nashman

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You can always combine cringeworthy marketing with good post/pre-game analysis. I dont think one precludes the other. In US too, for college football we have the Red River Shootout ( Texas vs Okalahoma ), Monday Night football, and sorts of marketing b******s. But that does not stop them from having a good pre/post game show. The Keys/ Grays/ Recknapps have pulled the bar so low that I dont expect high quality analysis now. Even if they look at facts and construct meaningful sentences by applying a small percentage of the grey matter, there will be a significant increase in quality. I think there needs to be a revamp of the entire football broadcasting and reporting culture in the UK. Some of the sky news reporting is like Fox News (here in the US) on steroids.

Hah Sorry..Just heard the whooosh

It is not like most NFL watchers are intellectuals students of the game, mate. The difference in quality of analysis for NFL, here in the US and the sky sports football analysis is just embarrassing. Let alone NFL, the quality of analysis of college "American" football just beats the crap out of anything Redknapp, Keys and Gray have served in the last 10 years.

Thats because Ferguson does not view Arsenal as a short term threat. He is always nice towards teams and managers who dont threaten him.

Exactly

We have agree to disagree on that. He is far more central to our style of play than Madrid's and his performances have suffered.

He has not been that good for Madrid this season. There are multiple reasons for that. The team has not gelled yet. And secondly there is not much need for a Xabi type player in the Madrid team. Their playmaker is Kaka. Also their defenders are very comfortable on the ball and push forward at every available opportunity. They really dont need Xabi to "control" the play.

It has not gotten a lot of attention outside Spain as Madrid/ Barca journos control most of the news over there. I think it was Phil Ball ( he is a Sociedad fan and lives there) who said that most Basque journalist are stunned at this move. Liverpool was different, according to them. Most Xabi fans in Sociedad had adopted Liverpool as their second team after Xabi moved here. The quote from Phil Ball read along the lines of "It has not sunk in yet for them that Xabi has moved to Madrid".

Sociedad fans can still not believe that alonso joined madrid

The key is not whether he is on the right or left or upfront. When he starts he is more than often s*** - does not matter where he starts from. When he comes on as a sub against tired legs, he looks decent sometimes.

The way they played, there is absolutely no way they are going to get past the group stages. I think the best punishment for france would be for FIFA to impose a sanction preventing them from hiring a new manager for the next five years.

Closest I have seen is

I dont think that is a preferred formation mate. In the big games, one of Busquets or Senna. Xavi, Iniesta and Alonso - midfield can be harried by a decent midfield. It maybe a one off, but USA did a brilliant job of disrupting their rhythm and counter attacking effectively in the confederations cup.

Any chances of us getting De Rossi, Aquilani's partner at Roma. They are in a bit of a financial bother. When Aquilani moved, De Rossi was gushing about Gerrard. He said something along the lines of he was a bit jealous that Aquilani gets to learn from whom he considers the best footballer in the world.

As a DM I don't think Lucas is in the same league as Mascher. But in order to win the premiership I dont think we need a Mascher in our CM also. If the 30 million is invested wisely I think we can improve as a team overall. If we can use the money to buy a LW who will add another dimension to our attacking play and a backup striker, I think most premiership teams wont be able to handle us. This is assuming Aquilani will live up to his potential.

We should have it gladiator style Kill.. kill...Kill.. Then Rogan Taylor gives thumbs up or thumbs down to the manager

Agreed. In fact me and my mates think the way he shows no emotions when a goal goes in is just brilliant. One of my favorite Rafa moments is when he sat down like he Buddha for the Champions League penalty kicks against Chelsea.

Disgustingly s*** article. Did Winter forget the fact that Rafa came out in support of Carra a week ago. Also this "Does it matter that this footballing obsessive seems to show no interest in his players as human beings? After all, this is the manager who stayed on for the 2005 Club World Championship in Tokyo despite learning that his father had passed away back in Spain. In Benítez’s eyes, he was merely being professional, being devoted to his team’s pursuit of trophies." That must be the lowest I have ever seen a journalist go. The mans father died. Different people have different ways of grieving when faced with extreme grief. The decent thing to do is not to dissect the actions of a man in grief. He stayed and managed, so what. Maybe he just wanted to do something which he liked to get over the pain. Just because he does not kiss his finger and point to the sky every time liverpool score a goal, does not mean he put his profession over his family or anything. If he was that cold, I dont think Montse would be with him.

corrected that for you

There has been some excellent and passionate posts made in this thread about Moores. Let us assume that G&H were brilliant con artists who would have outwitted even the sharpest of Chairmen. Even under this scenario, I am a bit disappointed with Moores behavior after the sale. I may be sitting on a high horse here, but if I was in Moores shoes, I would be ashamed to show myself in Anfield and sit on the team bus every match. I would find it difficult to look in the eyes of a regular match going fan. Also remember the timing of the pathetic interview he gave to the ECHO. When Rafa was getting slaughtered in the press and by the owners, he did not give one statement supporting the manager. When the clubs name was being dragged through the mud, he did not do anything. However, when his mate Parry was getting slammed he immediately came out in support - pathetic, simply pathetic.

These quotes read very similar to the interview which Rafa gave when Gerrard gave his transfer request after Istanbul. He pretty much put the ball in Stevie G's court then - a brilliant and honest interview where he just told fachts ). This is another one of them - concise, crisp and to the point. Rafa used to give a number of these interviews in the first year before he got embroiled in the fight with Mourinho and Mister Ferguson. I hope this is the return of them.