football/soccer..anyone?

[Stoneburg]

I don't have any stats to back it up, but here's my analysis based on what I have seen regarding Lampard, Gerrard and Scholes.

First off, I think that Gerrard is by far the better player of the three (and I am a Man U fan). Lampard is good at the short passes and scoring from medium to long distance. I think he's slightly better than Gerrard at scoring from within the box, and that his short passing game is better, other than that, I find that Gerrard out perform him in every way. Gerrard has more pace, higher work rate, more influence on his team mates, better crosses and tackles better. Oh, and Scholes is easily the worst tackler of the bunch.

If they were to play with Lamps + Gerrard again, I agree that the best opition is to have Gerrard play deeper since he is better defensively AND because he has more of a long ball game, and let Lamps play right behind the strikers since he's good at short passes and making runs into the penalty box. However, I think that englands second best central midfielder is Owen Hargreaves and that he should play with Gerrard. A more defensively focused inner midfield and with classical wingers supplying the forwards (as well as Gerrards through balls of course) would fit a Crouch/Roone team best (yes, I would pick those two)

Crouch - Rooney
S.W. Philips - Hargreaves - Gerrard - J. Cole
A. Cole - Ferdinand - Terry - Carragher

That is in my mind what the lineup should look like.


Also, Lampard plays in the second best team in the league and in a tactic that is very focused on the attacking midfielder getting into position to score. He's basically more of a forward and is surrounded by class players. Gerrard tackes a huge defensive responsibility, often carries his team and hasn't got the same support . Although pool is obviously not a bad team, Gerrard is by far their best player, whereas in Chelsea Lamps is maybe top 5. I'd rank at least Drogba, Ballack, Chech and Terry ahead of him.


Ps. I actually rank Gerrard as THE best right wing defender I have ever seen, although that isn't his (normal) position.

[RedBarracuda]

stoney .. stop playing around with Championship Manager..

that said, Gerrard's natural, original, "i grew up to play this" position IS right back....

and you guys didn't convince me that he is better then Lamps but ok, I will accept it for the sake of shutting down the never-ending Lamps-Stevie G. argument... only thing that I will add and repeat is that Gerrard is more of the Essien type of player and not the Lampard type of player..

and yeah... Lampard is obv. underrated..

***

Monk, as for baseball league... I know jack about baseball, so if you want me to sit firmly at the bottom of your league and be the laughing stock for everyone else, PM the info and the link and I'll gladly join...

[Felonius_Monk]

Stoney, I hate Carragher at RB. Neville is soooo much better in that role. I'd rather just pick a natural RB than Carragher; he's no good going forward and doesn't have any pace. Great centre back though.

[Stoneburg]

[Electrolux]

Switching to football that is actually played now. La liga.

Am I the only one that is surprised that neither Barca or Real Madrid took the chance of almost securing the title in the last game? I am out travelling so I actually didn't see the games this weekend, but still that these two great - and experienced - teams couldn't win when it is really needed is odd?

Then it is a bit sad that Messi had to copy Maradona again, with a Hand of God Goal. That guy is so talented.


I was certain a round or so ago that Real would win it, but they failed this round, and now Barca is facing a weak Gimnastic in the last round, and Real is facing Mallorca.

Who'll win?

[MecosKing]

Soccors gayer than this guy....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xm4JMHL4tuE

[NorthView]

Fuck Lamaprd. I've been saying for years that he's overrated. Let's face it, his reputation relies on 2 things alone:

a) meaningless stats that show he runs around a lot and makes more successful short passes than anyone else. Woop woop.

b) goals scored. A very high number of these have been successful potshots from mid to long range from a player enjoying an upswing. In the WC he had something like 18 shots and not a single one on target. Pah.

Drop Lampard, give Hargreaves the defensive mdfielder's role and Gerrard the freedom to control the flow of the game from the centre, and link the play up with Rooney/Owen/whoever.

Of course, this is no more likely to happen now than it was during the reign of The Great Sven.

Fuck Lampard, fuck McClown, fuck England.

[RedBarracuda]

[Felonius_Monk]

[RedBarracuda]

[Felonius_Monk]

[Stoneburg]

Before the "incident" Messi was my favorite player in the Spanish league, now I wouldn't piss on him if his hair was on fire. Absolutely disgraceful. He might as well just start doing coke, get fat and have a heart problem right now.

Although I am not a huge fan of Sven-Göran, I think he's (by far) the best manager England has had in a long time. Venables, Keegan and McStupid are way below him when it comes to both tactical knowledge and handling big stars (I liked Hoddle as a manager but he was obviously shit as a person).

Ronaldo has definetely eased up on the crap. I'd say he's removed 80% or so of it and has become a better player for it (easily the best in the Premiership imo). Sure he dives a lot in the penalty box, but frankly, I expect good players to dive if the chance of them getting a penalty is bigger than the chance of scoring and it's more of a rule than an exception to see them do so (in italy, it IS a rule).

[RedBarracuda]

[Electrolux]

[NorthView]