Punk77

Darn, the gallowgate expansion looked nice. Will it happen? Found this by the way..some bobby pictures: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/picturegalleries/5947173/Sir-Bobby-Robson-dies-his-life-in-pictures.html?image=1

Fuck me! Probably this injury was worsened when Best trained with the national team. Why the hell was he sent there in the first place. If our staff had an ounce of competence, they would have fought for retaining Best, arguing that it was not safe for him to train with Ireland..

I think Forster will be our new no 1 next season. And maybe that has been the club's plan all the way since Given left? If I have huge faith in a keeper, the last thing I will do is to put him as no 2 (like Krul) because that will deny him valuable game time. The most logical thing is to loan him out so he can gain as much experience as possible. Forster now has two full seasons under his belt, and he's done well too. I will be quite surprise if he's sold this summer.

Excellent, excellent indeed. I really hope HBA gets his favorite role next season (AM). He will do more damage in that role than as a wide man. His speed, technique and shot will create havoc. When he has the ball, the defenders must push, which creates space and a disorganized line. This gives HBA the possibility to play the lm and rm through on goal. If HBA plays on the lm it's easier to double mark him, like Manure did with Bale. They led him into the middle of the pitch, forcing him to finish/deliver with his right foot. On the other hand HBA's technique is better. That should enable him to a greater extent to deal with such problems. Still I want him as a AM...

If he isn't ready for the match tomorrow, despite that he had a FULL training session yesterday, I will execute our medical staff..We desperately need him..

On that day, everything is possible

I'll probably have wet eyes that day...

Thanks to De Jong (CUNT!!) we've missed 6 months of fantastic football. Together with Scholes and SAF, he's on top of my hate list

:smitten: :smitten: :fwap: :fwap: I've translated above article:

Shane Long is very quick and holds the ball up well. For his size he is good in the air and is deceptively strong. Before Christmas he was struggling for form and many Reading fans would have happily let him go. However since then his game has improved BUT sometimes his first touch is poor and what looks likes an easy chance is often missed. Cannot fault his effort or his bravery. Christ...He's too old. And he's a she... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_Long

How about you getting over the fact that you're wrong and I'm correct But seriously though, I did it just for fun..

That's correct Post modified.

Just for the fun of it, I checked the chalkboard for Nolan and Guthrie against Fulham, which was one of the worst performances of the year. In this match, was suspended. Also, Sholadinhio was injured early and that dented our plans. On the other hand, Shola didnt' play against Blackburn either. Also Perch was on the pitch in the better part of that game. But Shola's absence probably hurts more against Fulham which is one of the best defensive teams in the league. Against Blackburn, we managed to win the war in the middle. Nolan's simple play and Tiote's omnipresence resulted in the opponent constantly chasing the ball without getting it. Against Fulham we won the total possession with only 1%, but did not create decent chances. Maybe our passing ability could partially explain why? Guthrie's passing against Fulham http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3420/dannye.jpg He made 44 passes but missed on 12 of them. In other words, he missed on every third pass, approximately. But what did surprise me was how he tried to distribute the ball. Look how the pattern is evenly distributed in all directions and everywhere on the pitch, except inside the opponent's box. This is a pattern I expect from a decent midfielder. It's not only short passes around the middle. If fact, most of his passes are of the longish kind. And they're longitudinal too. Although he has a high passing inaccuracy, his passing attempts are more difficult and as a result the room for error decreases. Nolan's passing against Fulham http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/8233/nolan2.jpg In this match Nolan managed only 19 passes. However, he missed on 7 of them. So he has the same inaccuracy as Guthrie and much worse than what he delivered against Blackburn. Again, notice how concentrated his passes are, and that most of them are fairly short. In fact, he did not make one offensive pass during the whole game (nicely spotted Ian W). His poor passing pattern and accuracy could probably be attributed to Fulham's defensive skills, but also to Nolan's lack of movement, which enabled Fulham to close him down, fast. And Nolan's game probably suffered heavily from the lack of Tiote. Although Guthrie tried to distribute the ball nicely, his passing inaccuracy was too high. Also he's not close to Tiote in his defensive abilities and protection of other players. In other words, more responsibility fell on Nolan's shoulders than usual. And his above pattern probably show that he did not cope as well. At this level, his statistics are probably very weak indeed. And did Guthrie and Nolan have a clear role distinction. Who was the DM and who was the offensive CM? From the pattern one might expect that Guthrie was the offensive CM, but I don't think that was how the play really panned out. Maybe what I've now mentioned partially explain why we were s*** that day? Appreciate comments

Of course, that sentence was too literal. Tiote doesn't make killer breakthrough passes. And it's not his job either. It should be Nolan's If only we had other attacking players in our team capable of 14 goals/assists so far to help share this burden........ I focused only on arguments relating to why Nolan should NOT play NEXT season.

Of course, that sentence was too literal. Tiote doesn't make killer breakthrough passes. And it's not his job either. It should be Nolan's

I might have overgeneralized his inaccuracy. He's solid as long as he makes easy passes..But he's the one who should perform the killer pass, not Tiote..

Depends on the difficulty of pass. One should tolerate higher passing inaccuracy for an offensive player. He will more often that not hit those difficult balls: crossers or through balls. If the player on the other hand is a DM, one expects a higher passing accuracy because a player in that position normally plays it simple. This is Nolan's passing against Blackburn. http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/944/nolang.jpg Imo our current best away match. We were totally dominant and did everything correct, except scoring. Nolan made 31 passes and only missed on 5. But take a look at the difficulty. Most of them are easy passes concentrated around the middle.. However, if we look at his ball distribution around Blackburn's box (which should be his responsibility), it's almost absent. In a match we were so dominant, one should expect that Nolan took more responsibility in the offensive play, like an offensive midfielder should do. But he doesn't. Although his passing accuracy is high, it should be weighed against the simplicity of his passing. This is his greatest liability imo. It results in him bagging goals, but he's not setting other players up in good scoring positions, which is the responsibility of an offensive midfielder. Now, let us take a look at Tiote's passing against Blackburn. http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/3002/tiote.jpg He made 65 passes, and missed on 13 of them. He's a defensive midfielder, still he managed twice as many passes as Nolan, and with about the same passing accuracy. He's the reason why we controlled the midfield that day. Leaving aside the fact that Tiote made more passes, we also see that Tiote and Nolan's passing pattern is similar. However, Tiote's pattern is normal for a player in that particular position. That's more than we can say about Nolan's pattern: He's an offensive midfielder, but his passing pattern is very similar to a DEFENSIVE midfielder. This makes our midfield unbalanced, since we have only Barton, but no offensive CM that's able to set Jonas and Enrique in good positions. Accordingly Jonas and Enrique is left to their own devices without support from the CM in their attempts to get past their opponent. You can see from Nolan's chalkboard that he didn't have a single long distance, longitudinal pass out to the left. That would have set Jonas up behind the defense, exploiting fully his speed and running capacity. Nolan is mostly making short passes across to Jonas, but that doesn't help the latter to get past his opponent.

I found a picture of his early days in Bolton..Come on, you got to admit that he looks slimmer and more healthy on this picture... http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39806000/jpg/_39806891_nolan_emp300x300.jpg

No I haven't, but HD-pictures should be sufficient . I'm not saying that he's fat. But I'm saying that he's more set than most professional athletes.

Oh come on man. It's fairly easy to see that he's gained weight from his days in Bolton. It's not rocket science. If you're heavy-set, despite regular training, you're eating and drinking unhealthy shit.

So which lineup do you suggest if Nolan should play?

He's been vital, but I cannot see him being a regular next season. His mobility suffers because he's too fat and too slow. And his passing is inaccurate. In fact, he doesn't have a single ability required for an offensive midfielder. He's a genius inside the box, but only on set pieces and in the play that subsequently follows, where we have many people inside the box and are able to keep up the pressure. In spite of all his faults, he's managed to score 11 goals. That should say something about his potential. If only he could have been more dedicated, like Bale (no drinking, junk food). He's not worth 50 a week unless he gets into shape. But I'd love to see him signing a long term contract that's not as lucrative. He's an excellent person to have in the team.

Posting football videoclips are not allowed So remove it before you're banned for 14 days...

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/03/30/newcastle-united-reveal-cost-of-relegation-61634-28426521/

Important point Conjo: Spurs has bought the correct kind of players: either you sell with profit or you regain what you paid. Another important aspect is Spurs' strict salary policy which has been enforced for years. And that's where they've saved some significant money imo. You could invest a great deal of money in buying a player free from his current club as long you're able to get him to to sign a modest contract. After all, a contract that is modest in British standards could be seen as quite generous for newcomers to the league. It's when you start to put multiple players on heavy long-term contracts that your expenses really take off. A contract worth £70 000 a week will over 5 yrs cost the club £18.2 mill. If only 5 players are on such contracts, the club will fork out an astounding £100 mill over that period, just on salaries. And still you haven't paid the rest. Another consequence is that when a player sign such a contract, he's immediately made unattractive for other clubs if he doesn't deliver. As a result the club is stuck with expensive non-performers who prefer to sit on the bench for the next four seasons instead of playing regular football for another club, but for £30 000 less per week. Alternatively, the club is forced to play with these non-performers since it cannot afford to replace them with better players. Spurs did not make this mistake. We on the other hand did, and it almost eliminated the club.