Barclays Premier League 2008-2009 Thread

[daan]

The top 4 is looking more like the top 4 with the usual suspects occupying the CL qualifying spots.

Yep, Chelsea, Liverpool, Hull & Arsenal are all looking good. 👍

 

[Omnis]

Anyone think Geovanni is gonna get snatched up by another club? His freekicks are amazing.

 

[Dave A]

Yep, Chelsea, Liverpool, Hull & Arsenal are all looking good. 👍

. Yep.

I forgot about Hull's game yesterday. They are looking very good for a newly promoted team though. The big test for teams that come in like this though is the second season.

 

[Only_in_f1]

Ramos has gone.

Redknapp will be the new manager in the morning.

Also Grant to become new Pompey Manager.

 

[Alex.]

Brilliant result for us against Chelsea , Hull going strong as well!

 

[Dave A]

Great result against Chelsea. I don't think you'll take the title, but it looks like you might compete. We had an unusual day against Everton, hammered them in the first half and did bugger all in the second. I'm glad Chelseas undefeated League run at the Bridge is over, shame it was Liverpool but such is life.

 

[Dave A]

Anyone read the headlines on Sunday, how many were about Delap eh. Stoke beating Arsenal 2-0 was a suprise result, as was Hull scoring 3 against United at Old Trafford, United won 4-3 but that was still a brave perofrmance. I was very frustrated with United in that game, we took our foot way off the pedal again and it keep causing us grief later in the games, it cost us 2 points at Everton. We got 3 points but we really need to be more focused and to remember that a game lasts until the final whistle. We need to be like Chelsea have been this season and as and when we can, steamroller the opposition with no sympathy for them. Maybe the Hull game is a blessing in disguise and will give our players the required kick up the proverbial to start to focus more and the keep pressure on for longer, especially with Celtic away and then Arsenal away as our next two games.

 

[daan]

Shaping up to be a really interesting season between the top 4. Everyone seems to be capable of beating everyone else.

 

[Dave A]

Yeah, the game yesterday betwwen United and Arsenal was about as open as a game gets. It's a shame we lost, our midfield didn't click as well as it could have though. On the bright side Rafael keeps putting in brilliant performances. Still not there with his defensive positioning yet but a fantastic prospect. His brothers better by the way.

 

[Omnis]

Well I'm glad that Tottenham are winning finally. Hope they don't get relegated.

 

[Touring Mars]

Cech

Ferreira Alex Carvalho A Cole

Mineiro Ballack Essien Belletti

Drogba J Cole​

A great Chelsea team?... None of which are currently playing in the WBA v Chelsea game this evening

edit: Spoke too soon... Drogba just came on for Anelka

 

[Alex.]

Should've put the bolton game to bed a LOT earlier, still got the 3 points and that's all that matters.

 

[Dave A]

It's still frustrating to see Liverpool getting so lucky. Still the 5-0 win against Stoke was good entertainment. We hit the right gear today, Wellbeck scored a cracker. Good to see Ronaldo's free kicks hitting the target again, even if he didn't score, good to see them hitting the target. His free kicks recently have been smashed over far too often. Darren Fletcer is really showing great ability now he's getting a run in the team. He's realy improved this season, last season he had games where he played great but he's playing really well consistenly now. Manuch looks like he has a good head on his shoulders but you can't judge on a 20 min Prem appearence and a late Carling cup sub. He fluffed a good chance but other than that his passing and movement on and off the ball was very good. Tevez did everything but score, had a couple of shots saved. Berbatov was playing really well. Carrick was very good today too and he got forwards more than we usually see him. He's actually been quite good when he's got forwards every game he's been played that way. He's very good at sitting infront of the defence too, but he covers defensive and attacking central midfield roles really well.

Hopefully we're hitting form now and we'll keep it. We'll be getting Scholes back later this month, supposedly he'll make the bench against City but getting him back will be a big boost.

 

[Alex.]

We're hitting a bit of form now, and with Torres back in the side I hope we can get better.

 

[Only_in_f1]

Why are you so inactive in this thread? You should be posting every day the league position

 

[Dave A]

You'd think he'd be here every day while Liverpool are top .

For me this season has been hugely dissapointing. I don't know why but as a team we just arn't clicking. Some people have said it's Berbatov but that's not the reason, the whole team isn't clicking. What we could do with a fit Owen Hargreaves in the team now eh. It's a conundrum.

 

[C-ZETA]

Man United NEED to get off of level points of Aston Villa to stand a chance. Still, at least were doing a lot better that Arsenal...who have lost against Hull and Stoke!

I SWEAR Chelsea should be top of the table. They've scored so many goals that they make Liverpool's strike force distinctly average. Also it would be nice if Wigan could get ahead of Everton, Hull need to be lower than A LOT of teams, towards the relegation zone, as do Portsmouth and Blackburn SHOULD be ahead of Stoke.

 

[Dave A]

I think it's still between United and Chelsea simply for the fact that experience goes a long way and Liverpool haven't experienced a title run in and challengers before. Out of Chelsea and United I think chelsea are playing more like a title winning team so far this season than we are. We do need to switch ourselves on. We've got 2 games in hand, and we play Liverpool at OT. If we win our two games in hand, beat Liverpool at OT and match their points elsewhere then we finish ahead of them. I do think we can do that, the question is can we beat Chelsea's points for the rest of the season. I don't think we're playing well enough tbh.

 

[daan]

Chelsea were abysmal yesterday, losing 3-0 to an average Man Utd team. The game was ran by a 35 year old winger who seems to have been converted to a defensive midfielder. How does that work?

 

[Dave A]

I think we played well yesterday, playing like that we'd have beaten Liverpool and Arsenal this year. The 3-0 score flattered Chelsea, we should at least have ended the match 4-0 up. I think Chelsea played okay in the first half, they closed us down a lot and when they had the ball we had to be sharp defensively, then Ronaldo scored from that corner which was dissalowed because the linesman wasn't watching. Fortunately we scored with the re-take, if we hadn't then the scond half could have been very different.

 

[ASH32]

This thread is definitely under used, I am a big football fan, see I called it it's real name and I would post here more often if I thought anyone was actually interested.

I support Manchester United, for the first time this season I thought we played well the other day against Chelsea, although they were pretty poor, this needs to be carried on against Wigan tomorrow, then maybe we can think about being champions again. We have what it takes, just this season a lazy attitude has crept in and it's giving others a chance. We are lucky the team is so strong that we are still in all four competitions, now is time for the team to stand up and be counted, especially you Mr Nani, how bad has he become lately, against Derby all he did was go backwards with the ball.

Also who's buying players because Ferguson can't seriously have wanted to buy Possebon, where did he come from? To me he looks as bad as Bellion and Djemba-Djemba were, these players bring great shame on our great club.

Come on you reds. Lets win all the trophies this season, you know you can do it.👍

 

[Alex.]

I believe you are the red devils, but thanks for showing your support to our title challenge instead

 

[Dave A]

This thread is definitely under used, I am a big football fan, see I called it it's real name and I would post here more often if I thought anyone was actually interested.

I agree, it seems to go in small spurts of activity but I tend to discuss football elsewhere becuse it's never been a heavilly discussed topic here.

I support Manchester United, for the first time this season I thought we played well the other day against Chelsea, although they were pretty poor, this needs to be carried on against Wigan tomorrow, then maybe we can think about being champions again.

I said the same thing watching that game, it was the first time all season it felt like watching United. We played well, Chelsea played better than they're being credited for imo. They didn't play well but we closed them down fast and we did't let them get any rythem to thier game. The referee didn't help with the games rythem either.

We have what it takes, just this season a lazy attitude has crept in and it's giving others a chance. We are lucky the team is so strong that we are still in all four competitions, now is time for the team to stand up and be counted, especially you Mr Nani, how bad has he become lately, against Derby all he did was go backwards with the ball.

I don't think it's laxzyness, it's just that the team hasn't clicked. I've seen decent individual performances several times this seaon, but until Sunday I can't recal one good team performance. As for Nani, I wouldn't be dissapointed if we sold him in the summer. I'm hoping this Serbian lad we signed Tosic offers the team what we need, which is a good crosses and not a Ronaldo copycat who has less than 1.10th of the quality.

Also who's buying players because Ferguson can't seriously have wanted to buy Possebon, where did he come from? To me he looks as bad as Bellion and Djemba-Djemba were, these players bring great shame on our great club.

You're kidding right? Possebon's only 18 and he's looked okay. I'm not sure what you're expecting of him, he's done well so far. We bought Possebon last season in January and he made an instant impact in the reserves. He's not a fast attacking player, he's a holding and passing player. We've got him for the future, I don't expect him to be playing in starting 11 roles regular any time soon, but he looks like good potential for an 18 year old. Same as Fabio and Rafael, though Rafael has got more games (too many games imo) thanks to Brown being injured. Liek Possebon, he looks like great potential but he's inexperienced and lightweight at the moment, like most kids and it shows. You can pick holes in an 18 year olds game all over the place, Messi, Ronaldo, Fabregas, none of them looked anywhere near complete when they were 18 but now they're all in their 20's they look like great players.

Come on you reds. Lets win all the trophies this season, you know you can do it.👍

We can but its a long shot. I'm nt going to be dissapointed if we don't. The way we've played so far this season anything we win from now is a big bonus because if Liverpool were actually as good as us and Chelsea and/or Chelsea hadn't for some reason suddenly died in terms of performances like we have all season we'd be out of the race by now. If we play well against Wigan and then on Saturday I think the league will be ours to lose but one good performance doesn't change our season, we need a good uniterrupted run of form.

 

[ASH32]

I don't expect us to win everything, I am just one of those people who likes to win and give my best at everything and so I expect teams I support to do the same.

Regarding Possebon, maybe I am being harsh, he is very young, but he definitely needs to bulk up a little and he shouldn't be in the first team yet, maybe he would benifit from going out on loan for a while.

Also I don't understand why tens of millions is being spent on unproven players, instead of proven match winners and I don't understand why he buys defensive midfielder after defensive midfielder, we need players to replace Giggs and Scholes in the future and I am not sure we have anyone capable right now.

From what I have seen Anderson could really be a good player for us, but he seems to lack confidence and make wrong choices at times, he really does need a goal, it may settle him down and then we might get the best out of him, because at the moment it seems his developement has stalled.

I guess our youngsters are a little inexperienced right now, I guess we will find out how good they really are a few years down the line, I just hope they can do well enough if injuries force them to fill in now, so we can retain our title.

 

[Dave A]

I don't expect us to win everything, I am just one of those people who likes to win and give my best at everything and so I expect teams I support to do the same.

Fair enough.

Regarding Possebon, maybe I am being harsh, he is very young, but he definitely needs to bulk up a little and he shouldn't be in the first team yet, maybe he would benifit from going out on loan for a while.

I think perhaps the first half of next season, we could use the extra squad depth for the run in but I agree, he'd definitely benefit from regular first team football for a Championship side or newly promoted Premier league team. I do think he looks promising though, he reads the game well he's just not experienced or tough enough yet.

Also I don't understand why tens of millions is being spent on unproven players, instead of proven match winners and I don't understand why he buys defensive midfielder after defensive midfielder, we need players to replace Giggs and Scholes in the future and I am not sure we have anyone capable right now.

We arn't spending 10's of millions on single players, prices like 16 million for Anderson arn't up front payments, they're if we play them so many times and win so many trophies ect. We paid less than 8 million for each of them up front. I don't thin kwe have too many defensive minded midfielders, I just think that we are lacking a good goal scoring centre mid at the moment. Anderson could end up that player but he isn't at the moment. I think next season if Hargreaves hopefully comes back after a succefull operation we'll have a much stronger centre midfield than we do now. As it stands Carrick is our best defensive midfielder and even he isn't an out and out defensive centre mid, he's more of a creative mid fielder. He always looks to pass forwards before sideways or backwards, he's a real asset to the team imo. Hargreaves is the best defensive midfielder we have, when he's fit, that said I was really impressed when he covered the right wing for us a couple of times last season. He has a great cross too.

From what I have seen Anderson could really be a good player for us, but he seems to lack confidence and make wrong choices at times, he really does need a goal, it may settle him down and then we might get the best out of him, because at the moment it seems his developement has stalled.

you're one of the few people I speak to about United who have said that and I agree with you. Last season Anderson was a revelation, to get a young player and for him to perform as well as he did, he was brilliant for his age and the fact he was new to the team. This season though I agree, he seems to have lost a bit of confidence and stalled a little. e's over hitting passes a lot. I do think it's just a confidence issue though, he clearly has a good head and bags of ability.

 

[ASH32]

Can I just ask what you guys think about the possible move to Man City by Kaka, I mean £500,000 a week is just silly money, any more than £50,000 is if you ask me, that's more than enough.

I don't get what City hope to acheive with it either, sure they will get a great player, but no one else will then go unless they get £250,000 or more, some will even wont more, you can't run a club like that. Not to mention how others already there like Robinno will feel, I can't see him being happy that they value Kaka that much more than him.

 

[Touring Mars]

It's ridiculous, but I wouldn't be shocked if Kaka put the money first and the embarrasment of joining a mediocre team second...

Man City could easily become a "dream team" but no amount of money can make them great.

I find the whole mega-money thing pretty pathetic and ultimately a waste of time, since only good management and hard work can deliver the prizes that this type of player really wants...

 

[C-ZETA]

Well, City's Hughes says that the big-money offer for Kaka makes football and business sense. That has got to be THE worst opinion for a transfer EVER.

 

[Omnis]

That's because Hughes isn't paying.

 

[ASH32]

Well, City's Hughes says that the big-money offer for Kaka makes football and business sense. That has got to be THE worst opinion for a transfer EVER.

Well it does not make business sense in my view, paying way over the odds for a player, no matter how good they are is not smart. It singles your intention to do it and as such every player they buy will be well overpriced, nevermind the fact that wages alone would be enough to cripple the club should the owner die or pull his money out.

The only good thing that might come out of it is Blatter won't like them doing this, he already seems to have it against English clubs, so a salary cap will probably be intruduced and how football needs it, if clubs continue like this, it will drive up prices for the people who matter, the FANS.