Village Idiot

First game against West Brom was pretty important. Everyone was expecting doom and gloom after selling all your big names and signing no-one, the Leyton Orient massacre... and you got a result against a very strong team and could have even won it towards the end. I think that built the confidence of the side immensely.

Some unreal odds for Arsenal tomorrow. Tempted to drop a cheeky one, but it would be like tempting fate.

Madrid valued Gago at €18m this winter window, and Diarra on €20m past summer. So I'd say no. Think of the wages these muppets will be on, too.

Aye, that's a pretty cool thing.

Just clarify is that there total assists for the season or goal they passed to each other? Overall assists.

The Spanish FPA is going to call for a strike in two weeks in an announcement later this afternoon. Real Madrid - Valencia and the Barcelona derby would be the most rellevant games affected.

I was perusing sportinglife for other leagues' news and I was suddenly reminded that David Bellion still existed in this reality.

We'll have to agree to disagree then, since honestly I don't think there's interplay between Cronaldo and Higuaín. They just get the ball and run at the defense, and it's something that's been criticised. Think of how the Madrid papers piled on Higuaín because he didn't pass it to Cronaldo during the Lyon game, it's something they have been talking about all year. Their number of combined assists (6) is low compared to other partnerships (Zlatan+Messi have 15, Agüero+Forlán have 9, Villa+Silva have 8). They are just a pair of machine guns. Deadly ones. But they do get the results (in Spain at least), and since they are double and triple teamed often, it's easy for the other to find spaces. Incidentally, if you have a basic understanding of Spanish, diarioas.com has a very good stats repository for La Liga and the CL. http://www.as.com/estadisticas/

Incidentally one of my Real Madrid supporting friends (yeah I have those!) was telling me today, how "Higuaín is actually a bad finisher and needs a lot of chances to put them away", which is something I have seen said a lot, and it's f***ing bollocks. Guy's got 66 shots for 24 goals. That's an amazing conversion ratio. Compare that to Cronaldo's 152 shots for 12 goals from open play, Messi's 124 for 25 or Villa's 118 for 18.

He's too good for Stoke, and consecuently has gone down the pecking order behind Rory Delap. Good shout. I also think Tuncay will want out of that place (warming the bench seeing the likes of Mamadi Sidibe and Kitson strutting around the pitch in front of him), but they paid a handsome sum for him and they'd probably want to recoup that.

Why & who are you typing that for? They have whacked in 42 goals in league goals it is not rocket science to say they are playing well together. I was more referring to the way they're linking up tbh. They aren't linking up at all man, the interplay between them is almost non-existent (which kinda goes with Madrid's playing style, they are extremely direct). They are both tremendously effective though. Cronaldo leads the shoots on goal stat in La Liga by a country mile, and he has only played 21 of 31. He doesn't do passing.

If Real Betis don't end up promoted (3 points adrift as we speak) I wonder if people like Emana and Odonkor are salvageable. Odonkor has been shit/injuried for a few years, but Emana was very good last season in a Nolan-esque role but with legs (11 goals from midfield for a relegated side). He'd be 28 next season which means he doesn't fit "the template", though.

Not either of them like, no more former players on principle. Need to look forward not backwards! Few others of that Wigan squad I'd take though. Begs the question, what second stints of players have been successful for your lot? Can't think of any former senior player returning to Barça and being successful again, for example (Stoichkov, De la Peña, bombed in their second stints). I always think that when it's over, it's over.

Really, really starting to think that Alonso is the most important player of Real Madrid. The difference in composure and organization when he's not in the pitch (like the Lyon defeat) is astounding. They are pretty much in lump it to Ronaldo mode now. Still they are going to beat Racing comfortably, mind.

Canales' playing for Racing. Wasn't expecting that, guy's been basically coasting since he signed for Madrid.

Ramos had been asking for a right winger. But surely they could have done better than somebody who was warming the subs bench of an average English team.

I think the only thing Real Madrid fans remember about Faubert is him taking a nap in the subs bench http://jamesdihinx.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/faubert.jpg

He was like that at Valencia too, people cried foul for him benching Aimar, selling Zahovic, Gerard and Mendieta and buying "who is that guy?" types like Mista, Curro Torres, Rufete or Marchena instead. But it worked for him there.

Long ball football and maybe a lucky draw at best?

Everton goes three behind Liverpool if these results stand.

Almería go one up against Mallorca, the scum one down against Getafe

Torres has an icepack on his leg. Benítez does some howlers but this was an injury sub.

Great story there oldtype Reminds me of when I lived in Madrid and went to a pub to watch the Barça - Madrid game, and Barça scored their first and I jumped automatically to celebrate, taking me one second to realize what I was doing and then going "GOOO--oh shit!!!!!"

No it's not, f***ing barca... Give him a break, The lad dosent even support Newcastle man Was this directed at me? Nah, me probably.

Meh, I know people have mentioned this but we shouldn't care one way or the other... the black cats? That's been one of thier various nick names for what.. like five years?... made up from an internet poll? ... that has no bearing on what colors they wear, or their club history... its typically sad they even felt the need to make a new nick name up really - what was wrong with the "makems" or "S*nderland" as they had been known for over a hundred years. Reminds me of them naming their ground after a stadium that already exists. Why try to borrow other glory when in fact S*nderland does have a history and past glory? It merely speaks to their massive inferiority complex. When I was a kid scout (only briefly!) one of the troops was named "the black cats" (mine was "the brave eagles", and there was a "wild wolves" too). Every time I hear Sunderland's self-appointed nickname it reminds me of that. Kids trying to sound cool.