World Football Thread XVIII: The Beckham has Landed

[Imran Siddiqui]

Sorry, I was directing my comments to EIF. I know you were saddened by lack of activity.

[*End Is Forever*]

Surely it's your fault for putting the prat in the title in the first place.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It was the biggest story at the time, BY FAR. And he deserved it.... well as much as any English player really deserves anything .

[*End Is Forever*]

It was a big story in HEAT magazine. In footballing terms it barely merits a mention.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
The fact that you couldn't get to 500 posts quick enough is your fault, not mine .

Well if you and Aggie actually rose to the challenge of our mocking of your crappy team (Latest being Barton under arrest AGAIN, while on bail this time) then we'd have reached 500+ posts in no time flat...

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by *End Is Forever*
It was a big story in HEAT magazine. In footballing terms it barely merits a mention.

Victoria's breast-spillage in her outfit for the girls' reuinion was bigger news.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well if you and Aggie actually rose to the challenge of our mocking of your crappy team

I seem to note that West Ham is not much higher than Newcastle in the table .

Oh, and Beckham's transfer was huge news in American soccer and promotion of the game to another potential massive market. Stop being so Eurocentric .

[notyoueither]

Eurocentric?

They **** bricks when an EPL team has no Englishmen.

Beckham to them is like Brett Favre deciding he prefers Aussie rules.

[Cort Haus]

Eduardo
West Ham

"We. Are. Top of the league, say we are top of the league!"

In other news - the barcodes were unlucky in that outrageous decision to allow the chelsea goal. How much did Roman pay that official?

[Krill]

RIP Phil O'Donnell

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Well if you and Aggie actually rose to the challenge of our mocking of your crappy team

I seem to note that West Ham is not much higher than Newcastle in the table .

+2 league places with a game in hand, I suppose not.

But in the last few days we've beaten Man Utd knocking them off top, whereas your sorry-arsed team has lost to Wigan boosting them out of relegation...

And Cort, get it right:

West Ham

Cos without our win, you'd only be second...

[Imran Siddiqui]

in the last few days we've beaten Man Utd

Even ugly men get laid.

Hell, I suppose you'd be living proof of that.

[notyoueither]

That's a burn.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by CerberusIV

Do they have another game against Sunderland? - if so they could lose that one too.

I doubt it. We hardly ever lose against the Mackems. I don't think they've beaten us at Roker/Stadium of ****e for years. Managers and tactics don't usually matter in those games: it's pure fan fueled hate.

The only manager who's had any influence in that fixture was Gullit who caused a loss by starting Shearer and Ferguson on the bench. That's the only game we've lost to the Mackems in recent memory.

I don't think anyone could have predicted how bad Allardyce was going to be. He actually started by making some reasonable signings (Beye in particular is better than anyone we've had at that position).

Fans also applauded him for finally buying decent centre halves. I don't think anyone realized that he'd play all four of them at once.

And that's the problem. He's got a reasonably good squad, some of which he inherited, some of which he bought. But he insists on playing players out of position.

For example: Over the last couple of seasons Charles N'Zogbia has developed into one of the finest attacking midfielders in the league. He's an absolute menace and more than a replacement for the departed Laurent Robert. Allardyce has utilized N'Zogbia by placing him in the outfield position furthest from the opposition goal, which has restricted his forward play. So instead of half a dozen dazzling runs and crosses a game, we'll get one (like yesterday). Allardyce seems to think he's a defender, which he isn't. Hence we concede a lot of goals because N'Zogbia fails to track the guy he's marking. Not that marking is any good under Allardyce (how many times was Alex unmarked at set pieces yesterday).

In addition, James Milner has made a name for himself at Newcastle. So Allardyce plays him on the wrong side of the field, where he can't cross effectively and has to cut in to make things happen. But we play Butt and some other grinder in midfield, which frees up the opposition to put two guys on Milner down the flank.

Obafemi Martins is a reasonably good forward with electric pace, who works best when balls are played from central midfield for him to run on to. Allardyce won't play midfielders who do that, and often plays Martins on the right wing, where he does nothing except look more pissed off.

Instead of playing Milner on the right, Allardyce has taken to playing Geremi, who's hopeless there. Geremi also takes the corners, and he hasn't delivered a decent one yet.

I have no idea what is wrong with Allardyce. He can't seem to play players in their correct position. Everyone in the park knows this except him. Roeder was a better manager. He had a terrible injury crisis, but at least his sides looked like they were playing to the same plan. Allardyce seems to have given all the players a different game plan.

The only good thing about this season is that we've finally gotten rid of Fat Fred.


BTW Mobius, how are you enjoying Nobby Solano? The Toon were really sad to see him go, and he'll get a huge cheer next time you visit St James's. Class player and a great guy to boot.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Krill
RIP Phil O'Donnell