Dr Spectrum

Ledley King has been an excellent centre half for England over the years IMO. I always felt sorry for him after he played excellently against France in '04 only to get bumped out for Terry in the next game, and we then proceeded to be a shambles at the back for the rest of the tournament. King > Terry. (At international level) I can't watch the game tonight btw. He's probably playing shite isn't he.

i agree, ssn kept saying last night that it would be done last night etc, i don't think it will be confirmed until tomorow. Jeebus. I wonder where we got our fax machine from. Amstrad?

English Paul Dickov. He's absolutely awful. Always has been, even before he signed for that lot. And he's got more than double the number of England caps Matt Le Tissier has. Absolutely fucking embrassing.

IMO, Bob Carlos is - in a round about way - one of the most underrated players of his generation. He's a bit like Clarence Seedorf in that he's one of these guys who's name always comes up in "most overrated" topics - I even remember teletext previewing England-Brazil in '02 and identifying him as the worlds most overrated player. Never gone along with that myself, I've always thought he was a top quality player. Even if 90% of his free-kicks are awful, IMO a far better defender and a far better footballer than he ever gets credit for. blueyes.gif

Personally I'd play 442 with a central pairing of Barton/Emre. Not that I think Emre is any good, just that IMO Barton and City were always at the best with a central pairing of Barton/Reyna, and Emre seems most like Reyna from your guys...Deep lying keeping it simple type... Stick Milner on the right, 2 from 3 up front, on the left a tossup or someone new...happy days. But I think SA will go 451. Not sure how tho, can't see how Owen fits in...

Joe Hart > Lev Yashin. Seriously tho, he's massive. And is he allowed to do that crossbar thing?

I wonder what the score would have been if we'd have played 442 from the start. 10?

Huddlestone showing what could have happened if he would have been willing to leave the centre circle and actually have a go at these muppets. We played 451 for an hour against these, FFS... Pearce out.

Again, James fucking Vaughan. Dominated Carvalho in the air but apparently he's not good enough to play against Slovak no hopers. Matt Derbyshire is on the pitch for gods sake. He is garbage. Vaughan looks a better prospect than Nugent, Lita, or Derbyshire from what I've seen. By miles. I don't rate Lita at all (And I'm currently feeling very smug about that as he's just missed an absolute sitter). But I think there is something very important to remember about the team selection tonight. We are being managed by a retard. Ashley Young is absolutely raping that fullback tho, 3-0 Taylor.

45 minutes of watching these Slovakian clowns, Pearce decides that at HT he should make a few changes - but keeps it at 451. FFS, we are absolutely hopeless, this is so much like watching City last year. They're not even trying to score, how many players are in the box? 1? 2? I'm looking at the screen as I type this, WTF is Huddlestone supposed to be doing? Marking the centre circle? And he's doing that stupid cheerleading in the dugout thing. Again. He's so desperate to do everything he can, but he's an absolute bufoon And this man is favourite to be the next England manager

I wouldn't trust him to look after me bins, never mind the future of our national team. He thinks Steve Wigley is competent FFS. I mean, Slovakia are absolutely shite, WTF do we need to play 451 for? Is this the way we want to be teaching our future players to play?

Stuart Pearce playing people out of position!?!?!? Well I never. (PS: Stuart Pearce = )

I blame Pearce - one up front and a deep lying holding midfielder against this shite He really is absolutely fucking clueless. This is the Emile Mpenza up-front-on-his-own system that City beat you with, and cos it worked a couple of times now its in his head that this system is the way to go, and he'll absolutely beat it to death, no matter how innapropiate or how obvious the failings of it are, until him or his tactical genius mastermind assistaint Steve Wigley comes up with something else. He did exactly the same thing with this 532 thing we nicked a couple of games with over christmas. Pearce = Buffoon. Fact.

Have the teams been announced? Nedum Onuoha or Joe Hart playing?

Well. Newcastle player he is. Good player, wish you luck - you'll need it. But 70 fucking grand!

The cynic in me says the family he's going to speak to is his Uncle Eggert... Well. If Willie McKay's got owt to do with it. Which he has.

I don't understand that logic. Whether or not a team is or isn't built around him how does it affect his ability to pass a ball or shoot? It doesn't affect his ability, but it does affect the frequency of how often he is getting a shot in if the tactics are basically built around giving him shooting opportunities rather than something more balanced. Thanks for clarifying.. So did he have a free role with no defensive responsibilities at City because the couple of times I did watch your matches this season gone he seemed to get stuck into the defnsive side of things as well? He didn't have a free role, not in a million years would Stuart Pearce give anyone in his team a free role. I exaggerated the situation in an attempt to explain the point I was making. However I do think that in a different side he wouldn't shoot as much - he would have other options (Such as the ability to pass to a competent forward, which should be a nice change for him). And there might be fewer chances for him to shoot away from our counterattacking mentality, which suited his engine. Plus, I would assume the numbers would go down a little if he's not on set piece duty (Which you really, really don't wanna know about ).

I don't understand that logic. Whether or not a team is or isn't built around him how does it affect his ability to pass a ball or shoot? It doesn't affect his ability, but it does affect the frequency of how often he is getting a shot in if the tactics are basically built around giving him shooting opportunities rather than something more balanced.

You are absolutely spot on. (Apart from that very last bit, which could actually be true in a few months)

Bare(sp?!) in mind that the City team was build around Barton so the stats are a way ahead of what they would be in an "ordinary" team... But, Emre, 6 shots? Jeez, I always thought he was inneffective but that is shite!

Barton will fly thru the medical, he's never had an injury in his life. Well, if they're only looking at his knees that is... If they're giving him a psychological exam tho....

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6188/62898101ss3.jpg

Someone just posted that Key103 (Manchester version of your Metro) said that Barton isn't going to talk to Newcastle or West Ham and wants to stay here... How much truth there is in any of the above remains to be seen.

You know...I have no idea where this "Citeh" thing comes from? I mean, I can guess, its an accent thing...but I don't know why people bother using it on the interwebs? Is it not easier to type "City"?

No. City released a statement to the Stock Exchange this morning saying that we're now in "advanced" negotiations with interested parties, so a bid could be made soon - next week allegedly - but its been reported every week for months that a bid is imminent. Dragging on and on and on... I know buying a football club is a complicated business...especially one with as much debt as ours, but its very frustrating. So many conflicting reports and rumours - he's "made" several bids, he's "pulled out" several times. No-one is really sure what is happening. Nothing like your part of the world - This Mike Ashley thing came right out of the blue, I'd never heard of him until he'd bought the shares. I'm not jealous tho. I remember him saying that he really hope that he could manage a premiership team in his career before.I think he has achieve what he can with Sevilla and the time is right for him to move on and I think Man City is not a bad club for him to start his premiership challenge. Believe he just wants to come to England...we're the best job available.