World Football Thread V

[lightblue]

To be honest Essien is a very good, borderline world second XI midfielder in my opinion. If you look at him in the Premiership matches (not seen any Chelsea CL matches) he's a destructive offensive force who is also very strong in the challenge. He's also built like a brick ****house, he runs through people. Couple of years under Mourinho and he'd be at least as influential in the Premiership as Vieira was, and one could argue that in a team not contaning Lampard and Makelele as well his work would be much more noticed.

[Kropotkin]

I agree with that. Essien was the best Chelsea midfielder in the CL game against Liverpool in my opinion. He contributed more than both Makelele and Lampard, neither got up to their usual high standard. He was hard for the reds to stop, and they ended up fouling him a number of time.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Crap... another 0-0 tie.

The biggest story was Chelsea's 4-1 win over Liverpool. They can do it in the Premier League, but not in European Competitions for some reason.

[MikeH]

4 assists for Drogba who was absolutely fantastic. Anyway, nice of the Chelsea team to back up my points so emphatically.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/4298298.stm

[Joe Kick Ass]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Crap... another 0-0 tie.

Tie? Tie?


On the topic of boring boring Chelsea, it's probably worth asking why it's Chelsea who were deemed boring in the press, having scored 14 (and now 18) to their opposition's 3 (and now 4) goals this Premiership season.

It's obviously got very little to do with the actual football.

[Maquiladora]

You can still be boring and score lots of goals, although i dont agree that Chelsea are boring myself.

The press are obviously calling them boring because theyre making the title race boring.

[Joe Kick Ass]

Hmm...I'm not sure I agree on either point.

While games can be entertaining without goals, I think goals are inherently entertaining. I think that to score 2.5 goals a game you must make a number of good chances every game - three, four, and more. IMO, if you can score 2.5 goals a game - or four as was the case yesterday - you've done your job offensively. I think the stats alone vindicate Mr Mourinho.

With regards to the second point: these criticisms surfaced long before Chelsea even ascended to the top of the league. Long before either success or even this system came. It's just typical tabloid talk.

[Cort Haus]

It's true that it is not only goals that make games entertaining. Ball-to-feet play is better on the eye than hoofing it, and stats published in one of the papers recently showed that Chelsea keep it on the deck as much as Arsenal, but Liverpool are basically hoofers.

So Chelsea's 'long pass' rep is undeserved. The reason why they're not percieved to be as entertaining as some of the Man Utd and Arsenal teams that have headed the pile in recent years is because they play 'safety first', rather than the more daring attacking play that those Fergie & Wenger teams used. They have sheer quality to deploy when the disciplined patience opens up a gap in the opposition, rather than regularly throwing men forward (Man Utd) or one-touch passing into the net (Arsenal). Both of these approaches are fun to watch, but dangerous for losing possesion.

The Italian game has long been defence-based (is it called Cattanacio or something?) which has a reputation for dullness over here but is considered an art form in Italy.

Finally, let's not forget that a great goalkeeping display can keep the score down but the entertainment high. Birmingham nearly got a nil-nil thanks to superb keeping on Sunday, but the game wasn't short of enterainment.

[MikeH]

Yes, I don't understand why people think you have to defend badly to have interesting football. Defending well is, I think, just as interesting.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by reds4ever


I think the Premiership game is more important, i think either side couild afford a loss and a draw against the other in the CL and still qualify out of the group!

[MikeH]

Ah, Liverpool Legend Alan Hansen speaks sense:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4304652.stm

And I didn't know it was Liverpool's biggest defeat at Anfield for 36 years!!

Where is reds today?

[alva]

He is awfully quiet isn't he.

Cort

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by alva
He is awfully quiet isn't he.

Cort

Some of us have to go to work for a living you know?

Anyway I've always said the Champions League game was the more important fixture!

[MikeH]

[reds4ever]

http://tinyurl.com/eyv8o

Watch till the very end, the last trick is a cracker.