Football : Season 2011/12

Originally Posted by sherer

Does anyone remember playing Touch Rugby at school. It's the version where so you don't get injured or hurt you play the girls version and just have to touch someone for a tackle. Sometimes I feel like that is what they are doing with football now.

Tackles are fine, it's just you have to make more contract with the ball. There is less tolerance of taking more of the man than the ball or making any tackle which is dangerous. This is fine anyway. Proper tackling is a skill and for too long people have accepted mistimed and poor tackles under the guise of it being a 'men's game'.

Originally Posted by sherer

There are some younger people who have only ever seen the game played like it is today which is a very sad state of affairs and is starting to make me lose my love of the game

It's not a sad state of affairs though. Hopefully it will raise a generation of footballers who admire the technical qualities of the game, the skill, which is of far more abundance than it used to be.

[Kymmy]

We never played touch rugby in school mainly as it was considered to ridiculous even for girls

But that's what happens in South African schools

[iadom]

Song charged with violent conduct by FA.

Originally Posted by iadom

Song charged with violent conduct by FA.

No surprise. The idiot will now be suspended for the Liverpool and United games. Idiot. Baptism of fire for Frimpong. He was good in pre-season but I don't think he suspected to be involved in such big games! Still that's how Sczesney broke into the team and he is now our no 1 keeper.

Two bits of news from Manchester today:

1) Manchester United will have a $1bn IPO by the end of the year. You can buy MUFC shares I guess

2) UEFA are going to ask Manchester City questions about their stadium deal. All eyes will be on UEFA and if they now enforce FFP.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Damien

2) UEFA are going to ask Manchester City questions about their stadium deal. All eyes will be on UEFA and if they now enforce FFP.

Let's hope they get City ripped apart

[colin25]

Originally Posted by Russ

Let's hope they get City ripped apart

Sigh...it is ok to bribe officials..and be corrupt...it isn't right to spend your own money..strange

Financial fair play?...clubs, who have been spending a fortune over the last 30 years..building up their base of fans...get the adavantage over other clubs who weren't so fortunate?

fair play is a joke.

If they wanted it fair..they would put everyone on same salary..and every club have the same resources...which they could do if they wanted to...but they don't

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Damien

No surprise. The idiot will now be suspended for the Liverpool and United games. Idiot. Baptism of fire for Frimpong. He was good in pre-season but I don't think he suspected to be involved in such big games! Still that's how Sczesney broke into the team and he is now our no 1 keeper.

But l told you last week Damien that Song is a liability and this confirms it.

Originally Posted by colin25

Sigh...it is ok to bribe officials..and be corrupt...it isn't right to spend your own money..strange

Not much implication of UEFA in the FIFA scandals.

Financial fair play?...clubs, who have been spending a fortune over the last 30 years..building up their base of fans...get the adavantage over other clubs who weren't so fortunate?

Most clubs have built up organically. United and Liverpool etc all built up large fan bases which allowed them to afford better players, better stadiums, more money and so on in a sustainable fashion. Those two clubs especially became big before the era of big money transfers by winning trophies and playing good football.

The key issue is that can sustain the level of spending as a club, protecting the club from going under. If the owners of Man City suddenly left they wouldn't be able to support themselves. At least with United they can spend big because they earned it, by winning things before.

[colin25]

Originally Posted by Damien

Not much implication of UEFA in the FIFA scandals.



Most clubs have built up organically. United and Liverpool etc all built up large fan bases which allowed them to afford better players, better stadiums, more money and so on in a sustainable fashion. Those two clubs especially became big before the era of big money transfers by winning trophies and playing good football.

The key issue is that can sustain the level of spending as a club, protecting the club from going under. If the owners of Man City suddenly left they wouldn't be able to support themselves. At least with United they can spend big because they earned it, by winning things before.

Are you saying that none of these clubs were supported by resources beyond their means in prior years?

And as I said...it isn't fair play. It is merely making up rules to benefit a few people, mainly clubs who have built up support before.

Fair play it is not. If you want fair play...make the finances the same for all...but please don't call this set up fair play

Personally, if people want to spend their money...they are entitled.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by colin25

Are you saying that none of these clubs were supported by resources beyond their means in prior years?

And as I said...it isn't fair play. It is merely making up rules to benefit a few people, mainly clubs who have built up support before.

Fair play it is not. If you want fair play...make the finances the same for all...but please don't call this set up fair play

Personally, if people want to spend their money...they are entitled.

I tend to agree, the G14 or however many it is now seem determined not to allow anyone else into their exclusive little club

Abramovich has spent £700 million on Chelsea since he bought it six years ago, but he no longer wants to pour his fortune into the club - or have any other club forge ahead of the Blues.

Says it all imo and talk about do as we say not as we do when they blew £70 million in the last window

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/52849,...al-for-everton

[denphone]

Well Arsenal were lucky last night to get away with a 1-0 win against Udinese and have many problems to boot as well as at times they looked all over the place in the match, up front Chamakh was absolutely woeful but walcott was probably their best player but midfield and defence would be my concerns as Song again went missing in his so called defensive midfield role and Rosicky looks past it by a mile and defensively their full backs are alright going forward but are not that good at defending.
All in all Arsenal play lovely football but my concerns are when they have not got the ball and also Arsenal lack leaders on the pitch as well like Adams/Petit/Vieira and until they get these type of players in their side l fear that they will struggle to win anything.

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

I tend to agree, the G14 or however many it is now seem determined not to allow anyone else into their exclusive little club

G14 disbanded ages ago with 191 clubs being members of the European Club Association take their place. From the UK the following clubs are members:

• Arsenal
• Aston Villa
• Chelsea
• Everton
• Fulham
• Liverpool
• Manchester City
• Manchester United
• Newcastle United
• Tottenham Hotspur

It's rather disingenuous to claim it's only the rich protecting themselves albeit that was probably the prime motivation for them. It's main goal is to curb wage inflation, when clubs are purchased by rich oil barons who think nothing of paying wages of over £200,000 a week this creates upward pressure on the clubs who are constrained by actual economics. Wages bills in football are already absurd and unless we create some kind of pressure to push them down they will only get higher and higher.

As an example the Football League, hardly the preserve of the rich, are also considering implementing a Fair Play System.

---------- Post added at 09:15 ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

Well Arsenal were lucky last night to get away with a 1-0 win against Udinese and have many problems to boot as well as at times they looked all over the place in the match, up front Chamakh was absolutely woeful but walcott was probably their best player but midfield and defence would be my concerns as Song again went missing in his so called defensive midfield role and Rosicky looks past it by a mile and defensively their full backs are alright going forward but are not that good at defending.
All in all Arsenal play lovely football but my concerns are when they have not got the ball and also Arsenal lack leaders on the pitch as well like Adams/Petit/Vieira and until they get these type of players in their side l fear that they will struggle to win anything.

The defence were fine. They were the reason that Arsenal did a get a draw. Sagna and our center-backs were dominant and when they did make a mistake our keeper was equal to the challenge. They were also confident and clam in dealing with set-pieces.

In midfield we need someone to replace Nasri and Fabregas but Wilshere was also missing last night and he is quite an important player for us now. Has the creativity and control that was missing last night.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Damien

G14 disbanded ages ago with 191 clubs being members of the European Club Association take their place. From the UK the following clubs are members:

• Arsenal
• Aston Villa
• Chelsea
• Everton
• Fulham
• Liverpool
• Manchester City
• Manchester United
• Newcastle United
• Tottenham Hotspur

It's rather disingenuous to claim it's only the rich protecting themselves albeit that was probably the prime motivation for them. It's main goal is to curb wage inflation, when clubs are purchased by rich oil barons who think nothing of paying wages of over £200,000 a week this creates upward pressure on the clubs who are constrained by actual economics. Wages bills in football are already absurd and unless we create some kind of pressure to push them down they will only get higher and higher.

As an example the Football League, hardly the preserve of the rich, are also considering implementing a Fair Play System.

---------- Post added at 09:15 ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 ----------



The defence were fine. They were the reason that Arsenal did a get a draw. Sagna and our center-backs were dominant and when they did make a mistake our keeper was equal to the challenge. They were also confident and clam in dealing with set-pieces.

In midfield we need someone to replace Nasri and Fabregas but Wilshere was also missing last night and he is quite an important player for us now. Has the creativity and control that was missing last night.

l think you will find looking back at the match that the defence was all over the place and were lucky not to concede at least three goals and what happens if Wilshere gets injured because if he does Arsenal are up the creek without a paddle and even if he is fit Arsenal lack strength in depth in many areasand need to purchase at least 3 or 4 quality players to replace the ones that have left.

Originally Posted by denphone

l think you will find looking back at the match that the defence was all over the place and were lucky not to concede at least three goals and what happens if Wilshere gets injured because if he does Arsenal are up the creek without a paddle and even if he is fit Arsenal lack strength in depth in many areasand need to purchase at least 3 or 4 quality players to replace the ones that have left.

I was at the match and the defence was not all over the place. That's why Udinese only had 2 decent chances - one where the defence did make a mistake and a player ran though the gap - and the other from a free kick. Both incidents were well saved by Szcesney. Otherwise the defence was decent. Koscielny incepted a lot of dangerous passes, Vermaelen was solid, Sagna as good as he usually is and Jenkinson, looking like a steal at £1 million, was winning every ball in the air. All in all the defence ensured that Udinese were restricted to speculative long-range, off-target, shots.

What did happen was a lack of control and successful passing in midfield putting a lot of pressure on the defence. There was a lack of creativity and a lack of chances created, the only reason we broke though at all was because of Walcott's pace. They gave the ball away cheaply and that was discouraging. We need new midfielders and probably a new striker and left back. We'll see what happens.