nogs

Whatever the pro's or con's of a salary cap something has to change. before Jimmy Hill in the 60s players had no power whatsoever and were treated like cattle by very wealthy clubs, scrapping the salary cap then was a necessity. Now it has swung completely the other way and players are holding clubs, and to an extent the entire foundation of professional football, to ransom in the pursuit of obscene, investment-banker type wages. We've seen in the past week in Rooney, the supposed darling and saviour of English football, that actually the game has created a monster, a greedy, fickle, disloyal, arrogant ego on legs who is manipulated and controlled by an even greedier, arrogant, manipulative wanker. The Times apparently broke Rooney's new salary package down the other day and worked out that it will take the revenue from the first 6,000 people into Old Trafford every other week to pay Rooney's wages - the idea of handing that much power over an international institution to a petulant, immature 25-year-old with a penchant for expensive hookers, and a fat vacuum cleaner salesman from Warrington, is pretty ridiculous. It's not about a restraint of trade - players are now being paid above the value they bring to the game, above what the market can sustain in the long-term, and that will cause massive problems down the line.

That was quite a finish....hopefully will have taken something out of them .

 

Coleman and Neville/Hibbo will have their work cut out dealing with Bale .

Could be cracking battle between Coleman and Bale, how many people can I dribble past in one match.

Think forcing Bale onto the back foot could be our only answer, don't fancy hibbo or Neville up against him on current form, need a performance from Seamus like his sub cameo against them last season.

Perhaps more worrying, are we gonna be able to field anything like a midfield?

So Gillett and Hicks have moved to sack the CEO and commercial director, thus effectively blocking the take-over deal with the Red Sox owner, and the board have had to refer it to solicitors to sort out - is there any realistic chance of that being sorted out by next Friday's loan deadline? Do lawyers move that quickly?! If I was a Liverpool fan i'd be bricking it coz RBS might now take the view that the only sensible way of getting their money without Gillett and Hicks interfering is by putting the club into administration and selling to the new American guy themselves.

Could be an interesting atmosphere at the derby - RS fans finally have promise of new owners but at expense of having nine points deducted the day before!

Wasn't it the other way round? First derby at Goodison where we played them off the park and the second derby at Anfield with the Carragher tackle?

Quite probably, my memory is appalling at the best of times and I couldn't be bothered checking my facts

I just hope we try and play football against them and don't get drawn into the horrible scrap that was the Goodison derby last year - they knew we'd played them off the park at Anfield and Carraghers horrible tackle on Piennar early at Goodison was calculated to stop that happening again by turning it into a bloodbath. And it worked. I'm sure where they are now they'll try for same tactics again (just like we used to!), we're the better footballing side now, let's aim to move the ball quickly, keep possession and play with some width to expose their full-backs. Let them lose their cool, they'll get players sent off, creating more space for us to murder them in the final third (its gotta happen at some point this season, surely!)

2-0 us, Cahill and Felli

Get in! Rode our luck a bit but great win. Great work by Baines for second

arghhh stream gone, any others?

Cancel that, it's back

Well if our players can't score might as well get theirs to do job for us

Christ we couldnt buy a goal, how did Yak miss?!

any links to this?

Links anyone?

The whole thing about us performing best under Moyes when we've got our backs to the wall and are underdogs is getting very very tiresome - why do we have to be utter shite before we get good again? We have to face facts - Moyes does not prepare his players properly in pre-season, with a fully fit squad he doesnt know what his best 11 is and when things are going badly he is utterly inept tactically, he has no plan B. Coming out fighting is all well and good - I want them to start looking like a well-drilled unit that can do the basics of defending adeptly, keeping possession and creating and finishing chances, all in the same game, for a full 90 minutes. And considering how long most of this squad has been together, there really is no excuse for how poor they've been so far this season.

My team would be:

 

---------Howard

Coleman Jags Heits Baines

----------Felli

Billy----Arteta----Pienaar

-----Cahill----Yak

 

I'd go with this. Our attacking play has been so lopsided down the left so far this season Moyes simply has to try something different to the Ossie-Hibbo combo down the right, it just offers nothing. Osman tries hard but is woefully out of position, and while I think Hibbo has actually played pretty well this season, Coleman's pace, directness and crossing ability mark him out as the one player in the squad who can do the Baines job down the right. It's not like he's going to get exposed defensively against any world-class flying wingers in the squad - go on Moyes, grow a pair and give him a full 90. I think his pace and mobility could be a good foil for Bily too.

Unfortunately I fully expect Distin to keep his place, especially as Moyes will be concerned by Carroll's height. I think Jags and Heits would be able to handle him fine but Moyes tends to not drop players on the back of one bad performance. The problem is if Distin plays it means either dropping heitinga or moving him into midfield, possibly at the expense of the Yak with another no-striker 11 starting.

I'm going for 2-0 us, The Yak and Cahill

I was already writing my blistering critical analysis when Cahill scored.... who cares about the poor defending, lack of pace and lack of imagination up front, that was absolutely incredible, get the fuck in!!! I feel giddy

Fuck off Distin you slow shithouse, no where near good enough to be first choice.

And Moyes can fuck off too - shit defence, no ideas up front, no clue how to change things. Bollocks.

struggling to score + shit defence = big trouble

Garbage defending again, what's gone wrong at the back this season?

YESSS!!! Come on, after I thought they'd scored too!

Any links? Iraq goals gone already

Yawn, here we go again, a few bad results and it's back to the tired old "Kenwright's taken us as far as he can" argument.

Let's get one thing straight. The poor start to the season is nothing to do with Kenwright, lack of money or not making any big-name signings over the summer. It's a pattern we've repeated nearly every year under Moyes and one I personally put down to poor preparation on his part. Yes it's frustrating, but come December/January we'll be right back up there competing for the European places and turning over pretty much all comers at Goodison. Let's face it, we absolutely dominated Villa, are side who have in the past few years spent a hell of a lot more than us, it was just one of those days. We all know we'll come good again.

What I'd like to know from all the people who are preoccupied with cash and marquee signings is this - do you not think this is the best squad of players we've had in 25 years? As the only honest answer is 'yes', i can't see what more we could ask for. Yes football finance has gone insane, but it is not sustainable. Not everyone can have a super rich benefactor like Chelsea and Man City, the sort of cash they have does buy success but it also distorts everything. Suddenly the kind of investment put into Man Utd and Liverpool looks small fry, the clubs are leveraging huge debts to try to compete with the sheiks and oligarchs and quite frankly risking the long-term stability of the clubs. Any kind of investment bar our own multi-billionaire sugar daddy (unrealistic) would still leave us frustrated at not being able to compete at the top end of the transfer market, and would risk over-strecthing ourselves trying to do.

I think we're the envy of lots of clubs in the Prem. Yes we're short of money, but still we're up there competing, we've got a model that works, a talented, youthful squad, and we play good football. So I say well done Kenwright, long may it continue, and I'm sure we'll reap the benefits when others come unstuck chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Internet's down at home so i've had to wait til I got back to work to vent my frustration. Has a team ever dominated possession in a match so much and looked less likely to score? Apart from Pienaar hitting the bar and Jags messing up a free header, we looked utterly impotent from start to finish. It's all very well Moyes getting the team to pass in pretty little triangles, but unless we can score goals it's pretty fucking pointless. I'm sorry but Beckford looked a million miles from premiership standard on Sunday, Saha just doesn't look hungry and Yakubu must be absolutely dreadful in training if he can't get a look in the way we've started this season. And it would help if we could elarn to defend as well, Villa looked dangerous every time they broke, no one tracked Young for the goal and we just look like a mistake waiting to happen.

Once again we start the season like a bunch of clowns, except this time we haven't got 11 first team players out injured to blame. Moyes has to shoulder the blame for this, the preparation of the team in close season is clearly not up to scratch, and his team choices/substitutions are quite frankly bizarre. Three games into the season and already playing catch-up, so much all the pre-season hype!

Surely Moyes has got to realise after Wednesday the difference pace made in the form of Coleman, Gueye, Beckford and Rodwell. If he reverts back to Cahill, Hibbert, Neville and Saha AND we don't win, he's gonna come in for some serious stick and rightly so. But we know he's a man who sticks by his convictions and has faith in his senior players, i hope the repay him Sunday coz we've got some younger lads in the squad now who really look up for booting the old guard out of the picture.

Team I'd go with:

Howard

Coleman Heits Jags Baines

Fellaini

Bily Arteta Rodwell Pienaar

Beckford

Saha to come on for Beckford if he's not looking sharp or as a second striker if we're losing, Osman/Cahill to come on for Bily with Rodwell switching to the right, Gueye for Pienaar if he looks like he can't be arsed again.

To be fair I think they only call him that because there was a King Loius and he was French. If there was a King Yakubu from Nigeria, I think you might see the same nickname...

I always thought it was a reference to the ape king out of the Jungle Book

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/everton-fc/everton-fc-news//tm_headline=everton-fc-boss-david-moyes-admits-he-is-still-searching-for-the-right-blend-as-pressure-begins-to-build%26method=full%26objectid=27116283%26siteid=92534-name_page.html

"Still trying to find the right blend?" Sorry Moyes but that's a load of bollocks. It's not like you've made wholesale changes to the squad over the summer, there is something seriously wrong if you don't know your best team by now. I'm starting to wonder if Moyes is only any good when his back is against the wall and he can rely mainly on his motivational skills. When all the pieces are in place to have a really good start to the season he suddenly looks vulnerable, and saying he's 'looking for the right blend' two games into a Premiership campaign just suggests to me his preparation is flawed. Still sure we'll start winning games and have a decent season but it's a pretty woeful start once again, Moyes has got to take the blame for that.

Another physical long ball team who will get men behind the ball and try to hit us on the counter - please god Moyes don't even try and play them at their own game, we haven't got the players to go that way like we did in 2005, we'll get found out like we did at Blackburn and just look stupid. Rodwell and Coleman for me are definite starters, we were crying out for pace and energy at Ewood Park, I'd stick with Saha up front for now as Beckford didn't do anything to merit a start and the Yak looks enormous again, Heits in for Distin so we can start playing some football on the deck from the back, and I think Gueye should be given a run out as a sub, he's a bit of an unknown quantity and looks pacy and direct.