering dangerous cross after cross. Chelsea do score a lot more goals but those came from 4 or so matches where they scored 7plus and they are hardly a much better team in Man United. They got knocked out the CL fair and square and only finished a point above Man United. Right now as of May 2010 Didier Drogba is the better footballer. He scores more and provides more. His work ethic is under-rated, defensively he's amazing at defending corners and as the stats show he provides in quantity and he does all of this effectively. This season Rooney hasn't been "all over the pitch" like someone said, he's been leading the line like a proper predatory striker and hasn't shown he score loads and provide loads too.

Marseille where just better than us tbh. Drogba laid us to rest.

Or Shola to score his own version of the perfect hat-trick - left shin, right shin, face.

When was the last time a team who where not Champions win the Champions League? Milan or Liverpool would be my guess.

But yeah the UEFA Cup has more entertainment but the CL is just the real deal. Best of the best, Legends are made on that stage.

Without 3rd and 4th being in the competition the same teams would still win it because it would mean all the players would just join the top 2. The CL has meant that a team like Arsenal can stay competitive in the title race and attract players like Arshavin.

Also Gerrard's been culpable for some clangers in his time. Noticeably against Arsenal a couple times. I'd put Gerrard above Lampard because in a dire moment I'd look for him to save the day like he does for L'pool.

IMO Gerrard has only been able to show himself in a team of great players for England and he's always been pretty poor. I used to blame the managers but really I think he just not very good when he's not the main man or can't just play a simple role to great effect. Also I think his best form has come in a secondary striker role or one of great space. He was getting raped by Kaka in Istanbul for the first half as a CM... Alonso came on - stopped Kaka (which stopped Milan) allowed Gerrard to play. Scholes has shown he can do it box to box, secondary striker or this old man role he has now.

In relation to what? I've dealt with the Scousers being in the Champions League for many years now. And they will still be broke as a club. Don't like all the Villa-wanking. They spend a lot of money and I couldn't deal with the extra wanking. Imagine Spurs in the CL..... i'll say no more. Don't like Citehs billions. Interesting, personally all of that aside Liverpool, and the way they play does my tits in. I'd like to see Everton get in there, stay in there and make their money that way. I like Moyes, and the signings he's made, if they do it, they can say they did it without any help from a sugar daddy too. Really like Moyes as a manager now.

Think Everton are too far away but I would choose them if it was likely. IMO he's done the best job out of all those managers. Give Moyes Villa's money and they would've been in the CL by now.

In relation to what? I've dealt with the Scousers being in the Champions League for many years now. And they will still be broke as a club. Don't like all the Villa-wanking. They spend a lot of money and I couldn't deal with the extra wanking. Imagine Spurs in the CL..... i'll say no more. Don't like Citehs billions.

Liverpool tbh. Better the devil you know and that.

Wasn't it a brace? When Viana got bummed and the pull back from the freekick?

None of this is true. None. Rooney is strong but not Drogba strong, especially in and around the box. Have you ever seen Rooney bully a "strong" defender the way Drogba has done Carragher? (Senderos or even Bramble for that matter?). Torres is deceptively strong, quicker and in conclusion. A bit of an assassin. CL QF against Arsenal, was it a volley? Either way it was just BANG! Torres. Only - on him is that he sometimes ghosts away from home. Drogba offers more to a team than Rooney IMO and is great in the air defensively.

Torres and Drogba are neck and neck imo right now. Drog has the tendency to miss a howlers but Torres has more days when you know he's just not going to score. Both are better than Rooney imo.

Brilliant.

I always have and still do rate Bellamy as a great player. But he'll never be better than Nicholas Anelka.. who although has many caps and trophies, should've done a lot more with his career.