Got to be a joke! The only bit I agree with was he was off the pace on Monday, just as most players who have hardly trained, let alone played, in 5 weeks would be.
Always thought Leon Osman was a good player and couldn't understand why he was always overlooked but I had sympathy with the argument on th RL thread that it was a waste of time debuting a player who is 30 or above. This selection has left me somewhat bemused.
Watching the Celtic v Barcelona game. This guy is having an unbelievable game, played well in the first leg but made 3 stunning saves from Messi tonight. Must be in the next England Squad, surely. I know the was on our HCDAJFU thread. If only!!!
I agree with the bit in bold but the rest of the statement is rubbish. We conceded 46 goals in 46 games. Several teams have been promoted in the last 10 years conceding more than 50 and Burnley when they went up, conceded 60.
Quality is something we can't improve on (well not until the tx window) but organisation certainly can be improved (marking, holding the line, cover etc.). Not sure Dodd is the answer though we need somebody that has played and/or coached in PL in the last 3 or 4 years IMO.
Can he play CB? No! Can he play LB? Debatable! Have we got half a dozen central midfield players better than him? Probably! Is he going to make a difference to our season? definitely not! Don't think there's much going for this really!
There hasn't been a lot wrong with our defence over the last two seasons, probably because Andy Crosby has played/coached at that level. All of a sudden we are playing against some of the best strikers and attacking midfielders in the world, may be his experience doesn't stretch to being able to counteract their skill/movement/speed of thought? Could definitely do with some help if you ask me!
To be honest if they were played in China, Japan or the like, they would sell out whoever's playing. It would be the Premier League experience, they would be going for, not necessarily the teams, similar to the NFL games at Wembley.
Although pretty disappointed with how it has gone so far, I think it's a valid point that we still have to play most of the teams we are capable of taking points off of twice. I don't think anyone seriously thought we could compete with the top 6 or so teams and any points we did get off of those would be a bonus.
As far as I was aware they only said it would be a 39th game, not THE 39th game. I would suspect it would be brought in as an excuse to have a winter break, with the whole league travelling to various 'warmer' climes countries in January.