The Official Man Utd & Liverpool plus Chelsea, Everton and City Banter Thread!

Course he could. The only thing on Ronaldo's side was that he was 18 when he joined Utd, whereas Suarez was 24, so it was easier for Ronaldo to avoid forming too strong a diving habit.

In fact, I argued last season that Suarez will need to stop going down so easy all the time if he's to ever realise his potential. Ronaldo and Drogba both dived a lot, but both got very good at recognising when it was better to keep going, even when clipped, to avoid getting a reputation, as well as when they had been clipped but could still keep control of the ball and maintain momentum. Drogba himself said in an interview "I am often fouled, sometimes I dive, sometimes I don't dive". He was castigated for it, but it was part of what made him so good, Ronaldo too.

At the opposite end of the scale, you get someone like Torres now, who would actually rather go down than try to stay on his feet, even when in a great situation. Look at him vs Utd - yes he was clipped by Evans, but if he'd stayed on his feet he would have been in a foot race with Rio, a 33 year old with a back problem, with the goal gaping. Yet he chose to take a tumble when he had the chance to score what could well have been the winning goal.

Suarez hasn't yet developed (or chooses to ignore) a good internal judgement on whether it's better to go down or try to keep going, and until he does that he'll never get fair treatment from refs, and nor will be become anywhere near as good as Ronaldo and Drogba, both of whom scored plenty of goals after being fouled on the way and choosing to carry on.

Seriously? Do tell me more about how West Brom, Sunderland and Stoke are better than Braga. Bearing in mind this is the same Braga who knocked Udinese out of the CL. Yes, the same Udinese who beat you at home....

 

Yep seriously Swarbs, unless of course you can point out the CL 'winners' from Portugal that play and beat teams as good as Chelsea, Utd and Liverpool on a weekly basis?
Celtic deservedly beat Barca last night, are you arguing that the Scottish League is stronger than the Spanish League based on that result?

If you think i'm wrong(which you do)tell me how many of your CL group opponents play against better teams on a weekly basis considering the European Champions, two former European Champions, and a club that reached the CL final play in the Prem?

 

Braga are ****, United are ****, Barcelona are **** and Liverpool are ****!

Who's going to win the football? THE NEVER ENDING FOOTBALL!!!?

 

Sorry Page, but that's a disingenuous comparison. Heck, if you're going on history then there are two former European Champions in the Primiera Liga, as well as two Europa League runners up from the last decade.The PL is not just teams as good as Chelsea and Utd, although there are plenty of teams there who are as good, if not much better, than Liverpool. The point is that, on average, the quality of teams in the CL group stages is higher than that of the the teams in the PL.

Ultimately, when you look at the respective results, you find that Utd, a team who has never finished outside the top three in the history of the PL, has failed to finish in the top half of their CL table on two occasions in the last seven seasons. City who were the best team in the PL last season have failed to qualify for the second season in a row. Liverpool finished in the top half of the PL in 09/10 yet finished in the bottom half of their CL group.

When you look at the tables, the top four or five teams in the PL are about the same quality as the top seed in each CL group, but positions 6-10 in the PL are weaker than the CL number two seeds, and the bottom half of the PL is a lot weaker than the 3rd and 4th seeds in a CL group. So the CL groups are stronger overall.

 

Bottom line Swarbs, apart from the usual European competition qualifiers from the likes of Portugal do you honestly see the rest of their league as good as or better than the non European competition qualifiers from the prem?

 

Ah, I see what you were saying. No, their league is not on average as good as the Prem. But how is that relevant to Utd having more points from four CL games than Liverpool have from nine PL games? Utd haven't been playing non European qualifiers from the Portuguese league.

 

I admire your defence of Utd Swarbs, but seriously our league results this season compared to Utd's CL campaign don't come into it , i'm talking about the league's that your saying are as strong as the Prem, is the Prem a stronger/harder league to compete in compared to the Portuguese league?

You've told us it was easier to win Europe's biggest trophy pre-champions league because of the 'poor'standard of the sides involved yet you don't seem to be prepared to admit some of the dross Utd face in the CL is worse.

 

The whole point is your league results vs ours in the CL - that's what UIR was talking about when he asked the question you replied to!

I already agreed the PL is harder to compete in than the Primiera Liga - I never said otherwise. Are you saying the CL is an easier competition to compete in compared to the Premier League?

And yes, the CL has some dross in it, but that's nothing compared to the level of dross that was in the old format. Remember that the old format had only 32 teams in it, so rather than play six games home and away against a variety of teams, at least one of which are almost guaranteed to come from one of the top five leagues (PL, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal), you got a dead rubber against the champions of Northern Ireland, Finland, Sweden or Luxembourg. Teams that wouldn't even qualify for the last 32 in the current CL format. And if you were really lucky with the draw you could end up facing someone of the quality of Cluj in the second round and the quarter finals, as opposed to ending up facing Chelsea or Real.

 

Nah, the 'whole point is' to big up your easy group opponents, but well done in your attempt to deflect the fact that Utd got the easiest CL group.

 

That was the case in 2005, wasn't it!?

"Winning the CL is just luck and not about quality and consistency like winning the league is"

 

Actually the whole point was to take the piss out of Liverpool for getting fewer points in nine games than we managed in four. But don't let that knock the chip off!!

 

до свидания Ливерпуль
do svidaniya Liverpulʹ

 

Twelve points? Well done, heres your trophy...

[image]http://mods.mybb.com/uploads/previews/55383-1350143882-handled_trophy.jpg[/image]

(yep, fail!)

 

I'd still rather win that than the Carling Cup

P.S. I assume you mean image fail!

 

Nice to see Swarbs is still chatting absolute bollox, in this high-paced world we live in, it is comforting to know some things never change....

 

Neg repped

 

.

 

Suarez rarely dives, he is hacked down by big brute defenders like huth and vidic who can't control his pace and trickery in any other way. All this talk of Suarez being a diver originates from Fergie who clearly sees Suarez as a threat, he knows deep down Lfc are only a couple of players short of challenging and his hateful xenophobic attacks on Suarez are a bitter attempt to suppress our reemergence. But we can see clear signs that Rodgers ideas are starting to take shape, we are only six points of fourth and have an easy run of games. With a couple of strikers sure to join in january fergies worst fears may yet come true........

 

Well I for one am really confused now. I thought that KPR = Bazray = Raheemspeedmachine = Slevin.

Can someone help me out here?

 

Fat bottomed girls, you make the rocking world go round