Mystic Force

Now that I live in USA I have been wondering what you do if you think a crazed cop is going to shoot you, and you have a gun. Your only option is to shoot them before they kill you what happens? Now I know the answer they blow you up.

The US-UK special relationship is only in the minds of the British, the US doesn't not care about us. We are the convenient late night booty call, the US is instead checking out various Asian chicks, but promises to call us someday. As for free trade with the US, not happening, if there is an anti free trade feeling politically, they are not making exceptions for us. In fact if we have an inward looking US instead we risk being left out completely as irrelevant. The whole but we are the 5th biggest economy line looks a little weak after the meltdown left us in 6th behind the freaking French. Europe never helped itself so it doesn't really surprise me with the result the election. But I hope everyone is ready to go it alone.

So first well done Iceland, you did the job you set out to do and we fell into their plan. England relies on full backs for width along with most teams it seems these days, but as Iceland played 2 up front it basically pinned back the defenders so the two central defenders would have to play 2 v 2 on a break, so using one player to tie up 2 other players seems a good use of a player. Next they didnt park the bus they defended as a unit and bided their time waiting to break foward some times using a high line. With the full backs taken out England had no natural width, and no one who could provide a threatening cross. Anyone who had watched the group games cant have been suprised with how we limped out. It is not a new problem as we are all aware. If the FA dont fix the stupidity soon, then they might have some problems filling wembley and hence paying for it. Managing England will never attract a top manager anymore so the best we can do is find someone solid with a philosophy who will do it his way. as Ian Darke and Steve McManaman pointed out is that Iceland did the things they always do. So if you cant beat it when you know, then you havent done your due diligence.

My Impression of the game first was that it was incredibly boring and uninspiring. I though a Rooney less England would be better. But was sadly disappointed mainly because the replacements came from "big clubs" that are either bit part players or clubs that are big only in historic reputation. Everything good we did came through Clyne, and all the attackers seemed to want to join him over on the right which then squeezed his space to be effective. Betrand didn't have a great night but he had no support with both wide players electing to play on the right for most of the game. There were few incisive balls, quick breaks and they kept pulling it back when there was space instead of taking a chance. Slovakia would give it back to you anyway so why worry about losing possession? All they did was allow them to regroup. If they are parking the bus, why not press them they do get possession, instead of just allowing them to kick it out, reorganize and you have to do it all over again? The first half stat after about 35 minuets of 66% possession and 3 attempts said it all. I watched Chile demolish a good Mexico side at the weekend. They didn't need to put 7 past them but they were ruthless and relentless in a way I have never seen England play, and that is why we will limp out of this thing again.

Just when you thought they couldn't get any lower I saw an article on the BBC about adding an extra league, we might soon be able to enjoy the skates in the 5th tier.

Pompey have the bestest away record not the best. It cannot be recorded in mundane stats like wins, points or goals.

I think the biggest difference this season between teams is that the difference between the quality of teams is much smaller than the difference in the quality of the players on the teams. By this I mean that over time great individual players no longer make great teams. The individual mentality of the best players seems to have undermined the fact that this is a team sport, so a collection of good players willing to work together have the edge over great players. I wonder if this also flies in the face of all those statistics based analysis we hear so much about. I think these models they try to use miss something that isnt quantifiable. In fact Ranneri has said he is going in the opposite direction. the fact that the common wisdom about money and success has been overturned should give us all hope that although we wont be able to mount a challenge every year someone can to upset the old order. And I enjoy nothing more than rubbing it in the face of people who attached themselves to success, only for success sake and now struggling to adapt. In the future various other supporters will be like Liverpool saying they are special and deserve a title but never earn one. A European super league looks a little silly when the mega clubs cant beat Leicester, because then it becomes obviously nakedly a money grab.

Leicester, Tottenham and West Ham in the champions league would shake stuff up a bit....

As for not getting the best out of Gaston, our mistake was clearly playing him in the wrong division against better teams and players.....

Being an expat in Iowa and ineligible to vote, I am glad I will not be seeing any of the annoying adverts, and second no one will be knocking on my door. Saw Trump, met Obama in 2007, Hillary came to our school, and Santorum met 3 people at our local coffee shop. Good ridance the lot of them (till November as we are a swing state)

Being an expat in Iowa and ineligible to vote, I am glad I will not be seeing any of the annoying adverts, and second no one will be knocking on my door. Saw Trump, met Obama in 2007, Hillary came to our school, and Santorum met 3 people at our local coffee shop. Good ridance the lot of them (till November as we are a swing state)

As a game it was quite entertaining, even with good ebb and flow, neither side had that ruthless streak to grab the game, but we were edging it and more likely to score. Then Wanyama did something stupid and unnecessary, then they scored and that was the end of that. We are not qualifying for Europe and we shouldn't get relegated but it is going to be a lot closer than ae would like or expected.

I remember seeing his first appearance at the Dell and thinking he was $hit.

Yoshida at fault again, forgot he was the full back not the centre back.

Much better balance with tadic.

Half time thoughts.... What you gain from playing Yoshida at full back is far less than what you lose. Wanyama can't pass, Schniederlin made him look better than he really is I wonder if Tottenham still want him. His teammates have stopped passing to him if they have options. In general we have been poor and deserve to be losing. Hoping for a better second half.

I have always liked this Turkish, the informed and interesting thought one. Definetly prefer over the wind up, pee taking one. More of this please!

I wonder if someone should explain to them the rope-a-dope stratergy only really work in an individual competitive match, not over several seasons......

I didn't own a car, not much point, I made decent money, but not infinite resources. I tried to get to all the London away games, though never got to Stamford Bridge. And though I am sure the stadium of light has its charms, not everyone has the ability to trek up there on a weekday evening. However my DVR is always ready to go, for when I have to work a weekend.

Sunderland are not a good team. There is a reason they have only won a single game this season. And that was against the other terrible team, and they still looked terrible. I don't think Everton's thrashing will give them more spine, I think it equally likely to reduce their confidence further. If we don't beat them it would be a bad result. They are not due a win, because they are not good enough. I hope they go down, one less team with red and white stripes makes us stand out more. No Wanyama, no problem for me, this isn't the kind of game we need him for. We have the players to beat them, I am starting to think that maybe we are playing with less intensity at the beggining of the season, so we have more left at the end, and Leicester will end up like us last year limping towards the line come April and May.

One of the best things about being a Saints fan in the USA, being in the midwest is kinder on time than the west coast though. If I was still in London I wouldn't be able to see my team the way I can here, except with unreliable and questionably legal streams.

Fair point, I hadn't accounted for that for two reasons. The DVR cut off the end of the Liverpool game and I missed the sending off, secondly I couldn't watch the Villa game, I was only able to follow it on here and the team hadn't lodged in my brain.

During the second half I noticed Mane looking irritated that none of the other foward players were making runs or looking for space and afterwards started to look like he couldn't be bothered to try either because no one else was making the effort.

I don't think he is the complete player a team like Arsenal, Man U, Man City, or Chelsea would want to compete at the highest level. He could help a Tottenham, Liverpool or Everton, but that isnt much of a step up from us. And even those first two would unlikely be a long term fixture. He is great at what he does, its just the other stuff. And to excel at the sharp end of the premier league you need more about you than Wanyama has. I always thought he was best used against the better team where we helps us dominate midfield but was more of a hindrance against teams set up to defend, where we need quicker play and more accurate passing to break them down.

I listened to it on the radio, probably Solent, in Glen Eyre halls of residence. And everytime we scorred coming out to tease a Man U fan. It was awesome. I believe I listened to the grey shirt game on the radio too.