*Official* English Football Season 2015-16

[marc71178]

Three decent games against decent to good opposition and all we have to show for it is 0-1 0-1 0-1 **** me.

Thanks for extending Armstrong's loan.

 

[marc71178]

True. Benteke was definitely a bad signing.

I'm sure that was called at the time by some of us and we were told we were wrong...

 

[Uppercut]

He's definitely good enough for them imo, just not a Klopp player. ****e today but won them their last couple of games. Even in a team unsuited to his strengths he still pulls some ****ing great goals out of his fat Arse pretty regularly.

They'll probably recoup something close to the fee they paid.

 

[sledger]

Arsenal playing like crap but actually winning is a strange thing. Not sure what to make of it. It's a good thing I guess, but feels unnatural.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Dandruff boy has got to do better with that surely, barely a touch from, Kolarov.

Yeah it was barely a touch but it doesn't really matter how big a touch it was as long as it's bigger than the area his hands are covering and he doesn't have time to react. Which realistically he didn't, IMO.

Actually think a slight touch is possibly harder to deal with than a bigger deflection because you wouldn't sense the deflection at all until a split second later, perhaps.

 

[Furball]

It's refreshing to see a player actually shoot from corners, something that I don't think happens enough.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Them signing Benteke is the same as Chris Sutton going to Chelsea years ago. A good player totally unsuited to the style of play that the side you are joining will use. Both thrive on crosses into the box which neither side do.

Well seeing as we're completely unable to defend crosses into the box, this should suit us fairly nicely on Friday.

Could have scored six before half-time today. Sadly half the side seemed to get barn doors and banjos for Christmas.

 

[Nate]

Coutinho not being helped by being stuck out on the left. Thrives centrally. Benteke not providing much, so I would much rather have Firmino up top to fix both these things.

 

[Nate]

Well done to Carroll too.

 

[Nate]

Them signing Benteke is the same as Chris Sutton going to Chelsea years ago. A good player totally unsuited to the style of play that the side you are joining will use. Both thrive on crosses into the box which neither side do.

Sorry, but this is just incorrect. Against West Ham, our entire game plan was feeding Benteke with the type of delivery he favours. He was just too poor to do anything with it. Barely attacked crosses, couldn't hold the ball up, etc.

EDIT: We attempted 32 crosses. West Ham attempted 12. West Brom 21. Stoke 20.

 

[sledger]

The quantity of the crosses doesn't matter if the quality was no good.

I have no idea if this was the case ftr, just throwing that particular point out there, as one might argue that Benteke thrives on good crosses, rather than ok/crap ones, and until Liverpool are able to provide this they aren't really geared to his style of play at all, no matter how much they might try.

 

[grecian]

Great goal by Rooney, which doesn't seem to have been mentioned so far.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Sorry, but this is just incorrect. Against West Ham, our entire game plan was feeding Benteke with the type of delivery he favours. He was just too poor to do anything with it. Barely attacked crosses, couldn't hold the ball up, etc.

EDIT: We attempted 32 crosses. West Ham attempted 12. West Brom 21. Stoke 20.

Well signing a bloke like him and selling the only decent winger you have at the same time and not replacing him doesn't tell me that the club are building their play around him like Villa did. Not saying he is a brilliant striker you can do that with at a bigger club but his record at Villa was excellent and they played to his strengths week in week out and he got bundles of goals for them. Wouldn't be surprised if he banged goals in somewhere else if was to leave in the summer.

 

[Ikki]

Sorry, but this is just incorrect. Against West Ham, our entire game plan was feeding Benteke with the type of delivery he favours. He was just too poor to do anything with it. Barely attacked crosses, couldn't hold the ball up, etc.

EDIT: We attempted 32 crosses. West Ham attempted 12. West Brom 21. Stoke 20.

People have used this stat but the reality is that anytime we attempted them they were poor. Too late or way too inaccurate. At the moment the midfielders behind Benteke are culpable as much if not more than he is.

Well signing a bloke like him and selling the only decent winger you have at the same time and not replacing him doesn't tell me that the club are building their play around him like Villa did. Not saying he is a brilliant striker you can do that with at a bigger club but his record at Villa was excellent and they played to his strengths week in week out and he got bundles of goals for them. Wouldn't be surprised if he banged goals in somewhere else if was to leave in the summer.

He doesn't even need a tonne of crosses, just good ones. Villa in the preceding seasons with Benteke only made about 1.5 more crosses per game than Liverpool in the same time.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

He doesn't even need a tonne of crosses, just good ones. Villa in the preceding seasons with Benteke only made about 1.5 more crosses per game than Liverpool in the same time.

Point I was making he was the one quality wide player who could perhaps have put a decent ball in. Villa set up to provide, didn't see the game yesterday so can't comment on the quality of service but it looked a strange fit when you signed him and still does.

 

[Ikki]

Point I was making he was the one quality wide player who could perhaps have put a decent ball in. Villa set up to provide, didn't see the game yesterday so can't comment on the quality of service but it looked a strange fit when you signed him and still does.

I think in this day and age, if the likes of Coutinho, Lallana, Firmino, Ibe, Moreno et al can't cross the ball - especially for their prices - then it's not about an individual player.

Benteke is far more than a big lump, they can play the ball on the floor too. Liverpool's problem is that the creativity behind him is more or less non-existent and we have a selfish streak running with some players who decide to shoot in ridiculous positions rather than play that extra pass.

 

[Tangles]

Great goal by Rooney, which doesn't seem to have been mentioned so far.

Id rather talk about how well Martial played tbh.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Some finish from the Spurs kid. Deserve to be about 2 or 3 up but that was to level.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Great goal by Rooney, which doesn't seem to have been mentioned so far.

Eh?

This was doing my head in Match of the Day. The highlights were largely him screwing things up as usual, then he scores with a flick from 4 yards and it's 'a touch of genius'.

I was doing flicks like that with a tennis ball or mini football when I was a kid, if they'd have said I was a footballing genius I'd have laughed my head off. Anybody who plays football should be capable of doing it.

Martial did all the work, Rooney's contribution was an elaborate tap-in.

 

[sledger]

Apologies for the source, but I was curious as to what everyone thought about this:

Wayne Rooney is 30 but has mileage of a 35-year-old, says Jamie Carragher | Daily Mail Online

'I just think he's been playing so long now that maybe it's 30 on his birth certificate but in terms of games played he's a 35-year-old player.'

I'd never really given this sort of thing a lot of thought, but now it's been brought to my attention, it has really made me wonder. Could provide some explanation for his...less than electric displays that have been the norm for a while now.