I was exactly the same, it was mertins who was on the stretcher when I flicked over to the game. Was a worry.

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, this is what Aldrige actually said:

 

"Gone are the days when every player wanted to sign for Liverpool given the chance.

"Chelsea and Arsenal are both regular Champions League competitiors, can pay phenomenal wages – but most importantly for some players are based in the capital city.

"I don’t know if that’s why Diego Costa decided to join Chelsea rather than come to Liverpool when he had the chance a couple of years ago – but I would love to see him in a red shirt.

"I’m old fashioned when it comes to strikers and I love to see centre-forwards who are a real pain to play against, who give defenders hell all match and, of course, who can finish.

"Costa will get his fair share of red cards I’m sure, but that will be outweighed by the number of matches he wins for Chelsea with his attitude, his aggression – and his goals.

"We need more players of his calibre at Anfield."

 

 

Not qute what the Daily Star would have you believe. But then this is what we've come to expect.

 

Aldrige might (did I sat might?) be a twat and a half, but there's very little to take issue with in the above. Aldridge being Aldrige, he still manages to contradict himself, by saying that he doesn't know why Costa chose to sign for Chelsea rather than Liverpool. Chelsea are a London team, Chelsea can offer regular Champions League football, Chelsea have the financial pull.

 

By saying "Gone are the days when every player wanted to sign for Liverpool given the chance" Aldridge comes as close as he's ever likely to come to acknowledging that Liverpool are no longer a top team.

 

Ignore the crap about Liverpool trying to sign Costa though. That was never going to happen.

 

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, this is what Aldrige actually said:

 

 

Not qute what the Daily Star would have you believe. But then this is what we've come to expect.

 

Aldrige might (did I sat might?) be a twat and a half, but there's very little to take issue with in the above. Aldridge being Aldrige, he still manages to contradict himself, by saying that he doesn't know why Costa chose to sign for Chelsea rather than Liverpool. Chelsea are a London team, Chelsea can offer regular Champions League football, Chelsea have the financial pull.

 

By saying "Gone are the days when every player wanted to sign for Liverpool given the chance" Aldridge comes as close as he's ever likely to come to acknowledging that Liverpool are no longer a top team.

 

Ignore the crap about Liverpool trying to sign Costa though. That was never going to happen.

 

I read that and all I saw was, Chelsea are sh*t, Chelsea are sh*t and Chelsea are sh*t. 

 

 Sorry mate

 

And he has only just realised this? God they were outside the top 4 for 4-5 running years? I dread to think how many they will be out for now if United get stronger. 

Can only get better :)

I was exactly the same, it was mertins who was on the stretcher when I flicked over to the game. Was a worry.

Mertens had only just been subbed on as well. Hope he has a speedy recovery.

Lets only hope, I don't know why I used the words 'dread to think' I think that I could happily generate a thought of them sinking into the blue square premier league any day. 

 

I can't believe how bad Balotelli has been, always rated him, still do, I don't necessarily like him for obvious reasons. But the sitters he missed I just didn't expect that to happen, thank god we got Costa instead of him. My uncle who has been a Liverpool fan for about 40 years now even said he wants him gone already and he never gives up hope that easily, you can tell Balotelli is that type of guy that actually believes he is doing well and working hard, he's like on a completely different wavelength still it seems. 

 

He will probably never reach his full potential, I don't know what top club would go in for him now if he left Liverpool, PSG on the off chance should they want a back up for Cavani when Ibra is gone. 

Nice little article on The Guardian about the death of the "fox in the box" style centre forward an observation I made myself last season... but I don't write for The Guardian so no one listened to me.

 

 

Poor Lukas Podolski. World Cup winner, in the centurion’s club of international caps, possessor of a left-footed shot powerful enough to smash through a pile of bricks like a footballing superpower, cult hero for his affable humour on social media … Yet all is not well in the world of Poldi.

 

The man with a heavyweight 121 appearances for Germany (before his 30th birthday) is struggling to play enough football to bring him fulfilment. “I’ve had to wrap myself up warm in my winter coat with my hat and scarf on to watch the others playing,” he laments. The Podolski question has come up over the international break as Joachim Löw noted the difficulties that come with irregular football. In order to find the rhythm and sharpness to be effective he needs games, said the Germany coach.

 

“At the moment you have to say, unfortunately, he hasn’t had that in almost half a year. Ultimately we need to consider, and he also, what happens in the next year for him,” Löw added.

 

“He is not for sale and there is no offer,” replied Arsène Wenger. It is a conundrum for Podolski, who is not the kind of person content merely to pick up a handsome salary. He really wants to play more football. But how?

 

Podolski’s problem, arguably, is that he has no obvious position that fits in with the way so many modern teams play. That’s certainly the case at Arsenal. Wenger dislikes playing him at centre forward because he does not have the physical qualities to lead the line solo. He does not trust him as a winger either, with the discipline ideally required in that role. A generation ago, as part of an old-fashioned front two, lurking to unleash one of his thunder-blasters after a striking partner teed him up? Now that would have been perfect.

 

It is not just a problem for him. Roberto Soldado is another centre forward who has become lost because he doesn’t have a very workable role for Tottenham. These strikers – not robust enough to play alone up front, yet denied the chance to be half of a front-two partnership – are suffering because they have become square pegs for round holes at their clubs.

 

It makes you wonder how some of the top-pedigree forwards from even one generation ago would have managed in today’s game. Michael Owen on his own up front? Filippo Inzaghi? Raúl even – the record scorer of Champions League goals until two phenomenal maestros in the shape of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi came along – was wonderfully effective in tandem with Fernando Morientes or the Brazilian Ronaldo. But by himself? A wiry player known more for his instincts than his muscle? It is hard to say. Would a Raúl, Owen or Inzaghi have been shoved out wide, where they would never be as productive and would struggle to offer defensive cover?

 

With so many teams building their teams around one central striker – often as part of a front three – the expectancy is for that man in the middle to be an imposing specimen. The prototype is a Robert Lewandowski, a Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a Karim Benzema (whom Real Madrid put considerable work into bulking up and giving the positional power to play the role he now does with such aplomb).

 

Even the smaller, stockier players who excel in that role mix their supreme skill with fiery toughness and physical resilience, in the mould of Diego Costa, Luis Suárez or Sergio Agüero. As Wenger argued recently, it seems not to be a coincidence that South America is the prime producer of striking talent that plays with a burning compulsion to score regardless of sometimes being on the short side. (Agüero usually plays with a partner, too, which helps to bring the best out of him.)

 

Gary Lineker, a classic box player who worked best when he was paired with an attacker with a different and complementary skill-set, suggests it seems to be an imperative now to have more strength than he had. “The physicality of players means they are getting bigger and stronger and better trained, with better diet anyway,” he says. “They do a lot more physical weight training. When I first started playing we were warned off weight-training. They said you would get too bulky and immobile, which is a nonsense. I’m slightly irritated by that as I think I would have been a much better player if I was stronger. I was sometimes knocked off the ball a bit.“

 

If you are just going to be a box player now and not contribute and not hold the ball up and be very strong, to play up front on your own is actually quite difficult.

 

“There are plenty of examples of players who can play that way. Alexis Sánchez is an interesting one because he is not really a striker but he probably could be. But you’d wonder about losing other attributes because he’s good at running at players.

 

“That’s more of an emergence. These diminutive, stocky, strong players who can run at people but who don’t actually like being the front man because a lot of the time when you are playing up front on your own you have to play with your back to goal. It is interesting how players have developed. A lot of players like those roles where they can run in. I see Daniel Sturridge as one of those who can play up front on his own and score a lot of goals in the box. He’s an obvious example.”

 

While Lineker worked with a more authentic targetman in Graeme Sharp at Everton or Alan Smith at Leicester, interestingly his favourite spell came playing with Peter Beardsley, who gave him the freedom of the box. “I used to particularly enjoy playing with Beardsley because he didn’t like going in the box much,” says Lineker. “He used to do all sorts of brilliant work outside it and was hugely creative and unselfish. I used to like the box to myself. A lot of players don’t actually know how to play in the box and get in your way. The less players of your own team you have in the box, the more space there is.”

 

If you are an aspiring footballer growing up and you happen to be small, predatory, a slimline bundle of striking talent, it must be harder than ever to work out quite where you fit into modern football. The fox in the box is an endangered species.

I love how he groups Benzema with Ibrahimovic and refers to Costa as a smaller, stockier player.

I love how he groups Benzema with Ibrahimovic and refers to Costa as a smaller, stockier player.

 

Yeah I'm not sure that 6ft 1" counts as "small". 

If Costa is small then most of us must be dwarves

Goalkeeper sent off for patting opponents bum. 

 

 

The game on 12 October between Real Sociedad and Marathon was level at 1-1 when the referee awarded Real their second penalty of the match and sent off the Marathon keeper Junior Morales for innocuously patting an opponent on the behind as he left the penalty box.

Luka Modric ruled out for 3 months after tearing his thigh muscle in Croatia's game against Italy at the weekend. 

 

Massive loss that for Madrid, he's been fantastic for Madrid the last couple of years. 

 

I assume that Isco will drop deeper and Bale will reclaim his place in the side? 

Big blow but they aren’t short of option at least for them.

Like you say Isco could drop deeper or they have guys like Khedira (more defensive I guess) who could come in. Bale will almost certainly get his place back now.

Any of our players playing tonight or tomorrow?

Time for Illarramendi to step up?

Nice little article on The Guardian about the death of the "fox in the box" style centre forward an observation I made myself last season... but I don't write for The Guardian so no one listened to me.

 

Load of bollocks in my opinion, he even mentions himself that the likes of Aguero, Suarez and Sturridge are hardly big bruising centre forwards, and for that matter neither are Messi, Tevez, Van Persie, Rooney, Cavani or Welbeck.

Any of our players playing tonight or tomorrow?

 

No idea why friendlies are being played in the middle of the season, makes absolutely zero sense to me. 

 

Cahill might turn out for England tonight. 

Matic and Ivan could play for Serbia against Greece. 

Brazil play Austria so I assume run outs for a few of our lads in that one. 

Has Dave been called up for Spain? If so they play tonight. 

Zouma could get a run out for France.... Not sure if Remy was called up. 

 

 

So all things considered it's not too bad, it helps that Fabregas, Costa and Schurrle weren't called up and the likes of Terry and Drogba are retired from internal duty which means that if worst came to worst we would still have quite a few players who haven't played in the last 2 weeks and should hopefully be fresh for the WBA game.

Load of bollocks in my opinion, he even mentions himself that the likes of Aguero, Suarez and Sturridge are hardly big bruising centre forwards, and for that matter neither are Messi, Tevez, Van Persie, Rooney, Cavani or Welbeck.

 

But none of those strikers you mentioned are an old fashioned goal hanger.... A player who like, for example, Jimmy Floydd Hasselbaink contributed little or nothing unless it was in or around the penalty area. 

 

For the most part, what it means to play up front has evolved and as odd as it sounds it's no longer enough to just score goals. 

But none of those strikers you mentioned are an old fashioned goal hanger.... A player who like, for example, Jimmy Floydd Hasselbaink contributed little or nothing unless it was in or around the penalty area. 

 

For the most part, what it means to play up front has evolved and as odd as it sounds it's no longer enough to just score goals. 

 

I think you're completely right, and presumably it is a natural consequence of the general shift towards one-striker formations which has taken hold across Europe.

 

When England were struggling to cobble together a shot on target against Slovenia, I was thinking that ten years ago we would have had loads of 'poacher' options to bring on when we desperately needed a goal: Michael Owen, Jermain Defoe, Kevin Phillips, even bloody Vassell! Now the closest thing we really have is Daniel Sturridge...

I think you're completely right, and presumably it is a natural consequence of the general shift towards one-striker formations which has taken hold across Europe.

 

When England were struggling to cobble together a shot on target against Slovenia, I was thinking that ten years ago we would have had loads of 'poacher' options to bring on when we desperately needed a goal: Michael Owen, Jermain Defoe, Kevin Phillips, even bloody Vassell! Now the closest thing we really have is Daniel Sturridge...

 

Maybe the closest thing we have now is Andy Carroll who is a bit of an old fashioned target man.

 

Not necessarily going to score you goals but it's something to at which is a rather dated approach in top level football but 10+ years ago it was pretty common to  have a "big man" to play it up to the likes of Duncan Ferguson, Niall Quinn and Chris Sutton spring to mind.

 

Quite interesting to think how much football has evolved in a relatively short space of time. 

Great....Philip Lahm is out for 3 months with a broken ankle.

Great....Philip Lahm is out for 3 months with a broken ankle.

 

Bloody hell mate, you don't have much luck when it comes to injuries. Your defence (and possibly midfield) is going to be bare. How many players do you have out now? 

Bloody hell mate, you don't have much luck when it comes to injuries. Your defence (and possibly midfield) is going to be bare. How many players do you have out now?

Martinez, Thiago, Badstuber, Alaba, Reina, NEUER, and now Lahm. Luckily Bastian has returned to training but he is most likely a couple weeks away from being fully match fit.

Neuer as well?! I didn't know your first and second choice keepers were injured; that is bleak. 

Even with all those injuries I expect Bayern to grab the title fairly easy yet again.

If Wolfsburg manage to get ahead I'm sure Bayern will just buy their top player(s) in januari and all will be good in Beieren. 

Edited November 18, 201411 yr by CFCholland

I suppose it is better to have those injuries now for Bayern than have them in the later stages of the Champions League when it really matters. Because that would just be Champions League blown out of the water again, something which should really matter to Bayern right now. 

 

Like for me, I am more focused on the league, if we do well in the Champions League and we are sitting in the Semis or the quarters with a good chance then hey I think I'll get enthusiastic. Right now though I just want that title back, it seems like it has been forever since we last won it.