English (and other British lower league) Football Discussion
Chelsea thread
Great first half against the Arse this morning netting 2 goals (Mata, Lamps penalty)
Stoked to take 3 points from Arsenal at home, hopefully we'll put in more performances like the first half at home for the remainder of the season.
2nd half was a bit wobbly, and Torres stayed on for 80mins - again.
Even with his aerodynamic new haircut and serious-face, he couldn't provide for us.
Ba subbed on in the last 10mins and looked exciting. Vermalen did extremely well to block Ba's shot at goal after darting around the keeper.
I'm struggling to understand some of Rafa's decisions:
1) starting Torres and keeping him on for 80mins after at least 2 fumbles that should've otherwise been goals
2) swapping Oscar for Bertrand. I understand he wanted a stronger defensive element up front with Bertrand, but Oscar was doing really well at keeping/retrieving the ball and Mata was sitting on a yellow card. Would've thought Bertrand for Mata would make more sense?
3) Subbing Hazard off for Marko Marin in the last 3 mins of the game. Just brought on Bertrand for defence in the midfield, then subs a strong creative midfielder, for a small lightweight midfielder who has had stuff all game time (I like what I've seen of Marin, but I think Hazard is stronger on the ball).
Reading, Newcastle and Wigan coming up in the league - hoping that the team is good and settled and can pick up max points before Man City away.
League Cup second leg match at The Liberty on Thursday morning, need at least 2-0 to get through.
FA Cup match away at Brentford on Monday.
Good chance to repair the season
Latest tehTrunkTV jappery:
"Phoenix till they lose"
Posting 97% bollox, 8% lies and 3.658% genuine opinion.
Genuine opinion: FTFFA
Capital One Cup game v Swansea on TAB Watch and Bet tomorrow morning 8:45am
Bradford are through to the final.
Swansea are really up for it, defending really well. Still 0-0 at half time. We need at least 2 goals in the second half to make up for the 2-0 loss in the first leg. Then into extra time, once extra time has been completed the Away goals rule applies
Has Hazard been rooming with Terry or Cole? Or a menage a trois between the lot of 'em?
Classless.
How old is Leggy? Is he 12 or 72?
wow. Hazards red card bound to stir up a media flurry. I dont think kicking the ball out from underneath the ball-boy was the best option (even though he smothered it for ages, deliberatley slowing down play).
Well played by Swansea, really wanted it more than us. Best of luck in the final.
Our fomation/tactics weren't working, it took Rafa until the last 10-15mins of normal time to decide making some subs would be a good idea. I can understand bringing on Torres for more of an attacking threat (in theory), but to swap arguably the world's best left-back in Cole for another who has played maybe 4-5 games all season (Bertrand) doesn't make sense. Like for like subs again when we really needed at least 2 goals.
Another example highlighting the need to get rid of Benitez asap.
Full respect to Swansea, they were the better team in both legs.
ballboy is a twat - not sure he kicked the kid or the ball. but that kids just destroyed his chance as a pro
Hazard gets the ball, but probably scuffs the village idiot in doing so.
Should've called the official over rather than kicking the ball out. I hope the FA doesn't get stupid on us.
Bloody dizzying ride this blue roller coaster
From Kings of Europe and FA Cup holders, to missing out on:
*Community Shield
*UEFA Super Cup
*Club World Cup
*Captial One Cup
*kicked out of the Champions League (being the only team in the history of the competition to fail to qualify through the group stages after winning the competition in the previous year)
*Sacking a living Chelsea legend and appointing the old enemy who has slagged off Chelsea as a club, its fans, and players
*Looking likely to show Lampard the door after 194 goals (from midfield!!) and amazing service for the club.
*Fans turning against the club
The board need their heads checked, or kicked in.
Rumblings are that Jose Mourinho is set for a return to Stamford Bridge, I really hope that's the case but I'm not sure if The Special One and Roman's egos will allow it.
In a perfect world we would get Mourinho, keep Super Frank, retain the FA Cup, keep 3rd in the league, and go on to be the only club to win the Europa League the season after winning the Champions League - whoop-whoop.
In other news, sounds like we've signed Beckham's 14 year old son to our academy.
It'll be the standard three match ban I'd imagine. Can't see that being overturned.
https://twitter.com/SwanseasBallBoy
Already LOL
Yellow Fever - Misery loves company
http://www.talksport.co.uk/radioplayer/live/
Not sure if talkshite is available outside of the UK but it's amazing for lols right now as apologists phone in to defend Hazard!
For anyone who hasn't seen it yet:
they removed the video but managed to find gifs from both angles:
And this tweet from the ballboys twitter account prior to the game:
Apparantley the ballboy met Hazard in the changing room after the match, they have both apologised.
Stupid move kicking the ball out, disgraceful move for the ball boy to be time wasting
Stupid move kicking the ball out, disgraceful move for the ball boy to be time wasting
The ballboys always waste time if it benefits the home team, nothing new there, goalkeepers do the same thing. Players dont normally kick the ballboy though...
Wouldn't be surprised if he got more than a 3 match ban for that
Stupid move kicking the ball out, disgraceful move for the ball boy to be time wasting
It may not have been the wise thing to do by Hazard but that dick of a ballboy got what he deserved.
hazard got what he deserved more like it - well he will if they extend his ban hopefully
Stupid move kicking the ball out, disgraceful move for the ball boy to be time wasting
Stupid move kicking the ball out, disgraceful move for the ball boy to be time wasting
Stupid move kicking the ball out, disgraceful move for the ball boy to be time wasting
Hazard was really stupid and will receive a ban. What the kid did was pathetic.
*snigger*
"Phoenix till they lose"
Posting 97% bollox, 8% lies and 3.658% genuine opinion.
Genuine opinion: FTFFA
Stupid move kicking the ball out, disgraceful move for the ball boy to be time wasting
regardless of fault or whatever, the kid, who has revealed he was told to waste time should never have been in the position he was - all over the ball. However the footballer - who is a pro, a grown man, should as said somewhere called the officials into it. All Hazard has done is manage to waste further time, get himself sent off and make the kid a hero. Whether he kicked at the ball or not, someone was on the ball and therefore he attacked the person. If this was in the tunnels it would be deemed assault - 3 match ban for the red card, sack the kid (who really cares what happens to him) - the big issue which the UEFA will sweep under the carpet is the directive to time waste from Swansea officials.
Queenslander 3x a year.
That's exactly right. As I said, he was really stupid. But that behavior from ball boys cannot be allowed to continue, you see it every now and again... although I have never seen it quite as blatantly obvious as that before. The ball boy shouldn't just be sacked, he should be banned from playing or attending any football match for a few months.
That's exactly right. As I said, he was really stupid. But that behavior from ball boys cannot be allowed to continue, you see it every now and again... although I have never seen it quite as blatantly obvious as that before. The ball boy shouldn't just be sacked, he should be banned from playing or attending any football match for a few months.
He should be banned from playing or attending? Because he tried to slow the game down? Seems over the top.
I greatly enjoy seeing the Chavs suffer, but that young man should have some form of 'corrective discipline' - totally not football that behaviour.
"Phoenix till they lose"
Posting 97% bollox, 8% lies and 3.658% genuine opinion.
Genuine opinion: FTFFA