EPL 2011-2012 Season

Everything else
41

From what I saw and read of the game last night it seemed that Spurs tired badly in midfield. Which is strange, given that Harry Redknapp loves signing new midfielders and has about four hundred loitering around Spurs Lodge at any given moment.

Van der Vaart is a terrific player, but he can be infuriatingly selfish sometimes. He has that unfortunate knack of making himself look like a luxury in tough games.

Phil Jones continues to look very impressive indeed.

There are more pressing concerns, of course; West Ham’s rescheduled League Cup glamour tie with Aldershot tomorrow. Championship life is fun already.

42

Chelsea just look old. I don’t necessarily mean in terms of pure age, but those midfielders are so well known and are nowhere near their best (and haven’t been for some time). Kalou has always been mediocre with a flash of brilliance now and then, Malouda is a slightly upgraded version of Kalou, Essien’s never been the same since repeated knee injuries, and Lampard’s body is finally giving up the ghost.

John Obi Mikel’s starting to shine and the jury is out on Ramirez, but we really do need fresh blood in there. We scare no-one because our play has always been predictable, just physically hard to stop, and that’s no longer the case. Happily with Kalou getting hauled off after half an hour it does look like AVB has some idea of where the problems are. Mata ought to make a big difference, and while Benayoun is probably underplayed, he’s nowhere near as good as Modric so if we get him that’ll be an upgrade.

43

Champions League Group Stage Draw:

Group A: Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli.

Group B: Inter, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor.

Group C: Manchester United, Benfica, FC Basel, Otelul Galati.

Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb.

Group E: Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk.

Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund.

Group G: FC Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St. Petersburg, FC Apoel.

Group H: Barcelona, Milan, FC BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen.

Group A looks fierce.

44

These competitions happen simultaneously with the EPL? That’s wild. I’m craving more analysis, are there meaningful team and player statistics that can be used to evaluate their ‘goodness’ so that I have a clue whether Chelsea has a good chance against these teams?

Back to Chelsea: last game Torres was barely able to touch the ball before being overrun which felt very unsatisfying to watch. I just watched the Man.United vs Tottenham game and it seemed like there was so much more space for players on both sides. I’m wondering if that’s a function of the formations used, or team styles of playing or what.

Every time the camera lands on Wayne Rooney I feel like he’s from another planet, I’m not sure why.

45

Yes they do! A “good” English team could find themselves competing, at one time, in the EPL, in European play, and in both of the domestic cups. Although some effort is put into spacing things out, fixture congestion is a real issue.

(Thus the debate every year about teams fielding a weak squad for a competition they “want” to lose, to free up time to focus on things they judge more important)

I’m craving more analysis, are there meaningful team and player statistics that can be used to evaluate their ‘goodness’ so that I have a clue whether Chelsea has a good chance against these teams?

To a large degree, no, not really one place you can go to get it all laid out. I haven’t had time tonight to look for analysis of the draw, but I’m sure you’ll find some somewhere. The only thing that comes close to having all the numbers in once place are UEFA’s club coefficients, but you need to take them with a grain of salt.

46

All I can say as a Man City supporter about this draw is damn, I hope they buy the best players from Bayern Munich and Villareal before group play begins. Hey, if you’re trying to buy a championship go all in.

47

48

Like when Liverpool won the UEFA Cup, League Cup, FA Cup and placed third in the EPL all in the same season…

49

Can someone explain why there is an FA cup and a League Cup? Seems mostly redundant and doesn’t everyone agree that the FA cup is where it’s at?

50

The League Cup was brought in when teams made their money though the gate (floodlights were new then, and gotta pay for them somehow!), and when the European Cup was in its infancy and there may only be one league team in it. I.E. it was another way to get money, and it’s another entry path to the Uefa Cup/Europa League*. It’s mostly hung around due to inertia and that the lower league teams are still operate on the ‘the gate is most of the budget’ model.

And yeah, you want to win the FA Cup waaaay moreso than the League Cup.

*Stoke are taking it seriously!

51

Someone help me, why is Torres considered an elite striker? I’ve been watching for almost a year now and he hasn’t impressed me once. He just seems lazy out there.

52

Haha, yeah a dancing ogre from the 1950s.

Watching Chelsea/Norwich, I’m looking forward to seeing some younger more energetic players, they’re winning but it’s not pretty.

53

Just turned it on, why in the hell did they add 11 minutes of stoppage time?

54

Damn, that Drogba fall looked ugly. He was clearly unconscious before he even hit the ground. Yeesh!

Chelsea as a whole look rather ordinary so far this year. They don’t seem to have any defensive identity. It doesn’t help that Cech is out. Hilario has looked awful at times in goal today.

55

Drogba was injured and unconscious on the pitch for awhile.

56

Yeah that was a crazy mid-air knockout punch from the keeper, hope he’s ok.

It was good to see Mata and Lukaku out there.

57

To say Bolton gave Man City a very tough game last week, Liverpool have made them look an absolute rabble in this game. Very impressive.

I know it’s no great insight to heap praise on Suarez, but he has been phenomenal. His movement and passing are superb. The ball to Downing with the outside of his boot was exquisite, but he does something equivalently awesome every few minutes. He might not have scored today but he brings so much; every time he gets near the ball it feels like something’s going to happen.

Bolton have been shite, though. It warms the cockles of my heart to watch that miserable, mercenary tit Reo-Coker have a shocker.

58

Holy SHIT was my vocal response to that. I hope he doesn’t have any broken ribs from that fall, not to mention that shot he took.

For those playing any EPL drinking games at home, I hope you’ve got good health insurance (for the record, you’re supposed to drink the entire time the stretcher is on the field; you could have put down a six pack in this game just on that).

59

Possibly apocryphal setup for Suarez from last week:

Daglish: “You’re going to be left out of the lineup this week”

Suarez: “I can play on the left!”

60

Probably because in his first three years at Liverpool he scored 72 goals in all competitions. No doubt he’s gone downhill for whatever reason.