Football

well corny, you were right, a week or two back, about bilboa
what a great game last night
2-3-5 when going forward and 5-3-2 when defending
their play was a tad predicable but it worked wonders, pass round midfield while getting your 5 strikers up to the edge of the box choose your moment then rush the keeper dink it over around or between defenders with plenty of men in the box

old fashioned tactics ? trying to work out which generations played 2-3-5 in the past

loved the game especially manure getting beat at home, both on the terraces and on the pitch

Still hope for Suarez

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9128888/Heart-disease-drug-combats-racism.html

Brilliant.

Is it true that in the last 12 months Torres has scored as many goals as he has had managers?

No.

It is also true that Torres has scored more goals against Chelsea than for them. FACT

So, he's the new Michael Duberry?

No.

Has he scored more than 3 goals since March 2011?

So, he's the new Michael Duberry?

Michael Duberry. Now there's a name to conjure with.

Arsenal will sign Lukas Podolski from Cologne for £11m, plus add-ons for any trophies he wins at the club, bringing the deal to around £11m.

Is it true that in the last 12 months Torres has scored as many goals as he has had managers?

it's 1.6 goals per manager

...and each goal has cost them about 2 million in wages and 10 million in transfer fees.

The good news for Chelsea is that... he has not been earning much from goal bonuses.

You also need to factor in the goals he has not scored against Chelsea since joining. I believe he scored six against them at Anfield and a couple at the shit pit. So we can probably average that out to four goals plus the three he has scored in his Chelsea career to date gives him seven goals. So about 7million per goal

Its nice this thread is United in their hatred and it is not directed solely at Liverpool for a change

Arsenal will sign Lukas Podolski from Cologne for £11m, plus add-ons for any trophies he wins at the club, bringing the deal to around £11m.

Shit, you mean we won't make 4th next year? (Any fule kno that "4th in the new trophy" © A. Wenger).

It is also true that Carragher has scored more goals against Liverpool than for them. FACT

well...

Chelsea v Stoke

Weather report now up:

http://www.chelseasupportersgroup.net/2012/03/driver-on-the-wings-weather-for-chelsea-v-stoke/

I was thinking about this last night, with the lack of intelligent comment on Bielsa, during Bilbao's match with utd, apart from the commentator talking about his obsession with football, rather than the pilgrimage that Guardiola made to see him in Argentina and where they sat and talked football for seven odd hours.

Despite statements that the Premiership being the best league in the world, the standard and knowledge in the managers/coaches seems sorely lacking. I think AVB was a victim of his own intelligence and honesty. Not sure if that is a case of there being partisan papers for specific big teams in spain/italy/portugal, but I'm pretty sure managers over here wouldn't be able to get away with saying...

"We worked so hard at this, it was a total victory. My shoes are destroyed: the soles are worn through and they're covered in chalk. My suit is ruined. But I don't care. We can't go around trying to be handsome. Besides, that's what dry cleaners are for – there's a need for employment in Spain, so let them clean it. We played without fear, with effort, with desire. The players are so exhausted they can't even talk; there are stairs going up to the dressing room; they had to haul themselves up them. That is what we must do now."

"We are down the bottom because we should be down at the bottom, this is not a problem that comes from now; it comes from many, many games ago."

-Manolo Jiménez

full article below
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/05/real-zaragoza-sid-lowe-blog

or

"If I lose against Espanyol, maybe they will sack me. If I lose against Levante too, it's possible. And if I lose all of the next three games, I'll shoot myself in the head. But I'm not thinking of losing."

• Manuel Preciado
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jan/30/manolo-preciado-survivor-sporting-gijon
  
  

the press would be all over them, the feeding frenzy would mount and the manager would be ousted sooner than you can say Abramovich. AVB didn't seem to do anything but be honest about his situation, and the players at his disposal. I'm pretty sure he'll have a better career for this experience and as every manager knows, sacking is the rule rather than the exception...

So back to the Bilbao match, rather than give passing mention to Bielsa's eccentricities, maybe a discussion about the attention to detail and his involvement in how to play football,
see below

When he arrived, Bielsa had watched their 38 league games last season, writing all the details on colour-coded spreadsheets. And that really is all the details – he says: "There are 36 different forms of communicating through a pass." He watches thousands of games, building a footballing taxonomy, like some kind of botanist. If a player does something new, he labels and stores it, learning from it. Teaching from it, too. Few are so didactic: he once drew on his shoes to show players exactly which part of their foot to use, wearing them for days after. Video sessions can last five hours and players joke that they do not dare make a mistake lest the green laser rest upon them and Bielsa demand a convincing explanation.

Training is intense, even when Bielsa takes children from the crowd and gets them to deliver instructions for him. Stopwatch in hand, he preaches high pressure, constantly interrupting and demonstrating. Gangs of players sprint from pole to pole, hunting as a coordinated pack, their errors revealed to them on a laptop. There is an almost childish wonder about Pep Guardiola's description of Athletic: "They all run up … and they all run down again. Up, down, up, down, up, down. They're fascinating."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/07/marcelo-bielsa-athletic-bilbao-manchester-united

Maybe when we produce managers one half as intense as Bielsa, we can have conversations/discussions about football, which aren't tabloid headlines, given verbal form... And we'll have coaches who are capable of winning things, whilst producing teams which play with verve and panache as well as bustling industry...

Could you imagine if a coach in England tried to have 5 hour video sessions? He'd last a week.

I got home from West drinks last night to find the Missus going fucking bananas because Bilbao had beaten ManUre.

She was so pleased, bless her.

Could you imagine if a coach in England tried to have 5 hour video sessions? He'd last a week.

rooneys attention wanders after 10 seconds to what old hag he'll be bagging this weekend

Tea bagging.

INot sure if that is a case of there being partisan papers for specific big teams in spain/italy/portugal, but I'm pretty sure managers over here wouldn't be able to get away with saying...

Yeah pretty much, *Marca *which is Spain's biggest selling football paper has a traditional bias towards Real Madrid, as has the other Madrid based publication AS. Mundo Deportivo is a largely pro-Barca publication. That said despite Marca's obvious bias towards Los Meringues I still read it regularly (I am married to a Spaniard and sort of follow her families local team, Malaga).

But back to the overall point of your post I have to agree, plus i have to add that Manuel Preciado is awesome, a real character.

Spanish football is full of characters, more so than English football I think.

My favourite lino is Rafa "no me jodas" Guerrero; the guy has had some excellent quips over the years and if you speak Spanish you'll probably appreciate it a bit more...
Rafa no me jodas!! Lio con el penalti - YouTube

Tickets sorted... Sevilla v Barcelona next weekend..

Looking forward to seeing that little fucker..

Shame I will miss Swansea at home... nevermind eh.