americanscouser

its time like these that i always question our "best supporters in the world" tag. why is it that we can't let djib just move along with his career without bringing back the slanging again? he was bought by houllier to play in a certain system, benitez comes in, changes the system, djib doesn't fit it. its that simple, why can't some of you lot just leave it at that? and before i get the typical sarcastic remarks.. for every. lazy git moody runs when he wants to there's a boss told him he's not wanted played sporadically and with no specific rhythm almost always played out of position on the right yet people constantly have to judge who his goals were scored against (kaunas etc) as a means of knocking him down. let the boy recover in peace in marseille, and here's hoping he comes back healthy this winter and starts banging in the goals again.

supposedly all EPL teams have internet distribution rights for all their matches which negates setanta being able to play the games via their broadband option. that podcast does mention something about getting a back and "watching tv over the internet" but it sounds a bit shady to me. can't see anyone else picking up setanta before next season so its directv or bust unless this GlobeTV thing is legit.

or it could lend some credence to those defoe rumours that were floating around last week as its been reported that Mido is having a medical at spurs. 4 strikers of that caliber at spurs would never work http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...317&cc=5739

this smells like a PPV scheme for FSC be interesting to see how it plays out.

awful news to be honest. more football yes, but now i've got to go through the switch back to satellite. though it'll be the best 11.99 i've spent a month

think Rafa will stick with what worked last year for the most part and bed a player or two in at a time. can't see wholesale changes from our best XI of last year. maintains some of last years consistency and gets us out of the gate fast.

think some are doing wenger a bit of a disservice with how he brings along some kids. sure pennant was the most expensive teenager of the time when he was bought, but he's turned into a good player in his own right, wenger got rid, i would gather based on attitude. but there are players he's let go that have gone on and done well. bentley and jerome thomas being the most recent. when you sign them that young its hit and miss. but he's gotten return on some when he sells them off. rafa gets a lot of credit now, but in a few years time it'll be interesting to see how far along the likes of hobbs, antwi, roque, anderson etc are and if they have what it takes to make it at liverpool. if the total cost of all them youngens is 1 million pounds to buy and their development costs and we sell them off for a million pound profit and just one makes it through to the first team, its almost as if they've done their job.

don't think the problem in the first half was that his technique was bad, it was the choice of surface that was poor. if he side foots it, we are looking at 2-0. since he hit it with the laces he had little chance. tough ball to hit like that, but then he pulls out the outside of the boot looping volley to make us all love him again... riise is still looking for his right peg though...

to take it a step further even, you can see when he strikes it that he hits it with enough backspin that it sits up for djib to take it on the run. fat frank can't even hope to hit that kind of ball. xabi's touch, especially on the longer balls, is world class

actually rafa played a very similar system against newcastle last year at their place. had gerrard out wide right that game and baros up top. must have seen something last year to exploit and carried it on again. really liked agger today. composed, good distributor, hit a very good long ball and was solid in the tackle. looks a keeper. thought stevie was very subdued and noticed didi doing most of the pressing in the middle. great awareness on his goal by both he and crouchie and superb finish.

agree fully. also want to add that he seems to linking up play with purpose instead of in the past trying to do everything himself. laying the ball off quite a bit quickly and then finding different spaces. he might not be showing a ton of intelligent movement but i'd add two things. i don't think guy roux's tactics were a bunch of neat interplay, but more get djib the ball in space and let him do his thing. and 2ndly, and more importantly, it just occurred to me that the whole time djib was out with the broken leg, he was missing out on almost 6 months of dedicated training with the squad. so virtually anything tactically that rafa was getting across djib was not a part of. it may just take him a bit longer to get it.

from a football perspective, i think today encapsulized why rafa wouldn't spend over the odds for him. did little at all today. wasn't available to come deep and link up play. doesn't have the pace of yesteryears to get behind people. i'd agree that his finishing is still up there with the best, but he's got to be able to add more to the team than just scoring goals. and given that rafa isn't going to change his system to revolve around one goalscorer, owen would have had to adapt coming here. i can't blame mickey for choosing newcastle. he's automatic first choice. he'll play every game. they aren't in europe so he'll be fresher at the end of the year. he'd have a big man in shearer to do the dirty work for him and he's getting paid big money. chances are he moves in the summer after the world cup. that's why he's there now anyway, as practice build up for the summer....