Cam

SWP? Finally the replacement for McManaman we've all wanted for so long. I miss having a headless eejit on the right wing running down blind alleys. I mean Baros tried his best but it was never the same.

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From todays Lancs Evening Telegraph: http://www.lancashireeveningtelegraph.co.u...s_pain_game.php "He's had his critics, rightly or wrongly, but I think he's rehabilitated himself at Blackburn," said Hughes. "He's playing some great stuff and enjoying his football. He's always been the same in my view, he's very demanding and he's demanding of his team-mates and I think you need that in the dressing room. I don't have a problem with that, you have to have that on a day to day basis because he's a winner, he wants to be the best he can be and he drives other people on as well." Bellamy, in rejecting suggestions his personality had an adverse effect at Newcastle, said: "I was part of a team that had done a fair old job the previous season, which I thought was a good one for me. If you look at the three previous seasons we had finished third, fourth and fifth with me there and look where we are now with Blackburn. This disruptive influence has obviously got a real problem with teams, hasn't it?"

It bobbled a bit but it went where he intended. The actual shot itself (leg movement, pullback, lift and strike) was unorthodox and is exactly the type of thing he's always done. It's a talent so rare (only Rooney in the league shares it) that Fat Sam simply can't recognise it.

Certainly offside. But could that linesman indicate for a foul throw? He was on the other side of the pitch. Surely it's the responsibility of the other fella, whichever half of the pitch it was on.

Is this that Carra secretly got a 2.1 in his midwifery degree?

Er, yeah, I knew that.

Riise's handball right in front of the linesman was funny. Just punched it behind him. The most obvious example of the foul you'll ever see. Not given. Brilliant.

The goal was in injury time, pretty much the penultimate kick of the half. And yet DJ George insists the Golden Goal time was 43:17. Methinks a certain Anfield employee just happened to have that ticket.

Crouch was poor today - and yet finished for once. Bizarre.

Look Johnny, we appreciate & envy your six-pack. Now stop coming out for the 2nd half, walking over to the Kemlyn, pulling up your shirt revealing a tight vest and adjusting your shorts. You only do it for the wolf-whistle. And even the guy that did that has grown tired of your act. Behave, you big tart.

Heard this a few times round town earlier in the week. It was one of those situations though - heard it once & dismissed it, heard it 2 or 3 times and thought "ah, I'll post that later", heard it 6 or 7 times and figured it had been in some rag. FWIW I don't think he'd improve us sufficiently. He's developed over the last couple of years into a fine player, he'd have improved us back then. But we're Champions of Europe now, we ought to be looking at better. A 'decent Premiership striker' signing is the mistake we made last summer.

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Can't believe no-one's mentioned Paddy Berger. Euro '96 and a long wait whetted our appetites, 12000 on the Kop for his reserves debut, those early goals and a shot (v Chelsea?) which was 3mm over the ball but I swear it was hit at 250mph. Then there's Collymore. And despite being an unheard-of Finn from holland I think everyone knew Hyypia was the centreback we were all waiting for before he even kicked a ball in red.

Yikes! I was about to say I could actually see Parry having it.

Name & shame!!! Gotta be a tattooed forward's?

Drove my Chavvy to the...... ??? Can we have a Forum Pedant Ruling, please? Zabby, Chavvy, Chabby or Shabby?

There's no bait. I love Didi. I can see what he brings to the team and it's very much valued - but he makes use of the ball. Intelligently reads the game, positions himself in the right place, gets in a clean tackle. Okay, I accept Momo wins the ball back - often by chasing and forcing an opponent to make a mistake. But I just look and think "I could do that". Is it a case of "Momo's good at long distance running, not so good at football?".

Fair enough, that's fairly impressive. Gotta laugh at the 3 hardmen in front of him in the 'Fouls Lost' stat, Dogs of War! I'm still not sold on the fella though. I've genuinely only come away a couple of times and thought "yeah, he was okay", mostly I think it's like playing with 10 men (9 if Traore's playing, 8 Crouch, 7 Morientes, how are we 3rd?). I do see what he does but it that important. Stopping others is part of the game and maybe I'm naive but I'd like to be more positive.

I still don't get the fuss about Momo, I really don't. From what I can see he simply harries players and is a great athlete. He can't seem to pass, shoot, head, control or tackle. Please tell me what I'm missing.

"I want to leave but recent gossip & photos have put clubs off, oooh chase me."

Weir... Stubbs.... same sh*t, different number. The ref just lost it very early on. I kinda rated Dowd before and was happy with him as choice for the match. If both sets of fans come away desperately unhappy with the ref then you know something fishy's gone on. Stubbs just looked old. i know he was brought back from Sunderland but it's almost like he was brought out of retirement. If Moyes is as smart as he thinks he is he'll have seen that today and realised that it's time to put him out to grass. Hopefully he'll bring another Kroldrup in to replace him.

Don't know if it's mentioned elsewhere in the thread but the worst action by Dowd must have been the booking for Kewell. Weir was pulling him all over, they both got called over and both booked. I presume Harry's was for "allowing himself to be fouled by the big angry man and not walking away from the bully & going to sit with the dinnerladies where he was nice and safe".

14 minutes left, 6-0, hundreds walk out. And yet at 15 minutes left and 5-0 I presume they still had huge amounts of optimism???

He gets the best out of the players over a long season so in some respects he's shown himself as a great manager. But he does make some awful, amateurish mistakes tactically in one-off games. The CL win at Porto may suggest otherwise but at Chelsea he's been humbled by some of the tactical showdowns he's had with brainier managers in the CL - and very occasionally in the league he'll try something unnecessarily clever just for the sake of it (and the hoped-for subsequent press fawning) and feck it up.