themanupstairs

amazing to think he's 3rd choice at national level.

Won't be for too long. I reckon if he carries his current form for another month or two, he'll start in goal for Holland against Germany.

Wasn't he in Barca's youth system in the first place?

 

Yes, apparently we cut him because he was too short...

 

Can't always get it right!

 

Barca...ditching a player for being too short!?

Wiki says he's 5'7. He looks more like 4'7 to me

Soldado scores with his first touch on as a sub to put Valencia back in the lead. Expert finish 

Absolutley abysmal, I didn't understand it not being red at the game, I understand it less watching it back. What a bent c*** of a ref, at lest he followed it up with a whole host of other poor decisions. Tosspot.

 

On a seperate note, what a bellend Sturridge is, surprised he didn't get his head caught in the tunnel the prick.

 

Sturridge really needs to improve his finishing, it's not the first time I've seen him be very wasteful.

Can only recall one wasteful opportunity when he ran onto a ball over the top and should have buried it but hit straight at Krul who dived to collect. The rest was a combination of excellent defending (to put him off) and excellent goalkeeping imo.

Valencia are a lovely little team. Jordi Alba is a monster of a player, the tiny fella that he is.

 

We are apparently in for him. I would utterly love him as our LB.

Seems like he's got the lot. Pace like a spitfire, and bundles of energy. Still needs to learn defensively, but he's such an exciting little player.

How the f*** would Ba not have been on control of that pass, it was right into his path. Joke.

 

One touch to take it wide of the goalkeeper and another to slide it in. The pass and run were perfect. Ludicrous decision, just like last week.

 

This is Ba, not the Brazilian Ronaldo. First touch out of play for a goalkick, the next touch would be Ba's head hitting the ground as he falls over.

www.mikedeanfans.com/forum

Ah, the referees favouring the big teams again. Such a thoughtful analysis.

 

Can a referee ever get it wrong without being a cheat or a bottler? Only when we benefit, clearly.

 

He bottled the decision. But I don't think it had anything to do with Chelsea per se. If the roles were reversed, I don't think he would have sent our man off either. There is absolutely no excuse or reason he could give to justify his decision (or lack thereof). Getting the decision wrong would have meant him waving the play on. He pulled up the play for a foul, correctly adjudging Luiz had brought down Ba who was clean through etc....

 

But there is an excuse/justification. He thinks Ba won't get on the end of that pass, and therefore it's a cynical foul but not a goalscoring opportunity, hence the yellow.

 

That's not to say that he's right, just that he does have a justification.

Nonesense. There was millimeters in it. Not like Ba would still have had a long way to go to reach the ball, or a lot more to do to have a goalscoring chance. The ref can't take it upon himself to make assumptions, especially as his decision was so easy to make. He used that excuse to cover his ass, the wanker that he is.

Valencia are a lovely little team. Jordi Alba is a monster of a player, the tiny fella that he is.

Ah, the referees favouring the big teams again. Such a thoughtful analysis.

 

Can a referee ever get it wrong without being a cheat or a bottler? Only when we benefit, clearly.

He bottled the decision. But I don't think it had anything to do with Chelsea per se. If the roles were reversed, I don't think he would have sent our man off either. There is absolutely no excuse or reason he could give to justify his decision (or lack thereof). Getting the decision wrong would have meant him waving the play on. He pulled up the play for a foul, correctly adjudging Luiz had brought down Ba who was clean through etc....

Ba would have got on the end of that pass, and had a go at goal, most probably finished it with aplomb. Mike Dean bottled the decision. It's fairly obvious.

Being fair to Chelsea btw, in defence and midfield they barely misplaced a pass all afternoon. We only got the ball back through good tackling or their failed attempts in the final third. For all their 'crisis' etc they still looked a cut above most other teams (including us) in that respect.

They do the basics right! Least I would expect from that collective heap of primadonnas. They used to do much more than the basics though. Not these days.

He did track back a lot in the second half, presumably because Pardew bollocked him for not doing so in the first 45. Aside from that he was nothing more than frustrating, i counted at least 8 opportunities for him to cross first time but instead chose to draw two men to him then simply fell over. If he starts against Norwich there's something seriously up. What exactly, is any fuckers guess.

Pretty much. Nothing wrong with the lad except his decision making, which obviously is largely detrimental to our attacking play. He could be such a vital cog on that right hand side but lets himself down again and again. Needs dropped no doubt about it.

Sunderland can go fuck itself as far as i'm concerned. Let that whole nondescript cavern of incestuous lepers wank themselves silly all they want.  MON will be just another manager in their lukewarm history. Meh

Did reasonably well today. No comical moments or anything like that. Credit to skipper Taylor who marshalled that defence superbly until he came off.

How f***ing unlucky! How we never got something out of that today I'll never know.

Tim Krul was absolutely majestic in goal today. Really thought we wouldn't concede at some point. Then Colo went off 

Coloccini and Taylor were excellent at the back, Cabaye and Guthrie were also very good, especially at finding space to collect and lay off passes all day long. Ba was inventive and deserved a goal along with Ameobi who was fantastic coming on.

On another day we'd have shat on them from a great height, as Chelsea were mediocre by their standards, and the scoreline flattered them to f***.

Worst thing about this game is the injuries obviously, and I hope they're not too cruel on us.

Lovenkrands starting doesn't fill you with confidence, but then again, he is a poacher, so hopefully get on the end of something or other in the box.

Let's beat this rabble.

HTL 

Cat and midds :clap: wow! You guys are incredible

Thank You

Dave makes a good point (can't be arsed to go back a page to quote it).

 

He's a good manager who gets good results. There's no getting away from that. They haven't appointed Avram Grant.

 

On the flip side, that stuff from the bloke in Leicester is so spot on, i almost nodded my head clean off my shouders. He's very far from being any type of messiah. He'll get them to 8th to 10th, I reckon, which for Sunderland is quite the achievement.

 

Actual fact does not bear comparison to some of the media fawning. Henry Winter the other day described him as "a stellar manager". Not wanting to sound snooty, but if he's that, having been out of work for over a year, why on earth is he about to take over at Sunderland?

 

My advice to you lot is to marvel at the forthcoming press fawning, because it is going to make you vomit. It made me vomit even when he was with us, the suggestion being that we were Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa, that we were lucky to have him, and that should overrule any complaints we might have about the awful football or the profligate wasting of money. Had I known we'd still be getting it today (and we are), I would have opted never to have had him here at the first place.

 

I have personally never had a problem with Sunderland. Sure, RTG is the mongiest place I've ever seen on the internet, but on the flip side, my best mate at uni was a mackem, i watched them with him a lot in the third division. 

 

Now MON is going there, however, and thnking back to how he shat on us gigantically, and wanting to see how his press fan club would react to it, I wish them absolutely nothing but ill.

fantastic post

When the teams are announced on the tannoy, "Number 11, Gary Speed" should be read out 11 times and cheered by SJP.

"Fans are hard to please, especially on Tyneside.

 

"The local media have created an expectancy hard to match in reality."

 

"I have long believed some journalists in the North-East have assumed a bigger role than is normal to rest of country."

 

"They have exerted too much influence without being responsible of the consequences - except to heap more criticism on club and the manager."

 

"Alan had a lot to prove when he was given the job last December.

 

"Everyone is now hailing him up there as the new Messiah - even if they didn't say so at the time of his appointment."

Sounds like he's saying something for the sake of saying something.

Will someone please email them the correct spelling of our club captain's name? f***ing idiots.

 

Absolutely grinds on my testicles when they do that. You don't see Latin papers printing news stories about David Bekum and Wayn Rouny.

 

It's not a paper. It's an article from one of our own fans.

I understand that, which makes it even more stupid.

Will someone please email them the correct spelling of our club captain's name? f***ing idiots.

Absolutely grinds on my testicles when they do that. You don't see Latin papers printing news stories about David Bekum and Wayn Rouny.

I think that diagnosing a man with suicidal depression without being in possession of a single fact in the case beyond the fact that he's dead is no less disrespectful than speculating about anything else that may have caused his death.

 

Maybe he was depressed. But maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was the victim of a tragic fluke accident, maybe he was murdered like alpal suggested. Some of these things are more likely than others but the only person with enough information to make that decision will be the coroner.

 

Gary Speed was an individual, a great one, and deserves more than a catch-all diagnosis based on other people's experiences. His wife and children don't seem to think he was suffering from depression and they might be wrong but their views also deserve more than dismissal from amateur internet psychologists.

 

Spot on!

 

Erm, don't think thomas was definitively diagnosing it as depression whatsoever. His explanation was an offshoot from alpal's rationalisations as to why depression would or could not possibly make sense.

 

[/my understanding]

We are all grieving in one way or another, but I'm sure we all have our own questions. Gary Speed's passing is as sudden and as mysterious as it can get. alpal wasn't being offensive or owt, and I don't think he should be chastised for hoping that the police not let this incident go. No one is belittling depression and its dangers. Nothing is established yet, so until then, I'd rather we didn't speculate in any way.

I think that diagnosing a man with suicidal depression without being in possession of a single fact in the case beyond the fact that he's dead is no less disrespectful than speculating about anything else that may have caused his death.

 

Maybe he was depressed. But maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was the victim of a tragic fluke accident, maybe he was murdered like alpal suggested. Some of these things are more likely than others but the only person with enough information to make that decision will be the coroner.

 

Gary Speed was an individual, a great one, and deserves more than a catch-all diagnosis based on other people's experiences. His wife and children don't seem to think he was suffering from depression and they might be wrong but their views also deserve more than dismissal from amateur internet psychologists.

Spot on!