Dangermouth

Is that relevant though? What do the referees among us think? I thought he was onside and part of his body might have been ahead of the defender based on the angle shown on the telly but really that could mean his hand was ahead of the defender and he'd be called offside. The rule is still that the player must be goal-side of the last defender and he really wasn't. The same applied to SL when he was called offside at the end from Redmond's pass. While I wasn't impressed when Austin joined, having now seen him a bit it's obvious he comes alive in the 18 yard box and he's an excellent finisher - he has no doubt he'll score and he intends to. Up there with the likes of Defoe and not many others but we seem to like to leave Tadic up (at the tip of the diamond) where he does little as he's not the player who's best with his back to goal and have the other forwards drop which just means they have further to run and so e.g. SL isn't being allowed to go one on one with the last defender which would probably scare the **** out of most of them. Noticed as well how fast Yoshida is as was described in the thread on fastest players in the first few games of this season. I still think the system should be tweaked to make use of our players' strengths rather than negating them and we should have gone for the kill last night, not conserved energy from the beginning of the 2nd half.

Ah. The thing about this auto-type text is that if you don't use the same words all the time and type quickly it's easier just to type rather than look for the 'suggestion'. Anyway, that would be a game possibly worth going to (new stadium that we've paid for so we should get in for free) vs all the problems with crap stewards, fans using the same entrances and lots of violence and (we hope) WH continuing to splutter on the field and maybe going down.

He is smiling in his picture on the OS. This means the players will be enthused and we will win 5-0. 2-0 will do for me, however.

Confused: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/illegible

Attended his first game at Arsenal on Saturday. Hasn't been to SMS because his mum thinks it'll be unsuitable. http://www.hadleysheroes.co.uk/author/sarah-brisdion/

That's the same as your and others' comments about Midgetland last year. We did well then didn't we. Try asking the Celtic fans how they felt during the away leg against HBS, too. And looking at our home form and recent history against Watford and Sunderland we'll beat them easily too, won't we? oh. oh. oh. I agree with NFS: play the best team every game. If nothing else more practice in the system helps them and they should play better. Having looked more at Nice's 'achievement' last season, however, I am less inclined to think that CP is actually that good and hope he proves that to not be the case and we go on to with the PL, EL, FAC and LC.

Having lived in all of those places you mention for a few years at a time, the only decent one is (surprisingly) Liverpool. Southampton has gone very downhill but I doubt many of the players live in Northam or Lower Shirley/Millbrook/Townhill Park/Lordshill etc. You can find wags in short skirts, decent countryside, and a train to London pretty much anywhere. Man City might have had a lot of support but they weren't a 'big' club. Nor were Chelsea. They were like Everton/Sunderland/Newcastle in the 'should do better' category while definitely being miles behind Liverpool, Man Utd and even the likes of Leeds and Sheff Weds, Spurs and Arsenal. They weren't that much above us. As for History, didn't our very own JWP say he'd never heard of RK and had to look him up on Youtube and was then suitably impressed? While I would expect a foreigner to know more about Man U and Liverpool because they're well-known everywhere the other jonny-come-latelies will just attract fans for as long as they have a name/brand like Leicester did and who are already consigned to history as a 'one-off', an example of how 'great' the PL is (and so why you should pay loads for Sky and Paul Merson's waistline), why Pogba is the greatest player even (Pelle - sic - being ancient history -- in a Brazil team before football existed --) they're in it for the money. Bragging rights will come into it, but the money's good compensation if they don't win it and only a few do. Most of what they spout is PR guff, anyway.

Almost certainly everyone we play will be technically good, defend in an organised fashion, know 'game management' and be a test. I am concerned about their forward play and having now watched a lot of the highlights of Nice's games last season as well as read up on how the league finished there that season don't consider them a particularly good team. The things we have seen so far, namely teams sitting deep and being unbreakdown-able (ugh) can be seen as a recurring theme. I think we'd have been PSG's only real competition had we played in Ligue 1 last year. It would be nice if Window Cleaner or one of the other posters based in France went to see what the fans thought of Puel, the team, the league and so on based on their reading of the OGC Nice forum. Or they could just go in and ask them directly like fans over here do. Post 329 here gives a Blackburn fan's view of Gallagher (so it's not as biased as FF) so at least it seems he's doing well.

G and F are in the area. G is ahead of F and is pushing him slightly to stop F getting ahead of him. F has a slight hold, but a hold nonetheless of the right part of G's shirt just under the shoulder, down near the elbow. As F puts his leg round to get to the ball and is shoved by G he falls and in so doing lets go of G's shirt. The shirt pull does not contribute to G's fall. Ref blows after this, presumably having seen the fall and once F has cleared the ball. I consider it a foul by G on F for playing the man when the ball is not in playing distance. That used to be called 'obstruction', I recollect. All the other stuff about lino etc obviously still applies.

Why do people still carp on about 'passion' in interviews? It's what he does as a coach that matters. Kevin Keegan had that. Won Jack Schitt. Would you rather have Mark Hughes' boring, saying nothing almost 'management speak', Mourinho's garbage, Aguero's 'been here 6 years and still speak only in Spanish', Adkins' robotic non-speak, Pulis' first-name terms with the interviewer but wholly biased speech, Howe's say nothing but "I thought we were fantastic" clappy drivel, etc? If those who can't look beyond the superficial want entertainment they should go back to watching crap BBC kids' TV which is probably their level. And yes, Puel's English has improved in a short space of time. It is unlikely he will be sufficiently proficient even at the end of his 3 years here to be able to explain himself, however, if he is the 'deep thinker' he might well be. Listen to Wenger. He's been here 20 years and he still substitutes French syntax for English (as does Henry) and his intonation is largely flat. That's cause it takes ages to learn a language sufficiently well to be considered 'native' (provided you put the effort in and don't stop when you reach a level that is 'functional') and that is how the French speak. Go and listen to the news in French online or watch a few telly programmes. Then do it with other nations e.g. Brazil, Argentina, Germany etc and you will, assuming you are even slightly observant, notice they all have a different intonation, most of which is better than the crap served up by e.g. Sky, the Beeb, CNN, ABC in terms of content (and that actually says very little at all).

Agree. Presume you mean 'interpret' rather than 'interpolate', however? I think Fonte actually just stood his ground was being shoved by Giroud, got the ball as he fell, etc. Really he should have got goal-side but that's hard without pushing Giroud out of the way. Giroud looked as though he was shouting at the ref for giving a foul against him, which would actually have been a better decision. All the bits that went before also should have ensured that situation did not occur as it did. Crap ref. Over to Whitey Grandad to defend him ...

Redslo talked about Lawro's choice of scores on his blog. Anyway. Lawro does 1-0 for a close win, 2-0 for a comfortable win. Rarely he does 3-0. That means he thinks we'll get dicked.

Nice to know you know CP so well. What's his usual breakfast routine? Things we have had quoted about CP from various sources who have been claimed to have known him because they worked with him. He always wants to win. He's stubborn. He has taken teams to play in Europe and one of them, Lille, a club that was once a 'big' club in France did well as they would have been expected to. His teams play nice-looking football. Once they had got used to the system their results improved. The last one has a lot of variables. Doesn't mean too much in terms of how good he is. The one before that is good. But we do remember that SFC under Poortlooviert played lovely football, had lots of chances to score and McGoaldrought up front. Next one. Ok. Liverpool went for their pressing game and finished in 2 cup finals and really should have done better than us in the league. Klopp played a number of the youth at times. They didn't take a route that suggested they needed to take their foot off the pedal. Spurs likewise did what Poch teams do. Their mentality was the problem, not their legs. Second one. There's no evidence CP changes things. There may have been changes in games where we've had to chase them but nothing earlier. Compare RK's changing his team after 37 mins this season when Everton went behind to WBA and then ended up winning. That, incidentally, was a tactical change. All changes of formation are tactical changes. It shows flexibility. So far we have heard rumours along the lines of it is the players who adapt, nothing about the manager. The first year at Nice they came 17th I believe. We cannot afford to do that. We are not a Man U who will 'always come good' in other peoples' eyes. To fail to beat last year gives every armchair hack that the BBC and other 'news' outlets employ the opportunity to say 'I was right!' and they will then beat their chests ad nauseam forever more. Currently we are in the 'You'll never win anything with kids" territory but without actually winning anything yet. It will be interesting to see how we do against Sparta: they should be a good challenge. The first one. It's been stated several times that he's been known to get rough in training e.g. the foul on Wenger and one ex-associate said even if he was playing against his own son he wouldn't go easy e.g. Kelvin's testimonial and the 2 pens his son took against him. Good; we need a nastier/more intense streak and let's hope he instils this in us soon. It can be seen that he is working on his English but for now in terms of press conferences unless it's a ploy by the club to have him speak as his answers don't really mean much and often don't directly answer the question(s) asked I'd rather he replied in French, we got a half-decent translator if Black won't do, and we got some more meaningful answers as I think he probably has far more to say than he actually can. But anyway, there's a fair bit of evidence that contradicts you but nice to know you just decide things and then argue rather than interpret the evidence (such as it is) and then form an opinion. That's Batman/Glasgow territory. Not quite Alpine though.

That was on the radio a few weeks back, but in more detail. Might still be in a podcast somewhere on the Beeb. It's after the one that was the Ibra/Pog love-in, so after we lost to the Mancs.

No. You’re wrong. Toulon is not the same as European. The clue is in the spelling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toulon_Tournament It’s an invitational tournament. As you can see the second-best team overall has been Brazil. Presumably they were only included when Brazil was in Europe … . I’ll leave you to digest the reports and then agree with me that JWP didn’t play every game and, unless he changed nationality for the night, certainly didn’t play in the final. It does turn out Butland was captain at the time, however. Links to European 2015 U21 Tournament Match Reports: England. Portugal http://www.uefa.com/under21/season=2015/matches/round=2000408/match=2015368/index.html Sweden http://www.uefa.com/under21/season=2015/matches/round=2000408/match=2015374/index.html Italy http://www.uefa.com/under21/season=2015/matches/round=2000408/match=2015378/index.html

We knew that as soon as we knew it was an ACL replacement. We might get 1 saison out of him.

If you look at a lot of the tweets and comments about that game you'll notice a few things. There are quite a number of Man U 'fans' and the like. Probably kids who spend all their time in front of a computer somewhere abroad. They wouldn't know what a real football looked like. They sensationalise to the nth degree. They 'hero-worship' the latest fad which changes every day, and so on. Now I expect most on here have played footy quite a bit. Even at the lowest level on street corners you can see a lot of kids who will dribble well, can sell a dummy and a stepover, dragback etc (I don't know the names, you just do them if you're that kind of player don't you?) and even some who can pick a pass and fewer who can defend - because defence isn't 'sexy'. So having skill is part and parcel of football. JWP doesn't have the mentality or the physical ability to be a footballer - I think - and the simple direct comparison is PEH who does. One is a natural footballer who has it and is then developed and improved, one is the product of a lot of hard work and coaching but who doesn't seem to have a footballer's instinct - Wilshire is another player who has the instincts to a degree. Another thing about the free/corner kicks is they lead to goals so they're replayed; the commentators make a fuss about them and the kids just repeat it and simply show they can't think for themselves - why else would they be Man U fanbois? Yes, he patently does better for the U21s; he's effectively surrounded by the equivalent of Man City's first team or maybe even a Real Madrid and playing with a player who actually understands that you run into space is nice because when you pass it there you don't get some muppet asking what you're doing rather than your putting it into Row Z (thanks Hansen) but do remember in the last European tournament he started off playing and then played less - I believe he was actually captain and was dropped (...) - and as others say the game is far less physical. Look at the game against Watford where he was on the right and tried to tackle Capoue and just bounced off him; it really was a 'boys against men' situation. As Puel is good at developing younger players, however, let's see how he does at the end of the year. By then he's had 5 years and while he might still be a late bloomer as others have said he doesn't have any real skill (trained and over-practised kicks don't count and he doesn't do a huge amount for us with them) as he isn't like SRL (gifted and strong and talented) or Vardy (fast and actually does have a bit of skill) we should flog him with a decent sell on clause so that if he does turn good we get something for him. As well, by then, we should have the likes of Stephens really pushing on (he can play DM, but more as a playmaker), O'Connor who looks to have something about him - as does Barnes, but he'll take a bit longer I think - and others coming through and if some of them have the amount of opportunity JWP has I imagine they'll do better than him.

Bloody tea leaf. On a separate note, while I do consider Southgate to be a good coach/manager I'm not convinced by his claim that Norway were a good side. Yes, at times going forward, especially in the first half they were tidy but they were a bit poor at the back - not very tight at all. Mind you, this u21 lot are definitely one of the better European national teams in that age group. It will be interesting to see how well they do in Poland (or wherever the finals are). I expect they should get to the final at least.

Missed the game but the final score was 6-1, so ... .

Do please let us see it if you wish.. Your email (redacted, ofc) might be of interest at the time too. I would have thought that KL herself wouldn't like this kind of operation as it does have very unhealthy overtones so the justification that the club come up with will prove informative.

I'd definitely contact the club early if I were you. It would be horrible to come all that way and not get a ticket (you probably would, but ...) and there might be the chance of some extra hospitality from them perhaps. Who knows, you might even end up in the programme or something.

Poorly-written, unresearched, biased, ignorant, illiterate article. Had a couple of interesting snippets, old news and jingoism in it. Tell the author to learn how to write and attempt a book and then we'll see if they're worth listening to. They're probably not.

AR-10 before s/he was driven away by the petulant Batman (sigh) said no offer had been received by SFC for Fonte. It seemed to be the case that while they might have been a plant by the company they probably were (and according to one poster who reckoned they knew who AR-10 was and so said they were most definitely ITK if that was the case) they did know stuff so on that basis as it's likely to be the best that we have given Guan and KBS don't know anything and Puel seemed to know nothing and doesn't look like he could lie to save his life I'll agree with those who consider that stuff from the MEN is garbage. After all, it's down to them we have the Metro (free paper, not crap public transport).

Are you sure? Don't footballers have volume buttons? Or maybe he was just gagged? Still, gives me a chance to use the skaticon. Anyway, back to Gape and the reference to McCarthy. Loved at Wycombe according to their forums, not so at Walsall - see the "Up the Saddlers" website, especially the match reports. It will be interesting to see how he develops. Think it's about time a few of the older ones also got some development away at some point (subject to the new rules now in place of course).

Statistics. Can someone well-versed in proper statistical analysis send a description of what it comprises to everyone on this board so they know and understand what it means and its validity and restrictions. It does not mean “If I quote this (gibberish) I AM RIGHT! FACT!!!” as some seem to think. Here is a simplistic, accepted to be not statistically-significant study. I will explain my methodology such as it is and ignore the fact that there are so many unaccountable-for variables that real in-depth analysis is close to impossible i.e. this hinges very much on the realms of guesswork because it is real life, NOT a football manager game. The purpose of this study is to attempt to ascertain the correlation and, if one exists, the strength thereof of between the number of shots in a game and the possession of the football that each team has during the game and the number of goals and the final result of the game. The number of shots will be split between those inside the box and those outside the box with the untested supposition that those inside the box are ‘better’ because they are more likely to result in a goal being scored. Methodology: A number of post-match reports will be studied for data and this will be analysed in an attempt to answer the above. The post-match reports will be obtained from the website of the BBC and will comprise the ‘running commentary’ rather than the overview as this will provide information as to which shots were in/outside the box. Other information gathered will be: the possession figure, the number of shots overall and the number on target vs those not on target. SFC figures first. Match 1. SFC v Sunderland 27/8/16 Result 1-1 Possession: 64:36 Shots total: 16:5 On target 7:2 Total outside the box 15:1 Total inside the box 1:3 5 corners and 1 attempt in the box from SFC Incidentally the only shot that SFC had inside the box in this game came in the 69th minute. Conclusions: Possession does not correlate with success. Shots do not correlate to goals scored. It was noted that a large number of shots from outside the area were inaccurate. Match 2 SFC v Man City 1/5/16. Result 4-2 Possession: 40:60 Shots total 14:6 On target 7:5 Total o/s box 5:2 Total i/s box 8:5 5 corners for SFC – 8 attempts i/s box. Conclusion: Possession =/= success. Shots inside the box accounted for 5 out of the 6 goals therefore they could be considered to be better than those outside the box (1 goal in 7 attempts vs 5 in 13). Match 3 SFC v Sunderland 5/316 Result 1-1 Possession 65:35 Total shots 16:11 On target 5:3 O/s box 5:3 Inside box 9:7 12 corners 9 attempts i/s box. Conclusion: possession =/= success. Shots inside the box accounted for both goals therefore they are of greater benefit than those outside. Overall. Possession is no indicator of success, in fact there is a suggestion it may be the opposite. Shots in the box account for more goals than those outside therefore they are more effective and to be preferred. Shots outside the box are less accurate than those inside the box. The number of shots does not correlate to the score and thus final result although it might do if the shots were in the box. The number of shots on target likewise does not indicate that there will be a successful outcome (goal) because the shot is on target. The sample size was 3, the same as that alluded to by the OP when taking figures from a website. What this probably does indicate is what we know: we aren’t making teams work or defend or challenging them or pushing them: it’s easy for them against us. Unless this changes we will prove to be largely ineffective (look at the scoring rates per game/chance/where the opportunity falls) when you consider how we play and our strikeforce (as it is). One thing that this does highlight, however, is that we shouldn’t bother with normal corners. We have too few good headers/tall players for us to be a threat therefore we might be too predictable and set plays might be of little to no benefit to us i.e. we have reduced the number of weapons in our arsenal and perhaps weakened ourselves against such attacks. Finally, one more figure. Gomes spilled the ball and we got lucky and Redmond scored. Pilkington erred and Rodriguez scored. How many more goalkeeping errors are we likely to benefit from? And how are we going to get teams turned, out of shape and making bad decisions which will create better opportunities for us closer to their goal? PS Bouffal should beat a defender far more than 85% of the time in France. In England that could drop to 65-50% which is dire (see the Leandre Griffit interview). PPS On the above about dribbles, etc. So what? All these things are are a count of what someone has decided to count. So we have Redmond who dribbles a lot and then someone wipes it up when he loses the ball (if that is the case). So what? Say the same happens with Boufal. So? It looks good on a highlight reel but produces zip. Largely thus far this shows we have changed our personnel and adapted the way we play the game (measurements taken after a whole 3 games). So? That means that based on what has been measured there are differences between the teams’ styles. @ Convict Colony: As to the point I tried to make on another thread I cannot find the graph to which I alluded on the Arsenal fan sites (it was either Goonersworld or Arsenal Mania) but it has been copied here also so I guess if you know what to look for you can find it by searching. As you can see the pitch of the graph for Saints is interesting and clearly not by accident. If you can copy it over here it would probably help/save people having to look and so not bothering.