LucaAltieri

FFS. Now I remember why I stopped betting on football matches. Decent odds on the Galatasaray game staying under 4.5 goals. At half time it was 2-1, so put some money on. Stayed 2-1 until the 85th fucking minute... GOAL! ... 89th minute... GOAL! Fucking twats. It's all rigged, I swear.

I think we'd get more out of Jonas if he was playing on the left hand side of a front 3. Somewhere he's not playing too wide and isn't crossing from the by-line. In that role he can still chase things down, stretch the play, and would only need to play simple balls into the box. Of course we've got no one for the same role on the right-hand side. And players in that role can usually finish themselves too. But it's still probably better than playing him as an out and out winger.

Don't feel so bad about losing Owen based on that. Did fuck all in those 20 minutes.

Yup.

Owen coming on.

Commentators at the Spurs game: "Are we really in a situation where a half decent season in the premiership with a poor side sends your value to £8m from nothing?" (Bassong) Commentators talking sense. A rare one. Spurs are playing completely dog shit with more or less a full strength side. Almost half time and not a single shot on goal.

Grafite was topscorer last season. I stand corrected. In fact, Toni was nowhere fucking near. That article I read was talking shit by the sounds of it. EDIT: He was Bayern's top scorer last season.

If he comes off the bench. Rooooooooooo-neeeeeeeey and Berbatov up front.

Tim Krul stung by a wasp and still kept playing. Instant legend.

Real paid €30m for him, and he is still pretty high rated so i believe they won't take on low bids for him, now tell me, how the hell is Villa gonna pay like €20-25m for this guy? Do they have that money? No idea. Brummie?

Villa supposedly in for Wesley Sneijder if there's no bid from Inter.

I enjoyed the performance yesterday. Yes, he made a couple of mistakes, the most obvious one being his half-hearted punch from the corner. But he was no worse than Harper. That's not to say Harper is a bad keeper, either. But Harper was arguably responsible for the goal we conceded. If he'd dealt with it better there would have been no loose ball waiting to be tapped in. Obviously I'm not saying Krul is better than Harper, however they're about on par and Krul is only going to get better. If we had stayed in the Premier League last season we would have been quite happy loaning Krul out to a championship side to get some games under his belt. Now we are a championship side we might as well give him a run in the team. If he's not up to it then Harper isn't going anywhere so we bring him back into the side.

I'll be sending the boys round.

Spain = England > Italy > Brazil > Germany > France in my opinion. I'd say Brazilian football is significantly better than French football.

"Toshiba" seems to be a really common name in Brazil.

You need a hobby. May I suggest Brazilian football?

The obscure leagues jibes are a bit off. Brazil are a huge footballing country. Just because you don't give a damn doesn't make them small time. Far better than Ligue 1, the Eredivisie, and most other European leagues.

Azerbaijani Premier League next tbh. They play some nice stuff.

Better idea.

Nah, wouldn't bother with any of the Scandinavian leagues.

It's pretty difficult to see Brazilian football in Europe but those of you with a William Hill account they're currently showing Santos vs. Avaí. Good game. It's interesting to watch a completely different style of play. Some nice passing moves. Players tend to have a really good touch and knock the ball about quite elegantly. The exact opposite of Championship football. Worth a look if you're bored.

Being relegated changes a lot of things. Krul is probably worth a run in the team at this level.

That one-handed save he made while diving (all right, falling) the other way was very good.

If Krul does get a run in the first team it's pretty easy to see him becoming a commanding goal keeper who dominates the penalty area. That's something we lacked even with Shay despite him being a quality shot stopper.

Are you on the wind up tonight? He was far from awful, he gathered the majority. He flapped at one or two but that's to be expected when your defence is so piss poor you're forced to come for every single ball. If he had more faith in our ability to deal to lofted balls he'd probably have stayed back on the more suspect ones. Came and collected the majority of the balls floated into the box. The goal we did concede was as a result of Harper flapping at a cross. Krul has staked his claim for a run in the team, I think.