Ahmed Dimwitson

Don't see much point in dissing beckham when it is f***ing clear England has no other players that can produce anything worthwhile out there. You either play Beckham, he might have one or two decent freekicks that might lead to a goal/chance, now England opt not to use him and the fact is they produce f*** all going forward. Pathetic decision to drop the man, if you drop him, atleast make sure you have someone better to play.

Well, everything that England managed to do offensively in the WC was through Beckham. Now that he is not in the team and England does f*** all offensively. How smart is that? Some might think he is s***, he might be, he is however the thing England has at the moment in the midfield. At least as long as they insist on playing Lampard - Gerrard together as they are bloody poor together. The midfield should obviously be built around Gerrard.

Crouch banged them in from Beckhams excellent passes. Besides, most of Crouch goals have been against poor opposition, he did not score any yesterday though. That said, Rooney can only improve in the England team, not that I care.

with poor support from the midfield you can not do much. Beckham should be in the team, he created most of the goals for England in the WC, dropping him is bloody absurd and here you see the consequences, no goals. That said, Rooney has had a poor run lately but despite that United has been able to get decent results. The best players should play for the country, dropping Beckham just to make a point of who is in control is a bad managerial move when it is clear he would be of use.

seems like one of those days when everything went wrong for LFC, happens. Now it would be important that United doesn't lose any points this round.

a fantastic club, nothing else can be said.

Hmmm, actually thought you looked very average, granted you were missing a key player.

Seems like nothing has changed over the summer. The two top teams from the last season are still a level above the rest.

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difficult to score in internationals with an incompetent midfield behind you Lampard & Gerrard wasn't working and thus no supply. Othervise I agree, he still has a lot to show and will do so.

even I would have scored in that Madrid team, what was it the first game he played that season? his stint at RM was hardly a success. McManaman is hardly a player that will be remembered for long unlike Rooney. The kid is young, has potential, and plays in a great team.

Unlike Rooney McManaman was an average player playing in a team not doing well and his actions could merely be of interest to his mother and girlfriend. Rooney on the other hand will be an all time great when his career is over, having played for the greatest team in England.

was thinking the same thing. Every year starts off with a discussion of how weak United are now, and then come May United are above you in the table.

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well how the f*** can yesterdays dive have been a penalty? the man barely touched him and a grown man goes down like he was dying. have you ever f***ing played football you mong? if this is where football is heading I will want my kids to practice ballet because it seems much tougher these days. The Italian penalty was not a penalty, he dived. barely touched him. By that logic Portugal should have had 4 or 5 penalties yesterday, i.e. if you award penalties just for touching the other players in the box and the other player happens to fall easily. Questionable free kick as well, Puyol had the ball and Henry came from behind and went down. This is a mans game you f***ing moron, this has no place in football.

Been a decent world cup, what has left a bitter tase though is that quite a few of the important games have been decided by the referees. The penalty awarded for Henrys dive yestdray was a disgrace and it took a mediocre side to the finals. Italy - Australia decided by a late penalty, Portugal - England decided by a red card that was nowhere near one, Spain - France decided by bltant cheating by Henry etc..That is not counting the group games where you had morons giving three yellow cards etc. Sort of typical of this tournament is that Henry, probably the best striker in the world, has not decided his games by scoring goals but by diving better than anyone else.

fair analysis compared to much of the other drivel one has to read here.

indeed, do you think the holding midfielders role is important using that tactic with attacking wing-backs? who was playing that role for Spain?

Was it not Xabi that misplaced a pass in midfield and lost it to France for the first goal then?

Xavi was taken off as Makele owned him, they needed someone that could match him. So in the end, Xabi didn't contribute much to the offense, as Spain had none and he contributed little to the defence as that was poor as well, and yet you somehow manage to select a person who didn't really turn up today as MOM. Does this have anything to do with him being a Liverpool player?

and how do you explain Spains piss poor defensive play then? Xabi had a role there then as he clearly was not involved in the build up of the offensive game.

Yeah, he did 20 meter passes to the left and right today, didn't exactly help to brake them down though did it? Yeah, Raul Torres and Villa are all s*** players , it is clearly their fault they never got the ball.

erm, what exactly did he do then? he has excellent tempo in his passes usually, today in the second half he lost the pace and didn't basially do anything. Did you fail to notice this? Spain managed to create absolutely nothing during 90 minutes of play as they rarely even came close to the french goal. But yeah, Alonso was the MOM that said, hard to raise anyone of the others in the spanish squad above him, none excelled. Pernia atleast tried and turned up at times.

He didn't put a foot right either, he did f*** all this evening. Xavi must obviously be included. First half better than the second though from both.

No, he wasn't, he was dire and one of the reasons they lost. They completely lost the midfield today and they also failed to protect the defenders.