ponsaelius

Not having that like. Up until the last World Cup Torres was a fucking brilliant footballer. One of the best strikers in the world in his first 3 seasons at Liverpool and wasn't just because of goalscoring. Even at Atletico he was never prolific infront of goal, but his ability and all round play was there for all to see. His allround game has never been great. He's terrible with his back to goal, never created for others and in Spain he was routinely criticised for poor decision making. He was skillful, powerful and a phenomenal front to goal finisher (for 2 seasons) at Liverpool but to say he was a brilliant allround player is just not true. Now he's unable to be effective at what he used to do he looks like a fish out of water trying to drop deep and link up play. He was a brilliant footballer in the sense that he was a world class goalscorer for 2 years (it's difficult to argue he isn't when he's scoring 30 goals a season) but he's never been an allround player.

I assume that Tweet is the Kelly call-up.

I think Torres has far more skill and technical ability than Owen to be honest with you. His problems are actually similar to the ones Owen had in that he has returned from some injury problems completely lacking in aggressiveness and confidence. Frankly, I believe he is faster than all of our strikers, but you would never know it because he is unwilling to try things and attack defenders the way he used to. I wouldn't want him here for simply financial reasons, but I think he would still be a top quality player if he ever regained his mental attributes. He is not a lost cost like Owen after his knee exploded. Has he been playing outwide? I thought he was mostly competition for Drogba and Ramires/Kalou were the ones outwide. I haven't seen too many of their league matches to be fair, though. He definitely has more technical ability than Owen but I still think his problems are physical deteriation and the mental side is just a knock-on effect. I don't think he will ever return to his previous level.

If that's the case then why does he say he wants a great run in Europe? People will find anything in quotes it seems.

Apparently its bollocks. Seems like Richardson's agent again, just like that Arsenal link.

Chomp.

Probably will be officially... Aye that's what I'm meaning. Are we the only club to not officially do a release-list yet? Seems everybody else has.

Wasn't it expected to be announced on June 1st?

Not to mention his past history of similar incidents.

Semi is on the same channel for Campbell's goal against the mackems.

Baines sold.

Our 04/05 squad got to the quarters and our 06/07 squad reached the last 16. There is absolutely no reason our current squad with a few defensive additions can't go very far.

Yep, with some additions (couple of first teamers, couple of squad players) which I'm fully expecting our squad will be as equipped as them. They didn't even rotate that much, plenty of players playing 50+ games and they finished around where you'd expect that squad to in the league.

Fulham got the final two years ago and finished 12th with a smaller and inferior playing squad to ours. A few additions and we will be absolutely fine. What is the point of playing in cup compeitions if we're not going to attack them, 43 years is far too long.

I'm not sure where the idea Torres has been playing better recently comes from either. He looks slightly more involved because he's been playing wide - that's it, but it doesn't suit him and never will. The Torres that was legitimately world class for a year or 2 played right up top, on the shoulder of defenders and destroyed teams with pace, power combined with the skill and composure in front of goal. The pace and power have gone and in turn so has his confidence. He hasn't even looked at all like getting some kind of goalscoring form back, a hattrick against an abysmal QPR side and a free run on goal against Barca are all he's done since the turn of the year.

lol got both those games in HD

It's funny that in the Michael Owen thread you've made a post about once him losing his pace he had nothing else - which is accurate. The same thing has happened to Torres, he obliterated this league based on his physical attributes. They've wained - they wained visibly even when he was at Liverpool, watch his goals reel on Youtube and you can actually see the decline. He's a busted flush and will not get back to the level he was once at, a level that only truly lasted 1 season in his whole career. To suggest swapping the most in-form striker in Europe, who is hungry to imrpove and on an upwards trajectory in his career for somebody who hasn't played legimitately well for over two years and would cost 3 times as much in wages is just completely absurd.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunderland-2011-Season-Review-DVD/dp/B007QUWKZK/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1337687639&sr=8-17 Their season review is more expensive than ours. FTM.

Absolutely unbelievable.

There's every chance we won't be seeded to be honest. If the seeded teams win through from the earlier qualifying rounds then we won't be seeded and could have to beat someone like Inter Milan, Marseille or CDKA Moskow to even make the group stage. It'll be a while before we have any idea though tbh. I'm sure their predicted 4th round on there is a rough guestimation involving all the seeded teams winning, ie worst case scenario kind of thing and it has us seeded. What we want to avoid is upsets in the CL qualifying so high ranked teams don't drop in. Even so there could be upsets in earlier Europa rounds which push us higher. On balance it is more likely we'll be seeded.

Needed a thread for the competition as a whole tbh. Good to see it un-stickied.

good fucking lord

Who they ditching out of Keane, Beckham and Donovan then?

Bored now like, wish we'd sign some cunt.