Shak

Spain games generally are boring to watch, to be honest. The way they set up is very, very cautious. They rarely commit more than a couple of men to the box on an attack, and they very rarely try anything too ambitious when in possession. The result is that it's incredibly difficult to score goals against them as you rarely have possession of the ball and when you do get it they generally have a lot of men behind the ball so you can't hit them on the break. The strategy is to deny the opposition any goal threat and patiently probe away at teams in the final third, waiting for a lapse in concentration from the defence or a moment of magic from one of Spain's players. The result is that they don't create that many chances, but they allow their opponents absolutely nothing. In the knockout rounds of the last three international tournaments Spain have played 9 games. In those games they've scored 10 goals and conceded none in games that generally don't have a lot of chances. It shouldn't be that hard to see why some people find them dull to watch. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate how good they are. No other team in the world could play the way they do, the touch, technique and coolness on the ball is absolutely amazing, with the exception of Arbeloa the whole team is absolutely top class in their use of the ball. We may never see another side like them and they should be appreciated while they're here. I'm sure that all the people who call them boring do appreciate how good they are, but they're entitled to call them boring IMO.

Ronaldo. Lucky last pen, slithered in.

You people pay way too much attention to the commentary.

Been a desperate game like IMO. Spanish have been sloppier than usual in possession, don't look threatening at all. Wouldn't mind seeing Portugal nick it.

Martin Lol

Just wait a few weeks for Stu's "NUFC Depth Chart" thread, you'll feel right at home then.

Re-upped FFS. Should change his name to fucking Stringer Bale while we're at it.

So do I, I'm not even sure why! I've felt sorry for every other club that has gone under. It's because Rangers are a vile, hateful club supported primarily by vile, hateful wankers. I'd love to see them disappear forever, it'd ultimately end up hurting Celtic immensely too which can only be a good thing.

Haven't seen enough of Toivonen to make a judgement on him, but he sounds like the type of player we should be after. Can play in a couple of different positions, might be a nice squad player.

From a footballing point of view bringing in Debuchy and keeping Simpson as backup would be pretty much ideal. Let Tavernier go out on loan for the year and get some experience. Can't see it happening though, we'll want a fee for him rather than letting his contract run down. Hope to fuck it's not a case of sell before we buy.

What they had is essentially a 4-4-2 anyway, they just tried to make it look fancy. Ye could do with Ashley Young getting his act together, he was rubbish at the Euros but he's still only 26 so he should have plenty of tournaments left in him. He's got the ability IMO.

I think Italy will give Germany a pretty good game tbh, they look like a good side to me. Milner has no business playing on the wing at any level, never mind for the English team. Offers absolutely nothing. Think that between Carroll and Wellbeck you've got two good options alongside Rooney for the future, this tournament will be good experience for them. A lot depends on getting Wilshire established in the first team, he's the type of player you've sorely missed for years.

Was at the Ireland-Italy game, loads of us in the Irish section were singing and dancing along with it.

Stupid comments to make really.

Ribery

Engaging Stifler in conversation.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m501t2fdt51r9wpm5o2_1280.png

France should go with the team that beat Ukraine IMO. Love Ben Arfa to bits but Blanc's primary concern should be playing the team he feels will do best together, in terms of pure talent that should include HBA but team harmony needs to be right, especially against a team like Spain. Disappointed Hatem has thrown the toys out, it's going to do him no favours in the long term.

I'll set up to leaving party thread over the weekend.

Well that was quite possibly the best two weeks of my life. Got back last night, in absolute ribbons here. Two week hangover, drank more vodka in the last fortnight than I had in my whole life previously. Can't say enough good stuff about Poland. Cheap drink, good food and friendly locals, literally had no problems from anybody the entire time. Police were happy to let us drink in the street and sing songs and anything we wanted really as long as nobody broke anything or bothered any of the locals. Polish women Croatian fans were cracking, loads of fun before/after/during the match. Spanish fans were good fun before and after the game, Italian fans were useless on more or less every level. Had tickets to our first and last game before I went, couldn't afford a ticket to the Spain game. However through some serious good fortune myself and one of my friends ended up having an entire VIP Skybox to ourselves. Free drink with our own personal waitress all night and a seat near the halfway line, was absolutely magic. We were the only fuckers in the corporate seats with jerseys on who gave any sort of fuck about the game, was pretty good at the end when we were both singing our hearts out with nobody else near us doing the same. Shame about how shite we were, really disappointing performances. Obviously was expecting that we'd be outplayed in all three games but so many of the goals we gave away were through sloppy defending/goalkeeping which is something we've never really done under Trapattoni. The result was obviously three comfortable defeats which I didn't expect, bad as we are in terms of talent. Spain were absolutely magnificent to watch btw, the quality of their first touch and close control throughout was absolutely jaw dropping. Was an absolute joy to be there and see them live. Oh, and We'll sing when we want We'll sing when we want FUCK YOU ROY KEANE We'll sing when we want

Cheers, should be a classy affair.

I'll be surprised if we lose all three. We're awful to watch and don't have any top class players, but one thing we definitely are is very well organised. The system has been the same since Trappatoni took over and the personnel rarely changes either, everyone knows what's expected of them and where they should be defensively. We won't scare any of the teams we go up against but I don't expect us to be pushovers either. My guess is that we'll take one pasting and have two close matches in the group stage. If we take our chances and get a little bit of luck when we need it then you never know, we might just sneak through the group. Off to Dublin in half an hour then flying out in the morning, come on Ireland!

Fuck your face Dave.