Incognito

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Shearer and Bobby Lee style

I hope we don't sign a Mackem punctuation mark.

Nah. Might scrape top 4 . Won't finish above Manchester Better or Chelsea .

That has me giggling, the in this day and age bit. Oh how we yearn for the halcyon days eh Discotheque Desmond?

And former prospective Tory candidate for Barnsley.

Couldn't say his name anyhow.

Seriously? Where do they want them shown, on BT or Sky? Hope so. How would we survive international football without Adrian Chiles or our money sending about 500 BBC staff on a months holiday? Never be allowed to leave free tv though And nor should it.

Who was it that said Amdy Faye was better? That was a good one. Graeme Souness

And certain breeds of Hitler.

I agree with all of this. Not Jones or Smalling either. John Stones looks good and maybe Steven Caulker can get a decent move and flourish again. Clyne looks the most likely right back.

At least it was against the chompions.

I guess it's a case of Chewy Luis and the blues.

To be fair to Suarez, this at least disproves that he's not the racist he's portrayed to be as he only bites lightish skinned blokes.

Has Stevie G taken the armband

Read that as Tom Daley Both bat for the same team allegedly.

Must be a Uruguay fan that lad.

He's actually played some lovely passes today. Fair play to him.

Nah.

Deffo a penalty

Lampard breaking up attacks majestically. For Costa Rica.

It is superb.

Of course they have. It was a far more physical game then. Changes to the offside rule among other things is a factor too, not to mention the way teams have evolved.... Players like Alba at Barca would have been a winger back even in the 90s. Said this before but i don't think individual defending has gotten worse in particular, but the game has evolved/changed to suit the attacker even more than it already did. Definitely. Level used to be off and benefit of any doubt always went with defenders. :thup :

Of course they have. It was a far more physical game then. 10 years ago? Even 5. John Terry's probably higher up the best CB lists in the PL now than in his prime. Every foul these days seems to be a yellow. I know I am exaggerating somewhat but years ago you'd get away with far more. And I guess it didn't happen overnight and as such was a gradual change. So even the last 10 there's probably been a stricter policy by refs. I would say thats its not so much the rule changes, but the expectation of what a centre back is to be. There has been a massive shift change in the way that centre backs are viewed and expected to be. Its not so much about size and strength these days as it is about pace, being nimble, having a good brain and being good on the deck. This has invariably changed the look and feel of the centre back. The start of this in England i would say began with Rio Ferdinand, with the last of his era being John Terry. Rio relied on his pace and technical ability which meant that throwing himself in front of balls and bashing players out of the way was never his style. Also, the influx of foreign, technical defenders has limited the view that one would have on the "good old fashioned" defender. Colo is a prime example, when he came here, he was what a continental centre back now is, however his game has adapted slightly to fit with modern demands. Strikers are now no longer 6ft 4, 14 stone and going to have elbows around your temples all game. Those days are gone, and it sky opinion that until that paradigm shift happens in our minds, we will still expect defenders to remain how they were in the old days. The first time i noticed the shift was Ivan Cordoba v Alan Shearer in the inter v toon game, the process of this change has definitely sped up in the last few years however. I agree to a certain extent but we've had ball playing centre halves way before Rio. Never two together mind. Mark Wright was selected in Italia 90 purely because of his ball playing skills. And of course the only Englishman to lift the World Cup was probably our greatest footballing defender ever.

Of course they have. It was a far more physical game then. 10 years ago? Even 5. John Terry's probably higher up the best CB lists in the PL now than in his prime. Every foul these days seems to be a yellow. I know I am exaggerating somewhat but years ago you'd get away with far more. And I guess it didn't happen overnight and as such was a gradual change. So even the last 10 there's probably been a stricter policy by refs.