*Official* English Football Season 2014-15

[duffer]

Game reminded me of the 2001 Cup final. One of my worst memories as an Arsenal fan.

edit: Glad the boot was on the other foot though.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

A missive from the overthinking it department

How the England football team came to embody Englishness | David Goldblatt | News | The Guardian

(I did enjoy it, mind)

 

[Ikki]

People and pundits genuinely having a cry about Balo swapping shirts when at half time. Jesus football fans are strange sometimes.

If it was Lovren swapping shirts with Modric I doubt you'd hear as much of an uproar. With Mario anything that can, has to become a headline.

 

[Furball]

Thing is, apparently it was Pepe asking for Balotelli's shirt and according to Carragher, refusing such a request just isn't the done thing.

It was almost as if the boys at Sky were briefed to give him as hard a time as possible.

 

[grecian]

The Balotelli thing is a complete non-issue, which means it'll dominate the medja for ages.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, and is always rounded upon as disrespectful to the players team

Secret Footballer claims everyone does it in nearly every game, but it only crops up in the media when someone has an axe to grind with a particular player.

 

[sledger]

If that's the case you do wonder why certain players are stupid enough to do it in plain view. It's not like there isn't a precedent for people kicking up a stink about this sort of thing.

 

[Spikey]

just coming in to laugh at rodgers

 

[Furball]

If that's the case you do wonder why certain players are stupid enough to do it in plain view. It's not like there isn't a precedent for people kicking up a stink about this sort of thing.

Balotelli's always struck me as being a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

If that's the case you do wonder why certain players are stupid enough to do it in plain view. It's not like there isn't a precedent for people kicking up a stink about this sort of thing.

Meh I think this line of reasoning is one of the driving factors in the media being absolute garbage over the last decade, especially in sports coverage. Sure, maybe he could've thought about that. but maybe like every human being on the planet he isn't able to be thinking about all things at all times and he just didn't think much of it. Hey, maybe he was frustrated with how poor he and his team were playing, maybe he was preoccupied with some bad news from home, who knows. I think everyone forgets that sportsmen and women are people too, sometimes, and the media feast on it with bull**** moral outrage. If you have the ability to be lost in a moment and distracted by something you did or didn't do, then so does he.

This is a complete non-issue like nearly every single thing reported on in football these days. For the sake of our sanity, we should stop talking about it.

 

[marc71178]

We'd actually be a decent team if we had a defence.

And Suarez

 

[GIMH]

The Sturridge sized hole is being understated in some cases though, worth saying. Obviously they're a poorer size for the lack of Suarez, but taking Sturridge too has killed them.

 

[sledger]

Meh I think this line of reasoning is one of the driving factors in the media being absolute garbage over the last decade, especially in sports coverage. Sure, maybe he could've thought about that. but maybe like every human being on the planet he isn't able to be thinking about all things at all times and he just didn't think much of it. Hey, maybe he was frustrated with how poor he and his team were playing, maybe he was preoccupied with some bad news from home, who knows. I think everyone forgets that sportsmen and women are people too, sometimes, and the media feast on it with bull**** moral outrage. If you have the ability to be lost in a moment and distracted by something you did or didn't do, then so does he.

You could say all that in response to someone just complaining about his footballing abilities/contributions too tbf.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

True enough. His job is to play football though, not to think about all of the nuances of how the media might convey something he does at halftime of a huge game. Especially when when the action he's taking is as widespread as it seems to be.

 

[sledger]

True enough. His job is to play football though, not to think about all of the nuances of how the media might convey something he does at halftime of a huge game. Especially when when the action he's taking is as widespread as it seems to be.

High profile jobs carry with them the onus of having your behaviour at all times scrutinised a lot more though. In reality though his job is to play football, scrutiny of his conduct will extent to more than how he well kicks a ball around. Not unlike a politician I suppose. I'm not saying that's right or wrong and so not trying to argue with you, it's just one of those things that happens, and I struggle to believe that he was oblivious to the fact that the media are basically out to get him, and that doing what he did would likely create sensationalist headlines.

 

[Furball]

Granted I've not paid a huge amount of attention to football over the last couple of weeks but pre-game last night is the first time I've noticed Sky sharpening the knives for him.

 

[Uppercut]

High profile jobs carry with them the onus of having your behaviour at all times scrutinised a lot more though. In reality though his job is to play football, scrutiny of his conduct will extent to more than how he well kicks a ball around. Not unlike a politician I suppose. I'm not saying that's right or wrong and so not trying to argue with you, it's just one of those things that happens, and I struggle to believe that he was oblivious to the fact that the media are basically out to get him, and that doing what he did would likely create sensationalist headlines.

I don't think it makes any difference. If he wasn't being criticised for swapping shirts he'd be criticised for something else equally trivial. Because he's playing ****.

Thinking in advance of everything they might be able to moan about, in the hope that you can cut off every angle they might come at you from, won't work. The only way to shut the media up is to stop playing ****.

 

[Cabinet96]

If I were a footballer I would make it my duty to swap shirts with someone every game. Would love to have a great collection of awesome players shirts who I'd played against.

 

[sledger]

I don't think it makes any difference. If he wasn't being criticised for swapping shirts he'd be criticised for something else equally trivial. Because he's playing ****.

Thinking in advance of everything they might be able to moan about, in the hope that you can cut off every angle they might come at you from, won't work. The only way to shut the media up is to stop playing ****.

Yeah, maybe. My point was more that it's unrealistic to expect to be judged exclusively on your footballing contributions. As I said earlier, I'm not attempting to put forward an angle on whether this is right or wrong, but regardless of whether your are playing well or not a footballer's general conduct on the whole will be scrutinised pretty heavily. This is just how it is.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

The Sturridge sized hole is being understated in some cases though, worth saying. Obviously they're a poorer size for the lack of Suarez, but taking Sturridge too has killed them.

Fair comment, last season they were winning despite their defence, this season when goals are harder to come by they look an average side. Take two players who got 50+ goals the previous season between them out of any side in league and they would struggle.