themanupstairs

Very much so. Was one of, if not the best, creative forces for us last season. Powerful intelligent running, and a somewhat decent cross.

Should mean CL football for him (I assume, because it doesn't seem like there's ever another Cypriot team in the CL). Good move for him. Anorthosis Famagusta have been in the odd time haven't they? They have. Ketsbaia was their manager when they became the first Cypriot team to ever qualify for the group stages. APOEL Nicosia have been in there 3 times now iirc, as have AEL Limassol.

JC is available I believe. So is King Kenny. He knows the Singular Unique Honorable Righteous TiciTaca Liverpool Way. He would channel The Spirit of Shankly, and they would once again be living in history, exactly where they belong.

A premier league proven goalscorer for Arrons, who promises lots but delivers nowt. I'd take that. obvious wum is obvious

Serious question: Who apart from Lovren is he obviously playing because they are his favorites over other more capable players? Maybe Lucas over Can as well?

Fatima Whitbread? Will Mackenzie isn't it, sans spectacles. The state of the football

excellent

Rob Elliot for me. An absolute impostor.

pashun

Just got home from the match. They weren't much cop tbh. Cyprus could've and probably should've spoiled the party. Bale was woeful apart from that one moment. But I guess that's all it takes for a special player like him. Ashley Williams is a cunt of the highest order. He was bullied all night by the young centre forward Mytidis and constantly complained to the ref and linesmen. Ramsey was great to watch, and I was very impressed by that Richards kid who put in the cross for the goal. Draw would have been a fair result, but having a player like Bale in your team makes all the difference.

Fuck Spurs. Would have been as bad a move for him to go there as it would have been to move to Chelsea or Man City at this point. Footballing graveyards for players like him. So happy he's still here and I hope we get to see much more of him this season

That is still bananas

Going down marra 9-1 FTM, divn't you know?

obvious wum is obvious

Sell for 6, buy Austin for 15. The 9 million difference is well worth it when it will most likely mean staying in the top division.

57 in the end. not a bad haul. 52nd in NO league. dizzying heights!

Man up shark man ffs. It's just football. YOLO and all that. You know you want to

Casual racism isn't funny tbh

To be fair, we've had 2 games with 10 men against superior teams and a game at Old Trafford where we probably produced more chances than we'd have expected. If we're not creating against West Ham and Watford I'll start to worry. Let's be honest. Didn't look like scoring against swansea anyway. Ditto Arsenal. 2 half chances and one genuine chance is hardly anything to talk about in attacking terms. I don't consider any of the teams we'v faced to be real untouchable top quality. Pretty sure McClaren himself has said the passing/attacking would come later, the focus is on making us solid first. After last season, he has to be super careful with confidence, especially as do/did have quite a tough opening run of games. I think there's a plan in place and this has to be remembered, it took us quite a while to look an attacking force under KK when he came back, let's not forget. There's also the small matter of the massive windfall that clubs are hoping to cash in on next season. Priority will clearly be to set up defensively and play the counter-attack for 10 or 11 clubs in the division as they try to avoid relegation.

So by playing two players who can't pass the ball more than 10 yards sideways and backwards, are physically out muscled consistently every game and leaving your main striker isolated without service is the way forward. I can't see encouraging signs it just reminds me of last year but instead of hoofing the ball forward we are now trying to play keep the ball with 10 yard balls between the defence and Colback/Anita. As an attacking force we are virtually a non entity currently - sorry when I see basic mistakes being made which are so obvious then I will call it. If your happy with that so be it but don't know how you can be to be honest. Yes we have been down to 10 men but before we were the team was set up wrong at Swansea and against Arsenal. Add to the fact Sissoko is not a winger and Perez being dropped again (or even De Jong) not being selected to the detriment of the team and resulting in your main striker being totally isolated, then I'm sorry that is certainly not an improvement. I've clearly said that the way we're playing is still nowhere near good enough for the future. The fact that he has gone back to basics with the stuff I've highlighted bodes well in that he has to start from somewhere. I also have gripes about the 2 tiny dancers in midfield, and I don't think it's how we should line up once we have settled as a squad with new players and totally new management. I am however willing to be patient and let the new coaching do its job, as the signs are encouraging.

25 pts with 5 to play. Sagna saving my bacon this week, again.

We spent the majority of two games against the two best possession teams in the league, with a man down ffs In order to reverse the utter rubbish we'd been served up by al pards in the last few years, SMC needed to get back to basics. Professional attitude on and off the pitch, respect for the fans, better communication, proper coaches and backroom staff, and a solid defensive shape that should become hard to break down. This is a game where the 11 players on the pitch (haha) at any given time need to make collective and individual decisions in split seconds. You can't influence that in 5 minutes. It takes bloody time. It's nowhere near good enough at the moment, but McClaren has earned the chance to show what he wants to do. No one's saying we'll win the league next year or owt. But not seeing encouraging signs from the evidence we've had so far is just being stubborn for the sake of it.

Top post. As in, topped myself with anguish over the "logic" of the bolded part especially

His distribution was markedly better than usual yesterday Some of his kicks were measured passes rather than aimless punts up-field.

Why not, they say to hit the deck if even looked at in the box ? It's a horrible, horrible game at this level, only my partisanship keeps me involved. This 1000000%