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Football Thread 13/14 |OT14| Juan Flew Into The Slug's Nest

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dc89

Member
Genuine. I think that's the issue. Selling ip rights to your own company, taking money from yourself and counting it as profit? Yeah, that sounds legit.

It's a known fact City and UEFA have been actively working towards City meeting FFP. It's in UEFA's interest just as much City's. Trust me now, we will not have a problem.
 

3Sixty

Member
It's a known fact City and UEFA have been actively working towards City meeting FFP. It's in UEFA's interest just as much City's. Trust me now, we will not have a problem.

Of course you wont have a problem. UEFA are as bent as they come.

Lamberts pass for JRod's goal... woof.
 
you need to widen your horizon, wooden. go interracial. add zaha into the mix. moyes can be the racist dad who doesn't want his daughter to have sex with a black man. he's sitting there on the same couch zaha's fucking his daughter on. he's got his head in his hands. "lauren, no, i didn't want this for you...," he says.

god i've seen too much porn

Well.... I am saving this idea.
 

Suen

Member
Some good games tomorrow and great games coming week. Looking forward to it!

antonio-banderas-1.jpg

Cavani pls.
 
It's a known fact City and UEFA have been actively working towards City meeting FFP. It's in UEFA's interest just as much City's. Trust me now, we will not have a problem.

It's not just that you're buying overseas companies then selling non-exclusive IP licences to them for massively inflated sums, your commercial contributors come from third partys in the UAE who are ultimately owned by your sheikh. Ever hear of ultimate beneficial owners or shadow directors?
 

K1LLER7

Member
Agree with Miggy-D on United/Moyes this season.

STOKE -- Perhaps the most galling part of this latest defeat for Manchester United is that such a reverse does not even raise eyebrows anymore. Losses like this have become as mundanely routine as the champions’ lifelessly predictable attacking play.

No, what really stunned was the statement that followed it. In 15 words, David Moyes summed up so many of the concerns that have materialised during his seven months in charge to date.

“I don’t know what we have to do to win,” Moyes sighed. “I thought we played well.”

The first part is alarming, largely because the second part was entirely inaccurate: Manchester United did not play well in this woeful defeat to Stoke. They were largely dismal, devoid of any spark or creativity.

It is simply incredible that that can be said of a team which featured the talents of Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Juan Mata and, if Moyes can’t see that it can be improved on, by many levels, then United have very profound cause for concern.

It is utterly damning that the new hope derived from Mata’s signing so quickly gave way to the same dire old problems. Most conspicuously, the latest landmarks that illustrate just how historically poor this United team -- they have lost eight of 24 league games this season -- are at the moment are as plentiful as the pitiful four shots on target they mustered at the Britannia.

This was Stoke City’s first win over United in any competition in 21 years, and their first in the English top flight since 1984. This was also Mark Hughes' side's first victory in nine Premier League games, but brought United’s fourth defeat in eight games.

For the defending champions, that is just not good enough, regardless of any mitigating circumstances. Moyes, inevitably, pointed to those circumstances, most of all poor fortune.

“We were really unlucky," he stated afterwards.

- Payne: That losing feeling
- Whittaker: Champagne Charlie

The United manager referenced the freak nature of Stoke’s goals either side of van Persie’s 47th-minute equaliser, as the industrious Charlie Adam benefited from, as Moyes put it, a “deflected 30-yard free-kick” and a once-a-season “worldy”.

To make some allowances for the 50-year-old, it would also be impossible to dispute that Moyes suffered even worse luck beyond those goals. Most conspicuously, there were the injuries to Jonny Evans and Phil Jones.

The problem with putting it all to down vagaries of fortune, though, is that it has reached a fairly miserable stage when a club like Manchester United are looking at luck to just avoid dire defeats rather than bring defiant late victories.

That is how slim Moyes has made the margins, how limited United have become. And that is where the most worrying concerns about his management are rapidly rising.

Of course, the former Everton manager inherited a range of problems for which he can have no responsibility, not least the problematic midfield which has proven so curiously difficult to strengthen.

None of that is any excuse, however, for just how poorly United are currently playing.

To bring it to the most obvious point, it would have been entirely reasonable to anticipate van Persie, Rooney and Mata could at least suggest the beginnings of some creative relationship, to offer a few flashes, some spark.

No one would have expected instant integration, just a few interchanges. Instead, though, in the 78 minutes they spent together on the pitch, they only linked up twice.

One of them was the single occasion in the first half that a United attack didn’t end with an orthodox cross or clearance. Most lamentably, a player as ingeniously inventive as Mata spent almost the entirety of that opening period as a standard winger in a 4-4-2. It was, in short, a waste.

There was at least the suggestion the lack of link-ups may have been just down to teething problems early in the second half as, immediately after the break, Mata found himself in the centre to feed Van Persie for a fine equalising finish. It was United’s one moment of quality.

It soon transpired, however, the instance was merely the consequence of great players instinctively reacting to a chance Stoke error. Beyond that, it was business as usual, with what amounted to wingers repeatedly pounding in standard crosses for forwards better suited to playing on the ground and -- in Ryan Shawcross and Marc Wilson -- against some of the most muscular centre-halves in the league.

It meant that, for all the admirable urgency about United’s second-half performance following Adam’s second, there was never a true siege. There was only one moment of panic in the Stoke box, when a long-range Rooney set-piece that hit the post. After it, the number 10 sank to his knees.

Moyes did hold his head high, but had a rather novel description of the period. "It was our downfall we didn’t score from chances," he said, "but we must have got to the byline eight or nine times.”

Again, if that is the extent of his expectations for an elite side’s attack, it is perhaps the greatest problem of all. When you are competing for the top trophies, you simply must have a variety of angles of attack.

Furthermore, without wishing to get too critical in the immediate aftermath of another defeat, perhaps this also helps to explain why there was only one other club -- Schalke -- with which Moyes was publicly linked besides United.

Although it is still so early in his six-year contract, there is a growing feeling he is not tactically modern enough. While the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in attacking play, United are endlessly slamming the ball in the box. Currently, there is no evidence of any coaching in that regard, or any evolution whatsoever.

Just a few weeks ago, it still could have been fairly argued that Moyes should have been cut some slack because perhaps only Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola had the personalities sizeable enough to handle a transition as seismic as Ferguson retiring.

Now, though, it is beginning to feel like any modern manager with a more nuanced approach would at least be getting United playing better. The results, meanwhile, can’t get much worse.

At the very least, so many coaches would salivate over how to configure an attack featuring Van Persie, Rooney and -- even before Mata -- Shinji Kagawa.

Moyes has so far slotted them into a template and, consequently, the template of United’s season has been tepid performance after tepid performance.

Stoke was just the latest example.
 

Messi

Member
you need to widen your horizon, wooden. go interracial. add zaha into the mix. moyes can be the racist dad who doesn't want his daughter to have sex with a black man. he's sitting there on the same couch zaha's fucking his daughter on. he's got his head in his hands. "lauren, no, i didn't want this for you...," he says.

god i've seen too much porn

untitled-12ycj6e.gif


Pls bud
 
you need to widen your horizon, wooden. go interracial. add zaha into the mix. moyes can be the racist dad who doesn't want his daughter to have sex with a black man. he's sitting there on the same couch zaha's fucking his daughter on. he's got his head in his hands. "lauren, no, i didn't want this for you...," he says.

god i've seen too much porn

I have seen this also.

And the dads look like this:

ijNmzFrSfSTvc.gif
 

dc89

Member
It's not just that you're buying overseas companies then selling non-exclusive IP licences to them for massively inflated sums, your commercial contributors come from third partys in the UAE who are ultimately owned by your sheikh. Ever hear of ultimate beneficial owners or shadow directors?

Can't say I have really. Call me ignorant, but I'm not really fussed how out club is owned because so far it's been an awesome ride. There are far worse owners in the league, including the one who owns the club 5 miles across town.
 
Can't say I have really. Call me ignorant, but I'm not really fussed how out club is owned because so far it's been an awesome ride. There are far worse owners in the league, including the one who owns the club 5 miles across town.

Not saying they're bad, they've invested a lot. I'm saying they're trying to get around the rules in a very artificial manner that could be leveraged against them.
 

Labadal

Member
A manager needs to adapt to the players he has at his disposal. I know people are going to think I'm naming Brendan Rodgers only because I'm a Liverpool fan, but it is not because of that.

We don't have the best squad. I think at least 5 teams have a better squad than us on paper. Yet he made decisions that he thought would benefit the team.

He sold off players that didn't fit in his system. It didn't matter that we lost a great deal of money on Carroll and Downing. They just had to go. Look at Suarez under Rodgers and look at him pre-Rodgers. We played fairly boring for a couple of seasons and would seldom score more than 3 goals in a game. This season, only Man City has more goals scored so far.

I still think Moyes can do a good job with United, given more time. Ferguson didn't light the world on fire the first few seasons in charge at Old Traford.
 

Clegg

Member
Holy shit. That mid air catch, jump and crash into windscreen.

This has gone beyond big dumb action flick.
 
A manager needs to adapt to the players he has at his disposal. I know people are going to think I'm naming Brendan Rodgers only because I'm a Liverpool fan, but it is not because of that.

We don't have the best squad. I think at least 5 teams have a better squad than us on paper. Yet he made decisions that he thought would benefit the team.

He sold off players that didn't fit in his system. It didn't matter that we lost a great deal of money on Carroll and Downing. They just had to go. Look at Suarez under Rodgers and look at him pre-Rodgers. We played fairly boring for a couple of seasons and would seldom score more than 3 goals in a game. This season, only Man City has more goals scored so far.

I still think Moyes can do a good job with United, given more time. Ferguson didn't light the world on fire the first few seasons in charge at Old Traford.

I agree but I think the trouble is that football isn't like it was back then. Football moves so fast now. In 3 years time we could have declined so far that getting back up to our previous heights could take a very long time and be very costly.
 

Mastadon

Banned
A manager needs to adapt to the players he has at his disposal. I know people are going to think I'm naming Brendan Rodgers only because I'm a Liverpool fan, but it is not because of that.

We don't have the best squad. I think at least 5 teams have a better squad than us on paper. Yet he made decisions that he thought would benefit the team.

He sold off players that didn't fit in his system. It didn't matter that we lost a great deal of money on Carroll and Downing. They just had to go. Look at Suarez under Rodgers and look at him pre-Rodgers. We played fairly boring for a couple of seasons and would seldom score more than 3 goals in a game. This season, only Man City has more goals scored so far.

I still think Moyes can do a good job with United, given more time. Ferguson didn't light the world on fire the first few seasons in charge at Old Traford.

I agree to an extent, but even in the early days with Rodgers when were losing games and being really inconsistent, you could see that we were moving forward in the right direction. There's just no evidence of that happening with Moyes.
 

Labadal

Member
I agree but I think the trouble is that football isn't like it was back then. Football moves so fast now. In 3 years time we could have declined so far that getting back up to our previous heights could take a very long time and be very costly.

I think that with a few good buys, you could be up there with the best teams again. Moyes is no Ferguson. He won the league with squads I thought weren't nearly as good as other teams (City, Chelsea, some times Arsenal). Yet he managed to win. Moyes will probably not be the man to do that with the current squad. But I think that if he buys a defender or two and a holding midfielder, you'll be back in action. I think Fellatio will be better next year, too. If I was the owner, I'd give him this and next season.

I agree to an extent, but even in the early days with Rodgers when were losing games and being really inconsistent, you could see that we were moving forward in the right direction. There's just no evidence of that happening with Moyes.

Dalglish started good but then everything turned to crap. Laudrup did well last season, now he's loaning out players like Ki and bringing in players like N'gog.
 

Clegg

Member
I think that with a few good buys, you could be up there with the best teams again. Moyes is no Ferguson. He won the league with squads I thought weren't nearly as good as other teams (City, Chelsea, some times Arsenal). Yet he managed to win. Moyes will probably not be the man to do that with the current squad. But I think that if he buys a defender or two and a holding midfielder, you'll be back in action. I think Fellatio will be better next year, too. If I was the owner, I'd give him this and next season.
He'll get next season regardless.

Question is whether he can attract the calibre of talent if we have a poor finish to the season. I'm not entirely convinced he can tbh. United could attract players on name alone, but we'd have to throw wads of cash at them.
 

Labadal

Member
He'll get next season regardless.

Question is whether he can attract the calibre of talent if we have a poor finish to the season. United could attract players on name alone, but we'd have to throw wads of cash at them.

If you can splash 37 mil on Mata, I think you can splash some money on other players. The problem I see at United, besides Moyes is that there are too many players that shouldn't even be at the club.

Cleverly and Welbeck are not Man Utd starting XI quality. Welbeck can put a few balls in the net and is an ok backup player. Cleverly is not good in my opinion. Valencia and Young should play in mid-table teams. Ferdinand and Evra are on a decline. van Persie is good, but he's not a spring chicken anymore.

Adnan has done well, he doesn't get to play. zaha gets loaned to Cardiff, gets an assist in his first game.

Damn, maybe Moyes should get sacked, lol.
 

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
He'll get next season regardless.

Question is whether he can attract the calibre of talent if we have a poor finish to the season. I'm not entirely convinced he can tbh. United could attract players on name alone, but we'd have to throw wads of cash at them.

My biggest concern is getting players to sign onto the project, there has to be some sign of life in this team, there has to be some sign that we have stemmed the bleeding, but there isnt, every game is predictable, which is probably why we are so easy to best in midfield. People understand exactly what we are going to do each game, I am no expert on football but even I can see the following.

* United will use the wings as much as possible and avoid direct play through the middle
* Valencia will, when being direct, run towards the byline onto his strong foot, if he cuts inside it will be to pass into the middle, he will not use his left foot.
* Ashely Young does not have the pace to beat a man on the outside so will often look for the one two down the byline, he will however not use his left foot, he will cut inside and attempt to cross the ball towards the back post.
* Evra will always make the overlap, whether it is a good idea or not, this means he will be very exposed on the counter attack.
* United will not play the long game because they have neither the height or pace to expose CB's, this means that outside of wing play their build up is almost non existant, their central midfielders will either look wide or to Rooney in the center.

People wonder why Adnan has been good this season, because no-body knows what he is going to do, his game is unpredictable and smart, he will go on the outside, inside, play the ball long and short, he can beat a man and goad a foul. There is creativity in the United team, Rooney can pick a pass, Mata can pick a pass, Carrick can pick a pass and so can Adnan, but our play revolves so heavily around the ineffectual wingers that every attack becomes slow and neutered. You cant have wing play with wingers who are solely one footed AND cannot beat a man, if you can beat a man be as one footed as you like, if you are two footed you dont need to, if you have neither then you are shit out of luck against PL fullbacks.
 

Batigol

Banned
I'm looking forward to Jose employing 19th century tactics against City on Monday, tbh. Then getting royally fucked over by this beautiful bastard

negredo-431837.jpg
 

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
I'm looking forward to Jose employing 19th century tactics against City on Monday, tbh. Then getting royally fucked over by this beautiful bastard

negredo-431837.jpg

Im not going to lie I would like to see Jose get smashed for his tactics, but he is a really good tactician so I dont think that is ever likely.
 

wedward

Member
I'm looking forward to Jose employing 19th century tactics against City on Monday, tbh. Then getting royally fucked over by this beautiful bastard

negredo-431837.jpg

Draw please. Or City loss.

More worried about City than Chelsea.

-

Seeing United suffer and City flying has made me realize I preferred it when United were dominant and City were shit. I took it for granted.
 

Clegg

Member
If you can splash 37 mil on Mata, I think you can splash some money on other players. The problem I see at United, besides Moyes is that there are too many players that shouldn't even be at the club.

Cleverly and Welbeck are not Man Utd starting XI quality. Welbeck can put a few balls in the net and is an ok backup player. Cleverly is not good in my opinion. Valencia and Young should play in mid-table teams. Ferdinand and Evra are on a decline. van Persie is good, but he's not a spring chicken anymore.

Adnan has done well, he doesn't get to play. zaha gets loaned to Cardiff, gets an assist in his first game.

Damn, maybe Moyes should get sacked, lol.
I don't disagree with you. SAF threw Moyes a bit of a hospital pass with the squad. He should still be doing better with it, but it's not as strong as most United fans thought it was.For instance, I thought we'd win the league this season.

Moyes says he wants world class players in the summer and I hope he gets them. But he doesn't even need absolute worldies to improve the team. Players like Strootman or Cabaye aren't world class but they'd walk straight into our midfield.
 

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
I don't disagree with you. SAF threw Moyes a bit of a hospital pass with the squad. He should still be doing better with it, but it's not as strong as most United fans thought it was.For instance, I thought we'd win the league this season.

Moyes says he wants world class players in the summer and I hope he gets them. But he doesn't even need absolute worldies to improve the team. Players like Strootman or Cabaye aren't world ass but they'd walk straight into our midfield.

At some point he has to abandon the reliance on wing play, he has to, its not working, our players dont seem to know what to do when it fails, most of the games our midfield gets outrun by other teams because we are statues, the lack of movement on display is ridiculous. Mata and Rooney are the only players who pass and move, everyone else passes and stops.
 

Clegg

Member
At some point he has to abandon the reliance on wing play, he has to, its not working, our players dont seem to know what to do when it fails, most of the games our midfield gets outrun by other teams because we are statues, the lack of movement on display is ridiculous. Mata and Rooney are the only players who pass and move, everyone else passes and stops.
It'll be hard to change the way we play. Moyes likes width in his teams and United's best ever sides were based on wing play and quick wingers. I absolutely agree with your point that we need to move away from it but that'll be fierce hard.

It's like Neville said last week when we were linked with Mata. He wasn't sure if Mata fit into United's traditional way of playing and wondered if Moyes would change our style to accommodate him because you couldn't just play him out wide. But that's exactly what Moyes did today. It's not a good sign.

And what's worse is that he knows it too but we haven't seen change. He answers in post match interviews are becoming more and more tragic.
 

Fergie

Banned
At some point he has to abandon the reliance on wing play, he has to, its not working, our players dont seem to know what to do when it fails, most of the games our midfield gets outrun by other teams because we are statues, the lack of movement on display is ridiculous. Mata and Rooney are the only players who pass and move, everyone else passes and stops.
How's he not seeing what Evra is doing. He's creating unnecessary pressure on his left. Out of position and stands off. Of course the midfield being bypassed puts pressure on the defence, but that can be hopefully lessened with Fellaini back, coupled with Carrick. Even that isn't that good, but it will do.

Evra is a huge liability, play Buttner for all I care lol.

Young might score a worldy but his overall wing play is just crap, can't beat anyone.

He needs to start noticing and changing. That's the issue, he's just playing the same stuff.


Arsenal tomorrow:

------Giroud
Santi-Ozil-Ox
Arteta--Rosicky
Decent team. Wenger pls.

Kallstorm story is just baffling.
 

K1LLER7

Member
Hope to at least see some sort of improvement/change over the next 3 months, but I can't see Moyes changing things :(

Brendan pls
 
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