The Football Thread - Season 2013/2014 & World Cup

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We played very well tonight.

But, West Ham had no fight, no desire,nothing. They are in big trouble I think.

And it gives me no pleasure seeing teams, fans, get relegated, it happened to us far too often in the past.
 
Pulis will get Palace out of there, as such, WHU are in big trouble.
 
There is a glimmer for West Ham in that they've been in this position in the past and survived. This time though there seems to be a severe lack of motivation, as if everyone has just stopped to await the return of Andy Carroll, and it might not be enough this time.

A couple of chants from the Etihad tonight:

Manchester City fans singing, “You're going down with United!"

West Ham fans singing, "You're nothing special, we lose every week" :cool:
 
After the Hammers dire display last night I'm really surprised they put out such a weakened team against Forest in the FA cup, they realistically had a better chance of a cup run in that than they do in winning the League cup. However tired the senior players would be after playing on the sunday, to not be up for a 'semi-final' in any cup competition and show more backbone, fight and desire than they did last night is a disgrace to the shirt. I think a change of manager and some new faces this month is the only way that West Ham are going to have a chance of staying up. I wouldn't criticise the decision to field a weakened team in the FA cup if they'd given a real fight of it last night, and Sam Allardyce's decisions would of been vindicated, but to just go out with a wimper like they did I think a new direction is needed.
 
Get sam out now before he destroys our great club there is no passion there he has lost the players confidence bring in someone who will bring that passion back the board need to get real now and listen to the fans yes we have been in this situation before but never this bad so sack sam now and bring in slaven bilic and install Julian dicks as his no 2 .
 
redhed17 said:
I expected some more imaginative. :rolleyes: :LOL:
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I don't know why :thinking: It was probably a liverpool fan that thought it up originally :wave:

Looks very possible that liverpool could drop down to 6th this weekend ... but I'm not going to say with United just behind them.
 
new2me said:
Looks very possible that liverpool could drop down to 6th this weekend ... but I'm not going to say with United just behind them.
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Mathematically possible I suppose but unlikely by the end of the weekend.

I can see Everton beating Norwich and Spurs beating Palace which would put Liverpool down to 6th on Saturday but Liverpool will beat Stoke on Sunday.

PS

ABU - I'm not sure who came up with that. First time I recall hearing it was my mates (Liverpool fans) who referred to themselves as ABUs back in the early 90s.

I guess since then United have been in title races with Leeds, Blackburn, Villa, Newcastle, Arsenal, Chelsea and City and Liverpool fans tend to just hope it's the team other than United that win it.
 
Obviously I don't know it but It's the most likely result.
 
dinners said:
It's the most likely result.
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Pah ... you sound like a pundit! Listening to the likes of talksport, everything seems driven by the stats that the bookies present to them (apart from quinnie who for years predicted United being beaten by everyone .... yeah, he's right this year, but I'm not listening to ya mickey!)
 
Micky Quinn is a true Bitter though ;)

I'm not even a betting man
 
he's a true, bitter ABU, koppite :D
 
I was just meaning Quinny is very bitter lol

Everton are 'The Bitters' but only really from a Liverpool perspective.

City are 'The Bitters' from a United perspective. They're also called 'The Berties' as in Bertie Magoo The Bitter Blue.

City call United 'Rags' and United call Liverpool 'Dippers'

It's all very mature :D
 
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It was awful. And we had played reasonably well too. BUT if you don't score when you're playing well......

Also, how tight is it at the foot of the table - only 6 points separating a lot of teams.

Shaping up for a fascinating few months ahead, top and bottom!
 
Sir SR said:
It was awful. And we had played reasonably well too. BUT if you don't score when you're playing well......

Also, how tight is it at the foot of the table - only 6 points separating a lot of teams.

Shaping up for a fascinating few months ahead, top and bottom!
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As we found out last season, you have to take your opportunities.
 
My prediction for drop.... Fulham, Norwich and then my head says palace but heart wants it to be villa or Cardiff.
 
Shocking decision at the Newcastle v city game, surely the fa need to take action... Like explain the rules to the refs?
 
That penalty looks even worse second time round.

Liverpool looking good, leaky defence.

Chelsea and City looking ominous. Even Torres scored!!

We'll see what arsenal can muster tomorrow!!
 
Sir SR said:
And tiote's non goal was sensational. Shocking decision.
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Yep, awful decision. Almost as bad as leaving Cabaye on the field despite all his post yellow card fouling, and lets not even get started on the Yanga-Mbiwa 'tackle'.

Think its fair to say the ref had a shocker all round and totally lost control of the game. Good to come away with 3 points though, Toon didn't make it easy at all
 
Another shocking decision and another perfectly legal goal disallowed against Citeh (Raheem Sterlings goal for Liverpool on boxing day) and yet no action taken against referees again. I thought last season was bad for poor refereeing but this season has already topped it IMO. They are supposed to be 'professional', it even says it in their employers (PGMOL - Professional Game Match Officials Limited), but if you or I did a job week in week out and kept making the same mistakes we'd be sacked. Instead these guys are 'untouchables' and don't even have to make any explanation for their bad decisions. I know nobody praises them when they make a good decision, but that's what they're paid for, I didn't get praised for making a window correctly in my job and I didn't have anywhere near the amount of training they get.

The poor decisions are ruining what used to be a great game and turning it into a farce. There's no wonder managers criticise the refs but then they get charged by the other group of 'untouchables', the idiots at the FA. We teach our kids to tell the truth all the time, but then they see a manager punished for speaking the truth (Brendan Rogers & David Moyes recently), what sort of example is that to set to kids going into the game. Something really needs to be looked at by the sports ruling bodies otherwise they will end up ruining the game for good. They've bought in retrospective punishment for players caught by the cameras but not the refs, it's about time they did the same for the match officials. For a shocking decision like Newcastles goal the ref and the linesman he consulted, should be banned for 3 matches or so (maybe decided by an independant panel instead of the FA) or a 1 match ban for not sending off a player for an awful tackle (Yanga-Mbiwa or Callum McManaman of Wigan last year or Robert Huth of Stoke for stamping last year etc.) maybe.

These 'bad decisions' can cost clubs millions of pounds and can cost people their jobs, surely something as critical as this needs looking at much sooner rather than later. The fourth official can get TV replays to a monitor in seconds, in the case of a foul while the player is still on the ground in agony or while there's a crowd of players surrounding the ref actually telling him what really happened. Surely it wouldn't take much for the fourth official to tell the ref over his earpiece what happened for definite so he can make a better judgement for the benefit of the game
 
I agree about it being a poor decision but that's all it is - a decision. One person's opinion of an event based soley on what he saw once, from one angle in real time.

Like you say, refs get no praise for all the things they get right but (as with all the players) they're bound to make errors during the course of a match.

I'm all for letting the ref make calls as they see them and accept a degree of wrong decisions.

That said I agree that a quick review and a word in the refs ear should be in place for goals that should / shouldn't have stood. If done correctly nobody would even know whether the ref had been advised or not.
 
Pretty quiet thread these days?


C'mon The REDS!

I feel a thumping coming on this afternoon, but hopefully a nice turnaround on Weds to follow. Well, hopefully, not a thumping this afternoon first, but I know what I mean.
 
It is quiet isn't it

Good fightback from Liverpool yesterday.

Soft penalty but the ref can be forgiven having seen it from the angle he had.

Just about to watch Chelski v United on the telly but I'm not holding out much hope without Rooney or RVP.

Great last gasp win for Norwich yesterday.

Who are you LFC folks backing today ? - A Chelsea win would be bad news in terms of your own ambitions or are you more interested in United being further behind you ?
 
3:0 to Chelski so far - this could end up a cricket score the way United are defending.............
 
dinners said:
Who are you LFC folks backing today ?
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I think since we got rid of joe (or he got rid of himself for professioanl reasons) that the real liverpool fans have lost their voice?!?!?!?!
 
Joe was good for banter - as much ABU as Liverpool but we had some good (if pedantic) discussions.

As for United where do I start. I could write a novel on my opinions but I'm starting to think finishing outside of the top four could be a good thing.
 
When Fergie announced his retirement 10 years ago (or whatever it was) I braced myself for a crap few seasons .... his prolonged success has not only made this 'dip' more difficult, but more alien.

#moyesin

#upyoursliverpool
 
This from an LFC fan, it seems that there's a lot of anti Moyes stuff being flung about from various people but I think Utd had been going downhill for a while, needed rebuilding and Fergie just didn't have it in him. It all seemed so rushed over the announcement of his retirement at the end that, to me at least, something seemed amiss. Maybe fergie couldn't have the money to do it, couldn't be bothered to do it or whatever other reason wasn't up to it but he seemed to take the easy way out and let someone else take the fall. I think fergie had the FA and the refs wrapped around his fingers enough (with the help of ex man utd ceo as chairman of the FA) to gain an extra 10 points a season to start with and now were seeing what they would of been without all the bullying. It's not nice starting out with an even playing field is it.
 
modchild said:
This from an LFC fan, meh ...meh meh meh .... meh meh ...... meyeh meh mmmmmmmm meh.
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I dont really see the point you're trying to put across :D
 
new2me said:
I dont really see the point you're trying to put across :D
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Obviously didn't teach much English in your school then did they, you haven't even been able to use a keyboard properly to quote someone.
 
modchild said:
This from an LFC fan, it seems that there's a lot of anti Moyes stuff being flung about from various people but I think Utd had been going downhill for a while, needed rebuilding and Fergie just didn't have it in him. It all seemed so rushed over the announcement of his retirement at the end that, to me at least, something seemed amiss. Maybe fergie couldn't have the money to do it, couldn't be bothered to do it or whatever other reason wasn't up to it but he seemed to take the easy way out and let someone else take the fall. I think fergie had the FA and the refs wrapped around his fingers enough (with the help of ex man utd ceo as chairman of the FA) to gain an extra 10 points a season to start with and now were seeing what they would of been without all the bullying. It's not nice starting out with an even playing field is it.
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Complete twaddle but there are a few truths in there.

Fergie built many teams over the years so there were inevitably peaks and troughs.

13 titles (or whatever it is) over the last 20 years just shows that somebody else stepped in every 3 or 4 years whilst he rebuilt.

The season before last United were pipped by City, Fergie said that wouldn't happen again under his rule and he was correct. He went and bought RVP, won the title and retired. In my view that was a sticky plaster prior to a much needed rebuild.

Fergie has explained (Cathy his wife etc) why he retired. Everybody knew the team was needing rebuilt but he knew he wasn't going to be around for another 3 or 4 years to do it.

That's where we are now.

I have no opinion of Moyes but his job is to rebuild and I'll judge him on that rather than what he can do with what he's been left.

What I will say about Fergie - he built some fantastic teams over the years but for the last 4 or 5 years he's won titles with 'teams' despite having players that are poor compared to those Chelsea and City have been able to stock pile.
 
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Ferguson wasn't that great when he took over United. Some would argue he was lucky not to be sacked. But he came good in the end.

To talk about him gaining points by bullying refs etc is ridiculous. A slur on their integrity.

Maybe you should be talking about the players who go out of their way to cheat and generally abuse the refs. But of course that's ok. Another great example to kids coming into the game.

He's the best manager you'll ever see in your lifetime.
 
new2me said:
I think since we got rid of joe (or he got rid of himself for professioanl reasons) that the real liverpool fans have lost their voice?!?!?!?!
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I don't know what makes a 'real Liverpool fan' :thinking: but I'm still around. :)

Gaz J said:
He's the best manager you'll ever see in your lifetime.
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Probably will be the best. ;) Time has a tendency to eclipse many records and reputations. It is a huge record breaking history he has left behind, but you never know. ;)
 
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