itt liverpool not winning things; sandbox i love football

if rvi breaks, and i genuinely don't think its gonna happen*, then still spurs. because we then move theo upfront and arshavin or benny noon on the wing, whereas spurs will then... play pav, i guess?

None of them are playing midweek, so its cool.

I didn't finish that post. Could have mentioned lol Park, who Wenger 'believes' in and we'll see how he does v. City tomorrow. Also the *was to say i've most prob jinxed him now.

Chris - did you enjoy big Andy's cameos the last two Sundays?

adebayor is somewhat baffling to me. when he had that great season for arsenal i was convinced that he wasn't that good, he was just putting away chances created by others. watching him play every week for spurs, i can see how good he is at holding the ball up and creating chances for others, but his finishing seems poor. he had 9 shots on target against west brom, the most of any player in a single game the last 5 seasons.

He has the ability to be the best forward in the world. He can have an astounding first touch, a beasty shot, perfect in the air, knows his positioning, can beat his man with ease, has strength to stay up and intimidate, can spot a pass in a way only top players can...

Unfortunately he'll only be working on half of these, at most, in 95% of matches.

That and he just stops caring to play, you know, football, every couple of months or so. I think we got 3 amazing months out of him post-Eduardogate and that was his longest reign of form.

I thought that was an xp until you mentioned Eduardo

spurs def need to sell pav and buy a young-ish cf in january to either replace ade or at least strengthen their negotiating position.

Wonder how Coulibaly is getting on?

he's 16 and short, don't think he can lead the line yet

Nah i know. Just an idle thought

xposts. Not watched the Chelsea game again, but was Andy's control as lol-worthy as I think it was? Good save from Hart last night.

It really was - he had half-a-dozen touches in his three minutes and every one gave the ball away or iirc a risky free-kick. Not ideal when you're trying to see out injury time. He looked like the kid at school who gets picked first 'cos he's big, but can't actually play football. Yet for a moment yesterday he looked the business.

Hart had more than the one great save too - was gutted when I saw the highlights.

Matty Taylor for England & GOAL of the season

Ah, the sandbox of five years ago, when Pardew had gone to Charlton, Chris Coleman was still somebody, DJ Martian still existed, and there was speculation about Liverpool's chances of overhauling both United and Chelsea to win that elusive league title...

what happened to DJM?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Giovanni_Trapattoni.jpg

out

if rvi breaks, and i genuinely don't think its gonna happen*, then still spurs. because we then move theo upfront and arshavin or benny noon on the wing, whereas spurs will then... play pav, i guess?

u crack me up

i try

is ade playing for togo again? just remembered we gots a anc come jan.

It really was - he had half-a-dozen touches in his three minutes and every one gave the ball away or iirc a risky free-kick. Not ideal when you're trying to see out injury time. He looked like the kid at school who gets picked first 'cos he's big, but can't actually play football. Yet for a moment yesterday he looked the business.

Aye, just watched the last few minutes of Chelsea again and that's spot on - so Jekyll and Hyde. Thought we were great v City. Lucas just keeps getting better, and Adam's really impressing me now. The defence is looking very good - great to see Skrtel and Agger getting a run of games together.

Argh, just remembered Spurs v Villa. What a shame ILX was down for that one.

yeah i think he's going back to togo. psyched for the pavness

carroll very unlucky vs city imo

yaya p much the only player the league is going to miss, right?

cameroon didn't qualify. thank the fucking lord. going without song would be 3000 times worse than going without rvi.

uhm

Newcastle might miss Demba Ba

& tiote

yeah, that just occurred to me also. Of course the wheels might come off before that

coulibaly gonna come into his own late on imo

Chelsea losing Mikel might be a blessing in disguise

draw at old trafford seems like a high water mark

they've had a run of form so strong ppl have even talked about the championship level ryan taylor as a 'top fullback'

oriol romeu played on saturday and got good notices in absentia mikel

stephen and ryan taylor will surely start to happen to newcastle very soon

lol ok yeah my bad for forgetting newcastle

they do of course have former new maldini davide santon to blood into lb

never rated stephen taylor, a nonsense of a no-nonsense defender

coloccini was alright at depor but is eminently nonsensical and i doubt this new composure will last

togo and nigeria didn't qualify

trap in (extnded through 2014 qualifying)

unsure what i think of that

ledley king has been booked once in 69 games. phenomenal defender.

Going back to 2007! I should pay more attention to that guy, I'm willing to accept that that probably is phenomenal defending rather than just plain being unable to move around the pitch.

well tbf it'd be going back to 2009 had he a normal injury record, but yeah he's the great lost english talent of his generation, fuck a jokehole or dyer

Rio had 2 in 71 going back to 2009

That's fantastic, you get so used to Lucas or Vidic seemingly always taking a yellow for the team that I'd never noticed guys not operating like that. I wonder how it breaks down for DMs in general, actually.

up until this weekend rio got exemptions in home games iirc

That's mainly Vidic in fairness

Still better than Ledley King though (xp)

That stat includes England games by the way

i'd rate them closely, alright. if both had enjoyed injury/drug free careers there wouldn't be much room for john terry.

What, are you blind or something?

Terry can be grateful for ILF being down, he and cohorts were all over the place against Liverpool.

Ferdinand would have faced some slightly more challenging opposition over that time of course

is tony hart defending rio or terry?

If king had stayed injury free he'd have left, tho tbh defending at spurs prob left you a lot more exposed that rio might have been facing this past few years.

didn't see this so

http://h10.abload.de/img/roysworlduyptz.gif

ffs

http://h10.abload.de/img/roysworlduyptz.gif

Swansea winning at Villa! Stoke winning at Blackburn! Torres starts for Chelsea! Is Drogba injured? Not even on the bench.

eh drogba moved to PSG yesterday dude

Real ilx is back now Chris - some pure gold immigration rules discussion going on on that thread atm.

Ah sorry, didn't realise.

'salright, Drogba moving to PSG would've passed me by otherwise

Fun fact from Beeb ticker: seven clubs into his career, Wayne Routledge scores his first Premier League goal.