Lifestyle > Sports & Entertainment
The Official Football (Soccer) Thread
bez:
--- Quote from: es-jay on December 20, 2009, 04:04:36 AM ---
--- Quote from: Lil White Azz on December 19, 2009, 10:03:51 AM ---
--- Quote from: Invincible on December 19, 2009, 09:09:06 AM ---
--- Quote from: es-jay on December 19, 2009, 09:04:40 AM ---Fulham are beasts.
--- End quote ---
>:(
--- End quote ---
That match was hard to watch...terrible game :-X
--- End quote ---
united's injury list is laughable. arsenal to win the league.
--- End quote ---
Everton's
Jagielka
Yobo
Phil Neville
Arteta
Anichebe
Distin
Rodwell
Gosling
Just coming back from injury
Yakubu
Osman
Vaughan
Baines
Bilyaletadinov
Nobody can complain about injurys this season when compared to that list.
StreetsAllSalute:
at least our injury problems seem to be clearing up somewhat
Elano:
The king is gone; long live the king. Manchester City supporters may have liked Mark Hughes, but they love their club. They sang Roberto Mancini's name last night as the new manager chalked up another victory and another clean sheet and then set his sights on competing for the Barclays Premier League title.
A fine individual performance from the recalled Craig Bellamy, and two goals from Carlos Tévez, allowed City to move level on points with Aston Villa immediately beneath the top four. But this was City's first away win and, perhaps more tellingly for an Italian manager looking to import his title-winning habits, their first back-to-back clean sheets since August.
Bellamy certainly appeared impressed. "Personally, I had great affection for Mark Hughes, but that's the nature of football," he said. "If I want to carry on at Manchester City, I need to keep producing performances at a very high level. This club is going places and I want to be a part of it."
Wolverhampton Wanderers, after a tough run in which they have also faced Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal, remain above the relegation zone knowing that they played well in the opening half before the class of a £200 million squad capitalised on their breaks. Wolves still have more than enough to retain their Premier League status, however. Their next two league games, against West Ham United and Wigan Athletic, will be crucial as they look to build on three victories in their past six games.
Mancini, needing his blue-and-white scarf in subzero temperatures last night, says he has only worked with his defence for four days, but getting Kolo Touré to preside over clean sheets in successive matches suggests City may have hired a miracle worker. Wolves made the City back line look jittery, particularly when Kevin Doyle got at them, but Touré, in his last game before leaving for the African Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast, and Vincent Kompany just about did enough to earn the blank.
As in Saturday's 2-0 win over Stoke City, Gareth Barry and Nigel de Jong sat in more than was their custom under the previous manager, while the full backs, Micah Richards and Pablo Zabaleta, ventured forward only if they knew they had cover. Javier Garrido, on as a substitute, was granted licence to take the free kick late on that saw off Wolves' spirited challenge. But it was Bellamy, working in tandem with Tévez, who gave City the cutting edge that proved the difference between the teams.
If City are title contenders, then Wolves should consider themselves worthy of a mid-table finish. Notwithstanding their 2-0 defeat away to Liverpool 48 hours earlier, Mick McCarthy's team looked refreshed. Perhaps their manager will only receive half the abuse for making a mere five changes to his outfield selection. But, just as at Old Trafford, when his reserves — sorry, make that his squad alternatives — lasted for half an hour before conceding a goal, they were again undone after suggesting they could conquer superior opponents.
Against Arsenal last month, Wolves had been the better side for half an hour before caving in once the first goal went in. Since then, however, McCarthy's team have won three games and gained the corresponding selfbelief. Playing off the totem pole that is Chris Iwelumo, Andrew Surman could not quite keep his shot down from a promising knockdown. Then Karl Henry sent in a grass-cutter that Shay Given saved on his line.
Having survived such an opening, however, City started making their penetration count, with Bellamy to the fore. His dummy allowed him to spin away from Jody Craddock on the left and when Christophe Berra failed to get tight enough, Tévez scythed in his seventh goal in seven games via a deflection off his would-be marker.
City withstood more pressure from Wolves early in the second half and extended their lead when they benefited from a close offside call.
Bellamy was shown to be the offender in the build-up before a clearance fell for Barry to race forward and draw the foul from Michael Mancienne on the edge of the penalty area. Salt was rubbed into Wolves' wounds when Garrido scored with a brilliant free kick, curled around the wall and into the bottom corner of the net.
Tévez then chipped wide when clean through but made amends when fed by Robinho, donning his gloves for the final freezing minutes. Tévez manoeuvred sufficient space to guide home his twelfth goal of the season.
Mancini maintains that he needs one of his big men — he referred to Benjani Mwaruwari and Roque Santa Cruz rather than Emmanuel Adebayor, who will be in Angola for January — fit to offer the option of playing a target man for Bellamy and Tévez to feed off. "If we don't pass too long and play a shorter-passing game," he said, "I think we can arrive in the top four." Or better.
Adam Donnelly:
Great performance last night
Mancini is the man 8)
KURUPTION-81:
--- Quote from: Adam Donnelly on December 29, 2009, 02:15:03 AM ---Great performance last night
Mancini is the man 8)
--- End quote ---
Im not sure that citys owners think he is the man judging by the talk of him been nothing more than a stop gap till the summer.
He has started well though but it has been a pretty easy couple of games to start with, i would have expected city to beat both Stoke and Wolves if Hughes had still been in charge.
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