Shearer9

Capello should be the choice. He's the only one with the qualifications that's come out and said he wants it. Normally, it would be a pretty desperate tactic, but clearly the best way to get what you want with the FA is the media, and he's done just that. Nobody better will be interested in the job.

McClaren still has that little smug fucking smile on his face as he says "This is one of the saddest days of my career". It's like he can't get rid of it. Does anyone else find it strange that the Beeb and Sky Sports are pushing the Redknapp/Coppell angle so hard? I've seen both the interview with them, and they both seem to deny any real chance they'd get the England job, even though Redknapp says it would be an honor. And then the Pompey chairman says he wouldn't be allowed to speak to the FA. Yet the media's coming up with stuff like "Redknapp coy on England job" and "Coppell and Redknapp refuse to rule themselves out".

I think Ireland, Scotland, even N. Ireland could give England a run for their money. I'd watch it if it happened.

Coppell, O'Neill, and Stuart Fucking Pearce? Have they not learned anything? I don't think O'Neill or Coppell would be disasters and would probably qualify easily for tournaments but I can't see them winning one, and as far as Pearce goes, is there a more clueless manager out there? If this stuff is true there's another disaster on the horizon for the FA. I'm obviously a big fan of Shearer, and so far I feel like he's been pretty dignified in his retirement, but I hope he doesn't make this his first move.

Is megson still undefeated at Bolton?

Since I started playing Premiership/CL/UEFA Cup Fantasy football 2 or 3 years ago I can't remember a haul as big as Benayoun had today. He'd have got 3 bonus points as well.

I think people are overrating them, this really is a pretty awful side. I know it's a derby, but still... I'm worried about how we'll play (which is a legitimate concern judging by the past few games IMO). We have to go in looking for 3 points. The only thing that worries me about them is the propensity to score late goals. I think that could really get us into trouble, because I can see us trying to hold on to a one goal lead or even a draw, and then they pop up with a late equalizer/winner.

I thought the 4th was pretty bad. The deflection didn't do that much to take it off its course. I know they were all good efforts, but it seems like such a cop-out to suggest that a goalkeeper couldn't even get a hand on one of four goals.

People are also demanding Smith's head.

That had to have been an own goal. Wasn't going towards goal until it hit Gallas (in the hand). Tbh, that's probably the best thing that could have happened for the game.

Don't get rid of the winter break. I'm not so harsh as Wullie, but UEFA could take some steps to reduce fixtures for the bigger clubs by cutting out the meaningless games played in the CL/UEFA Cup, and also trimming these competitions a bit. I think the size of domestic top flight leagues could be trimmed as well, because the bigger the league the bigger the cost to the fans through tickets and travel, and it also oversaturates the fixture list when there are so many cup and European tickets to buy. There's another article in there about cricket, and I think the cricketers have it far worse. Cricket is really intense mentally, and England has the biggest problems with this tbh. Depression and suicide are pretty high amongst cricketers IIRC. They have to spend 4/5 months per year away in hotels on the Subcontinent, in Africa, Australia, the Carribean, etc. That has to do a number on someone's head. There are also too many meaningless games. Why does England need to play a 7-game ODI series? After 4 test matches as well? Add that to the media circus that the British press enforces, and it really puts the pressure one. I think this has also caused other injury problems. Look at the players who played in the 2005 ashes: * Michael Vaughan © (Yorkshire) * Geraint Jones (wk) (Kent) * James Anderson, b (Lancashire) * Ian Bell (Warwickshire) * Paul Collingwooda, b (Durham) * Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire) * Ashley Giles (Warwickshire) * Steve Harmison (Durham) * Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire) * Simon Jones (Glamorgan) * Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire) * Andrew Strauss (Middlesex) * Chris Tremlett, b (Hampshire) * Marcus Trescothick (Somerset) Strauss and Trescothick have had mental problems, Vaughan has had the constant knee problems, it looks like Flintoff's career is being seriously curtailed by injury, Giles had to retire because of injury, Jones, Hoggard, and Harmison have all spent significant time out due to injury. At one point this summer, all 4 major bowlers from that summer were out with serious injury.

Am I the only one who thinks that footballers deserve to be highly paid? I think £150,000/week is a bit ridiculous, but if the world's best players were being paid £60-65k per week, I think that's fair. They're putting their bodies on the line for a career that is really short, and doesn't provide anyone with any kind of stability for their families, homes, etc. And like indi said, it's still there, so it must be working...

I have to say that although I voted for Gerrard, Lampard is vastly underrated here, at least when he's playing for Chelsea. He's an amazing player outside of the national team.

Anyone know if there will be a cup compo this year? It's getting late... And anyone reckon Cahill's worth a shot?

Old is the new new midds.

3 Cheers for NSG.

I get the part about Gerrard being someone that the team emotionally rallies around, but as far as dictating a game goes, I think there are other Liverpool players who do as much or more than he does. Maybe he is a fulcrum, I just think his contribution is very different from someone like an Elano, Fabregas, etc. Allardyce tolerates a specialist defensive midfielder, sometimes even 2. I don't see why he wouldn't have a specialist playmaker.

Of those players, I'd really only say Elano and Lampard are important enough to be called Fulcrums. The rest I'd just call playmakers. As long as we do well keeping width with our wingers and keep the strikers involved in build up play, I don't see why we need a "fulcrum". A playmaker would be nice to have though, someone with real creative touch.

Anelka's done better than I expected him to in Bolton's dire team, 5 goals is a good return so far. I've also been impressed by Gareth Bale whenever I've seen him play. I thought he would be overrated after all that hype around him, but it looks like Man Utd missed out on a fantastic prospect. Can play on the wing and at fullback, has a great left foot, I'd put him just behind Richards on my list of defensive prospects.

This was clearly his first or one of his first big tests, and he's bottled it. There were a lot of tough decisions in this game though, I have some sympathy for him. In some ways, I think a tight derby game would be tougher to ref than a cup final. We've always know that in certain situations certain clubs will get certain calls, but the annoying thing with Liverpool this year is that it's so blatantly obvious. The amount of times that Gerrard just turns and throws his hands up or screams at the referee and gets the call is ridiculous. That Villa free kick is obviously the worst one, but it's just so transparent at times.

Did anyone else think that Roz looked decent as a defensive midfielder? I thought he was really active in that position, better than Geremi has been but not as good as Butt. Martins is such an exciting player, I think the battle for the 2nd striker position should be between Owen and Viduka at this point.

Who did Lennon skin at the end there before Faye dealt with it?

Every time the ball gets down to our end, you can hear someone screaming very loudly right near a microphone. Is that Sam?

Absolutley masterful first touch there!!!

It was interesting stuff on MOTD though, Clattenburg has the yellow card out, Gerrard comes and says something to him, he pockets the yellow, and red cards Hibbert. However, there's no way, if that was actually a foul, that he could not send Hibbert off. That had to be red.