manc-mag

Richard the Third.

Didnt Man U have a CL kit one year? Not that they were as discrepant as those Dortmund ones like.

They're both gash tbf.

Yeah but HTT is a bit mad. Setting that aside there seems some truth in those ramblings. He's only ever the slenderest grip on reality. I think it's premised too much around the fact Ben Arfa had little impact today, as though if/when he does, it'll be due to Pardew's tactics alone. It's just an unrealistic view.

Your company isn't bad compared to the Holocaust? Wouldn't bother sticking it on your match.com profile tbh.

Think the strikers should have been told to play closer together once it looked like we weren't really in danger of scoring and Hatem asked to drift inside to create the extra link man. Agree with the rest. Aye, would go along with that. Brighton had firmly established the fact they didnt have anything to trouble our midfield so he should have been confident enough to leave it to a midfield three with Barfa sitting ahead of it to receive the ball and run at their back four/pick out either of two outright strikers.

Struggling to see what Perch and Williamson did wrong. Willo I certainly dont blame for the goal. Literally what did Krul have to do for 90 minutes apart from pick the ball out of the net once? SFA tbh, total night off for him. Jonas and B Arfa were let downs. Having said that Ben Arfa's slotted pass for Best in the first half could have been enough to win it another night.

Thing is for me when we lose under Pardew it tends to be massively depressing. It's cos of the way we're set up. Brighton were absolutely shambolic and couldnt pass the ball to save their lives so we should have stuffed them, but Pardew always sets us up first and foremost to not lose. For me his only thought tonight was to make sure a cup tie never broke out because that could only be to Brighton's advantage. That plan absolutely worked as well as it was the most boring pile of shite going (and I accept that often has to be the case during the early stages of games fwiw so I have no qualms about it) with the focus then being on trying to pick up a goal as the opponent runs out of ideas/steam and at a stage of the game when its harder for them to do anything about it . Only we didn't do that tonight of course or look like doing it. And then of course Brighton go and score a shite goal that was just entirely a matter of luck. In the past under other managers when we've lost playing gung-ho it's been more gut wrenching. We've gone to places where we've had a palpably better team (like tonight), but then because we've just decided to go out and try and play football as the better team, we've shit ourselves when it's become a cup tie and we've lost the competitive battle. We'd score some great flowing goals and then concede when the opponent just punted it up the pitch to us and we bricked it at centre half and passed it back to their forwards under the pressure. It always felt like we had to move heaven and earth for a goal and then we'd make the opponent do nowhere near as much for their's. The Liverpool away as an example Pardew took an absolute slating. For me though it was the perfect away performance for about 70 minutes because we were still in it going into the final phase. Because we'd never had a go at them in any massive way however, when we got beat it felt depressing because you come away feeling like we'd never expressed ourselves. The reality is though, 99/100 if we had expressed ourselves we'd probably have been out of the game after 10 minutes, and that's absolutely what Pardew won't tolerate as a manager. As a club we're more capable than most of losing a game before it's started and for me that's what he's focussed on getting away from. This is a bi-product of it though. Good post. Hadn't really thought about it in those terms. I'm oldskool in the sense that when you play cup games against lower quality opp the idea for me is to stamp your authority on them in the first 10-15mins and try and score first which normally takes the wind out of their sails. Infact this might have been the ideal game for the old Pards 442 with two strikers up close together. Shola was completely isolated which is double bad as he don't move much. On the upside this now won't be a distraction from pushing for a european spot, which I think we are more than capable of. Aye, I know what you mean mate and on an emotional level that's my instinctive response too. On an objective level however I also have to recognise that approach hasn't won us an FA cup in 56 years so I try and put it in that perspective and look for what positives I can about trying to do it any other way. As I say though, I do think it has a different 'feeling' to it as an emotion. Bit like the way it'd feel different when England went out of tournaments under Eriksson as opposed to other less tactically minded/ 'bulldog spirit' bosses when it ripped your heart out.

He got it wrong upfront tonight for me. Tactically there was no connection between the front three at all. His error and therefore he has to take the blame. Wasn't a complete dereliction mind (Brighton did nowt to us at the back in a cup tie in their own back yard, so that was to his credit), more a failure to respond with the right changes during the course of the game. In part I think that's because he had Ben Arfa on from the start (as everyone demands), so basically he didn't have him to bring off the bench as the obvious link up. That's not a go at playing Ben Arfa from the start on the one hand or an attempt to excuse Pardew's failure to make the right changes on the other, just very matter of factly how I see it.

Thing is for me when we lose under Pardew it tends to be massively depressing. It's cos of the way we're set up. Brighton were absolutely shambolic and couldnt pass the ball to save their lives so we should have stuffed them, but Pardew always sets us up first and foremost to not lose. For me his only thought tonight was to make sure a cup tie never broke out because that could only be to Brighton's advantage. That plan absolutely worked as well as it was the most boring pile of shite going (and I accept that often has to be the case during the early stages of games fwiw so I have no qualms about it) with the focus then being on trying to pick up a goal as the opponent runs out of ideas/steam and at a stage of the game when its harder for them to do anything about it . Only we didn't do that tonight of course or look like doing it. And then of course Brighton go and score a shite goal that was just entirely a matter of luck. In the past under other managers when we've lost playing gung-ho it's been more gut wrenching. We've gone to places where we've had a palpably better team (like tonight), but then because we've just decided to go out and try and play football as the better team, we've shit ourselves when it's become a cup tie and we've lost the competitive battle. We'd score some great flowing goals and then concede when the opponent just punted it up the pitch to us and we bricked it at centre half and passed it back to their forwards under the pressure. It always felt like we had to move heaven and earth for a goal and then we'd make the opponent do nowhere near as much for their's. The Liverpool away as an example Pardew took an absolute slating. For me though it was the perfect away performance for about 70 minutes because we were still in it going into the final phase. Because we'd never had a go at them in any massive way however, when we got beat it felt depressing because you come away feeling like we'd never expressed ourselves. The reality is though, 99/100 if we had expressed ourselves we'd probably have been out of the game after 10 minutes, and that's absolutely what Pardew won't tolerate as a manager. As a club we're more capable than most of losing a game before it's started and for me that's what he's focussed on getting away from. This is a bi-product of it though.

I thought Carroll played well today to be fair. Made the whole ordeal all the more sickening. Man Utd were very poor though. Carroll played well and his header off the bar was frankly Herculean given that the cross was over hit. I'm not knocking his performance at all, I'm just glad he didn't score, because that's basically all he's there to do, particularly on the rare occasions when they are adapting their game to suit him, as was the case today. Enrique at fault for Man U's goal was nice to see too.

Tbf females generally would tire of the notion when it became apparent that Primark would have to close down.

First time I can ever remember watching Liverpool play Man U and not being absolutely desperate for Liverpool to win. Genuinely didn't care who went through. I simply don't have the energy to detest a club more than Man U, but Liverpool this season are going some way to cement themselves as the biggest cunts in English football. Enrique error and another Carroll blank the highlights for me.

silent 't' btw

Very patronising to effectively be told who we should and shouldn't respect tbh. Assumes it's readership is 5 years old and for that reason alone it can get to fuck. Nose to the grindstone and shut the fuck up basically.

This is massively important as far as I'm concerned and you're right, we've not paid it anywhere near the attention it's warranted in the past. I've always believed it's a two way street mind and it's imperative the management of he club sets the standard. When you bring people in on £100's k per week it's an absolute disaster waiting to happen when your chairman/owner whatever is acting the twat. The player will just think the club is a joke and take the piss accordingly because that's what goes at the top. That's why I was gutted that when Ashley took over he was straight off acting the dick in the Bigg Market and then downing pints in the crowd-it just makes it look like a tin pot operation-just like when Shepherd actually explicitly told us the same in his brothel with his mate. Now I think it's come full circle with Ashley, the austerity in and of itself means he's sobered up and there's no room for decadence anywhere throughout the club-and the work ethos has naturally come to the fore as a result. I don't think he's necessarily become any more visionary about the club, he's just become more serious about it's running (ie mainly meaning about it not being a massive gravy train) and to a degree where he squeezes the most out of margins in his standard businesses he's been similarly able to squeeze more out of his footballing staff (playing, coaching and scouting). It's just my theory and may well be 'wide of the mark' but I'm basically happy as long as I see the players showing respect for the shirt, because without that you're off on the wrong foot to start with before a ball's even been kicked.

Couple of sliding tackles in the box too. Steven Taylor's already got that covered for us ta.

gold cock in his face at 0:39

Thank fuck they can an all, can you imagine how obnoxious Germans would be mullered at the football? Warp factor twat, Mr Sulu!

Never got the image like - even though it was 'of it's time', it was about as anti-pop as you could get but he had a bit of quality in his locker tbf. Loved that song, reminds me of being a kid (while not having a clue what he was going on about)

Back to your very, very worst form there CT. Shame after a decent week so far.

Would prefer it if he said fuck all. What use is it giving it the big licks beforehand?

He thinks the fucking world's against him he's just a moaning little arsehole. It's probably not an altogether bad trait when you genuinely have no resources at your disposal and you're trying to galvanize a limited team using an 'us against the world' mentality, but it looks utterly ridiculous when you're spunking tens of millions of quid up the wall. When you're still blaming anything that goes against you on anyone but yourself regardless of the circumstances you look like a prick who doesn't have a clue and you lose the respect you need. Even the managers that win things hold their hands up and say when they're deservedly beaten. The tracksuits and the leaping up in the air don't help either the pointy faced little twat that he is.