itt liverpool not winning things; sandbox i love football

for nv's sake a pre-xmas slide and mccarthy firing would probably be better

this 'play shit for ten games then well for two' is no good

eh that depends on the results, i mean utd are second

McCarthy Out

:( Socrates

Jarvis = waste
Edwards = not good enough
McCarthy = yeah, take off Doyle and Hunt, that'll shake things up

other than that, decent but unincisive football again, notably better without Henry in the team so i look forward to him being first pick for the Man U game

Late comeback again is something though. What is that, are you just fitter than other teams?

just want it more iirc

sunderland played Brown and O'Shea at CB iirc

Anonymous on text via 81111: "In terms of trophies won is there any more successful central defensive partnership in the premier league at Sunderland? Wes Brown and John O'Shea? Or even in the history of the league?"

by the same lights Solskjaer and Cronaldo wd be a top pairing

http://i.imgur.com/KtS0J.jpg

could be manager of likeable xi maybe? would be good if he could play some less rudimentary football at sunderland tho

I'm assuming Van Persie in that likeable lineup is a joke. Who doesn't love Aguero right now though? Amazing goal yesterday.

Spurs looked fantastic yesterday, unfortunately so did Jussi. Should have got 8 or 9. Struggling to think of a Spurs player who isn't on top form right now. Only really Gallas and he can hardly be blamed for that.

i'd like adebayor to be sticking them away a little more ruthlessly but yeah everyone looking the business right now.

Would like to see the squad used more, though. We ran out of steam last year and it's not like kranjcar, pienaar, sandro, corluka et al couldn't do a job here and there

Also wrt United and creative midfielders, don't think it's a coincidence that United have gone from awesome to workmanlike since Cleverly got injured, he looked an excellent player. Rooney's barren spell is going weirdly uncommented on in the media as well.

Kranjcar injured I think and it's looking like Pienaar is just not destined to happen for Spurs through no fault of his own, unless there's an injury.

a great manager has to find ways to keep squad players fresh and interested i think, it's alright picking yr best XI week in week out but sooner or later you're gonna need to bring other guys in who can hit the ground running

i've never liked mo'n. the guy is an above average guy who leaves before the shit hits the fan and everyone notices he spent way too much money to be above average.

xp

also did no-one else watch/have any problems w/ close-hd lawro and his tongue? or have you guys just got used to it by now?

you've described villa o'neill, but no other o'neill afaict

And villa sold a lot of o'neill buys for a lot of money, he was unlucky not to make cl with that group imo

also did no-one else watch/have any problems w/ close-hd lawro and his tongue? or have you guys just got used to it by now?

What's the deal with his tongue?

xposts. Reckon Martinez could manage this Likeable XI? Seriously, I can't remember ever seeing an interview with him that didn't make me go "AWW!"

Half-time in Brazil and it's:

Corinthians 0-0 Palmeiras
Vasco da Gama 1-0 Flamengo

Makes it Vasco's title by a single goal if I've got my sums right. Ismaelinho's getting his bottle then I'll be settling down with that lot for the denouement.

He kept sticking it out, licking his lips, generally looking like he didn't have control of it. Was srs creepy.

I also remember hating his Leicester team, if that means anything.

not really.

Martinez is likeable and i know nobody serious who dislikes him.

h8 that dude

na not really

Red card for Palmeiras' No.10, as if it wasn't poised enough. Looked like an insanely violent challenge at first, sadly replays reveal it was just a 50/50 with an extremely awkward coming-together after the ball had been nicked away.

vidic's mum commentary imo

Goal for Flamengo

Huge Socrates flag floating by in the Corinthians game, towed by a massive bunch of black-and-white balloons. Nice touch, soon to be seen at the Venky's.

take a lot of balloons to carry Steve Kean out of the ground i think

10-man Palmeiras indulging in insane (but v skilful) showboating across the edge of their own box a moment ago. David Luiz phenomenon suddenly making a lot more sense.

Corinthians' winger just pulled the Mata-on-Albiol trick for real. I'd never been able to work it out until now.

(It's a shift-right, drag-back-left and stepover with the right foot, then flicked back right with right again behind the standing foot as it runs across the body btw)

Both Vasco & Corinthians have a man sent off and Palmeiras hit the post. It's Corinthians' league atm, Vasco need a goal.

Rooney's barren spell is going weirdly uncommented on in the media as well

Yeah, though it's not a simple case of him losing form again. Partly due to Cleverly getting injured (and the lack of fit / in form central midfield replacements) and party due to a post-City-mauling defence-first mentality, Ferguson's been playing Rooney either in midfield or as a 'striker' lying so deep he might as well be in midfield. He's actually been looking alright in that position and was spraying some Beckhamesque long passes around yesterday, but it does seem a waste of him (especially as goals are so scarce for United at the moment). Having said that, he fucked up Welbeck's 'goal' by delaying the pass for far, far too long so that Welbeck was eventuall offside. He's not looked so sharp in terms of getting goals recently, but that late volley yesterday would have been a great goal (if it had actually gone in instead of over).

Brawls in both games simultaneously now

Ha, channel 1 cut to channel 2 for the fight action in game B, only for channel 2 to cut immediately to channel 1 coverage to see the fight in game A

All over, Corinthians win the title

I never watch Brazilian Serie A except at the sharp end, but it's amazing whenever I have watched it. All being well economically (a big if), this'll be the league that bursts the EPL's bubble imo.

Rafa v.d. Vaart crying his guts out on Dutch telly tonight, confronted with video messages by his family and friends etc (amongst whom is Sneijder)

He also says he doesn't think, even though he is pleased right now, Spurs is the ceiling and he has dreams of bigger clubs.

Just reporting to my favorite sandbox board I Love Spurs

Oh, and RIP 'Doctor' Socrates :-(

lol i'd happily sell vdv for 20m or w/e, long may we be a stepping stone from madrid bench to milan bench or wherever if it works out as well as this one

What's he crying about?

He's touched by his grandparents from Valencia msg and a msg from his parents who escaped living in a trailer park where he grew up because of his money, and he's crying because his parents said summat about his wife's cancer episode.

So a lot of crying, yes. But sincere crying tbh

Got a stream for that?

poor dude, man i'd hate to be a millionaire in a part time job doing something im passionate about at a p successful workplace i agreed to in one of the best cities in the world

xp ok forgot abt cancer etc

ik thanks for the liveblogging!

No worries, it was top entertainment tbh

lol

i'll find a gif of those tears streaming down his face, i'm sure of it

Future Ballon d'Or 2011 winner Lionel Messi joins Cristiano Ronaldo and Xavi in the shortlist for the Fifa Ballon d'Or 2011.

have a sneaky suspicion it'll go to xavi as a kind of lifetime achievement award