beejay

http://www.jimmy-nail.net/

bbc gossip page Atletico Madrid are set to make an offer for Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso. (dailymail.co.uk 0923 GMT) LOL

We have undergone more than one metamorphosis in playing style since Rafa's arrival. One of his 1st buys was Alonso to dictate the pace of play but in the early days of Rafa's reign we hit a lot of long balls to the wing and bypassed midfield to an extent, getting the ball forward quickly. There was very little composed build-up from the back, we were used to lumping it at the 1st sign of danger and we carried on in that vein. Our home form tended to be pretty good (except against the top 3) but we were gash away. We then brought in Crouch and our game changed as we used him as the focal point through the centre instead of spreading it wide - again a succession of long balls or dinks in the air so PC could hold the ball up for others to join the play. Torres was bought and we changed our style again. We now play a much more controlled, passing game. Slower tempo, possession the key, moving the play one side to the other and keeping the opposition on the move. We grind our opponents down by tiring them out, as they are having to chase after the ball. Rafa plays the percentages and his game plan nowadays is to pass the other team to death in the 1st half and win the game in the 2nd half as their legs start to go. Even more so in the 2nd half of the season when heavy pitches & injuries take their toll. One of his main objectives is to stop the other side from scoring first. If we go ahead, we drop back into a tighter formation, the opposition try to compress the play and in theory, it leaves more space for Torres & Gerrard to get behind them with their pace to kill the game. We have dispensed with the Sissokos, Riises, Garcias etc who were excellent servants but gave up possession too easily. The absence of Torres for much of the season (& it has to be said, his form hasn't been great since his return) has scuppered this plan and without him, we are slow-paced & toothless on the counter. But the other problem we have faced is far more teams sitting deep, parking the bus & letting us play in front of them. It's a compliment to us because they know they are not likely to out-pass us but we are suffering from similar problems to Arsenal who are even more of a possession team than us. The annoying thing for Rafa is that we have started to cough up soft goals at the end of matches where his plan has worked, we are in complete control and the points should be in the bag. Given another year or so (I know, I know it's now or never) Rafa will I'm sure have grooved them into his system if he is allowed the time & the freedom in the transfer market to tighten us up & improve our bench. He may even have them in tune for the rest of this season if we can recover our confidence & cut out the stupid mistakes. Under Rafa we are never likely to be a swashbuckling up-&-at em team but we are no longer a boring defensive counter-attacking team either despite how some like to portray us. The last few weeks raises questions about whether the fans will have the patience to see this through or Rafa's frustration at outside interference will see him walk.

It's certainly not from a credible source...

I despise that pr*ck O'Neill even more than Mourinho. It's way too early to claim he's anywhere near Rafa's league either - what has the boggle-eyed manic leprechaun won other than a league cup & the 1 in 2 chance of a scottish title.

Let's move on shall we. Chelsea still have a few injuries notably Carvalho & Cole J. They will probably go for : Cech, Bosingwa, Alex, Terry, ColeA, Mikel, Deco, Ballack, Lampard, Malouda (or Kalou) & Anelka with Drogba on the bench. Their width comes from the 2 fullbacks, they block up the middle & are still potent at set pieces. Our likely team assuming Agger still won't be fit is : Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skretl, Aurelio, Kuyt, Mascherano, Alonso, Riera, Gerrard, Torres. I think we could have problems at set plays with that team but otherwise, our midfield is perfectly capable of mastering theirs and we just need Torres to come good.

Very reliable guy on rawk reckons Spurs enquired about Keane, we asked for Lennon AND Jenas in return and they said no. So it's off for now unless they get desperate

I can think of once this season when they lost after going a goal up.... They also drew at Everton when 1-0 up at HT

No, but it does tell us if we were challenging at the same point. We were 12 points off the pace set by both ManU & Arsenal and 8 points off Chelsea in 3rd (with a game in hand) so we were nowhere near in contention. We were also on the same points as Everton, Villa & Man City. So that explodes unclebob's myth

After 22 games last year P GD PTS 1 Man Utd 22 33 51 2 Arsenal 22 26 51 3 Chelsea 22 19 47 4 Liverpool 21 21 39 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Everton 22 16 39 6 Aston Villa 22 12 39 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Man City 22 6 39 8 Blackburn 22 1 36 9 Portsmouth 22 9 34 10 West Ham 21 7 32 11 Newcastle 22 -12 26 12 Tottenham 22 2 24 13 Reading 22 -17 22 14 Middlesbrough 22 -17 21 15 Bolton 22 -10 20 16 Birmingham 22 -10 20 17 Wigan 22 -15 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Sunderland 22 -18 20 19 Fulham 22 -16 15 20 Derby 22 -37 7 So this season is worse than last eh?

Does it hell. Tell me, after 23 games last season where were we in the League?

Cunny, it's not the slightest bit of criticism though is it? It is way, way over the top. It's frustrating, exasperating, it's eating away at us, it's 18 years & counting, it's knowing we're not good enough yet, it's knowing the mancs are getting nearer to no. 18, it's anger at some of the players bottling it, it's the constant media frenzy, the sh*te off the pitch, the fear of implosion, it's all these things... But is the solution to dump the manager which was the starting point of this thread and is on every other forum & every phone-in? Not IMO

True. We were dreadful against Stoke. So why should you class the other 6 games in the same category? Unless you were being kneejerk

Well I went to most of those games & no way were we "dreadful" as our ManxRed (or is that MancRed) friend suggested in his knee-jerk post. Match of the Day highlights is no basis IMO for coming out with judgements like that. But you're right, I'm starting to get angry with people & ranting, I must be cracking up

So all those "Dreadful" games you attended did you? And that's why you were able to make such an erudite judgement of our performance? Saying we were dreadful in 7 of those games is EXACTLY the knee-jerk b******s we don't need at the moment.

C'mon fred, some of the charlie f***** nicholas sky b******s about not understanding the premiership seems to be rubbing off. We ARE improving year-on-year, we have lost ONE game in 23, we are level with Chelsea, 3 points off the lead and how long did it take Slur Alex f***** Ferguson to build his 1st title-winning side?

2 months?? 01 Dec, 2008 West Ham United Barclays Premier League H 0-0 06 Dec, 2008 Blackburn Rovers Barclays Premier League A 3-1 09 Dec, 2008 PSV Eindhoven Champions League 3-1 13 Dec, 2008 Hull City Barclays Premier League H 2-2 21 Dec, 2008 Arsenal Barclays Premier League A 1-1 26 Dec, 2008 Bolton Wanderers Barclays Premier League H 3-0 28 Dec, 2008 Newcastle United Barclays Premier League A 5-1 03 Jan, 2009 Preston North End FA Cup 3rd Round A 2-0 10 Jan, 2009 Stoke City Barclays Premier League A 0-0 19 Jan, 2009 Everton Barclays Premier League H 1-1 25 Jan, 2009 Everton FA Cup 4th Round H 1-1 28 Jan, 2009 Wigan Athletic Barclays Premier League A 1-1 P 12, W5 D7 L0 GF 22 GA 9

Revisionism. Blame the manager for all the things that go wrong, then say his trophies were in spite of him. "One of our very few class players"? Reina, Agger, Carragher, Hyypia, Skretl, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres?

Massive, hysterical, knee-jerking over-reaction. Check the League table. Are we out of it? Are we in a better position than at any time in the last 5, maybe 10 years? How many games have we lost this season? How many times have we been outplayed this season? Are we improving as a team & squad each season? In Reina, Agger, Skretl, Alonso, Mascherano, Torres has the manager bought top players? Is the manager a proven winner? Has he had to contend with an off-pitch maelstrom like no other manager in our history? Now start threads on every internet forum & ring/text every phone-in demanding the manager is sacked. Mid-season. Without any idea of a replacement. So we can set our progress back another 5 years. We drew last night. Because of a calamitous mistake by a young player late on. Gerrard had been deliberately targeted for a kicking and was subbed. Torres is not fully match-fit so he was subbed. Keane has been garbage so was on the bench. And all of that means we should sack Rafa. Be careful because you might get what you ask for. Gillett, Hicks & Parry would like nothing more than to rid themselves of the thorn in their side, the one who consistently exposes their crass deception and their weak "leadership" is likely to be influenced by a perception that the fans have given up on Benitez. Calm the f*** down, circle the wagons, get behind the team on Sunday & start the season all over again.

A bit like DIC you mean, before Coco & £8 million Moores decided to pull the plug? DIC - a sound business model, huge resources, genuine fans & a track record for long term investment in pursuit of sporting excellence. G&H - 2 charming fellas, history of bankruptcies asset-stripping & siphoning off personal wealth from leveraged debt finance and ownership of cash-starved sport franchises with fans up in arms & zero trophies. Which one shall we sell the family silver to Rick?

No, it's not a case of money passing hands it is manipulation of the system. Doesn't mean it is right, Utd undoubtedly receive an unfair advantage because of their intimidation and the weakness of the authorities. I don't think it is necessarily Ferguson's longevity in the job & success that makes him untouchable, it's more his vindictive nature & will to win that makes him use every trick, however nasty that may be. He is a foul-mouthed bully and because he is allowed to pick & choose referees he is, in my opinion, an out-and-out cheat. That said, the pre-eminence of Liverpool in the 80s meant that we had our share of decisions but that was more to do with the crowd influencing referees than a club policy.

I do believe referees are scared to upset Ferguson & ManU. There is plenty of evidence to show that if a ref gives a decision Ferguson doesn't like they don't get another Utd game for ages & as theirs tend to be high-profile games, the ref loses out on some big games. On the other hand, if a ref is doing the right things by the Ferguson code of refereeing practice he will find himself with many a trip to Old Trafford eg Riley & Bennett. There is a standard Ferguson tactic. If they lose/draw he will mouth off at the official during & after the game; if the ref hasn't "done the right thing", Ferguson & others will attack him in the media. FA will look into it, decide there is no case to answer; and said ref is then blackballed from officiating ManU games for a period, depending on how much he has p*ssed you lot off. He even went a step further last year when he sounded off about not having certain refs appointed at home. Couple of weeks later, one of the named refs - Mr Bennett - gets the Utd v Liverpool game at Old Trafford and surprise, surprise we see the most blatant example of the art of one-sided refereeing you could ever expect. Bennett is then rewarded with more appearances at Old Trafford than Carlos Tevez. It's bleeding obvious it goes on; everyone knows it goes on; but Ferguson & ManU are too powerful to stop it. It is the same in Spain & Italy but we pretend we are above all that.

Rafa tries to draw attention to Andy's litany of "favourable" decisions to ManU, asking for a level playing field and it's turned on him by the media as a sign of weakness. When Valencia won the title Rafa had to put up with the same inequalities in the run-in with Real Madrid and he will have to do it all over again.

I take that as a real compliment coming from the cut & paste king.

Sounds like a Parry deal to me, wonder if Rafa knows yet? To be fair, Owen has been playing deeper this season rather than just as the main striker so maybe Rafa thinks he could now do Keane's job, but much better and at a fraction of the price?