Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

Amore said:

EDIT: YES -Lapras-!! Milner has his qualities, well a quality - he never runs out of energy. Neither does Park Ji Sung, and look where he's at. If he were to play anywhere for England it should be in the middle, and we have too much quality there. Playing him on the wing is going out declaring ourselves underdogs - hence why we usually live up to that tag by losing - like when United stuck Rooney out wide against Madrid.

I would almost certainly stick Wilshere and Cleverly in the midfield as our future dynamic duo. Oxlade-Chamberlain probably on the left. The only place that worries me is defence - I can see Jones and Cahill at CB, Baines on the left with Bertrand as an understudy, but who at RB?

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I don't agree with Betrand being an understudy to Baines, I've watched a lot of Bertrand and I really don't see him as a quality player and one that should be playing a lot of international football at that. I would rather see a player like Gibbs who with some training can be a player in the Baines mould, an attacking full back. At right back Nathaniel Clyne seems like an exciting prospect and the fact that he can also play left back is a plus too.

Hm...I was grasping at straws. I just thought - "he did alright in the Champions League Final, which was also his debut". Gibbs would be better - although the fact that Arsenal signed Monreal suggests Arsene Wenger isn't going to rely on him any time soon. Kyle Walker could be RB too. Or Milner, seeing as Roy Hodgson loves him so much. As long as we keep him out of the final 3rd.
I'm also looking forward to when Nick Powell makes his way into the United 1st team (I see him being loaned to the Championship next season) - his debut goal showed the lad's got class. (I say "lad", he's less than a year older than me xD).

We'll take Powell off your hands. :P To be fair, after we agreed to keep playing McEachran last season when he was absolute *insert expletive here*, we've probably earned the trust of big clubs to loan their players.

Also, don't you just love the frequency of sports journalists' mistakes.

Sky Sports News said:

Paraguayan striker Javier Acuna has confirmed that he has offers to move to England, with Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough reportedly keen.

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I'll let the fact that the link has already been ruled out by our manager add to the obvious glaring mistake.

Wow can't believe i forgot about Walker, especially since I see him as the man who has great potential and then theirs his teammate Kyle Naughton. Looking at it now i see a decent if not great future for the national team.Although people say England doesn't have the young players to compete with the like of Spain and Germany, I have to kinda disagree just think the young english players are at a greater disadvantage compared to youngsters playing in other countries.

Ohhh Mr. Acuna just another example of young south american footballers snatched up by european clubs after successful youth tournaments just to not fulfill the potential forced upon them......Tragic

Yeah, poor guy's being snapped up by Middlesborough twice! "Eric Djemba-Djemba, so good they named him twice" was the mid-noughties United chant, now Boro are going to have "Javier Acuna, so good we rejected him twice" xD.

Yeah...future's not bad compared to most countries - in a way we're like Brazil have been recently - all this potential but no results. Unlike Brazil we haven't won the World Cup since 1966. But I seriously don't think we're comparable with Germany (Götze, Reus, Özil, Schürrle, etc. etc.) or Spain. Hell, Spain U-21s would probably walk all over England seniors.
Speaking of Spain U-21, really hoping United sign Thiago now - he scored a hat-trick against Italy in the U-21 Final. And he was captain, which means they obviously see something in him :P

@YogiOne, an all too often occurrence unfortunately. Paraguay could've probably done with their players reaching the potential given their horrific position in the qualification standings currently.

England supporters probably say this all the time and then we never win anything at senior level either. Our situation will probably be Quarters/Last 16 every tournament as usual.

Do Barcelona use Thiago? I can see him going to United and then being bought back by Barca for some ridiculous fee in a few years like they always do (Alba, Fabregas, Pique).

Spain U21 walking over the England senior side doubt it, guessing you were exaggerating anyway. I'm not a England supported just think the future looks alright for now at least. On the matter of poor little Thiago if he does leave Barca I don't see him going back, his case is different than Alba and Cesc. They were youth players dreaming of a chance to play for Barca so after they left and had a chance to go back and fulfill that dreamed they jumped at it.

Thiago on the other hand has lived the dream at a young age unlike them, winning titles, playing with Messi and Iniesta just all that good stuff. If he leaves, he leaves for good but that's just my thought on the matter especially since he hasn't been given a lot of chances last season unfortunately.

The English national setup is just broken. Stuff like Da Ox travelling to Brazil for a glamour friendly instead of playing in the youngsters tournament.

Kyle Naughton was immense that season we had him on loan. Oh how I'd love us to sign him full

YogiOne said:

Spain U21 walking over the England senior side doubt it, guessing you were exaggerating anyway. I'm not a England supported just think the future looks alright for now at least. On the matter of poor little Thiago if he does leave Barca I don't see him going back, his case is different than Alba and Cesc. They were youth players dreaming of a chance to play for Barca so after they left and had a chance to go back and fulfill that dreamed they jumped at it.

Thiago on the other hand has lived the dream at a young age unlike them, winning titles, playing with Messi and Iniesta just all that good stuff. If he leaves, he leaves for good but that's just my thought on the matter especially since he hasn't been given a lot of chances last season unfortunately.

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I agree. Pique also left United for regular appearances though - 23 total appearances in 07/08 to 45 at Barcelona 08/09. Fabregas had to leave Arsenal because Martin Keown confirmed on the radio that it was Fabregas who threw pizza at Fergie :P.
It depends whether Thiago wants to stay and fight, or leave then return later akin to Fabregas - it should be noted that the supporters allegedly don't like Fabregas as much because he spent a spell in England. Much as I hope if Thiago came to United he'd stay permanently, Barcelona is like Brazil: they all go back there eventually.

-Lapras- said:

The English national setup is just broken. Stuff like Da Ox travelling to Brazil for a glamour friendly instead of playing in the youngsters tournament.

Kyle Naughton was immense that season we had him on loan. Oh how I'd love us to sign him full

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Yeah, you gotta feel for Stuart Pearce. The quality the he could have potentially had, such as Oxlade-Chamberlain and Phil Jones in the last tournament, may well have made a difference. Most of Spain's U-21s have been given chances in friendlies, but instead of dragging them along to the Confederations Cup to sit on the bench, they let them go to Israel instead (Although it does help that they have so much strength in depth they could swap their entire starting XI and probably still beat every team there comfortably).

It's also probably a hard job to motivate our U21s when they may see out their years playing in the Championship while watching some youngsters who have barely featured for the U21 side get picked for the senior squad just because they have a run of form for Man Utd/City/Chelsea/Arsenal or get random hype from nowhere (Butland). Looking at the current squad, I can see Danny Rose and Henri Lansbury as the sort of players who are probably a bit downhearted at their current international situation.

Amore said:

Yeah, you gotta feel for Stuart Pearce. The quality the he could have potentially had, such as Oxlade-Chamberlain and Phil Jones in the last tournament, may well have made a difference. Most of Spain's U-21s have been given chances in friendlies, but instead of dragging them along to the Confederations Cup to sit on the bench, they let them go to Israel instead (Although it does help that they have so much strength in depth they could swap their entire starting XI and probably still beat every team there comfortably).

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Giving alot of credit to Spain to be honest, if you look at it Germany could have had an incredible squad if they were allowed to bring all their top quality players and weren't hindered by some injuries. Spread across their squad thoug Spain have a lot of quality but Germany would have had more star names and a couple players with alot of experience and ability that would chance the tournament for Germany completely.

Nuke said:

It's also probably a hard job to motivate our U21s when they may see out their years playing in the Championship while watching some youngsters who have barely featured for the U21 side get picked for the senior squad just because they have a run of form for Man Utd/City/Chelsea/Arsenal or get random hype from nowhere (Butland). Looking at the current squad, I can see Danny Rose and Henri Lansbury as the sort of players who are probably a bit downhearted at their current international situation.

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I agree with you and theirs also another aspect to look at, many of the players in the u21 squad "play" or are members of some of the bigger clubs in the premier league but who honestly don't play or get sent out on loan to lower league sides. Bias is heavy in the system, picking players based mainly on the fact that they come from Tottenham or Liverpool and basically over looking quality(Some, not all the time)

Perhaps, but also it's to do with Spurs, Liverpool, United etc. buying up all the best ones from the Championship (see Zaha). And I don't think being de-motivated because you're not in the senior squad is a reason to perform badly - you're still representing your country, aren't you?

Also, fixture list out today! United and Moyes are certainly going through a baptism of fire: Swansea (A), Chelsea (H), Liverpool (A), Crystal Palace (A), City (A), West Brom (H).
Particularly worrying to have Chelsea so soon on - although Moyes has never beat Mourinho, that's hardly surprising - he was at Everton. Fergie on the other hand only beat him twice in 16 games (2 in 14 before playing against Madrid). I'm personally predicting United or Chelsea to win the league next season anyway - United were left in such good shape and you just know a marquee signing is coming, Chelsea are in a similar situation but have already bought Schürrle, and arguably don't need to improve except buying a striker. Interesting to see if Zaha gets a start against his old club too.

EDIT: Also, the F.A. Cup Final now takes place post-season! Personally I think this is a great idea, restoring how it should be. It was unfair on Wigan that within a week they went from celebrating winning the F.A. Cup to being relegated. Should've been the other way round. And also, by having the final on the same weekend as some league matches, they were making it more like the Capital One Cup - just insignificant.
Only worry is if somebody's on for a treble or FA Cup/Champions League double, having the two finals close together could kill their chances. Although Chelsea managed to play over 60 games this season so I guess it's achievable.

Socceroos are going to the World Cup 2014 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!

lol I'm a major Chelsea fan as well. watching soccer here in Australia is a pain gotta stay up till 3 in the morning. But hey if you love the world game you would watch it anyway.

Ohh and in Australia its soccer not football lmao

Well then, you got the name wrong didn't you? :P

no, but seriously it's called Football. A bit like how it's Mumbai, not Bombay - the creators named it.

I know what you mean about staying up til 3am - it's like us trying to watch the Superbowl here in the UK. And the Confederations Cup - Spain vs. Uruguay kicked off at 11pm. But in the World Cup next year the late kick-offs are going to be 1am GMT, which should be fun.

Staying up to watch the Superbowl is fun for me, but I can see how it would be annoying if I wanted to watch NFL every week.

The fixture list just makes me more pessimistic for the coming season, Boro's opening isn't even that bad, but now they're there it makes me think we'll lose them all.

I can see Moyes struggling from the start now too.

Yeah, but with United vs. Chelsea it's Mourinho who's got more to lose - his 100% undefeated record vs. Moyes, and having only lost 3 games against United - anything less than a win for him (Even at Old Trafford) will be a failure, especially with players such as Mata (more goals and assists combined than Gareth Bale last season) on his side.
Also, I forget who supports Norwich but their last 4 games are: Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Arsenal. #fun :P

Surely those facts would mean he has more chance of success in that game though. :P

And it's -Lapras- who supports Norwich.

Potentially yes. But part of the reason he was so successful against us is that he knew how to set up a team to counter the Ferguson system. Or in the case of the Madrid games a) he had Ronaldo this time and b) United were down to 10 men. Moyes could set up a bit differently - for example by playing Kagawa or Rooney in the right position, and potentially having a better midfield.

I suppose we'll see when it comes to it, just about anything could happen among the major teams this season.

Starting with an unknown quantity in Martinez's Everton and finishing with a run of 4 of the top (probably) 5 sides. Easy. Well, Norwich did do better against the big sides last year.