Perhaps his recent criticisms have been because he wants to join the ref's association and he was asking for their number? He must've lost it after his midweek discussion with their general manager, Mike Riley.
From what we've seen of our main rivals for a top 4 position, so far this season, there seems no reason we can't finish 4th, at least. We certainly appear to be better positioned than Liverpool and the Goons. Top 3 would depend on The Chavs imploding this season.
You're so deluded you should be a Goon supporter. Get real mate - you were outplayed by a better team, and both Red Cards were fully deserved. Oh, by the way, we seemed to get on just fine 11 v 11 at your place just a few short months ago. So, I wouldn't go looking forward to that fixture too much.
Can Arsenal really continue to play this badly though, NSIS? I'd love to believe so, but I think that they'll pick up as the season goes on. Our squad should be a match for them though and they've got the Champions League to worry about, so it's in our hands, injuries permitting. I haven't changed my pre-season opinion of Liverpool. I didn't think that any of their summer signings would get into our first XI and I still don't. Adam for Mereiles was a very poor move, too.
I still rate Suarez despite yesterday. The rest, I agree, you can keep. I know the Goons will improve; however, I believe our current squad is more than a match for anything they've got. It will come down to injuries - and as Luke says - consistency. Well, at least the Goons have been that, so far this season
Perhaps that's what our scouts meant about similarities between Suarez and van der Vaart, Ensil? Both excellent attacking talents, but with a bit of a petulant streak at times. I rate the Uruguayan, but he doesn't seem to play well when he's paired with Carroll. Perhaps it's just the system change?
I've said before Dalglish was not a good appt. He's had his stint there, and walked away from them (alone!), did the same at Blackburn. He's an oddball, don't like him in interview his voice and speech is terrible, sounds like Muttley mumbling away half the time, can't imagine his HT teamtalks at all! I think his whole demeanour is wrong for management myself. His face had 'time to runaway' all over it yesterday, it should also have dawned on him by now that SG is finished, as in being a major contributor to a whole season.
That's a great second XI to have, unlikely they'll all be fit but if they all played versus Stoke we really should beat them. I'm glad we got rid of Crouch and Jenas before the transfer window closed. Even better we added Adebayor and Parker to the squad - a few Spurs fans thought we shouldn't have signed Scott Parker in August but he's a great addition to the squad. I prefer King and Gallas in central defence to King and Kaboul, but it all depends how many games Ledley can play this season.
I don't believe that anyone would play well with Carroll who, in my opinion, wants to be the main man, as he was at Newcastle. He's fat He's round He can't jump off the ground Andy Carroll, Andy Carroll
Arsenal will improve as the season progresses but I do honestly feel Spurs are being underated (good) and Man C. & Chelsea are being overated (Good again) The season has hardly started but I have a sneaky feeling Man C. will not put in the kind of challenge everyone seems to expect. I feel this because Mancini has to leave his comfort zone of defensive football that he has been brought up on. His current squad needs to perform in an attacking mode which they started very well to be fair this season. The CL debut was unimpressive as was the Fulham result. Jol has just arrived but he still had the nouse to get a draw with a team full of far less exhulted players than Man C. As I said before only Man U. are consistantly and truly impressive so far, so all to play for, for the rest.
I disagree, as I'm sure you know, the PL has had many winners that have played defensive football, Spurf. Man City have a great strength in depth in attacking areas but I don't think their overall philosophy has changed drastically. Against us, for example I don't think they over ran us with numbers but the players they did attack with were of top quality and it doesn't help when you defend as badly as we did. There could be problems with players not being happy with the squad rotation, either by not being played much or being dropped after a faultless performance(ala Dzeko) but I still expect them to be up there challenging for the title. I hope I'm wrong, though.
It'll be interesting to see how Mancini deals with the extra games, especially as he's had the cheek to moan about not having enough players already! It'll also be interesting to see what the owners do if City were to have an early Champions League exit. They've got a tough group.
I'm not sure that it was down to Mancini, Lidls. The players seemed to think that they'd already won the game. His first substitution was a little negative, though.
I saw Mancini thinks he's short of midfielders,this i can only see as getting worse with all the games they need to play.In the CL they can't afford to rest many of their best.So it will be interesting to see how they cope.
Hmm, he's got: James Milner, Adam Johnson, Gareth Barry, Samir Nasri, Owen Hargreaves, David Silva, Nigel De Jong, Yaya Toure, Chris Chantler, Jeremy Helan, Abdul Razak, Joan Roman. Compared to our: Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Lennon, Rafael Van Der Vaart, Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar, Danny Rose, Jake Livermore, Sandro, Andros Townsend, Steven Pienaar, Ryan Fredericks, Tommy Carroll, Jake Nicholson, Scott Parker. Not a massive difference there
