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Premier League 2010-11 Season (Spoilers)

Liverpool Vs. Blackburn on sunday. Lets see if this season will finally start to come good for Liverpool, hard to see the team struggle like they have been doing this season.

I do like Roy Hodgson, but I have trouble/issues with his tactics.....
 
City got spanked by Arsenal today. It looked like it was going to be a real good game for the first four minutes until City went down to ten men on a red card. It was all about survival then. I can't complain about the red card, as it was obvious, but I wll complain about Song not getting one ten minutes later for the same thing.

On the bright side, Joe Hart made an AWESOME save on a penalty kick. I think Shay Given won't be on the team next year, if he's even still on the team by the time this season is over. Hart is the shiznit. Though it would be sweet to have both, just don't think Given wants to ride the bench.
 
City looked pathetic against Wolverhampton yesterday. Adebayour actually had his first decent game since he's been with City (IMO) but the midfield still looks horrid. And why doesn't Mancini start Adam Johnson instead of putting him in in the last 20 minutes? He can take over the game. Having Tevez gone hurts the team, but with as many stars as there are on the team, they should be able to adjust until he gets back from injury.

They've dropped to fourth after losing to the 19th place team. Just trerrible.
 
I'm curious how you aren't yanking your hair out about Mancini yet? I don't think it's an issue of initial tactical grasp nor the ego factor but when is he going to learn to think on his feet? I don't care how well City generally plays, as long as he does subs like he did agains the Wolves, they are not going to be a league winning team. He simply cannot let go of the 3 holding mid fielders while he has amazing attacking talent kicking their heels.

I really hope his plan alters a bit when Kolarov and the like come back. Perhaps wing play from the side backs was a huge part of his plan this year but it's simply not happening and Silva can't run both wings on his own. If you need to roll with the 3 holding mids, why aren't we seeing a better 4-3-3 set up? It's not like he doesn't have big, imposing strikers. Silva and Johnson for the wings with Ade/Bat playing the middle when Tevez isn't playing.

I think tactical adaptability is going to be his downfall this season. He simply has too much respect for the attacking talents of the lower end teams. It's not Serie A where even the most average midfielder has a decent set of technical skills. Henry from the wolves couldn't put it in more then once from 20 yards out with no keeper in ten tries.

How's that for an opening salvo?

Side note: For the record, I'm not a City fan either, just some observations.
 
Mancini is the new Benitez. Too stubborn for his own good. At home against the weaker teams he's too cautious. Can't believe he doesn't play two strikers in these games. He's the wrong man for the job in my opinon.
 
For all the City fans, I hope he can adapt for next season. I think this season is really going to be a learning one for himself and for all the players brought in. A lot of them aren't use to the premier style yet and Mancini simply doesn't know what he can get away with yet. He's going to have to learn sooner or later or will be replaced by another large profile manager that can handle the dressing room.

He also needs to ship out all the also rans that I don't imagine are doing much for dressing room morale (Ade, Given, Wright Phillips). They've already got Batotelli to be the off field distraction, everything else needs to settle down.

And speaking of Benetiz, only he could have thought it was a good idea to let Bale take on Maicon 1 on 1 again.
 
City looked great today against Fulham (4-1). Why can't they play like this more often?

As mediocre as they look so often this season, they are still in fourth place, just three points behind Chelsea and United. They still don't give up a lot of goals (second in the League, but still need to score a lot more (only 8th in the league).

They need to dump Jo as fast as they can. He's totally worthless. It was almost like City was playing with ten guys today because Jo did nothing except fall down a lot.
 
There´s nothing wrong with Mancini´s tactics. Only problem with City is they bought too many players too quickly, the team isn´t quite there yet. They will be really scary next season(best squad in the league IMO). The only worry I have regarding city(I´m not a City fan) is they have too many players that consider them self undroppable. Balotelli seems, frankly, too damn stupid to be a top footballer. He has loads of talent and physical abillity but can´t keep his temper in check(or his mouth).

The frustrating Liverpool saga continues for me I´m afraid. We looked solid again against a West Ham that really didn´t perform well. So its back to, are we finally starting to get our arses in gear or was this just one of Roy grabbing at the last straws?!?!

1/3 of the way this season, and it is one of the weirdest in decades. Top teams are dropping points left and right. The lesser teams are getting better I guess.
 
McKillian said:
There´s nothing wrong with Mancini´s tactics. Only problem with City is they bought too many players too quickly, the team isn´t quite there yet. They will be really scary next season(best squad in the league IMO). The only worry I have regarding city(I´m not a City fan) is they have too many players that consider them self undroppable. Balotelli seems, frankly, too damn stupid to be a top footballer. He has loads of talent and physical abillity but can´t keep his temper in check(or his mouth).

The frustrating Liverpool saga continues for me I´m afraid. We looked solid again against a West Ham that really didn´t perform well. So its back to, are we finally starting to get our arses in gear or was this just one of Roy grabbing at the last straws?!?!

1/3 of the way this season, and it is one of the weirdest in decades. Top teams are dropping points left and right. The lesser teams are getting better I guess.
Click to expand...

So frustrating for Liverpool fans. Hopefully they can get back on track.
 
City looked pathetic against Stoke City yesterday when they could have, at the time, moved to the top of the table. They were lucky to get out of there with a draw. Stoke should have won by at least 3-1.
 
Did you see Richard's comments after the game? Appearntly it was too cold to play for a bunch of the city players and they wanted nothing to do with the game because of the snow. Amusing to say the least for the English league. Think those hefty cheques come with no downside?

Poor poor Chelsea. Losing Wilkins for whatever idiotic reason is going to destroy their season.

Also well done to England on losing the WC bid by accusing the voters of corruption right before the vote.
 
City put together an all-around game today, even though they only scored one time in their win over Bolton. They had one goal disallowed by a flag happy ref, one bounced off the post and one off the crossbar. Bolton's best chance came when Joe Hart missed the ball near the goal and it nearly went in. They need to start converting their chances. At least 15 shots on goal and only one goal isn't going to let you win the Championship.
 
They´ll be awesome next season with all those players. Not sure about Balotelli, the papers wrote he´s trying to "do an Ibrahimovic" in order to leave city. Really don´t like that kid(Balotelli), he seems to create havoc wherever he is. Great talent but something is seriously wrong upstairs.....

Chelsea, maybe we´re witnessing the downfall of a dynasty. Key players are getting a bit long in the tooth and internal fighting(Sounds like I´m describing Liverpool;-) Abramovic will probably invest in a lot of new players for next season.

Watching West Brom Vs Newcastle right now and must admitt I really like Newcastle´s all guts no brains football. Its refreshing to see a team like Newcastle go all in, compared to suffering while watching Liverpool "trying not to concede".....

It´ll be great welcoming Houllier tomorrow, when he returns with Aston Villa.
 
Balotelli's scored 5 goals in 5 games since joining the team, but I agree, he's messed up in the head. He'd better get used to the physical play in the PL because he's diving every time he's touched. A few yellows here and there for that should toughen him up a little bit because it doesn't look like he's any kind of wimp!
 
He had issues when playing in Italy´s as well(with diving and the physical side). Inter did well to cash in on him when they did, with that head he´s going nowhere fast. But then again, he might mature and become a real superstar.
 
Well how about that? LFC-Aston Villa 3-0. Nice of Villa to just show up and play poorly.......lol

Lucas and Meirelles was great in midfield.
 
City had a nice win against West Ham. But trouble is brewing. First they gotta ditch Balotelli. He is a head case, and when he got pulled after getting a stupid yellow card, he went right to the locker room without talking to anyone. He needs to go. It was cool that Adam Johnson (his replacement) scored a killer goal.

Bad news is that Tevez reportedly wants out. Originally it was said to be because he is missing his family in Argentina but reports are he's not happy with management. Hope they can work something out because Tevez is a stud for the team. He subbmitted a formal transfer request.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=852576&sec=england&cc=5901
 
Watching United-Arsenal. United is up 1-0 which is the lesser of the two ways City needs this one to finish. Even better would be a draw. They are tied for first in points (second in the table) but surprisingly one ahead of Chelsea with the same amount of games. When they played Chelsea (and won) earlier, they were 7 points behind them.

United has finished two less games however and are only one pint behind Arsenal at the moment.
 
United wins, takes back first place. Rooney blasted a PK way left and up into the stands.
 
Too bad, I thought Arsenal looked really strong in the beginning of the match. This will unfortunately give MAnU a lot of confidence.....

I think it about time for mr. Hodgson to take a vacation, I don´t see Liverpool going anywhere with a manager that can´t inspire his team. The last match against Newcastle was utterly useless.
 
So is Roy goes, who do you get to replace him? O'Neil would be an intriguing choice with his love of british players. I think the money many in him would also appriciate how NESV is likiely to run the team.
I could see O'Neil with even Hughton as coach.

Speaking of coaches, Big Sam needs to swallow his pride and go be a coach for Fergie. He would learn a ton about the manager side that he doesn't have down yet and his training techniques for the players are actually really, really good. Unless he's waiting on that call from Inter... :banghead:
 
It's not Premier League, but we're watching Leicester at Ipswich Town and they are playing in the snow. Looks pretty cold to be playing in shorts!
 
Question for the day: Why doesn't Man City start playing like Madrid or like Utd does in european games? I think they could roll with the 4-5-1 and play position or counter attack quite easily (espcially if they end up getting Dzenko) and with good effect. Plus Mancini could still keep the defensive shape and positional tactics that he enjoys.

CF: Balotell/ Dzenko
AMF: Tevez /
RAMF: Johnson / SWP
LAMF: Siva / Weiss
CDM: Barry / Milner
CDM: Toure (yaya) / De Jong
RB: Zabelta / Richards
LB: Kolarov / Boateng
CB: Toure (Kolo) / Lescott
CB: Komany
GK: Hart / Taylor

Solid pick ups would be Dzenko, another quality CB and an AMF that's comfortable in the middle and on the right.

Meanwhile what the eck is happening to Chelsea? Ancelotti must be a sad, sad panda right about now. Wilkins must be laughing in his settlement money as well.
 
Look who's second in the table. Granted, they've played two more games than #1 and #3 but still!

City looked great against Aston Villa, even letting Tevez sit out. Balotelli got a hat trick, and he actually smiled for a change. He keeps this up (the good attitude, not the scoring - everyone knew he could score) I might rethink my thoughts of sending him packing!

Still trying to figure out why Adam Johnson isn't starting. He can do so much, why only have him out there for 15 or 20 minutes? Jo needs to go, he's still worthless.
 
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