Still Not Worthy Of A Thread

[Belfast Mags]

Has Brendan Rodgers had his teeth done 

 

Just noticed the picture on BBC Sport section (think its the sportday live bit) 4 random photos and one of him smiling from the dugout.

 

Fucking gnashers on him  :lol:

 

The Fuck

 

it was in the papers ages ago. something about him losing weight and having a makeover as well.

 

Obviously he's having an affair.

 

Yip, nailed on 

[Ameritoon]

Rodgers strikes me as a genuine weirdo

[Belfast Mags]

Rodgers strikes me as a genuine weirdo

 

I honestly think he'll do well at Liverpool, I really do. He knows what he wants and he's building a team that can play in several different ways, if he can keep building, I reckon Liverpool could have a really good season, next season.

 

Shame 

[Ryan_Taylor]

Has Brendan Rodgers had his teeth done 

 

Just noticed the picture on BBC Sport section (think its the sportday live bit) 4 random photos and one of him smiling from the dugout.

 

f***ing gnashers on him  :lol:

 

The f***

 

it was in the papers ages ago. something about him losing weight and having a makeover as well.

 

Obviously he's having an affair.

 

[Village Idiot]

They replayed an hilarious clip today of Bale and Cronaldo in the derby. Cronaldo goes to take a FK, Bale comes to whisper into his ear and Cronaldo nods. Then when the ref signals for the FK to be taken Bale makes a dashing run through the right - obviously expecting Cronaldo to pass it - but Cronaldo just smashes it over the goal.

[Neil]

What's been the reaction in Spain, VI? Is it more a condemnation of Real, or more of a "wow, Atletico might be the real deal"?

[Village Idiot]

Lots of "Ancelotti is shit" with a smaaaaaall side of "Atlético are doing really well". But in this country the narrative will always be centered around the two greats.

[Neil]

What, in particular, are the rags pointing at? The specific way they're playing? Team selection?

 

Even if he completely fails with RM, I'll find it very, very hard not to still consider Ancelotti a great manager.

[Village Idiot]

Finger is firmly pointed at Ancelotti right now, with some blame to players (Pepe mostly, but he's a favorite for finger-pointing given how hateable he is - even for RM fans).

 

[Dinho lad]

Rodgers strikes me as a genuine weirdo

 

Came across as a decent guy on that Liverpool documentary series, tbh.

[Neil]

Looking back as well at their results so far, they were gifted 3 points at Elche due to one of the worst penalty decisions in years, should really have lost at Villarreal given how much they were 2nd best, and IIRC they only just scraped past Betis on the opening day?

 

Can see why there are already murmurs about Ancelotti, at least in the sometimes psycho Spanish press.

[Village Idiot]

Truth is that Ancelotti's narrow system is very ill-suited to the players they have, even the players they bought (hello Bale). Given that Carlo probably had fuck all say in recruitment it smells of Pérez going back to old ways after he tried letting a manager do his thing with Mourinho.

 

Still early days, but I can't see RM clicking unless they change to another system.

[jdckelly]

its still insane they spent €100m on Bale when they didn't need him. Pure Perez signing if ever there was one

[Ameritoon]

Rodgers strikes me as a genuine weirdo

 

Came across as a decent guy on that Liverpool documentary series, tbh.

 

I only watched one and a half, maybe two episodes, but I thought he was kind of odd from that sample size. Think he's a good manager, even if he's making some bizarre team decisions right now. I assume that will change when Johnson is fit.

[Village Idiot]

Marca just released a Casillas wallpaper...

 

 

http://t.co/szLnpr6OzI

 

 

What the hell

[Fugazi]

They replayed an hilarious clip today of Bale and Cronaldo in the derby. Cronaldo goes to take a FK, Bale comes to whisper into his ear and Cronaldo nods. Then when the ref signals for the FK to be taken Bale makes a dashing run through the right - obviously expecting Cronaldo to pass it - but Cronaldo just smashes it over the goal.

 

Was a rubbish distance for CR7 to hit it, went miles over

 

Enjoying Real's poor start, similar to last season?

[Mr. Snrub]

Bale was totally clueless when he got brought on.

 

For all the La Liga is so much easier than the PL bullshit, his knocking the ball forward and sprinting hopefully to chase it didn't quite work out for him.  He lacks the technical quality Ozil and even Modric have.

[leffe186]

Bale was totally clueless when he got brought on.

 

For all the La Liga is so much easier than the PL bullshit, his knocking the ball forward and sprinting hopefully to chase it didn't quite work out for him.  He lacks the technical quality Ozil and even Modric have.

 

I've only seen bits, but my impression wasn't that he was technically deficient, more that he didn't seem aware of the tactical plan (if any). AVB had expressly designed our play after the first few weeks of the season to maximize his freedom, at the expense of others. That's clearly not going to happen at Real Madrid.

[Village Idiot]

They replayed an hilarious clip today of Bale and Cronaldo in the derby. Cronaldo goes to take a FK, Bale comes to whisper into his ear and Cronaldo nods. Then when the ref signals for the FK to be taken Bale makes a dashing run through the right - obviously expecting Cronaldo to pass it - but Cronaldo just smashes it over the goal.

 

Was a rubbish distance for CR7 to hit it, went miles over

 

Enjoying Real's poor start, similar to last season?

 

Yeah, enjoying it. Mostly enjoying all the hair-pulling from RM fans after all the at their summer window.

 

Early days, mind. Clásico in 4 weeks.

[Village Idiot]

Bale was totally clueless when he got brought on.

 

For all the La Liga is so much easier than the PL bullshit, his knocking the ball forward and sprinting hopefully to chase it didn't quite work out for him.  He lacks the technical quality Ozil and even Modric have.

 

I've only seen bits, but my impression wasn't that he was technically deficient, more that he didn't seem aware of the tactical plan (if any). AVB had expressly designed our play after the first few weeks of the season to maximize his freedom, at the expense of others. That's clearly not going to happen at Real Madrid.

 

Problem with Bale is that he's too similar to Ronaldo, and they already have Ronaldo in their team. Their "partnership" isn't going to work at all, imho, and I fully expect one of them to be played upfront soon to give room to the other to make those runs while still having some on the ball creativity (Isco/Modric) behind the forwards.

[Tooj]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/oct/01/manchester-united-shakhtar-donetsk-champions-league

 

Manchester United must be wary of Shakhtar Donetsk's boys from Brazil

 

Shakhtar Donetsk should win the championship this season, but it says something for the changes in the Ukrainian league that the verb is "should" rather than "will". The shakiness of Manchester United's start to the campaign may be more obvious – while United lie 12th in the Premier League table, Shakhtar are third in the Premier Liha – but this has been a sobering couple of months for Mircea Lucescu's side.

 

There are still 19 games to go, and Shakhtar have won seven of their 11 matches so far, but the landscape has changed. They are five points clear of their traditional rivals Dynamo Kyiv, whose refusal to accept the inevitable and replace Oleh Blokhin becomes increasingly baffling by the week, but Dynamo are no longer the main threat. Top of the table stand Metalist Kharkiv, with nine wins and two draws from 11 games, including a 1-1 draw at the Donbass Arena, and then come Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, who were convincing 3-1 winners over Shakhtar at the end of August. The league campaign has become a struggle rather than a procession.

 

This was always going to be a season of transition for Shakhtar, who sold Fernandinho and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the summer, having already lost Willian in January. No side can expect to lose three of their biggest talents and go on as though nothing has happened; but what has caused disquiet in Donetsk is that the struggles have come not in Europe but domestically. Shakhtar began their Champions League campaign with a slightly fortuitous 2-0 win away to Real Sociedad, but if they could take advantage of United's indifferent form in a packed Donbass Arena on Wednesday, they would be in control of the group.

 

As has been their policy for a decade, Shakhtar looked to South America to replace the talent they moved on. Four Brazilians arrived, taking the total number to have played for Shakhtar since Matuzalém arrived in 2004 to 23 (not including Eduardo, who was born in Brazil but is a naturalised Croatian and Marcelo Moreno, who is Bolivian but has a Brazilian father). The most vaunted of the four is probably the 21-year-old forward Bernard, who has already won seven caps for Brazil and was linked with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in the summer, but he has started a single game so far. Fred, a gifted 20-year-old midfielder, is already a fixture; Lucas Fernando has started only one game – at 21, he could be the long-term replacement for Fernandinho; and the 21-year-old forward Wellington Nem, who hasn't started a Shakhtar game yet, was a key figure in Fluminense's title triumph last season.

 

One of Shakhtar's strengths is that they don't rush players to integrate. Douglas Costa was signed in 2009, but it's only this season, at 23, that he has really become a regular. In a sense, this is a modern version of the old Liverpool policy under Bob Paisley of buying promise and then leaving it in the reserves for six months to learn the club's methods. "It is clear that the newcomers are talented players," said Lucescu, who last week became the longest serving coach in Shakhtar's history. "But when two or three of them go out in the starting lineup, our game goes a bit wrong. We're waiting. Naturally, we need patience."

 

Facundo "Chucky" Ferreyra, an unusual, awkward centre-forward who flickered and frustrated at Banfield for years – although he is still only 22 – before exploding with 16 goals in 18 games last season as Vélez Sarsfield won the Torneo Inicial, is another summer recruit who has seen limited action, starting two games so far. "They come," Lucescu said, "because they see the set-up here and because I convince them." He is charismatic, a gifted linguist – he speaks at least seven languages with a degree of fluency – and is beloved.

 

I visited Shakhtar's extraordinary training complex – it features an aviary and fishing lakes to help keep players entertained, as well as all the usual gyms, pitches and training equipment – in 2007. Although Lucescu, now 68, is a hugely entertaining man to interview – he sees conspiracies everywhere and spent a long time pitying me for the lack of flavour in English tomatoes – the most memorable moment came as I walked with Lucescu from the canteen where we'd had lunch to an office where we had coffee. We passed through a room in which three young Brazilians were lounging watching a recording of a Brazilian league match. Immediately they began talking to him, desperate to describe an incident that had happened a few minutes earlier. He smiled and, with avuncular concern, promised to come back and watch it later. Given the cynicism that pervades so much of football, it was a surprising and touching moment; Lucescu as favourite teacher, a man who loves his subject and can inspire that love in others.

 

One Brazilian begets another. When Douglas Costa was contemplating his options, he rang Willian and Luiz Adriano, both of them from his home state of Porto Alegre, to seek their advice. They described a thriving Brazilian community. Ukraine may not be much like western Europe, but Shakhtar, with its first-rate facilities, is an ideal stepping stone. Young Brazilians know they are going to a club who will give them a chance and at which the process of adaptation will be easier than almost anywhere else.

 

Whether that is good for Ukrainian football is another matter; Shakhtar do little to develop local talent, but their policy has seen them topple Dynamo and become a major European force. Beating United and managing this transition would be a major step to confirming their development can continue for the long-term.

 

Shakhtar's shape is relatively easy to predict; the personnel less so. After abandoning the diamond, Lucescu has been a firm devotee of 4-2-3-1, which probably means Fernando operating alongside the dogged Czech Tomas Hubschman at the back of midfield. "It's a dynamic way of playing," Lucescu told the latest issue of Champions magazine. "The layout on the pitch is valid at the start of the game – after that things change. For me, the leader on the pitch is whoever has the ball. He decides how to play."

 

Luiz Adriano will almost certainly be the lone striker and it would be a major surprise if Alex Teixeira, scorer of both goals in San Sebastián, did not operate behind him. On the evidence of United's past two league games, his willingness to run at defenders could be a major threat. The wide positions are less clear with Lucescu to perm two from Taison, Douglas Costa and Bernard. What is certain, though, is that the five most attacking players will, once again, be Brazilian.

[Guest Geordiesned]

Chelsea striker Fernando Torres will not face retrospective action for scratching Jan Vertonghen's face during Saturday's 1-1 draw with Tottenham.

The Football Association reviewed the incident after the Spaniard was captured on TV scratching the defender.

But a match official had already seen the players collide which means under FA rules no action can be taken.

The 29-year-old will serve a one-match ban after being sent off in the 82nd minute for two bookable offences.

Torres faced the prospect of his one-match ban being extended to four if he was found guilty of violent conduct.

The FA is trialling a new disciplinary system this season, which sees a panel of three former referees reviewing an incident and deciding whether charges should be made.

Under the old system, action was only taken if a referee viewed the footage and judged whether a player should have been sent off during the match.

But, under both systems, the FA cannot take further action if a match official witnesses part of the incident.

The FA said in a statement: (external) "One of the match officials saw the coming together of the two players, albeit not in its entirety.

"In these particular circumstances, in line with The FA's policy on when retrospective action may be taken, reviewed this summer by the game's stakeholders, no action may be taken."

 

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24355751

 

So how exactly is the new disciplinary system different to the old one? The system was supposedly changed after the McManaman/Haidara incident but under the new system McManaman would still have faced no retrospective action as one of the officials was looking at the incident! 

[LRD]

Same dinosaur of a system it is then. You have more eyes but the hands are still tied by an outdated rule.

[Ameritoon]

That's an incredible rule, you have to be a real shit organization to have something like that in place.

[Beren]

Good Shakhtar article.