Bulgaria and Berbatov

Taken from the Sun's website

ENGLAND’S players may be raving about Dimitar Berbatov — but his international future with Bulgaria is hanging by a thread.
The Manchester United striker was awful in Wednesday’s 0-0 World Cup qualifier away to Georgia and not much better in Saturday’s goalless draw against Italy.

Angry Bulgarian supporters were waiting at Sofia airport yesterday morning and threw eggs and toilet rolls at Berbatov and his team-mates, including Aston Villa’s Martin Petrov and Stiliyan Petrov.

Berbatov, in particular, has been slammed for his poor performances and there are rumours in Bulgaria that the United man could quit international football.

Boss Plamen Markov slaughtered Berba after the shock midweek draw with Group Eight underdogs Georgia.

Markov said: “Berbatov was very far from his real qualities. If somebody doesn’t want to play for Bulgaria he will not be picked.”

Even Berba said: “I played very poorly.”

The United striker may now be dropped from next month’s friendly with Serbia.

His week had started badly after he came under fierce attack from Bulgarian FA vice- president Yordan Lechkov for running just 2km in Saturday’s game against Italy.

Lechkov said: “Berbatov’s job is to score goals and Bulgaria to win games.

“Berbatov ran just 2,000m against Italy when normally a player runs between 9,000 and 10,000m during 90 minutes. Berbatov is the captain and must lead the team, he has to give his best on the pitch.”

berb's the capt he wont be dropped. cant imagine bulgaria have the quality to replace him. cant turn it on and win a game. ive seen a lot of him at spurs and if hes given space and time say like wed night we could be in trouble.

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Originally Posted by FootballsKing

Angry Bulgarian supporters were waiting at Sofia airport yesterday morning and threw eggs and toilet rolls at Berbatov and his team-mates, including Aston Villa’s Martin Petrov and Stiliyan Petrov.

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There's the credibility gone right there - Martin Petrov plays for Man City. Throwing eggs was a bit harsh on Petrov, he's only after coming back from (another) injury at City, so to expect him to be a match winner is a bit much.

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Originally Posted by Duggie

berb's the capt he wont be dropped. cant imagine bulgaria have the quality to replace him. cant turn it on and win a game. ive seen a lot of him at spurs and if hes given space and time say like wed night we could be in trouble.

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Dunne and O'Shea gave nobody space on wednesday night, Konstantinou was taken off because he was so ineffective against them.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

There's the credibility gone right there - Martin Petrov plays for Man City. Throwing eggs was a bit harsh on Petrov, he's only after coming back from (another) injury at City, so to expect him to be a match winner is a bit much.


Dunne and O'Shea gave nobody space on wednesday night, Konstantinou was taken off because he was so ineffective against them.

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i was talking about our midfield - berb will drop of a bit and collect the ball.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ty/7675821.stm

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Originally Posted by FootballsKing

Taken from the Sun's website
“Berbatov ran just 2,000m against Italy when normally a player runs between 9,000 and 10,000m during 90 minutes. Berbatov is the captain and must lead the team, he has to give his best on the pitch.”

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2km? :D
Must be a record, even the goalkeeper would have more movement recorded.

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Originally Posted by Duggie

i was talking about our midfield - berb will drop of a bit and collect the ball.

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why do you think there was loads of space in front of Dunne and O'Shea the last night??? i thought the two sitting midfielders had that area pretty much covered tbh...

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Originally Posted by galwayhoop

why do you think there was loads of space in front of Dunne and O'Shea the last night??? i thought the two sitting midfielders had that area pretty much covered tbh...

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what ?
whelan and gibson were barely in the game. as giles said after the we played without a midfield really apart from duff and mcgeady. they barely touched the ball.

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Originally Posted by Duggie

what ?
whelan and gibson were barely in the game. as giles said after the we played without a midfield really apart from duff and mcgeady. they barely touched the ball.

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how many times did cyprus come through the middle to threaten us or more accurately to your previous comment how many times did their attacking players drop off and pick the ball up?? very few if any!!!

whelan and gibson had very little impact when we were in possession but they did accomplish their primary objective of preventing the opposition from running straight at our defense. to this end they did their jobs. the manager decided to play with two midfielders to sit in front of our defense and to my mind the players are being individually hounded for sticking to the game plan. if there is flak to be taken, to my mind there shouldn't be but if there is, then it should be Trap in the firing line.

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Originally Posted by Duggie

what ?
whelan and gibson were barely in the game. as giles said after the we played without a midfield really apart from duff and mcgeady. they barely touched the ball.

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It isn't what they did with the ball that was important in the game, it was what they did when we weren't in possession. They blocked all direct passes from Cyprus' defence and central midfield to their strikers, they had to go to the wings. Considering how we were torn apart by their midfield in Cyprus, and to a lesser extent last October, I'd say it was job done.

Lads the last two comments to me are somewhat non-sensical. To say that they did their job because cyrpus never came through the middle is true, but the only reason they didn't was because mcshane and kilbane to a lesser extent were getting beaten by high balls, more the point cyprus should never had the possession in the frist place, its up to the midfield to win back possession, hold onto it and use it. Its fine if you are san marino and playing italy, and you tell your defenders and midfielder, sit back don't attack just stay in front of the defence sitting deep near the edge of the box. We are not a minnow, our midfielders should be looking to win back and retain possession not sit on a lead and hold back and break down attacks to hoof them back to the oppossition again.

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Originally Posted by FootballsKing

“Berbatov ran just 2,000m against Italy...

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Jesus christ. :eek: ffs I'm unfit but can still run 2k in about 10 minutes. Most players would probably even walk a lot more than 2k when nowhere near the ball over 90 minutes.

In fairness to Berbatov, isn't he supposed to be a smoker? It's very unprofessional but smoking really does make excercise a lot harder.

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Originally Posted by jmurphyc

In fairness to Berbatov, isn't he supposed to be a smoker? It's very unprofessional but smoking really does make excercise a lot harder.

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Didn't do Zidane much harm. ;)

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Originally Posted by galwayhoop

how many times did cyprus come through the middle to threaten us or more accurately to your previous comment how many times did their attacking players drop off and pick the ball up?? very few if any!!!

whelan and gibson had very little impact when we were in possession but they did accomplish their primary objective of preventing the opposition from running straight at our defense. to this end they did their jobs. the manager decided to play with two midfielders to sit in front of our defense and to my mind the players are being individually hounded for sticking to the game plan. if there is flak to be taken, to my mind there shouldn't be but if there is, then it should be Trap in the firing line.

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To be honest I'm a sucker for that ole cliche 'attack is teh best form of defence'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/...11_306x563.jpg.

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Originally Posted by jmurphyc

In fairness to Berbatov, isn't he supposed to be a smoker? It's very unprofessional but smoking really does make excercise a lot harder.

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It really makes no difference at that age, there are olymipc atheletes smoke.
It's not as if he has fag on whilst on the pitch.


(Note above picture looks like an unfiltered cigarette too!!)

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Originally Posted by jmurphyc

In fairness to Berbatov, isn't he supposed to be a smoker? It's very unprofessional but smoking really does make excercise a lot harder.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Didn't do Zidane much harm. ;)

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Or Cryuff!

Richard Dunne, Wayne Rooney like the odd ciggy.

Well, seeing as it's turned into a who's who of smokers, Rui Costa and Jorge Costa both smoked. One of my friend's dad's told me that Jorge Costa asked him for a cigarette at half time in a friendly.

And the 'marlboro man' prize for coolness goes to

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/...71_306x321.jpg

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Lads the last two comments to me are somewhat non-sensical. To say that they did their job because cyrpus never came through the middle is true, but the only reason they didn't was because mcshane and kilbane to a lesser extent were getting beaten by high balls, more the point cyprus should never had the possession in the frist place, its up to the midfield to win back possession, hold onto it and use it. Its fine if you are san marino and playing italy, and you tell your defenders and midfielder, sit back don't attack just stay in front of the defence sitting deep near the edge of the box. We are not a minnow, our midfielders should be looking to win back and retain possession not sit on a lead and hold back and break down attacks to hoof them back to the oppossition again.

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It's worked fine for Juventus for years, including during spells under Trapattoni and Capello. For the 'isolated' quartet of Duff, Keane, Doyle and McGeady, read Nedved, Del Piero, Trezeguet and Camoranesi.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the most opinionated fans are typically those who know the least about football.

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Originally Posted by John83

It's worked fine for Juventus for years, including during spells under Trapattoni and Capello. For the 'isolated' quartet of Duff, Keane, Doyle and McGeady, read Nedved, Del Piero, Trezeguet and Camoranesi.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the most opinionated fans are typically those who know the least about football.

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How many times have you seen Juve play? Nedved's role has never been one of sitting in front of the back four. And I guarantee you Trap won't start Gibson against Georgia in Feb.

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

How many times have you seen Juve play? Nedved's role has never been one of sitting in front of the back four. And I guarantee you Trap won't start Gibson against Georgia in Feb.

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Congratulations; you fail English.

Read the post again. Now, look sad and say, "D'oh".

2000km seems pretty shocking, but in fairness Berbatov's work-rate has never been part of his tool-kit.

Berbatov just saunters around the pitch at his own pace, plucks the ball out of the air and hammers it top corner, hardly smiling in the process.

Next time you're watching a United match just try and keep an eye on his running for fun- wouldn't be surprised if his average KM run is around the 5000km level, if that.

I like this. Bulgaria is imploding a little bit. Those people will not react well under pressure. Next thing will be quitting, name calling in the press, the coach getting sacked, and teamates going after each other with golf clubs after a bad kareoke outing. Then bam they will be ripe for the taking by our eternal 1 goal a game offense!

2k is nothing. I run that playing centre half in a pub league! Shocking stuff!

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Originally Posted by John83

Congratulations; you fail English.

Read the post again. Now, look sad and say, "D'oh".

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Thanks for answering my question.

It's okay Noely, you had all your apostrophes in the right places as far as I could see :)

It's just the professor did not claim or even insinuate that Nedved played any such holding role. Your question does not apply to him.

Instead of explaining that you misunderstood his post, he chose to be a tad condescending or maybe that passes for humour some places.

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Originally Posted by geysir

And the 'marlboro man' prize for coolness goes to

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/...71_306x321.jpg

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There is nothing cool about idiots that smoke.

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Originally Posted by seanfhear

There is nothing cool about idiots that smoke.

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You sound like a fun type of guy

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Originally Posted by geysir

It's okay Noely, you had all your apostrophes in the right places as far as I could see :)

It's just the professor did not claim or even insinuate that Nedved played any such holding role. Your question does not apply to him.

Instead of explaining that you misunderstood his post, he chose to be a tad condescending or maybe that passes for humour some places.

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In my basement it is quite funny. I ment to say Nedved plays a different role at Juve from our front 2 + 2 wide players. The UCD superleague is known as a bastion of football knowledge around Europe.

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Originally Posted by irishfan86

2000km seems pretty shocking, but in fairness Berbatov's work-rate has never been part of his tool-kit.

Berbatov just saunters around the pitch at his own pace, plucks the ball out of the air and hammers it top corner, hardly smiling in the process.

Next time you're watching a United match just try and keep an eye on his running for fun- wouldn't be surprised if his average KM run is around the 5000km level, if that.

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2000km in 1 match, the man is a machine!!!!

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

Thanks for answering my question.

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Thanks for playing.

In answer to your impertinent question, which was condescending and showed you'd misread my post at the same time,

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How many times have you seen Juve play?"

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I've seen Juve play many, many times. I used to moderate Juventuz.com, the biggest English-language Juve forum, and used to be a big fan of Italian football. I don't really have the time for that now, so I just follow UCD these days.

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Nedved's role has never been one of sitting in front of the back four.

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No, not that I can recall. He has, however, played left wing for them for quite a while, as I implied in my post when I suggested his role for them was comparable to Duff's in our current team.

I was talking about the system where both central midfielders stay quite deep, which Juve has employed a great deal since they sold Zidane (you may have heard of him). It's identical to our current setup, which is hardly surprising considering their manager for much of that time is now a familiar face over here.

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And I guarantee you Trap won't start Gibson against Georgia in Feb.

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Yeah, I kind of think so too. There are so many (not terribly exciting) options there that I figure someone else will have earned a go by then.

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

I ment to say Nedved plays a different role at Juve from our front 2 + 2 wide players.

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A little. It's not what you said though:

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

Nedved's role has never been one of sitting in front of the back four.

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Originally Posted by John83

Congratulations; you fail English.

Read the post again. Now, look sad and say, "D'oh".

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:D thats pretty good John! You dropped the ball there NG :)

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Originally Posted by Kingdom

:D thats pretty good John! You dropped the ball there NG :)

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The meds must have been kicking in. I have to get out of the Napoleon ward.

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

The meds must have been kicking in. I have to get out of the Napoleon ward.

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I hear the trick is to get transferred to the Saint Helena ward. Just don't take anything offered to you there! ;)

2km is shocking alright, but there's no chance he will be dropped by Bulgaria. It would be like Ireland dropping Keane - we have no strikers anywhere near his quality to replace him.

On a side note, how do they actually track how far the players have run in the games?

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Originally Posted by Serb

On a side note, how do they actually track how far the players have run in the games?

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Things like Prozone.

http://www.prozonesports.com/products_PZ3.htm

Petrov's injury isnt as bad as expected. Still out for 4 months but will be back to play us. The way Berbatov plays for Bulgaria I would be more worried about Petrov.