The English Premier League Discussion Thread

[ShiftyPowers]

It's kind of like if I emulated Carl Lewis' long-jump technique. If you compared me to Carl Lewis because we jumped the same, it would be a stupid comparison because he won Olympic Gold and I probably couldn't jump 10 feet.

 

[Mandieta6]

It's not the same, becase you are an average Joe compared to a star athlete, whereas Iniesta is a star athelete and Bannan is an up-and-coming athlete just breaking into the top tier. Iniesta is much, much better than him, but it's completely possible that Bazza could become as good.

Also, your analogy is faulty. Footballers are constantly being compared to each other based on their style of play, it's why you constantly see 'the next ____' comparisons like the one above. I don't get the mockery because the action of the comparison itself is pretty standard (no different than comparing Lukaku to Drogba for example, which isn't a ridiculous comparison to make).

So why is it that you find it so ridiculous?

 

[poet11]

I find the player Bannan impressive. So not British in his play. Tidy passer with good range, good technique and movement. Could be a player but don't know about Iniesta(many consider him to be the second best in the world). Yeah, its no crime to compare them though.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

So why is it that you find it so ridiculous?

If Barry Bannan becomes as good as Iniesta, I will register myself for a gay cam site and touch myself for an audience. Not happening.

 

[Mandieta6]

Why not? What have you seen of Bannan that makes you think that?

You're really just talking out of your ass because you've probably never even heard of Bannan.

And, this is quite meaningless, but I'll say it because FM tends to be not incredibly inaccurate and just to show there are more people who agree, check out Bannan in the demo. He's got good stats for his age, good creativity, passing and technique, good potential, and that's with Villa researcher having admitted that he'll probably get a bump for the pack, since he didn't change anything from when the Leeds researcher had him.

 

[Mandieta6]

Newest rumour is that Redknapp wants to sign Gabby Agbonlahor in January, and I assume if that doesn't take, he'll look to sign him up in the summer. Typical Villa, one star player leaves, another takes a more central role, he shines, and he gets signed. That's, what, just Barry, Milner, Young, Downing, Friedel off the top of my head, then.

Sounds fine to me, I love Gabby, he's good enough to play in Europe and if he comes in I really think that's Spurs' long-running striker problem out of the way. Would mean that they don't need to spend the big bucks on Adebayor, whose worse anyway. He could play as a lone striker with Vaart, in a tandem with Defoe, Pav, or even Ade (playing with Defoe would be no different than Bent, and Ade and Pav wouldn't be too different from Carew and Heskey), or on either wing. Thing is Harry won't play him on the wing probably, but if he does leave for the England job, a manager going with 4-2-3-1 would love Gabby, he can play in 3 positions there.

So, Gabby to Spurs and hopefully push them to CL footie, and the Villa trend to continue with Bannan carrying them in 2012-13 (assuming he doesn't leave in the summer, since in his few appearances he's already been one of their best 3 players every match) and then leaving.

 

[yoyo913]

I predict Bannan will be signed by man utd in the next 1-3 years. Seems like a SAF type of player.

 

[Mandieta6]

He's already interested in him.

 

[1966+2006]

I rate Bannan quite highly, as well. He seems to take over quite a lot of responsibility for his age, as well. I also first came across him on FM and developed a soft spot for him. Hope he does well.
Agbonlahor's an excellent player. He can definitely be useful for a CL. It's crazy that he doesn't get picked for England.

 

[Mandieta6]

Emile Heskey is on at Villa in a central mid role. Interesting.

EDIT: McLeish just shot himself in the foot, although he did have it all against him. Hutton off with injury, and then an inexplicable red to Herd. Stuck Heskey in fron N'Zogbia, moving Bannan to the flank, and without Bannan in the middle (who was later taken off which made things much worse, although he was tired) and no creativity (Heskey and Petrov in the middle) meant they had to play direct, and Brom were well organised.

 

[1966+2006]

Why the hell have they scheduled the Chelsea/Arsenal game at 1.45 CET and the Everton/Utd game at 1 CET? The first Saturday in ages where I can sit back and watch football all day and I have to make a choice or watch two games at once...
On another note, this weekend has some excellent matches

 

[Mandieta6]

Dude, I've pretty much missed the last 4-5 live Chelsea matches. I hate watching ******* replays!

 

[1966+2006]

I enjoy MOTD if I don't know the scores.

 

[ARIAGA II]

Their next few fixtures might overshadow what they've done so far but Newcastle have been pretty good so far..Cabaye and Ba seem like good buys so far.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Everton at St. James' Park doesn't seem like that tough of a game.

 

[1966+2006]

Alcaraz will only get 3 matches for spitting?

 

[ShiftyPowers]

and Spurs are good? really? they've got a few talented players, but Harry's system, just like every 4-4-2 including Man Yoo's is outdated; but unlike Srallex's team, they aren't an effective / last-gasp unit ...

I think I'm going to win this one pretty handily. Spurs have now won 9 of their last 10, losing only on the first 2 match days of the season against the Manchester clubs. Of course, at that point Modric was out or playing half-assed and Adebayor and Parker had not yet arrived. They pretty clearly look like the third best team in England this season as they are only 2 points off Manchester United with a game in hand.

 

[Xifio]

and Spurs are good? really? they've got a few talented players, but Harry's system, just like every 4-4-2 including Man Yoo's is outdated; but unlike Srallex's team, they aren't an effective / last-gasp unit ...

I think I'm going to win this one pretty handily. Spurs have now won 9 of their last 10, losing only on the first 2 match days of the season against the Manchester clubs. Of course, at that point Modric was out or playing half-assed and Adebayor and Parker had not yet arrived. They pretty clearly look like the third best team in England this season as they are only 2 points off Manchester United with a game in hand.

you're leading pretty handily, but there's long way to go yet ... I mean, look who's behind them: Newcastle; would you bet on that lasting all season too?

Spurs have been picking up away wins/points like a proper Champions League team, which has admittedly been impressive ... and good for Raffie going on that record scoring run (though I still hope he falls out completely with Harry and gets picked up by youknowwho in Jan) ... but what can't be neglected is that it's the underachieving/disappointing performances from the likes of Luisito's Pool, AVB's Chelsea, and even the Arse, that is allowing Spurs to be flying so high in the table ... and that's not considering how poor Man Yoo's performances have been ... let's see if Spurs can keep this up going into December, and the second half of the season; I still doubt it ...

 

[ShiftyPowers]

I think you can make a case that Spurs are the most legitimate team of all those you have listed. Chelsea and United have some serious problems like ("I don't know who my first XI are" and "we look horrible when attempting our manager's tactics"), and Pool are clearly not Champions League quality yet with by far their best player Suarez trying to break the record for most shots off target in a season. Arsenal are really just one injury away from plummeting back down the table.

 

[ARIAGA II]

I think their more settled not better than the other teams they are ahead of, Chelsea is going through pretty much the same thing they did last season and will probably get themselves together in time to make the top 4 and Arsenal is still without two key players...I think Spurs are close to the top teams in the league and now that they are out of Europe they'll have less to focus on but I don't think they're the best team aside from the Manchester teams.