just

1. Gullit 2. Jose 3. Neal 4. Vialli 5. McCreadie/Hoddle

Bit perturbed to read that Bobby Campbell sits next to Roman at games! Does this mean if Avram gets the push, Campers gets the job again?

Go'on Jane. Give our boys a cheer and don't take any nonsense from those northern lads. .

You need to take Harry Worley off your list. http://www.myfootballnews.co.uk/news_ju ... ory=807592

Makelele. How does he always make the game look so simple? Pauly?

I have watched football in many countries but I need you to help me. Tonight, watching a totally one sided game, I was a bit bored and distracted but I must admit your fans kept me quite entertained. Amongst them, wearing a red and white shirt like all the rest, was a young chap who appeared to have a big pair of white y-fronts on his head with a pair of industrial ear defenders underneath. He also had a pair of Ali G glasses on. At half-time I got as close as the stewards would allow and took a picture with Geezer's phone. I am intrigued. What is the significance of the pants? Is it a greek tradition for all big matches. The bloke sitting behind me said it meant, "blow the whistle ref. We surrender".

It's from my book Val. "Advanced Football Theory - Volumes 1 - 347" I garauntee anyone who studies it will become a bona fide expert and will even understand those tactical flipchart drawing thingys with the dots and arrows on. Kevin Keegan swears by it.

Get out your text-books. I think I can expand on Pauly's theory with this: General defensive tactics All eleven players on the pitch have a defensive role. Which roles they are assigned, depends on tactics. In principle, there are two ways of defending, zone defense and man-to-man defense. In a zone defense, defensive players mainly move in relation to each other, whereas a man-to-man defense mainly moves in relation to opposing players. Whenever defensive players are given, or give themselves, a larger degree of freedom, hybrids of the two are seen. First, second and third defender The first defender has the main responsibility for what the opponent in possession does, seeking to obstruct dangerous passes. The first seconds after the team has lost the ball are important, as the defending team in these seconds will be poorly organised defensively. Wise first defending will contribute to the defending team managing to organise before the opponents may attack. The first defender should usually be the player closest to the opponent holding possession, but needs to be at the defending side of him in order to do an effective job. He should keep a distance of about 2 metres, although the ideal distance will vary with each situation. The point is to pressure the opponent as much as possible without giving him a large possibility of a dribble. As a dribble isn't as dangerous when the defending team is well organised, the distance may be shorter in these cases. Analogously, the distance should be increased if the defense is poorly organised. In certain cases, the first defender should attempt a tackle. Often, however, this will increase the probability of being dribbled and passed. The direction in which to move towards the opponent with possession of the ball may be the shortest direction. However, it may be of value to curve the defensive run, in order to channel the opponent in a certain direction. If the defensive team is well organised, he should be channeled towards the centre of the pitch. In the case of temporarily poor defensive organisation, however, he should be channeled towards the line. The second defender is for security if the first defender is passed. In that case, he takes over as first defender, and ideally one of the third defenders takes over as second defender. The team should be organised in a manner to make this transition as fast as possible. The typical ideal distance between the second and first defender is about six metres, but this will vary strongly from situation to situation. The most important factor is the opponent's speed. If he's moving fast, the distance should be longer. If he's standing still, the second and first defender may in some cases join forces and work as two first defenders. While the role of first and second defenders are rather similar, the third defenders' role is very different in zone defense and man-to-man defense. Also, their organisation will vary with formation. Pressure lines in zone defense In zone defense, second and third defenders and midfielders are organised in two lines, in the transverse direction of the field, thus organising a defender line and a midfielder line, the midfielder line working as an "outer shield" for the defenders. The lines should be as straight as possible, although the first defender and in some cases the second defender may rush out of it to pressure the opponent with the ball. A straight line of defenders may prevent spaces behind some of them due to the offside rule. Also, even in zone defense, some opponents, for example those moving into dangerous space, may temporarily need to be marked. The man-to-man defense ideology holds that almost all opponents need to be marked at all times, although they will have to keep an eye on zone considerations as well, and usually a sweeper will be given a free defensive role. In practice, however, every defense will be a mix of zone defense and a man-to-man defense, although often with heavy leanings towards one or the other. The number of players in the defender and midfielder lines is given by the number of football formations. Some formations use midfield anchors to stop attacks between the two lines. Attackers usually also play a role in pressurising defenders, in order to give them less time to find good passing alternatives. The lines should be shifted sideways depending where the ball is. The third defenders should keep a sensible distance to each other, depending on the width the opponent's attacking players are distributed in. Depth considerations The distance between the defender line and the midfielder line should be kept constant at about 15 metres. However, the defensive line should back up and thus increase this distance, stand off, when there is no pressure on the opponent in possession, as this increases the possibility of a through ball. With tough pressure on the opponent, the distance may be reduced to below 15 metres. Also, as opponents move in close to the penalty area, the defending team will be forced to move their midfielders ever closer to their defenders. When organised, the defending team will offer no resistance until the attacking team has advanced to a certain height on the pitch. The pressure height, or at which depth the midfielders should start acting as first and second defenders, depends on a lot of factors. For example, as higher pressure is more tiring, it demands players with good stamina. In general, a defensive-minded team will tend to stay lower, thus diminishing defensive risks as opponents get less space. This however, also gives them a longer way to the goal in the event of a break and counter-attack, making the long through ball a typical alternative. Defensive play in man-to-man defense In a man-to-man defense system, a 'sweeper' is a central defender who has a free role, i.e. has not been assigned a player to mark. He sometimes takes up a position slightly behind the other defenders, as his defensive role often is to 'sweep up' any attacks that break through the defence and as such he adds valuable depth to the defensive unit. Usually the sweeper will be the controller of the defence. They will determine where the back line should be at any given time. Zone defense does not require a sweeper role, and as many teams have changed their tactics to this, sweepers are today rare. If you are defending someone, wait for the ball to be passed to them, time your run so that you reach the ball, just as it is about a foot away from the intended receiver. If the person you are playing against is good at soccer (football), they will get their body in the way. If this is the case, give them some room, about a yard, and try to prevent them from turning. Always remain goalside (with yourself closer to the goal than you opponent, so that they can not score. Roman and Avram sit up and pay attention. You better be writing this down. There is a test tonight.

Be great wouldn't it? Having a free hit at players for not giving it 100% or for just being rubbish. Jimmy would have got the bejasus kicked out of him every week.

Pauly this thread proves, once and for all, that you need to find a full-time job more desparately than anyone in the history of mankind. Not a teaching career though.

One thing I've always felt we should adopt from the Italian game is the tradition of hardcore supporters going down the training ground after a particularly bad performance and scaring the crap out of the players/manager/owner. Throwing things at them, doing their cars over, shagging their birds etc. That type of thing.

I fancy Roma in this one simply because of the number of players Real have missing. Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ramos, Metzelder, Sneijder, Saviola, Robben are all supposed to unavailable.

I doubt it was Fyodor who said that. He took us for P.E. Pauly if you're not doing anything could you help me with my astrophysics and advanced calculus homework?

No it would be even worse. Because tonight, unlike then, Lampard, Ballack, Mikel, Drogba and Anelka are all available and Lee Sawyer won't be on the bench for us because of all the players missing.

That felt like being back at school during one of Mrs Mangan's science lessons! When she stopped talking we'd all look blankly at each other for a minute and then Kev Sheedy would put his hand up and say "Miss. Miss, what was that last bit again"? Wasn't it Brian Clough who once famously said something along the lines of ....... "football is a simple game" Only players and coaches make it more difficult than it is" After reading that post Pauly, I think I know what he was getting at!

As Tim says, and rightly so. Olympiacos are the weakest side left in the competition and apparently will have two of their best players missing tonight. Lua Lua and Galletti. Lomana Lua Lua one of their best players!!!!!! Says it all really. If Grant loses tonight, he's as good as gone.

I think Milan were only as good as Le Arse let them be. They were a different class to AC tonight. Totally dominated the game. Fair play to them.

Genius. I love your posts Bonetti. They always make me laugh.

I'm suprised to see that there are still tickets available for this game on general sale !

Jane I have just ordered two tickets for you. Can you PM me please with your address.

Fair point Just, however you could counter that by saying that this meant the players at Chelsea were hungrier for success. Er, and you could counter, counter that by saying Jose got those same players to go out and win it again the very next season!!!!!

Unfortunately, (and as much as I hated to see him go), selling Forssell has proved to have been exactly the right thing to do. JM had good look at him and knew that the knee injuries had been too frequent and too severe. It's been the same at Brum. He's had a hell of a lot of time out through injury and when back has struggled to find form and fitness. Still a class act on his day and one of the most technically accomplished forwards in the EPL.

The perfect hat-trick by the Albino. Left foot, right foot and header. Only truly brilliant strikers get those sort of hat-tricks. Brian M taught us all that. What makes it even better is Tottenham had 11 players on the pitch for Forssell's one.

Chippy, you forget Jose had one mammoth obstacle to overcome. One that no Chelsea manager had been able to overcome for 50 years. The lack of a Title. It was a huge pyschological barrier. I know I never thought I would ever see it achieved during my lifetime. I still felt like that under the management of Claudio, even after the arrival of Roman and all his money. Money alone does not buy you the title. Just ask Newcastle, who were the biggest overall EPL spenders prior to Abramovich's reign. And I know many other fans who felt the same way. There was a distinct lack of belief that we could win the "big one" both within the supporters and the players themselves. Where Ranieri spoke about "building and foundations" and reminded everyone how United and Arsenal were better than us, Mourinho was the complete opposite. He changed the mindset of the fans and the players almost immediately. He made us all believe. That was some feat.

Maybe some of those visitors who made up the 42% were Spurs/Arsenal/Liverplod/ManU fans? I know all those rival fans were happy when Ranieri was in charge and winning nothing.