manc-mag

It's only forward passes that count for anything at the end of the day though (and incisive ones at that). It was frustrating, but it was a training game from them at the same time. I'm not knocking them-they're punching above their weight-but as the saying goes the hardest thing is putting the ball in the back of the net and that wasnt even on the radar for them yesterday.

Physio Room has him out until the 21st (Colo). It also shows us as having more injuries than any other prem team. Given the depth (or lack of) of our squad, it makes our progression this season all the more remarkable. Well managed iyam. Always billed as an "opportunity for the squad player to come in and stake their claim" rather than blatantly feeling sorry for ourselves and whining about 'bad luck'. They've responded to that and we've always bounced back from defeat (even heavy defeats) well. I think that's one of the definite good points about having a manager who's come in knowing he's not going to have an awful lot to spend. He knows his first thoughts will have to be who in the squad he can turn to, rather than feeling sorry for himself that he can't just buy a replacement, and so he'll be bigging up the squad player all the time. We all know the score on the finances (broadly speaking) and we all know we're not going to go spend the same as eg Liverpool, so theres a lot that we appreciate that doesnt need explaining to us as fans. Nobody wants to hear excuses, just a credible way forward given the reality of our situation in the context of the league in 2012.

Anyway everyone's a token Mackem for the day today. I hope theres a few Mags on their board wishing them good luck against Spurs as the emotional conflict mixed with all that blue pop will send them over the edge.

Talking about Champions League a few months ago was as idiotic as your prediction of a 4-1 away win at Arsenal though. You don't get to turn up claiming you got this one right, cos you predict us to score close to double figures every other game.

On a personal note, my assessment is that the 'lucky' start to the season was unfairly denigrated by some on here whereas the caution expressed re: the squad strength (to go the distance over the season) was a more legitimate expression of how our expectations were firmly anchored/downplayed. Wrongly as it turned out (aided by January), but more legitimate all the same. I think the 'easy start' brigade had a bit of an axe to grind. I mean it was a relatively favourable run of fixtures, but the point was we capitalized on them whereas anyone whos followed this club for any appreciable length of time would know that in the past we'd have taken every opportunity as a club possible to fuck that sort of opportunity up, due to abject lack of professionalism.

HF the cyber bully! Think that might be going a bit far, like.

Dont think many are predicting it'll be straightforward tbh. In fact dont think that sort of complacency has been an issue at all this season.

There was some stat whereby one of their midfield lads had the most completed passes in top flight European football this season (or some such). Hardly surprising when they're knocking it back and sideways 5 yards every touch. Ben Arfa was quiet today, but he did one move where he nutmegged their left back, ran directly on goal and got a shot off which forced a save. While it was frustrating not having the ball for the majority of the game, frankly it's a joy to see us put the ball in the net with direct, incisive, slick football while the opposition fail to carry out direct orders to pass it into the net from 1 yard out.

no problem. any toontastic posters who'd like to chat, i'll be in The Bodega immediately after the Bolton game. hoping to mend some fences & build some bridges. if you need my number PM me or Manc Mag or his close friend McFaul; they can give you the number they've been too scared to call. Err…no. Don’t PM me for it thanks. Gene if you’d not kept reacting to it I’d probably only have mentioned it the once, it was done to get a rise out of you. Theres a lesson in that there for you and about this place generally. Actually this thread title is quite apt in this respect. You're a 48 year old man at the end of the day. 8 months on…Jesus wept??! Anyway take it easy, I've got no axe to grind and I'm not about to phone you up out of the blue for no reason just because you've sent your phone number. The notion itself is mildly ridiculous and indeed this was implicit in the original posts way back when.

That is fucking insane.

Well suffice to say it involves his phone number, so I think we'll try and avoid any further meltdowns of that nature.

Gene, all your posts are fucking direct from the ring, so PM's on top of that I can do without, thanks. Thats all.

If that happens, and with the extra day's rest, home advantage etc, you'd have to fancy us to beat Bolton on Monday. WIth Chelsea away at Fulham, we've suddenly got a genuine chance of being 4th by Monday night. A shat amongst the pigeons. We'll need the rest like as they were absolutely knackered after chasing possession all day today. Not a foregone conclusion by any means but as you say, the extra day is in our favour so we need to count our blessings and capitalize.

As Gemma says, it's a 6 game season now so it's feasible goal. We're not thinking about squad depth over 38 games, it's just try and beat what's put in front of you. We're already weakened and players are responding. Mackems could do us a real favour tomorrow. Come O'Neill you jumpy, pointy-faced little bastard.

Aye. Deserved to win the game basically. Sort of thing where the other team can't even point to the possession stats and feel aggrieved. We've got a striker that can do that so all other discussion is null and void.

I think it's the opposite of what you say there actually. As you say, Pardew switched them about and I think whereas Demba can play wide left, Cisse emphatically can't. Psychologically therefore I suspect Demba is probably starting to get a bit concerned he's becoming a 'victim of his own success'. He can get the ball to Cisse going forward, but Cisse can't get it to him, which means theres only going to be one player starting in the middle.

No again, Gene. http://en.wikipedia..../Vocal_register And ps let it go. so "pitch" & "register" are synonyms? apologies for my ignorance I'm not really arsed about apologies tbh, as I'm not a particularly delicate flower. I'd rather you didn't send me any more pm's though if it's all the same to you?

No again, Gene. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_register And ps let it go.

Game plans, a team work ethic and individual class. As it always should be. Proud of what we're about! Fucking get in lads!

8 Million actually That was the joke tbh. A class apart today. We're putting a team sheet out now with a forward line that every opponent in the league will fear. Love it.

Does anyone want to try and explain what was going on at the start of that clip? Proper lecherous uncle/unattended schoolboy stuff.

A wack-a-mole popping out of his mouth wouldn't come amiss either.