yes i believe so, but only one of theyre fulllbacks are given the license to bomb very far forward. usually dani/maicon. they tend to play the 4-2-2-2 system, with two deefensive midfielders and two creative midfielders, out of josue, gilberto silva, felipe melo, hernanes, diego, kaka, robinho, elano blumer and ronaldinho.

i agree, there have been so many other instances of diving that UEFA cannot charge Eduardo unless they intend to make it a precedent and ban all players in similar instances. i think UEFA recognised that it would become a tricky situation and be difficult to maintain consistency, and so did a total about-turn. what a joke. it was clearly a dive- no camera angles could have disproved that, and UEFA are either fooling themselves or lying to save face, i expect the latter. despite it being a dive i do not believe he should have been charged in the first place, obviously because they wouldnt charge other players in less high profile games and so would not have consistency. if they wish to set a precedent, then fine, there always has to be first, and to maintain their credibility they shouldve set the precedent with this incident (despite us all having to put up with those whinging gooners going on and on and on and on…). as it is, they have shown themselves to be a joke of an organisation, or, at the very least, they have made a massive error in judgement.

yeah for sure, i think that was a massive factor in his outrageous sum for johnson, needed someone to fly up and down the touchline.

please, arsenal are far from angels themselves. all you arsenal fans wouldnt be condemning rvp had it been the other way around- another clear indicator of how ridiculously blinkered and hypocritical everything to do with arsenal is.

looked like adebayor tried to stomp his hand and missed after that sliding challenge, one of many during the game, i probably wouldve lashed out too.

i hate adebayor, hes a classless prick, but i hate van persie even more. wish his head came off.

i agree with sports stars starting too early. robbie fowler, michael owen, harry kewell.. all injury prone because of being teenage whiz-kids, brought to the top level too early.

he definitely had an attitude from what i heard. a good dribbler but he tended to hold onto the ball longer than was needed and couldnt cross. benitez was looking for width and he didnt give them any.

very arguable isn’t it. is the point of this article just that england look good under capello?

yeah its definitely been harsh. if it turns out shes a man, or a hermaphrodite as they’re saying now, is that not a gross invasion of her privacy?

hmm. interesting. obviously australian managers arent up to the standard of european ones, but im not sure if its the fact that they cant manage that is making for bad games. many managers just play a very compact, defensive type of game.
lawrie mckinna’s mariners tend to just hoof it up field whereas adelaide tend to sit back in their own third then counter through dodd and the strikers. i think they do this because it is effective and theyre playing for results, not because the coaches arent any good.
not sure i agree with you but i thinkyou are right about the quality o our managers.

wayne of whatsit:
a team does not necessarily need a big target man to be successful. obviously, it helps to have a different set of options up front but as we saw with man u in 07-08 when they used rooney,ronaldo and tevez up front its not necessary if you have a good enough manager to make them play a system to suit the players.
maradona has little experience excpet for a (failed) stint at boca, and even as a player he wasn’t an organiser or tactician, he played by instinct and feeling. this may be a reason he is unable to effectively organise a team.
also, guardiola was brought up both playing and coaching the youth team in the style of play barca use, making it much easier for him to step in and take charge of the side.

a team does not necessarily need a big target man to be successful. obviously, it helps to have a different set of options up front but as we saw with man u in 07-08 when they used rooney,ronaldo and tevez up front its not necessary if you have a good enough manager to make them play a system to suit the players.
maradona has little experience excpet for a (failed) stint at boca, and even as a player he wasn’t an organiser or tactician, he played by instinct and feeling. this may be a reason he is unable to effectively organise a team.
also, guardiola was brought up both playing and coaching the style of play barca use, making it much easier for him to step in and take chare of the side.

does anyone have any idea of the formation twente use and where carney will fit into it?? fullback/left mid?

im not sure if he will fit in to the system.. obviously melbourne play narrow and he’s a wide player, but could he really be a direct replacement for allsopp? i dont know if kruse has the strength or the finishing to play as a striker next to archie.. he’ll certainly be different to allsopp.

good move for him though, a change of scenery might be good for him.

andyroo, didnt they push hard to sign leijer with muscat’s retirement in mind next year?

aren’t we all lookin for a striker.. or at least one that scores goals for us.
i think south africa need more than a striker if they are to do anything in the world cup. doubt if they would have qualified had they not been host.

absolutely absurd. he signs a contract for that amount of time so he should honour it. noone forced him to sign anything. only footballers get this kind of treatment- if they don’t get things exactly as they like then the are supposedly being harshly treated. the petulence of ronaldo and the stupidity of blatter know no bounds.
ill be a slave for 100 grand a week.

i think there will be a lot of blurred lines during the game in regards to who is flyhalf and who is second five. i imagine they will switch constantly, which will help disorient the springboks defensive line.

Nonu is still yet to convince me. no13 is the cornerstone of the defensive line, the easiest place for opposing backlines to find space and break the line, and i’m not sure if Nonu has the composure or the ability to read the game well enough to warrant his place there. he is an electrifying runner with raw power and flair, but i think his tendency to tackle high and rush up out of the line could provide an outlet for the boks to attack..

good luck to him. he’s served them well. hopefully this will give merrick a chance to try a different combination, as the thompson-allsopp partnership has been together since 2005. perhaps nathan elasi getting a run?

this idea’s been around for a while, and i can’t really see any negatives to the idea, obviously the poms and boks won’t like it. this i can assume because they tend to disagree with any rule changes. i say yes, give it a go, why not?

one thing you said i would like to comment on though:

“Of course, we can’t change the value of the penalty goal or the field goal. It’s too drastic and simply encourages infringements, because two points, or even one, is not penalty enough.”

i can’t entirely agree with this. perhaps players will be slightly more likely to purposely infringe, or make a ‘professional foul’, but then you could argue that by penalties being worth less a questionable refereeing decision has less effect on the game. i think it would all balance itself out.
we saw this problem with the short-arm part of the ELVs; players were purposely infringing because they knew the opposition couldnt take three points, but i don’t think changing the points system would be half as bad as that was.

oh, i wouldnt necessarily agree with that.. he was all over him.

neill is not average fisher price: you are a goose, but i think going to atletico is not as good a move as it would first appear. their defence last year was woeful and neill is just a direct replacement for johnny heitinga, they havent added much, so i think their defence will still be suspect.
however, the experience neill will pick up by playing football on the continent can only be advantageous for the socceroos, after all those years in england, it will be beneficial for our captain to be exposed to a different brand o football.

was stankovic not captain for a time? funny for him not to get a spot, although i wouldnt drop cambiasso or sneijder for many players. maybe gerrard.

and zanetti is never played as a fullback anymore.. maicon has that spot cemented, he’s considered one of the best fullbacks around..

and yes. i think it was for the best that you didn’t pick up pirlo. however, i think chelsea do need a deep-lying ball-playing midfielder, lampard could but plays too high up the pitch now.. Deco maybe to fill this role? you’d hope so as there will be no more signings..
i still think chelsea will seal the title this year, which annoys me.

manny edmonds.. some might not know him but he was an electric fly-half, a bit like benji. He didn’t seem to care for tactics or set plays, just played by instinct. could be brilliant or woeful.

sorry rugby fans but i gotta put some weight behind diego maradona. the ultimate flawed genius. how he isn’t number one is beyond me.

also, i wouldn’t agree that campo was a good first reciever( im not sure if this was said tongue in cheek or not).. in fact i would downright disagree. he was just such a brilliant talent he could run it from anywhere on the field.

messi would be in any other team that didn’t have xavi, iniesta henry and alves..

why has maradona not been mentioned? he practically won the serie-A all by himself.. he carried napoli the way no player has since, although arguments could be made for gerrard. lets not forget he carried that team for a long time before torres. 2005 champs league final? that whole tournament he was outstanding. also watch the FA cup final in 06- ‘Gerrard’s Final’.

also, henry was quite a presence for the invincibles arsenal team- him drifting in from the left or going one-on-one with keepers was magical, he worked that narrow highbury pitch to perfection and i dont think arsenal would have been the same without him and vieira.

can’t blame him for that art..

i was under the impression that franck ribery was being played through the middle, not as a winger? admittedly i dont watch a lot of german football but from wha i’ve been reading ribery is unhappy with Van Gaal because of this. by bringing in arjen robben to fill the let wing role that ribery wants, i think it will put the icing on the cake for ribery to move elsewhere. im almost positive. he clearly wants to go and as we’ve seen with cristiano ronaldo and joleon lescott, if a player really wants to leave there’s not much stopping him. anyone feel free to argue as im far from the expert.

also, just a little thing, patrick vieira hardly ever plays in the starting line-up anymore. wont it be javier zanetti next to cambiasso and sneijder, or even stankovic? and i thought that mourinho was using a diamond formation lately.. again, feel free to argue.

as for huntelaar, i think he will fit wonderfully into the milan set up. ronaldinho hasn’t much pace but can pick a pass like a master, and huntelaar’s awareness and ability to put it in the back of the net will work well i should think. huntelaar’s lack of pace will be compensated by pato’s electric feet, and also the game in italy is much more tactical, with players spending more time on the ball thant\, say, english football. all this points to him fitting in well at Milan i should think.

get some posts happening people, i wanna know what everyone else thinks.