Firstly, I ruddy hate Barca so forget that malarkey! The media fawning over them makes me sick to my stomach. Secondly, you get nowt for reaching the semis. For me the English domination was a total myth. How many times have they won it in the Premier League years?
I was joking about Barca obviously, but I enjoyed the response I just think anything an English team does gets played down by English people, whereas you'd think we'd all be proud of it. Perfect example Chelsea beat Barca the other night and hardly anyone batted an eyelid, it's all just "They'll get battered at the Nou Camp." I'm not saying you get anything for reaching the semis but the last point I made still stands. This is the worst we've done in Europe in a long while and we still have one of our lesser teams (i.e not as strong as Man U or City) leading against the best team in the world (or at least one of the best). Everyone will go on about teams like Napoli who made it quite far but who beat them? Chelsea. Yet nothing is made of that. Arsenal had a good run but got knocked out by one freak game in which 2 very dodgy goals were scored, if those goals don't go in maybe Arsenal are still in the tournament... I'm not saying England completely own world football, but we don't give ourselves the credit we deserve sometimes and as soon as the opportunity is there to have a moan and say everyone else is better (internationally or in Europe) we'll take it.
I think the point with Naploi was they were refreshing in their approach. They have a comparitively small budget, play wonderful, attacking, expansive football and dont change that for any situation. Some would say its naive and if they had changed they wouldve almost certainly knocked out Chelsea. As for saying Chelsea will get stuffed - not me. Ive said on this board a couple of times I expect them to qualify by losing 2-1 in the return leg.
And yet Keates was an important player that season (before his injury), and Lewis was involved a lot the following season in the statistically better midfields.
Lewis came in towards the end and they moved Green onto the right wing. I know Keates played in the 6.1 win against Kiddiminster. Some great goals in that match !
I said Lewis was a key player in the midfield the following year (ie L1). Green started L1 on the right wing because Price fell out of the team that year. I've done the stats on it before, and when Green was in the middle we got more points per game with Holt on the left than Elliott, which is a startling fact when you consider Elliott basically got us promoted on his own that year.
Elliott did get us promoted. We didn't have an inform striker that year. Didn't we play Lewis up front one match ? Funny because 2 of our strikers then play in the premiership now !
Yeah, Stockport away I think it was. He managed to play four positions that day anyway. It was only his versatility that meant there were enough games to make a statistical thing of the midfield possible. Still seems weird thinking Price/France, Green, Ashbee, Holt got more points per game than Price/France, Green, Ashbee, Elliott.
