Stottie

Chelsea very poor. Even Hazard did next to nothing.

There's a fair chance this game could be peak Pardew. All "reversion to the mean" from here.

fwiw, I did look after his red card and according to transfermarkt he has 41 yellows, 1 two yellow=red, and 4 reds in 12,000 minutes. Because I don't know much about European football, the "choose a physical forward to get a par score" question led me to Diego Costa. 97 yellows, 4 two yellow=red, and 4 reds in 23,000 minutes (at a higher level, of course) In case you're wondering 68 goals for Mitro, 125 for Costa. 4 straight reds already at 20 is a concern, but he looks more clumsy and overeager than downright malicious.

Bit ridiculous to pick all the best players Lineker played with and comparing them to some of the shittest Rooney has had to. May as well say Rooney has had Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard whereas Lineker had Steve Hodge, Carlton Palmer and Andy Sinton. My point was more about the quality of creative players that Lineker played with versus Rooney. The main one for me would actually be Beardsley. Everyone who played alongside him scored goals. The other three were all regulars though and had what I remember were good games. There have been talented players alongside Rooney too, they were called the "golden generation" after all, but the lasting taste is they failed to gel and/or recreate their club form at international level. Rooney has often played in teams that ended up as less than the sum of their parts, Gerrard/Lampard being only one of many issues. At Man U Rooney has proved capable of playing in many different systems, so I don't think he's ever been the problem. Lennon has 20 odd caps in spite of struggling to start for his club. Downing has over thirty, so they haven't been bit part players.

Aye, didn't know that myself. So Rodgers shipped him out, I guess partly because of the rep Shelvey was getting for being too raw, when he was 21 (!) At Southampton, Lovren had some combination of Wanyama/Schneiderlin/Cork screening him. That's about as good as it gets in the league. Very good fullbacks too, so not so much need to fight fires down the sides either. With so many players being sold but the Southampton train still rolling along, the system within the club must also be very good. Joe Allen strikes me as a nothing player. No better than Anita in what at times has been a much better team. With Rodgers, you get the impression that there is some "most fans are too thick to appreciate this" over-intellectualizing and obstinate self-belief in his approach.

The big criticism of Rooney is that he's never done it at the World Cup finals or at the Euros, 2004 aside. I think he'd had done much better if he'd had Beardsley, Hoddle, Waddle, and John Barnes setting him up like Lineker did. There's a big drop from them to Downing, Crouch, Lennon, and all the others Rooney's had to play with.

Gouffran has been turned into a bad version of Jonas. One that doesn't win freekicks, goes awol defensively, and creates less than very little. I had hopes for Riviere after that header he scored in preseason last year, but he genuinely looks hopeless in this league. Williamson is out of his depth, and is also error prone. Neither is acceptable for a CB. Eliot is out of his depth, looks unfit, and smells of Pardew. Obertan is very poor, but better than the other four. Hmm, Gouffran it is. Some sympathy because he was originally a forward, not an extra full back.

Ayoze is my favourite but I voted for Krul. His kicking is crap but I blame that on Pardew and Woodman. His shot stopping is class. Give it 10 games for Gini to settle and Sissoko to be decontaminated/find a role, it'll probably be between them. Hopefully Perez will get chances (not at CF) and kick on too.

I started watching football in the 1970s and it was completely different then. Among Leeds players, Gordon McQueen wasn't a standout hardman, but stick this into Youtube for a look at what a bad-tempered game was like back then. In a high-profile game I think you could be looking at a 10-game ban for that now. "Barca vs Leeds 1975 MCQueen sending off" He actually contests the decision! Even nice guys like Keegan had to be up for it, as witnessed by him trading blows with Billy Bremner in the Charity Shield (!)

The main factor in him staying may be him personally not getting the type of deal he wanted, but at least he hasn't upset the fans. If he scores twenty again (look how many Shola got) and is available on a Bosman, he'll get a fair chunk as a signing bonus wherever he goes. That might be worth more to him than the chance to play for Crystal Palace at this moment in time. Woy has also picked non Premiership goalies for England, and may have assured him that Austin does not need to be in the Premiership to be in contention.

Just a warning, but with Bilic at West Ham, the media are going to push the "wally with a brolly" narrative down everyone's throats once the international games are over. It's going to be tiresome. They will be willing West Ham to win the game to push the "told you McClaren's useless" angle.

We have to keep Dummett I reckon. Tiote can go though! There's no point selling Perez for big money at this stage because it'll just go to Ashley. There is no time to spend it on a replacement or any other hole in the squad, even if the will were there.

If he can play a major role in getting them promoted, he's worth 15m to them to stay. Probably what he won't do is sign another contract, or at least one without promotion clauses.

That's what Madrid paid Monaco for James! What a massive gamble on such an untested player.

I doubt they'd have sold to a Prem club, and perhaps he wouldn't have wanted to go, but 9M is an absolute steal for Chicharito.

In case anyone is worried about all the cards, we're actually only midtable when it comes to fouls committed as a team. The cards seem to be more of an individual thing than the way we are set up to play. Top of the league in fouls committed are Crystal Palace.

Riviere got 10 for them the season before we bought him. 4th richest club in the world! 7th, 4th, dodgy signings and hoofball, and it doesn't matter, the commercial money just keeps on coming. Maybe all those fans in South East Asia aren't fickle glory hunters after all.

I'm amazed that Southampton sold Jack Cork. They only got 5M or something stupid for him. Home grown Young but mature enough to play DM, a very difficult position to play well. Par has to be 10M.

Rooney looking like the new Schevchenko or Torres, where you keep thinking he can't be as bad as this. He should have gone to Chelsea.

Man U need a goal so both Mata and Herrera subbed. None of that tippy tappy nonsense for Man U.

Hoof it to the big man time.

De Gea would have stopped that. Probably Valdez too.

Down the left again!

Luke Shaw gone totally awol

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