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Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:It's lack of nous, Ted. The gradual dumbing-down of football knowledge in this country by hiring ex-players of certain clubs rather than people who can give genuine insight.

I've found Quasi to be quite sharp in that respect in recent years though. I think it's gone right downhill now that Carragher (who adds absolutely nothing whatsoever imo) is there. Sky want to be more ragpool friendly & have ruined the post match as a result.

It's also a lot to do with that in general punditry has gone a lot more towards the 'angst' angle - drives me mad. All we see these days is ex-scousers moaning about this, that and them. It's all so negative and miserable. Pay attention to it next time you watch a game, on any channel, and you'll notice the pundits within a minute end up with upwards inflections in their voices as they exasperatedly try and pinpoint why shit defender that we all know is shit is still shit... it's a result of Hansen and Lawrenson's misery of the past countless years no doubt. It's like the default punditry button is set to 'angry' and 'frustrated'.

I quite enjoyed watching Henry at the world cup as he was just purring over the forward play. More of that would be nice.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:It's lack of nous, Ted. The gradual dumbing-down of football knowledge in this country by hiring ex-players of certain clubs rather than people who can give genuine insight.

I've found Quasi to be quite sharp in that respect in recent years though. I think it's gone right downhill now that Carragher (who adds absolutely nothing whatsoever imo) is there. Sky want to be more ragpool friendly & have ruined the post match as a result.

Did you see it last week where Carragher was trying to lecture Neville on how easy it is to play wing-back? Despite ya know, having no experience of it compared to Neville who has shit loads.. frustration in Neville's face was a picture.

I wouldn't say that it was a lack of nous, as I thought Neville & Carragher made reasonable points on the subjects they chose to examine. Unfortunately, only about 5% of it was about City, when Neville highlighted how a back four is supposed to move compared to the utter dross Liverpool served up. Maybe it's because I haven't been around 'back in the day', but I've heard much worse punditry. At least they tell it how it is: they absolutely mullered Lovren, obvious or not.

I remember a blue pointing out on some forum or other that he had watched the City v Villa game (when Balotelli scored that sort of overhead kick after getting annoyed with the Villa fans) on Dutch TV. The point he made was that whilst on Match of the Day it was an opportunity for the pundits to talk about Mad Mario getting angry, on Dutch TV the pundits talked about the skill involved in scoring the goal. We're sold short in this country as far as football punditry goes.

Loveren is yet another 'ballplaying' defender. If they watched the cunt last season, even vs Liverpool, he was fucking useless then as well. I wonder if all the talk was about Loveren, when Liverpool beat them 3-0, last season because it fucking was in my house.

They made the point, then made it again, then made the same point about it happening v Southampton last week, with replays, then made it some more.

An interesting point may have been to superimpose Fernando into Liverpool's back line: hey presto, no gap.

Rioja is too. There's a utube of him playing the ball out of play with his left foot behind his right foot inside his penalty area in the World Cup. Don't know what Butthead would make of that.

twosips wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:It's lack of nous, Ted. The gradual dumbing-down of football knowledge in this country by hiring ex-players of certain clubs rather than people who can give genuine insight.

I've found Quasi to be quite sharp in that respect in recent years though. I think it's gone right downhill now that Carragher (who adds absolutely nothing whatsoever imo) is there. Sky want to be more ragpool friendly & have ruined the post match as a result.

Did you see it last week where Carragher was trying to lecture Neville on how easy it is to play wing-back? Despite ya know, having no experience of it compared to Neville who has shit loads.. frustration in Neville's face was a picture.

i thought Neville's head was going to explode. Without any sense of angst i love listening to him. He's a fantastic pundit who constantly backs up his perspectives with great examples and solid logic. I wish we could have snared him on the NBC US programs. He's the kind of commentator that say NFL fans are used to...in terms of ex-player/detailed analysis and dissection of the game. Too much credence is given to the same set of tits who have nothing to offer but superficial ass kissing combined with a Baroque manner of speaking in what is ultimately just good old fashioned English provincialness....which is fucking tiresome.

Back to the topic, Fernando was everything you could want from a holding mid last night.

PeterParker wrote:The only bone i have to pick with him is that his offensive support will be very low, but that is how we is.

Great player, looks like he played for years here.

He really does look like he's been here for years doesn't he? Full credit to Pellegrini for playing him every possible minute during preseason.

I you like to see him and other brazilian start with yaya in front with one striker.

It would be interesting to see some of the different posibilities with Yaya. But as an alternative to Yaya, away in europe for instance, hows about a counter attacking:


................................Aguero..........................

....................Silva.................Jovetic..................
...........Dinho........Fernando........Milner........
Kolarov......Mangala........Kompany.......Sagna

getdressedmctavish wrote:Back to the topic, Fernando was everything you could want from a holding mid last night.

Think your being a bit harsh there, he did a lot more. There was one stage late in second half just after they scored where we lost the ball in their box and they countered, he absolutely bust a gut to get back and in a few seconds he was in the middle of the centre backs facing up to the ball, Haven t seen anyone tracking back like it for a while. In fact in the last two games thanks to him we had three centre backs on several occasions when they were needed. .

On a side note i hope we don't burn him out. Or I hope the others just don't get a bit lazy and leave him to do it all.

This guy is really impressing me now

Check out these stats

City would not have been able to perform anywhere near their best had it not been for Fernando, whose pass accuracy of 96.83% was outstanding, and whose 74 touches of the ball were rarely wasted.

Excellent!!

Really really hurts the side when he plays. his inability to pick a pass is an issue…and even when he passes sideways or backwards he often gives the ball away.

(i know the post directly above mine applauds his pass accuracy earlier in the season but who cares if you have 100% pass completion if they're all backwards. it kills momentum and attacks)


At Chelsea id like to see Frank and Fernandinho in CM

he's just a shite de Jong

but no way fat frank should start v chelsea away imo. five in the middle, make it difficult for them and hope to nick it somehow.

He would be great in a side where you play 4-3-3 and have two attack minded players infront of him. Imagine 2 Yaya playing just infront of him. He would easily slot into the Arsenal team instead of Flamini since they play Ramsey and Ozil in the center infront.
He is useless in a 4-4-2.

I thought fernandinho was even worse today. They were both shit though

Just got back from the match. I think it's harsh to pick Fernando out for criticism. I thought he did okay breaking up some attacks from Arsenal and didn't give the ball away anymore than any of the other players.

Have we still not got over de Jong and people are still pretending he was brilliant? De Jong wasn't a good player. He was a loveable character but as a football player he was really limited.

Mase wrote:JHave we still not got over de Jong and people are still pretending he was brilliant? De Jong wasn't a good player. He was a loveable character but as a football player he was really limited.

and Fernando is more expansive?