Plus there's no way now Robbie could cut it now in the EPL on a regular basis, the odd cameo fair enough.
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Plus there's no way now Robbie could cut it now in the EPL on a regular basis, the odd cameo fair enough.
He played 27 times last season, which is plenty. A striker with a 1 in 9 record isn't to be feared.Quote:
Originally Posted by GypsyBlackCat
Hmm, Fletcher & Naismith both scored at the weekend as mentioned before. Wouldn't be too smug, especially as pretty little chance of Kevin Doyle doing likewise...
:(
Naismith's a very good player. Fletcher's alright. Naismith is a type of player we don't have, a very intelligent player between the lines who gets his share of goals. Fletcher is just a bit of a mystery - he doesn't score many goals, doesn't do any real work, doesn't keep defenders occupied with his movement. But, sure, a goal every nine games. We have nobody who can compete with that.
One bad in which he didn't start many games. To say he's like Kevin Doyle is madness!Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Steven Fletcher
2009/10 - Burnley 38/12
2010/11 - Wolves 34/12
2011/12 - Wolves 34/12
2012/13 - Sunderland 30/11
2013/14 - Sunderland 26/3
Kevin Doyle
2009/10 - Wolves 37/9
2010/11 - Wolves 31/8
2011/12 - Wolves 36/4
2012/13 - Wolves 44/9 (Champioship)
2013/14 - Wolves 25/3 (League One)
2013/14 - QPR 13/2 (Championship)
Shane Long
2009/10 - Reading 36/9 (Championship)
2010/11 - Reading 52/25 (Championship)
2011/12 - West Brom 33/8
2012/13 - West Brom 37/11
2013/14 - West Brom 17/3
2013/14 - Hull City 15/4
So last season Long got 7 goals in 32 games. Which about the same as Fletcher. This season Fletcher has 5/2 were as Long is 8/0 in a better team.
I'm not say we should fear Fletcher. But along with Naismith they look kile hitting a grove. Where as our strikers haven't scored many. Not that's a worry.
Well my point is actually that he's not Kevin Doyle. Unlike Doyle, he scores the odd goal, but outside of finishing he doesn't do an awful lot to help his team or create anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by GypsyBlackCat
On form, Fletcher's a good player. Strong, can link up play well and has a surprisingly deft touch. But he appears to be streaky as get out, not to mention more than a bit temperamental.
Ourselves and Scotland are well balanced. My problem is the fact that they can call upon Rhodes, Flecther and Stevie May along with Naismith. We don't have the choice. In another way I wouldn't swap defensive option with Scotland. Well, maybe Ward!Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Stevie May! Stevie harder to miss than score May? For the love of God, if you're going to use an example of belittling our talent pool to those of the Scots, keep it realistic.
Stevie May, ha ha ha, that's made my afternoon.
I had never heard of May so can't really comment on his ability. I see he has only played a handful of games at Championship level, having been prolific in Scotland. Surely someone like Chris Martin is higher up in the pecking order, as he has been consistently scoring goals at that level for eighteen months or more.
Özil is an injury doubt for next Tuesday: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/inter...undergo-tests/
Quote:
Originally Posted by RTÉ
I heard Draxler is a doubt too, flu.
Ok, so Germany 'reserves' then, clearly they think they won't have to be at full strength. Sadly we're not or it might have been interesting.
They're injured or ill. It's not like the Germans are thinking of resting players. They have to play Poland first which is no gimme, especially with the local derby aspect. Those players will miss Poland before they miss us.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Still, it's encouraging to know you think our first XI might get a result from their reserves. That's clear progress!
Not really. And they might struggle in one game, but not both. The Polska game more so as it's away.
confirmed out for 10 to 12 weeks it appearsQuote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
Yeah, rather than being happy that they have so many out I'm feeling it's much more of an advantage for Poland than it is for us.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Thats what i think too, unless of course schrule and mueller get red cards against Poland but after they have gone 2 - 0 up so they will hold onto win.
Its definitely more of an advantage to poland.
IDK. They have a few top class players like Schurrle and Gotze but as many are missing for some reason. Players like Schurrle and Gotze have the benefit of playing with 10 world class teammates every week but hopefully with the amount of retirements/injuries in the German squad they won't look as impressive playing with players who haven't settled in/aren't world class/aren't first choice.
Mustafi is having a good season with Valencia after flattering to deceive at Everton and Samp.
Emmet Malone in Today's Irish Times writes about German football's careful planning.
Inside German Football: Vorsprung durch technique - Germany’s formula for success
Compare that to the SFAI attitude expressed in the Miguel Delaney blog on another thread.
The richest and most populous (after Russia) country in Europe could finally get its act together, go around and copy what others were doing and by sheer weight of an enormous player population, manage to find a few gems in amongst the weeds.
And it took them 10 or 12 years. I suppose that's not bad going for a country that once produced the Trabant, Wartburg and Opel Kadett.
I think the fact that they kept the elite level of club football integrated into the whole system and sympathetic to the quest for a successful national team is a bigger part of the picture. Compare this to England which has had an unprecedented economic boom in football yet the FA is weighed down with the cost of financing its stadium and grassroots football has third world facilities.
England are a dysfunctional example. Germany copied what other countries were doing .. that worked, they didn't invent anything, sheer weight of numbers means they can churn out a stronger squad than say Holland. Integration was not a novel idea. And they were smart enough not to bother with a national stadium, but did it take a genius to work that one out, considering there were all these huge stadiums scattered around Germany?
I'm not saying Germany is a wondrous example of man's ingenuity but all I'm saying is that if you work on the assumption that population and popularity of football is a necessary but insufficient condition to win things, the remaining necessary ingredients include organisational / institutional efficiency.
The corollary (?) is that institutional efficiency is by itself also a necessary but insufficient ingredient. A country like Ireland has neither but a country like, say, Croatia I suspect has the latter - though I don't really know. Germany has both, Spain has population and an odd but respectable institutional structure. England, Italy and Brazil have population but are institutionally dysfunctional. I don't know about Argentina or Russia so much, though I expect the latter is institutionally weak. Poland has population but is a shambles institutionally, or so I'm led to believe. Holland has the institutional strength and just about enough of a population to be very competitive, but not enough to be winners.
The USA has the population, growing popularity plus some strong institutional arrangements, notwithstanding the observation that working class kids are priced out of football, a major weakness. One to look out for I think. Japan might be too.
France appeared to have both ingredients for a while.
No?
Edit: Iceland clearly has no great population but would appear to have sound organisational arrangements. Or is their relative success down to something else?
Sure geysir will tell us otherwise, but part of Island's recent improvement, is probably 'cyclical', as in they happen to have a crop of decent players right now.
In 20 years time they'll probably be rubbish again and so it continues.
What's the point AB? In 20 years you will be 20 years closer to death, so why bother?Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Why bother trying to explore the limits of how good you can be or how good a structure of football can be? why bother if it's all cyclical, ignoring the glaring obvious fact that in times gone by there were just a few little ripples now and again.
And now that there is a solid structure in place in iceland, not just for this generation of footballers but also for the next coming through, you choose to ignore the 15 years of graft to get to this stage, dismiss it all outright, because it's probably all cyclical?
I think you're probably talking thro' yer hole, yet again :)
If you say so, but you do know what I mean.
And if we're both still here in 20 years time, we'll see who's right? And who was talking through their, er, hole.
;)
Anyway, back in the real world...
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...a-9788702.html
AB is unwittingly coming across as an arch economic libertarian. Remove the state from economic life, it will steal your freedom. The free market will deliver all our needs and wants as long as individuals are left free to choose their own actions in the rational pursuit of utility. Planning is communism.
I suspect his political views are rather different!
I like the La Perla ad in the right hand corner of that web page. I'm glad I didn't see that before going to bed.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Result - Scotland 1-0 Georgia. Flicked over here and there, looked a pretty nervous win. Georgia were in Scottish territory the majority of the times I put it on. An own goal in the first half settled it, made by Maloney I think. Brown and Morrisson terrific in the deep lying midfield positions according to commentator. Ibrox has seen bigger crowds in the Scottish Division 3.
Poland v Germany live on ITV4.
Scotland looked subdued, but we really need a draw from their match on Weds, though may depend on how much of a beating Polska take from Deutschland?
I don't think this is a foregone conclusion at all. I'd be happy with any kind of German win. I suppose in relation to Poland v Scotland then, anything bar a Scotland win would be okay, a draw ideal alright.
It is if you look at Polska's recent record and their overall one v.Deutschland. Germany not at full strength but they are expecting to win and the Poles to not.
Though a closer game than we might expect?
Poland have never beaten them, in eighteen attempts. They're set up pretty defensively and limiting the Germans so far but early days. That high line by Germany is baffling, hope it continues for Tuesday.
I find it impossible to be hoping for a Germany win, regardless of the beneficial effect of Poland not gaining a point, would have for us.
It won't matter a jot if we select Walters and Keane for the next game.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
germans not playing that high line tonight so far anyway. germans are all over them few good chances missedQuote:
Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks