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Guest firetotheworks

Tiote for Smith/Butt was the biggest I've ever experienced. I'm not even a massive Tiote fan, Smith and Butt were just that shit.

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Tiote for Smith/Butt was the biggest I've ever experienced. I'm not even a massive Tiote fan, Smith and Butt were just that s***.

 

Aye good shout. Butt was out of the team for 6 months but Smith was still a starter when Tioté came in. His debut at Everton was when I realised what we had been missing.

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Guest firetotheworks

When I think about the defence we had in 08/09 I sometimes wonder how we got relegated (Beye, Bassong, Coloccini, Enrique), then I remember that the options they had in front of them were Butt, Geremi, Smith, Guthrie, Duff, NZogbia, Jonas (as an attacking player)

 

With Owen, Viduka and Martins as strikers.

 

 

 

Jesus.

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Guest firetotheworks

I excuse Nolan because he was massively dropped in at the deep end and then did the business for 2 seasons after that. Barton only played like 5 or so times as well.

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Guest firetotheworks

Christ, just had a look. Barton played more than Smith in that season. :lol: I must have just noticed Smith being shit in the few games that he played.

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I'd argue that Smith's run up front, typically alongside Owen in a 4-4-2, during the second half of 07/08 was the most excruciating experience of being forced to watch a certain player every week. Why even Keegan persisted with it for as long as he did I've no idea. Such relief when he changed it to 4-3-1-2 and we went on a cracking run of results and performances. Nicky Butt in the team every week when we went down was similarly awful; good grief he was fucking terrible. Arguably the worst regular starter I've ever seen for us.

 

As for comparisons of departing full-backs. Enrique is still miles ahead of Debuchy for me - sublime player who was consistently excellent for us. Beye, in his first season, was probably the best right-back I've seen for us, but he soon went by the way-side. Simpson was beyond limited and Debuchy is an obvious upgrade. Really looking forward to seeing Mathieu continue to progress, I just hope Cabaye's departure doesn't have too big an impact. It'd be soft as shit if it did.

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I have just had a flash back of Nicky Butt and Alan Smith in same team after his name was mentioned. If you compare those 2 nuggets to Tiote and Cabaye with Anita and Sissoko our strength is twice what we had in the 2 seasons before we went down in that department (Would like a bit more up front)

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High praise indeed from Tom Davidson's very credible tactical analysis blog.

 

STAR PLAYER

Tiote misses out by a whisker but Debuchy deserves all the plaudits for a truly sensational 83 minutes. Scarcely caught out of position despite going forward so much, this was a performance a la Dani Alves for Barcelona.

 

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Guest firetotheworks

Garth Crooks thought that Kyle Walker was better at the weekend though....

 

ie Garth Crooks thought that Debuchy was, then a jar of Uncle Bens said "don't you mean Kyle Walker?" he said "good point" and then promptly left.

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I don't know why they bother with shit like that and, by extension, even bother with punditry on Match of the Day. They haven't watched every game over the weekend, they've watched about a maximum of 3. Just renders the whole thing pointless.

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Guest firetotheworks

Imagine how wonderful it would be to watch every match. Imagine taking life for granted enough that you couldn't be arsed to watch every match and get paid for it.

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I don't know why they bother with s*** like that and, by extension, even bother with punditry on Match of the Day. They haven't watched every game over the weekend, they've watched about a maximum of 3. Just renders the whole thing pointless.

 

I'm convinced that they don't actually watch full games but instead just watch the highlights that MOTD show.

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Imagine how wonderful it would be to watch every match. Imagine taking life for granted enough that you couldn't be arsed to watch every match and get paid for it.

 

Wednesday night, for example, there was like 8 games. It would be absolutely impossible so I don't know why, week on week, they try and pass it off that they've seen all the games.

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Guest firetotheworks

Imagine how wonderful it would be to watch every match. Imagine taking life for granted enough that you couldn't be arsed to watch every match and get paid for it.

 

Wednesday night, for example, there was like 8 games. It would be absolutely impossible so I don't know why, week on week, they try and pass it off that they've seen all the games.

 

Aye, in that scenario, definitely. No reason that the MOTD crew can't watch every match, though. Or watch edits where the stoppages are edited out.

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Imagine how wonderful it would be to watch every match. Imagine taking life for granted enough that you couldn't be arsed to watch every match and get paid for it.

 

Wednesday night, for example, there was like 8 games. It would be absolutely impossible so I don't know why, week on week, they try and pass it off that they've seen all the games.

 

That's showbiz

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Guest DebuchyAndTheBeast

He is the best RB in the league at the moment but he won't be getting any plaudits because he isn't British or playing for a "big" club.

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Guest firetotheworks

I still think Sanga is the tits like. Debuchy's only been this good for five games, but I suppose strictly speaking he's been the best RB in the league for those 5 matches.

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Imagine how wonderful it would be to watch every match. Imagine taking life for granted enough that you couldn't be arsed to watch every match and get paid for it.

 

Wednesday night, for example, there was like 8 games. It would be absolutely impossible so I don't know why, week on week, they try and pass it off that they've seen all the games.

 

Aye, in that scenario, definitely. No reason that the MOTD crew can't watch every match, though. Or watch edits where the stoppages are edited out.

 

I've been to the BBC studios (when they were in London next to Loftus Road) on a Saturday afternoon and they watch all the games across like 10 screens. It's like a quality living room with loads of teles, sofas and fridges full of bait. Sat with Lawrenson, Schmeichel, Ian Wright etc was a canny day - Ray Stubbs is a spot on bloke as well.

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