Tiresias

Wireside for Sunderland manager!

Magnificent from Lucas, Man City never got into their stride in their half. Hate to say it but well played by Liverpool, though they were less convincing finishing, probably should have won. City are in a bit of a funk atm, interesting how long it takes for them to shrug it off

yeah Reina did excellently there

Can they stop talking about step forwards and progress for liverpool! they were never that bad, and this progress is about the slowest improvement ever, maybe by 2042 they'll win teh league

Well now liverpool are for some reason basically volunteering themselves down to 10 men as well, nice of Dagliesh

You play Balotelli, he's going to get a few reds

Mancini really needs to do a double sub to change the momentum right now, odd how many managers this season seem to wait for last 10 mins for most their subs, (pardew included)

Lucas Leiva is looking really good at the moment, should we lose Tiote wonder if he's commited to staying at Anfield under dagliesh who is probably wanting to replace him with some shit english player...

It's not that Glen Johnson's bad it's that the commentators go on and on about how great he is as he does something comical. He does score the odd goal out of nowhere, see last week, which seems to blind the press to his shortcomings

really really freaked out by this, way too young, guardian has a gallery that's got me damp under the eyes http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery/2011/nov/27/gary-speed-career-in-pictures#/?picture=382432318&index=4 http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/11/27/1322405759520/Barcelonas-Xavi-attempts--011.jpg

Bellamy's withdrawn from the match. So somebody on tens of £1,000's a game.....take the day of because a friend dies?.....I doubt this would be tolerated in "normal" jobs...why here? Are you off your tits? Yeah...what the hell?

Kind of expect Man City to roll Liverpool over, I've been surprised how uninspiring Liverpool have been this season, not so much to do with results, with how boring and basic their footy is.

Can happen. If it was depression, it can be incredibly difficult to talk about, and to spot.

Reading all the rage at Pardew at the start of this thread feels funny now! Still think it was handled with all the grace and respect that could be expected of Ashley, but still, people were wishing any other manager on us but Pardew hehe

on another board there was a bit of a rumour that there was some tabloid scandal about to be published. Hope that's just speculation and not true, which is what I suspect.

Their emphasis tends to be on just speed of attacks, they'll launch an attack and it'll be in the net ludicrously fast, seem to just be trying not to allow defences to get organised to soak up pressure. Theoretically a team could park the bus better if they never opened up but it's not like every player they have isn't good enough to find a way through. Think giving Khedira an advanced role is a good tweak to his Pepe idea last season, playing a destructive player high up pitch to disrupt attacks starting at back is smart, but Pepe was too reckless and too far out of position, Khedira seemed better suited, and suspect that'll be the plan against Barca. It'll be interesting to see if this plan works, and makes its way to international level, Khedira playing there for Germany against Spain could well be the tactical ploy of the Euros, indeed though with less players in common Germany and Spain are mirroring the Barca Real battle at the moment oddly.

It is apparently just the major news outlets wont run it yet to give his family some space etc. BBC News 24 are running with it and say his family have confirmed it. Really? Seems a bit soon, maybe family said it was ok now to say

There's been a complete change in Germany since Enke's suicide, coaches are allowed time off for depression etc and such. Hate that it takes suicide to get these things done, as someone who suffers it intermittently, it's something really difficult to explain, get sick of people saying 'just need to pull yourself together' sort of stuff.

People who commit suicide often aren't 'obviously' going to Awful awful news

The problem with Rooney is he's incredibly mentally weak, probably as a result of being pampers and told he's the best in the world by everyone all the time, takes everything going his way for granted, when he's happy and playing he's brilliant but he just gets too distracted and blames everyone else etc. It's the kind of attitude problem people thought Ben Arfa might have, wonder if his long injury spell will mean he's not going to take everything for granted anymore etc, he seems to have a much better attitude on the pitch than everyone thought (much less aloof than anticipated)

Exactly, purely on money basis, which is the only thing that'd probably convince him, you make a team to get us further up table, makes more money for us, don't tinker with it for short term cash and then watch us do worse.

Everyone kind of assumed Real being ahead was a blip, but is it just me, or are Real a better team than 'thebestteamever' this year. Starting to wonder if everyone rather underestimated Mourinho last season, that he was combative etc etc but hadn't got everying clicking...wonder if Guadiola has somehow tweaked away some of the magic that propelled them to last season. Too soon to tell, and of course the true test is the derby (remember people thought they were evenly matched last season then Messi demolished Real completely), and how well they stomp through Europe. As a lover of Barca's style I think Real get overly maligned, they're really no more ugly corporate than Barca are really, and they are absolutely blindingly quick, but somehow if they quash all before they'll not get all the 'unplayable' 'best team ever' articles.

regardless of how well taken the penalty, I meant just flukey to having been given it.

I was very impressed by Sturridge on the wing against Leverkusen, even though the game went sour his passing was excellent for someone I had thought a striker till there. We don't want to set out just to defend against Chelsea though, unlike the manchester clubs, their defence is poor at the moment and can see ben Arfa making fun out of Luiz.

You sometimes have to consider managers doing these things more for the morale of the team than for the press, but have to think he contributes more to the players thinking they should act like total tits on the pitch. It was effectively a 0-0 with two flukey goals.