*Official* English Football Season 2009-2010

[duffer]

That's not how Eboue tells it, tbf. From The Guardian.

It has emerged that Touré visited the Arsenal dressing room after the game to offer apologies, although it is unclear whether that was at Adebayor's prompting.

"For me, Adebayor, he didn't do well," Eboué said, "and that is no good for football because you have a lot of young people who watch the game and then, they see that. But I am happy that the FA gave him a three-game ban, I am very, very happy about that. And, because I know him, I think he will think about that and he will take it on. Now, he will try to play his game because that was no good for football. I am very disappointed about it, very disappointed.

"In the dressing room, we were very disappointed because we don't know what happened to Adebayor. When he was in our team, we were together, we did everything together, so we don't know what happened. After that, Kolo has come into our dressing room and he said sorry to everyone. That was very, very nice."

Haha, when even Eboue thinks you are a ****.

Song's take on it:

"I think that Kolo is talking bull***t. He's talking nonsense," Song said. "Ade was a 'big brother'. In London, I was almost living at his place, and he at mine.

Once he went to City, it's true that our relationship was not what it had been before. I called him two or three times, and he didn't call me back.

I'm not going to force him to do it. And I'm not going to have a laugh with him when I see him in the tunnel. [Last weekend] he disappointed me because the person I knew was not the person I met that day.

Afterwards, on the pitch, he started to kick. He kicked everyone, that's not normal! He was aggressive. There was a free-kick in their favour and he slapped me. Coming from him - I couldn't believe it."

I am surprised - nobody said anything bad about them, not the manager, not the players. Their reaction is abnormal. Kolo always was a leader on the pitch. He was always pushing us, all the time.

I saw Adebayor at the end of the game and I talked to him. Calmly. The best answer for him would've been to do nothing.

Wag, if only he could play as well as he speaks.

 

[Uppercut]

Make Arsenal predictable. Heh, our manager does that for you. Not sure about us pressing high up the park though. We have some of the laziest players I've ever seen in our midfield and forward line.

It's a tactic they've started using this season. Was attributed to a lot of their early-season success.

Makes sense when you have such a fast back four and are weak in the air.

 

[duffer]

It's a tactic they've started using this season. Was attributed to a lot of their early-season success.

Makes sense when you have such a fast back four and are weak in the air.

Apart from when we play Diaby and Song two players who are seemingly allergic to breaking into a sweat. All tends to go to pieces then.

 

[Uppercut]

Apart from when we play Diaby and Song two players who are seemingly allergic to breaking into a sweat. All tends to go to pieces then.

No, not at all. The effect is probably the opposite in fact, pressing high up the pitch gives them a lot less ground to cover. The Spanish football pundits on Sky suggested last year that Deco struggled so badly with fitness towards the end of last season because he had to do so much more running in a Chelsea team notorious for defending deep, whereas Barca have been pressing teams up the pitch for years.

It goes to pieces when you come up against a particularly fast front man who likes to run in behind. Michael Owen used to absolutely slaughter teams playing high up the pitch, and when you had Thierry Henry everyone would drop back to stop him going in behind, in turn giving you a lot of space to play in.

It's all pros and cons. Generally you'll find you dominate possession but get caught out once or twice a match by players running in behind. Which has happened a couple of times already this season.

 

[duffer]

No, not at all. The effect is probably the opposite in fact, pressing high up the pitch gives them a lot less ground to cover. The Spanish football pundits on Sky suggested last year that Deco struggled so badly with fitness towards the end of last season because he had to do so much more running in a Chelsea team notorious for defending deep, whereas Barca have been pressing teams up the pitch for years.

It goes to pieces when you come up against a particularly fast front man who likes to run in behind. Michael Owen used to absolutely slaughter teams playing high up the pitch, and when you had Thierry Henry everyone would drop back to stop him going in behind, in turn giving you a lot of space to play in.

It's all pros and cons. Generally you'll find you dominate possession but get caught out once or twice a match by players running in behind. Which has happened a couple of times already this season.

The point I was making is to make the formation be effective you need players who work their ass off so they aren't caught out of position. We have none. No one apart from our centre backs and Sagna want to defend and we never cover the space left behind by other players and never help other players in our team. Instant fail against teams like City with speedy wingers and forwards. Was utter rape on the break last week.

 

[Uppercut]

The point I was making is to make the formation be effective you need players who work their ass off so they aren't caught out of position. We have none. No one apart from our centre backs and Sagna want to defend and we never cover the space left behind by other players and never help other players in our team. Instant fail against teams like City with speedy wingers and forwards. Was utter rape on the break last week.

The opposite's true, though. I'm pretty sure Wenger's playing high up the pitch so as not to overwork them, actually. Keep the ball, play the game in the opposition half, do less running. Teams with very skilful and pacy players like Barcelona, Spain, Argentina and Arsenal play a high line. Teams with workhorses like Chelsea, Bolton, Blackburn and, err, Northern Ireland play deep. When you play deep you concede a lot of possession so you spend all your time chasing the ball.

You do get assraped by teams like City with speedy wingers and forwards though. You're spot on there.

 

[sledger]

It's a tactic they've started using this season. Was attributed to a lot of their early-season success.

Makes sense when you have such a fast back four and are weak in the air.

Diaby is lethal in the air tbh, just ask Almunia.

 

[GIMH]

 

[Nate]

Nugenttttttt WAG

 

[BoyBrumby]

Nugenttttttt WAG

Burnley too now, huh?

Anything that's bad for Steve Bruce is good for football tho.

 

[Nate]

They beat Man U first round, and have the most un-keeper keeper of all time. Love an underdog.

 

[duffer]

Lol, Vito Mannone starting keeper, Diaby apparently a right forward which would make Eboue a centre mid for today. Kinhell. Worst Wenger squad ever.

 

[duffer]

I love you Tommy.

 

[GIMH]

Pickup & grecian 1, Corrin 0

 

[Pratters]

Terrible play by Arsenal. Should have been at least three goals up.

 

[duffer]

I love you Tommy.

Yes.

 

[sledger]

Fairly standard result against a sub-standard team there, will do nicely.

 

[GIMH]

When Ronnie Moore was sacked, Peter Johnson cited his failure to get us out of League One and falling attendances.

Well under John Barnes, attendances are the lowest they have been for about 20 years and then some, but hey, we'll be getting out of this division alright.

I have nothing personal against John Barnes and I think he seems to be a nice bloke, at the end of the day he isn't cut out to be a manager, this is just an absolute catastrophe. No offence to grecian & Pickup, it's not embarassing to lose to your team but it is embarassing to have lsot 7 out of 8 league games. Enough is enough.

 

[grecian]

We were pish today, so I won't go overboard in celebration, but we won. ho-hum.

Will be relegated if we play like that every week though.

 

[BoyBrumby]

When Ronnie Moore was sacked, Peter Johnson cited his failure to get us out of League One and falling attendances.

Well under John Barnes, attendances are the lowest they have been for about 20 years and then some, but hey, we'll be getting out of this division alright.

I have nothing personal against John Barnes and I think he seems to be a nice bloke, at the end of the day he isn't cut out to be a manager, this is just an absolute catastrophe. No offence to grecian & Pickup, it's not embarassing to lose to your team but it is embarassing to have lsot 7 out of 8 league games. Enough is enough.

Yeah, heard Jeff say it was seven defeats in seven in all competitions for your chaps. Mentioned you in the same breath as Pompey, which has gotta smart.