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#147485 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Absolutely world-class.
#147477 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Clear red, but I suspect he was moaning about being fouled about Jelavic beforehand. Which, to be fair, he was.
#147467 The Armoury
bluemoon.
I wasn't really disagreeing with that (though as I recall after the respective 1st legs, City got panned and Arsenal got the 'heroic failure' treatment) it was the general tone of it, that I think is ridiculous. Arsenal don't always get the best press but no more than anyone else really.
Yeah, it's a bit of an odd claim.
#147385 The Armoury
bluemoon.
#147109 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
This.
#147051 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Credit where it's due he was very, very good when he came on.
He's really not. There's far more to his game than simply work-rate. He's not at the same level as Yaya or David Silva but that doesn't mean he's a bad player.
#147036 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Not very many. It's basically the combination of handing Mark Hughes a massive suitcase full of cash and telling him to go for it and the disastrous transfer window after the title win when we spunked millions on Rodwell and García. We've ended up paying over the odds for decent (but not exceptional) players and then spent one of the most important windows we've had buying bad players.
It's why I scoff when we're talked about as having the best squad in the league. We probably have the best XI and a very good squad but compared to Arsenal or Chelsea we don't have the strength in depth.
Very harsh on Milner, he's far, far better than Lescott and considering the threat Barça have down the flanks it's not unreasonable to have him playing out-wide. Fair point on Lescott though, that problem should have been solved after he almost lost us the league against QPR.
#146614 The FA Cup 2013/14
bluemoon.
Aye he was terrible - as was Clichy at times - I have to say I think his City career is over. He's regressed so much since we won the title, it's almost unbelievable. Even on the rare occasions that he is fit to play, he looks like a shadow of the player he used to be.
To be honest he's always been good at missing sitters, he just didn't use to do them quite as often (or as close together) and generally made up for them.
Combination of injury and poor form, arguably as a result of the change in system under Pellegrini.
Yeah, I've watched that replay a few times now and impressive though it is that Boyce got into that position, I still can't see where he makes contact with the ball. To me it looks like it takes a bobble and then Dzeko shins it over the bar.
#146540 The FA Cup 2013/14
bluemoon.
Not sure about Slash but I thought (and still do think) that Demichelis is a decent player but he's not good enough to be our second centre-back. He's fine as a 3rd or 4th choice and he's still preferable to Lescott against most teams, but the fact he's starting so many games says as much about our other centre-backs as it does about him.
To be honest, he wasn't even our worst defender yesterday.
#146469 The FA Cup 2013/14
bluemoon.
That's not saying much, he's still shit and he still managed to miss another open goal. Even with Richards, Rodwell, Demichelis etc in the squad, Dzeko'd still be the first one out of the door if I had any say.
#145079 Capital One Cup 2013/14
bluemoon.
#145052 Capital One Cup 2013/14
bluemoon.
#144220 Transfer Rumours 2013/14
bluemoon.
Annoying though he is, he was pretty quick with the Mata story. He was writing about it for AS early on.
He's still a cock though.
#143948 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
#143479 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
bluemoon.
That was mainly Slash. That said he did have a great run of form in December/January.
#143474 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
bluemoon.
He's not even that good coming off the bench to be honest. He had a great run of scoring off the bench last season but not so much this season.
The main problem with Dzeko is that even though he scores quite a few (17 in 28 in all competitions this year) compared to Aguero and Negredo he offers very little apart from goals. His touch, work-rate, link-up play, even his ability to hold-up the ball are all inferior to his team-mates. You add that to his proclivity for missing sitters and he's absolutely infuriating.
I'm not sure he's actually rated highly enough nowadays to be overrated.
#143463 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Nah, they're both in poor form but Negredo's a better player than Dzeko in virtually every way. More importantly though, they shouldn't be playing together. Dzeko-Negredo doesn't work as a partnership, it should be one of them with one of Aguero or Jovetic.
#143371 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Also, we really need Aguero back
#142875 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
That's not really accurate though. More accurate would be to say English football is so far behind 3 or 4 European teams it's not even funny. And given the levels that those 3 or 4 clubs have been playing at over the last 2 or 3 years there's no real shame in that, in particular when you consider how Arsenal, Chelsea and City are making up the ground on them.
#142694 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
You're talking shite, Slash. He wasn't very good in the last 10/15 minutes but that was because he was clearly exhausted from running all over the place for 70 odd minutes.
#142658 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Bollocks.
#142584 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
True. He would not have looked out of place in Barça's midfield imo.
#142583 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Nah, I'm not having that, he's had his bad games this season but he was good today. The only times I can remember him not tracking back were when Kolarov was already in the left-back position or right at the end of the game when he looked dead on his feet.
He made a nuisance of himself in a good way. His touch let him down a few times though.
#142575 Champions League 2013/14
bluemoon.
Fernandinho's a beast generally. He's been our best central midfielder this season.
#141937 The FA Cup 2013/14
bluemoon.
Arsenal or Liverpool v Everton
Brighton & Hove Albion or Hull City v Sunderland
Sheffield United or Nottingham Forest v Sheffield Wednesday or Charlton Athletic
Manchester City v Wigan Athletic
Uwe's coming home!
#141878 Old Trafford Lounge
bluemoon.
I'm not saying it's entirely without it's merits, he is still a good player and I can understand United wanting to keep him out of Chelsea's clutches, but giving that much money to somebody who has twice tried to publicly force an exit (and supposedly making him captain in the process) doesn't seem like a smart decision to me. He's not worth the money and the idea that he'll just happily see out his contract without demanding more in a few years time is naive, he's already demonstrated on more than one occasion that he's willing to rock the boat to get what he wants and I don't understand why United would try and build their team around somebody like that (even more so when you consider the likelihood of him maintaining his fitness until he's 33).
That said I accept that there aren't any obvious alternatives without their own down-sides. Personally, I would sell him, stick with RVP as your main striker and instead throw that money at somebody like Arturo Vidal. Simultaneously giving you the nice PR boost and solving a large chunk of your problems in central midfield. I know that's unlikely to happen though.
#141850 Old Trafford Lounge
bluemoon.
#141782 The FA Cup 2013/14
bluemoon.
Never said it did. I mentioned them because they are probably our two most influential players apart from Vincent Kompany. We have no replacements for them. It was a crisis because we had García, Fernandinho, Aguero and Nasri out injured while Milner, Yaya, Dzeko and Negredo were all carrying knocks.
As already mentioned Milner wasn't fully fit (and realistically, can he even be called a central midfielder any more? He hasn't played there consistently since his Villa days, he's had 4 different managers decide he's a wide player) and Rodwell wasn't a viable option either. He's played 23 games (in all competitions) since August 2012, he was out of his depth against Watford and he hasn't played a full 90 minutes for I don't know how long.
True, Chelsea did play a central defender in midfield too. The difference is Mourinho could also have chosen Mikel or Frank Lampard (central midfielders) to play there, he wasn't forced into that situation by injuries. He made a tactical decision.
It does matter when the win is being attributed to 'tactical genius', Mourinho's tactics were good but they were hardly revolutionary. The win had far more to do with the players performances, in particular Hazard and Matic who were exceptional, than it did any tactical master-plan. (And if we're being picky, City had already been beaten 4 times in the league. Hardly unstoppable).
#141779 Newcastle Thread
bluemoon.
#141723 The FA Cup 2013/14
bluemoon.
*Whilst they were suffering an injury crisis that saw their best central midfielder and one of the best players in the league to miss the game and resulted in a 33 year-old centre-back playing in midfield.
Chelsea played well and Mourinho had a good game but his 'tactical genius' has been vastly overstated in that game.