It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

rf , Leeds always start well. Top of the table late September last year until they played Cardiff.

Man U look clueless , wish we were playing them next week.

Fans, pundits, journos and their rose tinted glasses. When they had bad runs - including Double and Treble winning seasons - or had to play 2 or 3 midfielders in defence, Ferguson made the team more defensive; steadied the ship and ground out results. When he felt the defence was sorted, he let the attacking players have more freedom. I expect Manchester United to be more attacking once Mourinho is happy with the defence, though not at the Ferguson level.

Recruitment has been mixed, the same for Manchester City and Liverpool; how many goalkeepers and defenders? The direction the owners and Woodward go will make or break it. On the centres who played at BHA; Jonny Evans with Vidic or Ferdinand was good, as lead centre his performances plummeted. Smalling plus one may work. This is down to Mourinho and his staff to solve until the arrival of the next centre back. They also need to recruit a right winger (no political jokes, please).

On the media, most are stealing a living.

Mourhino brought in the two centre backs that played Sunday didn't he ?

Ashley Young is crap too since his diving was sussed out by refs.

I don't think Mourhino will last till Christmas , 21st December is my prediction ... day after they play Cardiff :-)

Warnock was 7/1 favourite 2 weeks ago to be first manager to go but he's now 8/1 fifth favourite and we haven't even won a game !

Yes, sometimes players don't work out or take longer than expected. As I said, look at the defenders and keepers Manchester City and Liverpool have been through. Ferguson had plenty, e.g. Djemba Djemba, Taibi, Bosnich, Prunier, Veron - right player, wrong time, Anderson, David May played out of position at the start, the early days of Vidic and Evra etc.

Young has done okay, there was a point I wanted him gone but he buckled down - didn't sulk like some others. They still need a proper full/wing back but he is crap enough to have kept Salah in his pocket - maybe divers can handle divers.

Interested to see how Murphy pans out.

Cheers,
KidA

KidA - As a Chels fan I have both memorable and bitter experiences of Jose

You're now seeing all the classic repeats of his meltdowns - so as a competing fan i hope he stays with you for the majority of the season before your board sees sense

0 points again

O goals again.

4 in a row now if you count the last game of last season.

Just remember

Goals are over-rated Dil

If you don't believe me, ask Jose

Thought MU were playing quite well and really steaming along and then, after half-time, 'Oops!', 'Oops and another 'Oops'.

Did Jose go into a bit of 'I'm a wierdo but you lot are great' at the end of the match?

Joe Say [Send an email to Joe Say] [View Joe Say's profile] - 23 Aug 2018 07:55 - 6499 of 6502
KidA - As a Chels fan I have both memorable and bitter experiences of Jose

You're now seeing all the classic repeats of his meltdowns - so as a competing fan i hope he stays with you for the majority of the season before your board sees sense

---

The board seeing sense would be to get Woodward as far away from the football as possible. The common thread. There is no point changing managers until he is removed from that side of business.

The game is about not giving chances and taking those given. Yesterday could have been anything from a bigger Tottenham win, through high score draw, to big Manchester United win. Spurs took enough of theirs, United didn't. Liverpool grabbed the gift from BHA. The opposition had enough chances against Liverpool and Manchester City, only Wolves took one.

Mourinho, his staff, and the players are responsible for sorting the scoring and reducing the chances conceded. It is down to the board to provide the proven, not potential, centre back and right winger requested.

Cheers,
KidA

I see that there will be a tremendous number of teams for the world cup 2026....seems a long way away doesn't it ?.....3 teams in first round ?....ouch....shades of 1982 where the three team groups in the second round were a complete joke with too many good teams being paired together.....If you have a bad game in the first game, with only one qualifier, there is a group imbalance : you have to have four teams and the top two go through !......four teams is the minimum for groupings !....big risks of a major team going out at the first hurdle….the maths are not good....

What do you mean the maths aren't good

You not seen the size of the bungs involved?

Yep.....Fifa greed at work again it seems.....

Come off it rf , how many fancied teams were out after the second round of games this year when the first round was groups of four ?

And on a brighter note Cardiff have scored their first goal of the season in the 3-1 home defeat by Norwich in the Micky Mouse Cup.

Next three games are Arsenal , Chelsea and Man City so likely to be near the top after those ;-)

Groups of three are different Dil.....and I understand that the plan is that there will be a group stage with three countries followed by knockout matches after that involving 48 teams in total......an example ; England draw Nigeria and japan in their group.....you are not laughing......results...England 2-Nigeria 0.....Japan 3-Nigeria 0.....England 0-Japan 0....: Japan go though...England out without losing a game....(like in 1982) !.....there is no second chance....like in the four nation groups : you can afford the luxury of accidentally losing a game but still progressing to the next round....Spain did that and won the world cup in 2010 !......not a good idea by FIFA at all in my opinion !...

I understand what your saying rf but if you seeded the top 16 teams at this years World Cup in groups of 3 I don't think it would have changed much.

A much bigger worry is the last group group match being thrown.

:(

Burnley's Reserves and 3rd team play each other tonight in Wales I see https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45351104

Live Radio coverage on R5 in the motherland.

Looks like your third team got well and truly stuffed , Stan ,Wales looked v good .

That clown Vokes didn't play Stan , obviously as we scored 4.

The youngsters we got coming through give me confidence that we can actually make a WC finals next time around.

Ampedu of Chelsea was awesome and he's still only 17 , Brooks of Bournemouth looks like our next Aaron Ramsey , Tom Lawrence gets better every game and it's hard for me say this but the young full back from Scumsea who scored on his debut looks the real deal too.

Be a better test Sunday against Denmark away , Ireland were awful.