francozola

must you speak in 3rd person? lol

As an Asian, you are kinda right. Although it's probably 50-50 between Utd and Liverpool. Liverpool have a huge fanbase here, especially among those in their 40s and 50s as they were in their teens or early 20s when Liverpool were the dominant force in England. The younger generation mainly support Utd, unless they have family members that have liverpool ties. And while I don't like the stereotype, I can admit that it's a stereotype for a reason. I'd say about 50-70% of the football watchers here are plastic. They either claim to support a particular team but don't watch the matches at all. They only follow the results and wear Utd/Liverpool jerseys after a big win ( ). And then there are the few that change teams every few years based on who's successful at the moment. However, there are also quite a few loyal fans, that support the clubs through thick and thin. They experience the same emotions that you experience and it's unfair that they (and myself) get lumped into the category of "plastic Asian fan".

I had some trouble after the game - kept getting the server not available message or something. But it didn't last long. I'd refresh a few times and it would work

Perhaps, but also shows that players have stopped listening to their manager and coaches and only play when they feel like it. With these spoilt brats in our squad, the blame shouldn't go completely on the manager.

I agree.... It's too high profile a game to throw him in - particularly since it's the away leg. He should start against Bolton at the weekend though

He's the only one that takes any initiative in games, apart from Mata. The rest are simply going through the motions. Every time he goes forward, he's frantically signalling for someone to make a run. Just shows how static the rest of them are.You know it's a sad state of affairs when your central defender is the one trying to spur the team on and create something. The run yesterday where he jinxed past 3 or 4 players and was making his way towards the penalty area was superb. Managed to get a free-kick in a good position too. This is from weaintgotnohistory about that run: Didn't post that just to hate on Torres but basically most of our players are the same way. They are just so fucking static all the time

There's no chance in hell that Bertrand will play. If Cole isn't fit then Bosingwa will play at LB.

Yeah I guess you're right, but certainly for our older players, this has to be implemented. If Frank can sort his attitude out and accept a lesser role - same with Cole & JT (he's okay for now but let's see how he does next season) - then do we still want to be paying these three guys 150k a week? We can get hungrier and better players to play in their position and save at least half of those wages. They've lost their hunger and it's ridiculous to be paying them those wages when their performances don't even warrant 10k-a-week wages

I thought it was the other way around? Didn't AVB say after the match yesterday that JT is "very doubtful"?

well either one would be good. but Milan possibly have more chance of beating them.

As JT is probably out of this game, I guess we'll see one of the following defenses: Ivanovic - Cahill - Luiz - Cole Or Bosingwa - ivanovic - Luiz - cole Hope it will be the first one. Don't even want to imagine how Bosingwa will deal with Napoli's counters

I think he means that with that midfield which is totally devoid of any creativity whatsoever, Guardiola wouldn't be able to implement his style of football either

By the way, our board really needs to start putting performance bonuses in the players' contracts. Have a base salary of maybe 50-70% of what they earn atm and the rest should all be performance related. The likes of Lampard and Cole who are both probably on 150k atm (?) need to get these bonuses inserted into their contracts for next season (assuming they both improve their attitudes and support the manager, or else they can fuck off). Put both on around 50-60k a week base salary and the remainder will be based on how many appearances they make, assists, goals, clean-sheets, etc etc. Of course, this probably won't be possible as they already have existing contracts and will see no reason to accept the new one. Basically for players that we sign from now on, the board really has to think about doing this. I'm sure there already are such clauses in some of our players' contracts but they're not severe enough and with our board, those bonuses are probably on top of their already ridiculous 100-150k a week salaries. You think most of the current players actually give a shit about the results when they're taking home half a million pounds a month? Performances would improve when the players know that they're not going to earn their full paycheck until they do everything they can to get wins.

lol

Don't bother listening when your manager (i.e. your superior) is giving you instructions

It's great to see him doing well. If he keeps it up and shows consistent ability we can have him as a squad/rotation player next season and hence can save money and spend it in another area!

Delighted he's scored :D

To be honest Birmingham didn't attack on our left side very much. It was mainly Redmond v ivanovic on the right. Was a little disappointed with Bertrand's attacking. He didn't get forward as much as I would have liked. But still a decent appearance and needs to get more game-time

What did you guys think about his attitude? The commentator mentioned his body language when AVB was giving him instructions as he waited to get subbed on and I agree his body language was rubbish. Didn't even acknowledge that he was being spoken to. Fits my impression that he's one of the players causing the most damage in that dressing room atm Also it's funny how people suddenly think he's brilliant and it was scandalous to leave him out of the team today. Yes, he should have started over Meireles but lamps has been poor for a long time now and while he probably would have been better than Raul, I doubt whether he would have made much difference to that performance. That fk at the end was rubbish, too. Drogba would have been the better candidate. Drogba can get them wrong too but lamps has been consistently shit at freekicks for a while now. Anyway, not the best cameo but not the worst either. My point was - I'm not impressed by his body language.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Cahill. Thought he would be an average player but in both appearances so far he's been calm, assured on the ball and made very few mistakes.

Okay agree on most points. Torres probably played as its gonna be his last game for a while. Drogba understandably 'rested' for Napoli. Lukaku was injured I heard??? Meireles is a complete joke I don't get it either. He is awful. Either lampard or Essien should have started in his place. Glad to see he's dumped Bosingwa, now it's time to drop Raul as well.

Thought his substitutions were okay today. Drogba for Torres - no explanation needed. Kalou for mikel also a good change because mikel was shit and Kalou is a better option than Malouda. Mata going off surprised me but I guess he was being rested for Napoli. Anyway I couldn't really see us getting a winner tbh so while controversial I understand why he was taken off

Yeah with Meireles you always feel that he has some ideas but his execution is really poor.

thanks for that. Glad to hear it. But wouldn't be surprised if some plastics had joined in as well.

Alex, don't you agree that these types of woeful performances have been happening since last season under Carlo? Personally I think the AVB hate for this game is harsh. I'm not saying he's faultless, don't get me wrong.