Here's me two cent's worth on some of the footie-related topics of late. Of course, I hope you will join in the discussion & add yer thoughts with a comment or two:The England disaster
A couple of weeks ago, I predicted to a friend (Mr Anand of Celcom) that Israel would pull off a victory over Russia but England would still fook up against Croatia & crumble under the heavy expectation of a nation starved of success. I was fooking spot on. (* me gloating *)
Although I'm no England fan & now had some time to digest the results, I find it absolutely mind-fooking-boggling that this squad has failed to qualify fer Euro 2008. Yes, they may have been slightly over-hyped but fooking hell, just look at the names - Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard et al are top-flight players who have seen plenty of European action. Fooking inexcusable, innit?
Is this debacle solely down to a hapless manager? Or is the culture of the premiership prima donna taking its toll on the national team? Injuries? Too many foreigners (as suggested by our own Stevie G) in premiership halting local talent?
I am at a total loss to explain why England are so fooking crap. Look forward to reading yer verdicts (& who you think will get the manager's job), especially those who support Ingerland. . .
Scottish heartbreak
Now, this match between the Scots v Italy I actually stayed up fer. Have always had a soft spot fer the Scots on account of their contribution to LFC (King Kenny, Hansen, Souey, Gary Mac et al). The Tartan Boys had done well to get this far but ultimately were robbed of qualification by a refereeing blunder. The Italian winner was scored off a wrongly awarded free kick. It was sickening as it was the Italian who barged into the Scot (just like Chelsea getting the spot kick at Anfield earlier this season).
When the fook is FIFA gonna wake up & introduce video replays. I fer one am sick & fooking tired of our game being ruined by shite (or worse, dirty) refs!!!
Completely Out of Toon
Yes, we should have equalled the Everton scoreline but fer the unbelievable misses by Torres. Just not his day. We played well considering the disquieting effect that Rafa is at odds with the Yanks may have had on the dressing room. Hope this can be resolved though his record suggests otherwise. At Valencia, he famously threw a tantrum or two when the board rejected his budget recommendations & promptly fooked off. Am a bit pissed off at both parties fer airing our dirty laundry. Fooking sort it out, pronto!
But we shouldn't complain. Wanna know what a really bad season is - ask them Magpie fans. Almost four decades without a trophy of any fooking description & a succession of managers who don't seem quite up to the task of turning around the fortunes of a "massive" club. Looks like Fat Sam is already regretting leaving Bolton & with his Newcastle playing like shite, chances of him being offered the Ingerland job are pretty fooking slim.
Bolt On United!
Well fooking done la, Le Sulk! And kudos to Ivan "Alleycats" Campo fer keeping the free-scoring Utd strike force at bay. We need more results like this if we are to keep in touch with the leading pack.
Blueshites run riot
Looks like Roy "Fooking thug" Keane's days as Sunderland gaffer are numbered after a letting in seven against the Blueshites. Hate the sight of him, so he can get fooking stuffed fer all I care . . .
Still there & not going away
Yup, Pompey & that other team from Manchester are still in the upper echelons of the table courtesy of some splendid football & a decent run of results. Canna say they don't deserve it . . .
Gooners on a roll
Wigan toughed it out fer over 80 mins but the firepower was just too much. Expected . . .sigh
ps: Me thinks Fabio Cappello will get the Ingerland job. They will be fooking boring but will probably win 2010 World Cup with him in charge. You heard it here first!
pss: Please do take part in the poll below on who you think is the worst Eng gaffer ever!
18 comments:
Fabio Capello? Err I don't think he's good enough. They've got to hire only the best for the job (think previous world cup winners; Marcelo Lippi, Big Phil). Any less is bound for failure.
Awesome display against the toons. This is the brand of football I've been expecting us to play! Hope our good run of form carries through December the 16th.
afif: Dude, firstly, I strongly disagree when you say Fabio is not good enuff. He has won the league with every single club he has coached & has shown masterful tactical nous.
I believe international footie is the natural progression fer a manager of his calibre.
Besides, hiring a coach who has already won the World Cup would seem the obvious thing to do. But how motivated would they be?
Lippi is content leading a life of semi-retirement.
Big Phil would be the worse possible choice coz his brand of footie goes against the very grain of the English game. He believes in employing all the dark arts of play acting, aggressive fouling & psychological warfare which is anathema to the English. He would be booted out as soon as he gets a couple of shit results.
TQ fer joining in the debate!
mark: Yeah, but certainly hope Torres shows better instincts than yesterday!
No prediction on future England coach?
First of all, Capello?!!
He surely IS in the driving sit for barking in front of the English FA's gate!!!
At current state, the FA would take him with open arms since it will be a huge improvement from McLaren!
However, I will predict he won't be good enough. Hiddink should be first choice though I hate him for his time with Korea playing dirty football! Capello might find it hard to get the job lah for his relationship with Beckham at Real.
On another matter, Rafa and Hicks can't meet eye to eye....er....well...one is in England another in US....no wonder!!!
Seriously, I think owners should listen to the Manager and really take in some football lesson before freaking out when hear the demand for say 50 million.
Manager are the ones to blame for failures yet they have little say on who to buy when it is not too much to ask? Don't think that's right.
However, need to agree such things should be kept internally and not made public. However from my understanding, it were the owners who made a public statement first!
On other teams, not interested! Liverpool have really big games coming up!!! Let's hope they will keep the show going! HOWEVER TO ANFIELD DEVOTEE, REMEMBER HOW YOUR PSYCHIC POWER WORKS! SO PRAY CARE-FUL-LY!
when Mclaren took the england job, somehow i knew it would not be a 'marriage made in heaven' so to speak. i'm no england fan either but why did they choose this fella in the first place? Mclaren did not prove anything when he was at riverside.
and this sticking to englishman business thing does not necessarily workout. how about appointing someone who can actually do the job, regardless his nationality? how about vincent del bosque or mario zagallo? the latter would inject some samba magic to the style they play. as you said bala, england squad has top-class players.
oh, and i believe the real torres did not turn up at st james'.
kerp: re: mario zagallo - eh, isn't he like 102 years old or something. I think having been involved in all 5 of Brasil's World Cup victories in some capacity or another is enough contribution la. Let the old man retire. The England job might just kill him.
del Bosque: was brilliant at Real but failed spectacularly in Fenerbache.
Perhaps Rafa might just end up as the surprise choice, eh, given the war of words going on rite now between him & Anfield boardroom.
RE: Torres - looked sharp but finishing a touch off. As Andy Gray says, it happens, sometimes . . .
Whoever takes over the hotseat left vacant by Stevie boy wont really matter coz I think England is the MOST OVERRATED team...... Like you, I too had predicted Croatia beating England at Wembley way before the Russia fuck-up in Israel... However, I was impressed with England's fightback in the second half...
However, Mclaren is a dumbass... he shd've just picked a natural 4-4-2... keep things simple... pick either lamps or stevie g and not both.. if you saw the match, the 2 morons were practically following each other all around the pitch... as for midfield support.. gareth barry has been impressive.. with him there... stevie g or lamps can venture forward in support of the strikers...
england must play 2 strikers... during the match... crouch had so many good chest downs, head downs, etc... but no follow up.. and when he drifts wide... it take ages for cole to step in...
however, cole did have a good game on the left (and bridge did work well with him though he was lost in defense)... and philips is not good enough for england at this point in time.. sad to say, becks was impressive...
as for the back 4... they just cant defend for nuts... mclaren should've begged jamie carragher..
i do pity carson... but he did fuck up the first 2 goals... so too bad...
ok - enough on England... i'm so happy they didnt qualify!
I believe, if Sven had stayed in charge, England would've topped the group. Sven knew how to mould him team to fit a system... He was able to make crap players hold the ball and pass it around... think about it... he did very well given the crap players he had at disposal... his brilliance was by looking at the resources he had, and coming up with a workable system... kudos sven u gigolo...
As for the Scots... i really dont care, coz i am pro Italia... (however, i rather the Scots then the French dudes)...
As for Rafa vs USA... USA should just SHUT THE FUCK UP... and let the man who loves to 'concentrate on coaching and training' do his job.... Inspite of all his weird line-ups... he does have the guts to change the team during a game... and more times than not, the change worked brilliantly... remember Istanbul?
I think 9/10 fans rather keep Rafa.. after all, 2 CL Finals... FA Cup...
we do have a decent squad, and if we play like how we did on Saturday, week in week out... i do
why we shouldn't be challenging for all titles in the next 4-6 weeks...
bala - i was just about to blog about the Rafa thingy... but u and some of the comments here have done it for me... cheers...
actually i was thinking abt big phil but went against the cliche. my point was, get a south american for that little touch of difference, you know, anglo-samba sounds exciting to me.
Benitez for England & Mourinho for Liverpool. Now, even though it won't be nice to the eyes, it would bring a trophy or two to both teams for sure.
Anyway, I think the FA will give it to Capello. His club records is very impressive & I think people like van Basten, Klinsmann, Bilic, etc. have proved that you don't have to have the experience in managing a national team to be a good and successful manager. Yup, all 3 have won bugger all but they've made a big impact to the football world. I'm sure there are better examples where club managers have gone on to win trophies with the national teams.
For everything else...there is only one gaffer for L'pool and that is Rafael Benitez. He gave us UCL no. 5 when then Yanks were not in town.
VIVA RAFALUTION!
Screw the Yanks!
As for the England gaffer position, give it to Mourinho today so that the rumours and that GOOSE shite can stay away from Anfield.
Viva RAFALUTION!! Screw the Yanks!
It's gonna turn ugly, and if them yanks want to turn their "franchise" into just another business, then they have another thing coming. LFC is a football club, a family club and an establishment owned by no one but the fans. Them "soccer" fans can shove their green bags up where the sun don't shine if they try to mess around with the club traditions. WE DO NOT FIRE MANAGERS!!! If they do, high time to rethink my support for "their" club.
jonc & albertus (myrawk admin): You know that I am NOT Rafa's biggest fan but I have got to side with you guys on this one. We do not fire managers especially when the consequence of doing so would be disastrous.ie. rebuilding to start from scratch again.
But having said that how many managers have tried to take on the money men & lived to tell the tale? Keegan at his pomp at Newcastle? Jose at the Bridge?
Once a war of words like this breaks out, I feel it is only a matter of time Rafa is removed one way or another. They'll probably wait fer a string of piss poor results before wielding the axe. And with CL 2nd round qualification hanging by a thread, the Yanks may not have to wait that long.
Whatever it will be, it has just been sickening for the new onwers to come out with public statements...
And I do feel too it is a matter of time now and why Dec? probably just an excuse to wait and see if Liverpool fail to qualify to the later stages in CL for an excuse to sack Rafa.
Hopefully the team will prove the owners wrong by qualifying and go on to win a major throphy to shut the owners up...this time though...they might need the EPL title to do that!
Just sad that after years of finding the rightly suitors...came two which created much problem while the Mancs are having no problem now!!! Real sad...
I can't think how to support LFC anymore if the owners continue their arrogance coz "arrogance and dictatorship" is not synonymous with LFC.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO HICKS AND GILLET BELOW. WE NEED TO SHOW A COMMON FRONT THIS TIME. ALL REDS TOGETHER BEHIND THE MANAGER.
http://www.petitiononline.com/amg83ds/petition.html
You know i think the FA should obviously and seriously be looking at these three - Mourinho, Capello and Hiddink. Is there anyone else? After appointing any one of them, the FA should just self destruct. Re- elect. At this juncture i feel an englishman gaffer isn't the right path to fall on although i'm all for a young upstart to take over. Shearer (for his true brit grit) maybe. Someone who just gets on with it no matter what. Whoever it is, that man has got to come in there and kick english pride and passion right back up their arses. Pick players who'll gladly bleed to put the three lions shirt on. Rid the prima donna attitudes. Have the balls and a mastermind sense of drafting in fringe potentials and shape them in with the worthy and established regular ones. With this, you would be encouraging a tried and tested successful blend of youth and experience along with the very necessary sophistication backed with hard grafting performers and hah you just might have concocted a world beater. They could absorb a lot from the Scots, Welsh and Irish sides really. Having said all that and being a starved England fan for yonks, i swear no matter what class in the side, they seem to lack that special ingredient that makes a team 'ONE'. The 'ONE' team usually wins. Well, not just yet.
Rafa, LFC still need you.
Kevo: Like I said, me vote goes fer Fabio whose starting XI would be:
Green (gk), three central defenders - terry, woodgate & sol (fer that bit of experience). Rio to play as sweeper in front of back three.
midfield would consist of Barry & Hargreaves as anchormen with Joe Cole on left wing & Gerrard on right wing. Rooney will play in hole behing lone striker, Owen.
Is that defensive enough?
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