melmacian_saint

Is uneducated based on flawed rankings which consider places like Shanghai against countries (for nothing more than a whitewash for massive regional imbalances within the wonderland of the Asian Tiger)? I will praise Central European approaches to the manfacturing sector but it hasn't really solved the troubles in Parisian suburbs or the massive East/West imbalance in Germany has it? Capital city centralism and imbalances will always exist in countries and regions. It's how it works, and frankly I think the London case has to be expected when it's the native country of the world's population official 2nd language and of the Anglo-Saxon culture which is the most widely spread context/culture/lifestyle on Earth.

Does he? I think that having a good understanding with Fonte is what makes Lovren be so good. He doesn't look bad without him, today he still looked ok, but anything south of Cork just looks tidier with both. You seem to be running out of things to throw at Fonte just like you have for the last 1.5 years so you now resort to pretty much saying they are the same person.

If his clumsiness and poor tactical awareness weren't bad enough, Hooiveld's atittude when trying to clear the ball before the 3rd goal was poor. He just seemed to walk into Soldado with no conviction whatsoever, his attempt to attack the ball was ridiculous. That 2nd goal was also reminiscent of Fulham at home last year. Why is he in that postion anyway?? The shame is he will probably cost any team who might be interested a fortune compared to what he is worth and so will stay on until the end of his contract.

It wasn't. The "Hooiveld starts because of big strikers" myth was created here because he just happened to start a game vs. Stoke where Yoshida had to play RB because of injury, and it stood.

That left side of ours...

Keeper should've come, Hooiveld should be all over Adebayor. He is out of the area when it all begins, Lovren goes out wide, he has an obligation to defend the fellow striker.

2-1 Villa springs to mind.

Well done you ****s going "whooeeeey". The 3 suspects at it again (in this case more about 2)

Danny Fox and other mediocre likes such as Sean St.Ledger and Russel Martin are losers which is why they have to switch allegiance to other home nations to feel important. Funny that Gary Neville complains from the lack of English players in PL sides, but then every year a good number of them switch allegiances based on remote links of the family tree to play for a national side. Maybe start by tackling this too??

Why is Shaw in London? Why is Fonte in the bench??? When will we get rid of Jos and Fox????? Boy they are lucky to be getting in the side.

If you want robots to be considered human beings or have 300 people living in residences with just mattresses and no heating, not sure how that would improve the situation of cities in the UK though.

I disagree with this. This changing allegiances thing is becoming a bit ridiculous and makes it look like national teams are now clubs...

Are people really suggesting we should go for Iker Casillas?!??!? Wow, some fans' ego really seems to be in need of a run of embarrasing defeats...

Why did Jos start? Fonte injured/tired? Same about Lallana. We played well but in all fairness a win for either would've been unfair on the other. Steven Davis MOM. Great journeyman. Delightful touch of the ball he has.

Pretty much, with a higher work rate and less fancy touches because of his Scandinavian nature. Which really is the reason why he stayed for 4 years while Gaston is unlikely to make it past half.

Captain Obvious strikes again.

I love that last season everyone was saying what a great squad Sir Alex left for however came in after him, new class of 92 ready to be explored bla bla... Few months on, it was a poor squad that was already showing signs of decline. It still is, of course, the SAME squad. One that won the league incredibly comfortably last year. I also don't buy this "Sir Alex took 4 years to come good at United". While that is true ("ta-ra Fergie" and the lot), and changes in attitude through time aside, who would you have more patience with? A man who put an average SPL side leading the chronically bipolar Scottish game for almost a decade, beating a great Real Madrid to win a European trophy, or a manager who had Everton cruising on auto-pilot in mid-table for years?

I think people are getting a bit carried away with Cork. Yes, he was really good yesterday, and I've said before he is possibly the member of the squad with the neatest touch and the best passer, be it short or long. However, and while he is part of our core nucleus of players (i.e. not in the freezer like Ramirez, Guly or Fox), I can still see why Wanyama, if fit, will almost certainly start ahead of him. Forget about Yaya Toure, but Cork has been muscled out of at least 3 tackles in the last 2 games simply because he is not strong enough. You can see him gain position, but then when contact exists he crumbles and falls to the ground far too easily. One of these was even against Nasri who thug face aside is hardly an intimidating character. A holding midfielder needs to be stronger than this, and even if he is not a wall like Victor he must be aggressive and I'm afraid Cork is neither. He also lacks pace which means that he can't have the same presence as Victor when going forward or trying to launch an attack. On the plus side, he seems to have dealt with his weaknesses very intelligently by excelling at passing the ball. Mentally he is also more reliable than Victor in the sense that he is doesn't seem to lose his focus, while Victor can sometimes sleep on the ball, which can be costly as we've seen. His passing can also be woeful. If the main criteria was technique, Wanyama would be lucky to get a run in the 2nd half. However, a holding midfielder is always more about being aggressive and winning challenges and getting back the ball, something Victor is definitely better at than Jack.

Top performance in a game where a lot was asked of players who perhaps weren't feeling part of our good start to the season. It's good to see that while there is a reason why the others start, we actually do have some squad depth.

JWP is the clever one. Luke is apparently of "a different intelligence".

Oh shut up. Maybe that is also why we've handed Kelvin Davis a golden pension when he's clearly no longer fit enough to be a squad option?!?

I maybe be being daft but I hope everyone is just being sarcastic?

Not really. More like something that usually happens when you're learning/don't yet dominate a language. And to be fair Pellegrini is not absolutely clueless in English. I agree with Pochettino's approach but I would like to see him at least give interviews to the club website in English. I guess that in time he will become more confident.

I would not ever give a jot about relegation if the price is winning a cup. I will still follow my team regardless of the division, a European run feels great even if you're getting Yeovil away the following Saturday (probably even more so) and you'll always remember the day out in Wembley. I'm surprised that most people want us up there fighting with the best yet don't even bother looking into their history page to see why are they traditionally that good. Even the nouveaux riche like City or Chelsea were miles ahead of us in silverware before being able to splash the cash. And let's not compare with other fellow PL classics like Villa or Everton.

Injuries aside, their signings are not that super. The only one I think they'll struggle to hold because of quality is Leroy Fer. Other than that they missed a good chance to splash the cash on a partner to Bassong, a winger at least of the same quality as Snodgrass and a better holding midfielder than Bradley Johnson. They also got their attacking signings wrong, as they've basically signed two 6-yard box poachers but have no good players to service them apart from endless deep crosses hoping for a break. Chris Hughton is a good man but a very poor manager who I fear has destroyed the potential the Norwich project had with Paul Lambert. He is too defensive and not even in an efficient way. I've watched Norwich a few times and I feel they've got the potential to play better but they're being let down by tactics of playing long, being positionally strict all across the pitch, shoving it to the wing and launching rockets into the area and anxiously waiting for a tap in. Their possession game is scandalously poor for the PL, and without Fer god knows what it would look like. If it wasn't for Norwich's "family" ownership structure, he would've gone on the back of his terrible run last year. Certainly does not deserve the good press he gets.