Michael Laudrup hasn't done his homework Europa League 2013/14

Michael Laudrup doesn’t often stumble on matters of world football, but there was a rather dicey moment yesterday afternoon when he was asked to name a couple of Petrolul Ploiesti’s players.

There was a stutter, a bit of a pause, and then the names of Grosan, Boudjema and ‘that No 8’ came to mind. He smirked. Bullet dodged.
By his own admission, a couple of weeks ago, when he first learned that the Romanians would be Swansea City’s final obstacle to the Europa League group stages, he had neither heard of the team, nor a single member of their squad.

He wasn’t even aware that they are managed by a man, Cosmin Contra, who once played for him at Getafe and very nearly took him to the semi-finals of this same competition in 2008. ‘That makes me feel old,’ Laudrup said.

spurs kicking off at 5, i'll be home at 5.10, i dont have itv4, i'll work something out

maybe title should have been Never Go Back to Georgia

In November 1973, Spurs flew to the Georgian capital for a third round tie in the UEFA Cup under legendary manager Bill Nicholson and were greeted in a rather disturbing manner.
'When we went out to inspect the pitch, as you do, in the middle was a sort of wooden gallows,' reveals Steve Perryman. 'And hanging by its neck was their idea of a cockerel. Of course, that's our emblem. That was their way of saying welcome!'

Lloris; Naughton, Dawson, Kaboul, Rose; Capoue, Paulinho; Townsend, Dembele, Sigurdsson; Soldado.

Friedel, Fryers, Walker, Carroll, Chadli, Coulthirst, Kane.

oh yeah townsend can play europa

I love that, their idea of a cockerel! That incomprehensible, never-seen-abroad animal bird

And the Tbilisi line-up? Has anyone ever eaten Georgian? There's a Georgian gaff on the way to the Emirates, I've often fancied having their idea of a gander

Capoue Paulinho Dembele could be interesting

Dinamo Tbilisi: Loria, Khurtsilava, Giorgi Gvelesiani, Kvaratskhelia, Glisic, Grigalashvili, Dzaria, Kvirkvelia, Merebashvilli, Xisco, Dvali.
Subs: Zarkua, Ustaritz, Khocholava, Seturidze, Papava, Goga, Vouho

i've eaten delicious georgian breads from a bakery, but never a full meal, the food is supposed to be amazing.

Right, next time I'm there it's on

Hopefully it's called something like Tbilisi Lover, will report back

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BSSHWMsIIAAAluf.jpg

That's beautiful. I really want to put on Led Zep IV now.

xp to Ismael, the restaurant is called Tblisi and it's great - get the Hachapuri

it's like andros really doesnt want come back and play for us or something

Update pls

Good save lloris!

I forgot how poor sigurdsson is on the left

Centre looks v good tho, and naughton far better as rb cover than lb

Dembele with his sixth foul of the half and second needless one since being booked easy boy eeeaaassssyyy

Oh lovely from townsend, paulinho heads home

Blandford dropping the local gastroknowledge xps, valuable new ILF feature imo

Soldado totally isolated so for, the sooner we sort that out the better

Sorted

Lennon could learn a lot from townsend tbph

I know this lot aren't much cop, but tbf to Spurs they're doing the job and no mistake

avb out

We're puttin on the guy from dawsons creek this is a pisspull

If yer talking about Willian, Townsend in good form, Danny Rose a viable pick at lb, you've got depth through the squad now. 5th.

Fanny Rose, wtf was that

If chadli can put the ball in like that all season you can keep yr willian for 30m tbph

seriously, if rose and townsend were anything like this useful last year then sending them away when we had no backup in their positions was clownish

i've eaten delicious georgian breads from a bakery, but never a full meal, the food is supposed to be amazing.

It is amazing. There are a few Georgian restaurants in London.

Really impressive win. I thought there would only be a goal or two in it.

yeah pretty clinical stuff, tho tbh we looked shaky on the left of defence at times. naughton/townsend combined very well all night on the right

omg petrolul's goal

almost tempted to turn the sound on to hear what pulis made of tonight

Pulis is okay tbh. Not a fan of Poyet at all.

Incredible amount of teams I've never heard of before in the EL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q30xBcggwkU

yeah me and the guy at the next table in the pub just looked at each other and laughed

Spartak got thumped at home by St Gallen earlier. I didn't see that coming.

Friedel, Walker, Vertonghen, Kaboul, Naughton, Carroll, Sandro, Sigurdsson, Holtby, Townsend, Defoe.

Kind of insane that this is basically our second team now.

What happened in Alkmaar? Match stopped by a fire?

love that ESPN has Paulinho listed as Joe Paulo Paulinho

tony pulis is pronouncing gallas gallath

galaz

yet again the poorest looking player in this second xi is sigurdsson

so awkward and slow on the left

Holtby!

Sigurdsson needs to be played centrally or not at all really. I think he's a very good player behind the striker or in front of a deeper midfield two.

Really hope Holtby works out.

Btw Vertonghen should not be playing in this game and we'd better hurry up and sign Chvrches.

Siggurdsson has played in I think every game this season to date, and not looked really comfortable or effective in any of them

Agreed he's best behind the striker, don't think he's good enough to be ahead of holtby there, would rather see more of carroll there tbh, if we sign eriksen then i dont know what game id ever see sigurdsson getting time in tbh

so i watched the second half of that late cos i had a match (god bless itv4+1 eh)

carroll looks a real prospect, kane less so, and the three-way battle for lb might keep it a competitive position this season.

good to see sandro back kicking people into the air.

We are probably more likely to farm Holtby off on loan and keep Sigurdsson round as a utility type. That would be the wrong decision as Holtby is better in that central role and we're hardly short of width now.

I've missed Kaboul rampaging forward as well.

Pot 1: Valencia, Lyon, Tottenham, Dinamo Kiev, PSV, Bordeaux, Rubin Kazan, Sevilla, Standard Liege, Fiorentina, Lazio, AK Alkmaar

Pot 2: Besiktas, PAOK, Salzbug, Genk, Dinamo Zagreb, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Trabzonspor, Anzhi, Betis, Wigan, Swansea, Freiburg

Pot 3: Frankfurt, Guimaraes, Legia Warsaw, Maccabi Hafia, Rapid Wien, Pacos de Ferreira, Estoril Praia, Sheriff Tiraspol, Chernomorets Odesa, Maribor, Kuban Krasnodar, Elfsborg

Pot 4: Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Slovan Liberec, Thun, Zulte Waregem, Apollon Limassol, Sankt Gallen, Esbjerg, Rijeka, Pandurii Targu Jiu, Ludogorets Razgrad, Shakhtyor Karaganda, Apoel FC, AZ Alkmaar or Atromitos

Not a lot to be scared of outside Pot 1, tbh.

Double-take at seeing Wigan there. And Apoel might be the defaulters' default option this year, but jeez a CL qf doesn't count for much if you're from a minnow league.

Pandurii Targu Jiu

They're probably Finnish or Estonian, but I'd've been guessing some Indian regional cricket league were this not Uefa.

Targu Jia is in Romania!

Who knew Europe still held such mysteries? tbf right now ïłxōr.ro could be saying the same about 'swansea'

Europa League gets all the best team names.

Swansea get Valencia.

Wigan get Rubin Kazan.

PSV get the Winking Croat aka Zagreb

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/12/08/article-2071544-0F1A36B300000578-795_468x347.jpg

Ha, Spurs have what's left of Anzhi.

Yes! Spurs get Sheriff Tiraspol! Depending on the dates, i might try to go to the away leg.

thats a lot of shit teams

fiorentina aside

Group A: Valencia, Swansea City, Kuban, St Gallen

Group B: PSV, Dinamo Zagreb, Odesa, Ludogorets

Group C: Standard Liege, Salzburg, Elfsborg, Esbjerg

Group D: Rubin, Wigan Athletic, Maribor, Zulte Waregem

Group E: Fiorentina, Dnipro, Pacos Ferreira, Pandurii

Group F: Bordeaux, APOEL, Eintracht Frankfurt, Maccabi Tel-Aviv

Group G: Dynamo Kiev, Genk, Rapid Wien, Thun

Group H: Sevilla, Freiburg, Estoril, Liberec

Group I: Lyon, Betis, Guimaraes, Rijeka

Group J: Lazio, Trabzonspor, Legia, Apollono

Group K: Tottenham, Anji, Sheriff, Tromso

Group L: AZ Alkmaar, PAOK, Maccabi Haifa, Shakhter Karaga

I wish the PSV ticket office good luck trying to shift tickets for Dynamo Zagreb, Chernomorets Odessa and Ludogorets Razgrad o_O

a couple of seconds' confusion there as to why I'm supposed to care so much about APOEL and PAOK

Odessa's one simple eight hour bus ride from Kyiv. Would definitely recommend it.

They're all moderately decent teams but PSV should motor through them.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2663/ttms.png

Odessa'd be awesome to visit one day, true.

Wonder if Anzhi can find 11 players to field.

Reserve games, nice

I have been meaning to go back to Moldova for a while. I didn't get around to seeing Tiraspol when i was there.

it'll be really sad when the CL castoffs wade into that lot & obliterate them without even really caring

always been the most bullshit aspect of european football

How wide is Transnistria? Could you, say, hit a golf ball over it?

lol at following the wiki link for 'states with limited recognition' and finding Transnistria sharing space with China

it'll be really sad when the CL castoffs wade into that lot & obliterate them without even really caring

always been the most bullshit aspect of european football

idk presumably you have this reaction with league cup, fa cup etc

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/341/5sjj.png

when the map of the country shows both kerbs of the main road, I'm guessing it's not a big place

tbf in the League Cup, FA Cup etc it isn't a case of "clubs that have had one bite of the cherry and fucked up" joining the later rounds

Valencia look terrible. An entire stand of their fans appears to have left at half time.

They're holding a protest in the concourse under the stand.

2-0 Swansea.

3-0

Swansea as good as Valencia are bad

They've looked good. lol at the stand emptying - i saw that and thought 'funny, didn't notice that in the first half' but it didn't occur to me there'd been a walkout, I assumed I was just unobservant.

They walked out for 15 minutes and came back in time to see Michu score

admittedly it is a bit depressing when your star CB gets red carded in the tenth minute

Brave move throwing Shelvey in at this point

Wow. Esbjerg won over Standard Liege.

Are you an Esbjerg fan? What are they like?

Lamela with the assist to Defoe

I'm just danish, but several of my friends like esbjerg. Normally, they aren't that good, but this year they've been quite impressive.

Defoe again. He really is lethal in those situations

Lovely goal from Eriksen. Spurs have barely tried in the second half though.

Fortunately i was stuck in a CH meeting, so I didn't have to watch the miserable 0-2 defeat against the mighty Ludogorets FC...

Yeah what happened to this fine young team?

Young players being young ;_;

They had a fantastic, whirlwind like start to the season and then... It stopped. Players blocked. We've not had a win in six games, and Sunday Ajax awaits...

I am more capable of accepting it, being patient, because they're all so wee. All older players left (apart from Toivonen, but he's playing as if he's suicidal). But it hurts, so much prospect but it's just not happening at the moment.

Watchin on delay, holtby's been excellent.

Eriksen needs to pass Holtby whatever he's smoking so he can chill out a bit

idk, when eriksen came on he was charging round the place too. obv an avb philosophy for the creative midfielder

Watching this now and it's pretty slow and no one seems to care. Oh there you go, Defoe's just scored. Excellent Holtby assist again.

Chiriches is outrageous, he's like the Berbatov of central defenders.

Wow, Anzhi are terrible.

Forgot this!

Holtby is a good option imo

Anji haven't really looked like coming back into this but they haven't embarrassed themselves either.

Terrible game.

I agree on Holtby, he's been a crucial part in so many of our goals recently and he's ridiculously composed.

1802:
EUROPA LEAGUE UPDATE
Tottenham's hopes of qualifying for the round of 32 this evening have taken a blow as Anzhi Makhachkala are winning 1-0 at half-time against Tromso. Spurs need that game to end in a draw to secure qualification with a win against Sheriff.

this is the most egregious 'taken a blow' in the history of writing

Chiriches! <3

Sheriff are well on top, despite the score.

spurs game? even an hour late? itv4+1 seems to be swansea but is that just half time highlights?

It finished more than two hours ago man

i thought it was a 8pm ko?

watchin itv+1 should buy me some time

surely

give me something man its been a rough day

TV coverage started at 5.30 think the game kicked off at 6

You didn't miss much. Sheriff should have had a couple. Spurs couldn't really deal with them in the first half and they were only let down by close offside calls, some wayward finishing and a magnificent goal line clearance from Chiriches. Spurs scored from a set piece. Kept the ball better as Sheriff ran out of energy. Defoe got a deflected goal towards the end. Wasn't easy but Sheriff are a decent team.

hmmp ta

could have recorded it at 6pm myself fuckit

awright ta for rundown

kyle walker is such a lazy thick cunt coming back

orange ball sighting in tromso

arrive home, turn TV on, 30 seconds gone, very first thing I see is Dawson having no earthly concept of offside and Tromso not going 1-0 up when they should have done. moribund

Forgot about this. Eventually.

ratio of even passable never mind good crosses maybe 1/10

worst thing about the game so far is, nevertheless, the cod-handwriting font used for the players' names on the Tromso shirts

Cod, herring or mackerel iirc

Dawson's clothesline of a Tromso striker there I think his first instance of intent matching result in this game

Sup

Townsen and dawson combining to turn possession into a booking in record time, another quality avb transition

Chadli delivery from left (and willingness to do so) a plus afaic

That is incredible from capoue, fuckin incredible

Naughton/dawson/townsend is some fuckin axis of evil on the right, sheer thickness that no amount of commitment or pace or strength can mitigate.

ps naughton has not of the above qualities

Great result for Odessa. PSV out.

Oh LBI :(

Dembele / Lamela / Soldado link-up for the second goal was a glimpse of the promised land

useless

poor soldado

Townsend's lack of end product is equally as frustrating as Soldado's lack of finishing prowess tbf.

condolences tbh

townsend isn't under-performing to anything like the same extent. being subbed for harry kane must smart

I hear dawson is quite the player these days

Gah! Had a 30-1 bet on Anzhi - Genk, Odessa - Lyon and Dniepro - Spurs all being draws. Was nine minutes away!

Ajax are getting battered at home by Red Bull Salzburg. 3-0 already.

Saw the extended highlights of the Ajax game. Salzburg were amazing. v slick intricate one touch passing. Could've had 5 or 6 goals easily.

3rd goal was this beauty from Soriano.

The biggest thing Garry Monk has brought is laughter to Swansea training sessions according to Clarke Carlisle. ( switches over to Frankfurt game)

Donetsk, Ajax, and Porto could all be eliminated today. Napoli score to take the lead.

not just could, will be as it stands

And Lazio!

Porto would go through at 3-3?

yes

and they just scored!

Frankfurt-Porto was crazy. Napoli-Porto should be good next round.

spurs dnipro is perfectly set up for konoplyanka to thrive on the break

I do hope the Dnipro fans sing Zuzulia's name to the tune of the Phil Collins song.

Soldado could have been sent off there, although to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, how would they tell

I can't remember the last time I found watching my own team so uninvolving. David Pleat era probably.

Eriksen is way too good for the rest of our team right now. No one seems to remember what Dembele is meant to be for/good at. Townsend is just not very good.

Nice to see Sandro back though.

well that's that

utter defensive cluelessness a fine epitaph. let's see if they can cap it off by going the whole game without a shot on target

blitw

cheerfully voting for 'great fk' there over 'shit keeping'

vertonghen has quite the bag of dirty tricks doesn't he

that's legit embarrassing and Townsend is actually being more of a stupid one-eyed cunt than I expected

FUCK OFF TOWNSEND SERIOUSLY JUST FUCK OFF

Soldado destined to bag whiff the winner

enjoying reading all the townsends as andros

he's been thoroughly unimpressive but has yet to induce literal rage in me tonight

on my stream he ran into a triple team dead end by the corner flag right when you posted that, thought it was justified

townsend is not a very good player

― Maggishos soyfriend. Wins. (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 20 October 2013 16:33 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

townsend doesn't look 'not good enough' to me

― HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Please don't hesitate (imago), Sunday, 20 October 2013 17:36 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah let's evaluate players based on the first two month adrenaline burst of their career a year after they were on the market for under a million

― Maggishos soyfriend. Wins. (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 20 October 2013 17:38 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nice cross just then, soldado srs doghit

Soldado will never score.

brilliant ball from dude just now, not sure precisely when Soldado had his left foot amputated

xps obv

spurs doing everything they can to keep dnipro in it

last 16 looking pretty tasty even if Spurs cling on

don't really feel like toasting that tbh but I am gonna drink a beer anyway

well we won but soldado did characteristically fluff his chance for the cathartic deal-sealer

awes
http://giant.gfycat.com/ObedientOrneryDanishswedishfarmdog.gif

Tottenham Hotspur ‏@SpursOfficial 3m
Our team today: Lloris; Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Naughton; Lennon, Paulinho, Sandro, Eriksen; Adebayor, Kane

big diddy kane

Benfica: Oblak; Silvio, Luisao, Garay, Siqueira; Amorim, Fejsa, Sulejmani; Markovic, Cardozo, Rodrigo

rodrigo and cardozo is that 4 4 2-ish

Ugh this fucking cretin.

kan looked like dogshit midchampo level any time i saw him

just watched last ten mins of porto napoli and its been pretty great

/kane/

why should we give a fuck about these foreign cunts, according to gordon strachan? cuz some of them might be moving to 'this fantastic premier league that we have'

rather it was yerman the undertakers brother getting on the end of townsend's balloons

sanatogen kane

Why would you willingly risk potentially ceding control of the midfield in a big game against Benfica just to play Harry Kane? It's just dumb.

because he "trained really well this week" -freund

Timmy just described him as "Rooney-esque in that Number 10 position" which is like a Xerox of a Xerox of what was a shitty tactic in the first place.

freundian slip of a game lad

Maybe Andros Townsend could be our Antonio Valencia at right back.

i'm just a copy of a copy of Ekoku

p sure I had a Xerox greek regen once

spurs haven't been bad but seem to be attempting to set a new offsides record

jenas a photogenic, laidback, reasonably eloquent tv personality, all those millions accrued in a decade spent in the epl insulating him from the deprecations of the internet

he was always a decent interviewee tbf, the clouds in his eyebrows only appeared whenever a ball or opposition player came near to approaching him

jenas was a photogenic, laidback, reasonably eloquent midfielder when he visited the valley the other week; also completely supine

LIKE SPURS JUST THEN EH

tell me, by any chance was naughton a cunt for that

:D

ya I figured

this is not making this sql class go any easier

getting the sketchy high line in place just in time for the NLD

now resorting to the long ball

first spurs game i've seen in 2014. Why is Eriksen on the LW?

new modric innit

that's where Sherwood wedges him in when he goes with two strikers

usually Ade or Soldado drifts wide so it almost becomes a kind of lopsided 4 3 3

you'll be unsurprised to learn that strachan/jenas thought vertonghen was at fault for the goal. Either playing LB at the weekend has messed with his mojo or the EL is beneath him or he just isn't all that.

xp

wait, so shunted out to the left to make room for harry kane???

xp

if I had care of a fragile eriksen id keep him well out of the way of the kneesy clatterer kane too tbh

xp he cuts in and drifts a lot so left is kind of a nominal position

adebayor should've stuck that

Oh dear Adebayor.

and that's what eriksen can do, always creates a chance.

aaaaand we're done

ahahaha that was the dictionary definition of unmarked

how long has kaboul got left on his deal? is it the end of this season? dawson looks done as well.

what kind of level of hooligan dustup would be needed to forfeit the away leg entirely

well, that was always going in

he's probably top 3 or 4 in the world from there

goes down as a kane assist, obv

Alongside Sandro and Lloris, Eriksen is pretty much the only player I'd be bothered about losing at this stage.

aye eriksen is triffic

the arrogance of these fucks rn w/ their own-half fannydangle no matter how many times it goes to shit. #teamsherwood ain't always a bad place to be

Looks like we're gonna play Arsenal with Kaboul as our only fit centre back.

nonsense there's still plenty of time for Kaboul to go off injured too

just want to give a shout out to my mum for having her 60th birthday lunch on Sunday afternoon, hopefully in a place with no internet coverage

sherwood losing it

no marking from spurs again

Sherwood out

Sherwood's tenure really is baffling.

I think the thing I find strangest is the way whatever goes wrong, however badly it goes wrong, he finds a way angrily to blame someone else.

bah real betis fucked up my accumulator

tim sherwood is a grotty self-serving arriviste imbecile who barely qualifies as a league two manager

since the only justification for replacing villas-boas with sherwood was to preserve the summer's investments, the blame should fall on levy

sherwood has continued the pattern of erratic performances and capitulations vs better sides but he has been even worse at employing £100m of players, none of whom are bereft of talent but whose resale value has virtually halved

agreed

Spurs: Friedel, Naughton, Sandro, Fryers, Rose, Sigurdsson, Bentaleb, Lennon, Chadli, Townsend, Soldado. Subs: Archer, Eriksen, Kane, Veljkovic, Winks, Ogilvie, Ball.

look at that bench

the least he could have done is kept naughton there instead of ogilvie for a 'be v wank' acrostic

lol

perversely excited about this. moyes looking beleaguered has lost its fun, now it's all about sherwood's suffering

Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend discuss Tottenham’s management on ITV4.

“I think you’d like Tim to still be there next season,” suggests Clive. “I know I would.”

“Yeah, I think Tim’s got the right character, I think he’s got the belief of those around him, that he can make a decent fist of this job. And I think he will, given the opportunity,” says Andy.

These people should simply not be allowed to talk about British people, because they are unable to judge them in any rational way. I just don’t believe they would talk about, say, a highly-promising young Portuguese coach in the same way, no matter how many gilets he threw around.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/mar/20/benfica-v-tottenham-live-europa-league-report

I dreamt I was arguing about football last night and said that, for pundits, Sherwood is a "Stones Roses reunion of a football manager" - it's gonnae take me a while to dissect that but I'm standing by it.

Very odd about TS in the stands, in a suit, today.

I feel like this has unusual shades of meaning.

xp of sorts: only got home in time for the last ten minutes of that so all I really have to say is that Townsend's assertion that Kane's faint penalty shout was "basically the same" as Lennon getting steamrollered by Perez two minutes later is literally the worst piece of football commentary I have ever heard

One meaning: he was scared of confronting the other manager?

Avoiding jesus for spite

Eriksen was good in the 15 minutes or so that he was on the pitch.

Napoli goal there was a thing of beauty.

sherwood is just a really erratic and increasingly bitter dude

Can hear the San Paolo from my balcony which isn't normal, they're absolutely going for it tonight. Been quite impressed with Higuain's game tonight, he's played some nice passes

amazing goal from quaresma

It is genuinely fucking insulting to football that Sherwood put Eriksen on the bench with that lot, even if didn't expect to win, or indeed care about doing so.

Sherwood is a "Stones Roses reunion of a football manager"

I have been three-quarter-baking a theory for quite some time regarding English football discourse, post-punk rockwrite and British mistrust of technique and technical know-how. Mostly centred around how damaging it is for both. In the course of this theory Sherwood isn't even a Stone Roses reunion, he's the fucking Courteeners or something.

I didn't see a second of the game, I just don't care enough any more. I think I need a break from football, build some enthusiasm back for the World Cup.

that mistrust of technique isn't nearly as pervasive as mistrust of the idea

technical parsimony as a virtue in english football more closely parallels the immiserated ambitions of landfill indie (no technique since no need for technique) rather than the ideological, wilfullly shambolic and unvirtuosic anti-rockist lineage of green gartside and postpunk rockcrit

:) that's all truth but you're a bugger for over-articulating it

tbf i was offering 2-1 on Spurs or the draw throughout the last 10 minutes

in other words the cretinism of Townswend will be tomorrow's narrative but really u had 75 minutes of Benfica dominance, a flash of individual skillz from Chadli, 5 mins of Benfica getting rattled then business as per

tim sherwood's appointment and tenure is slightly fascinating, although as well as the reactionary elements there is a transcendent aspect of passion and belief and determination, and it appeals to people (see the barney ronay column that compares his tottenham to an early 90s EPL team like that was a good thing)

it might be nonsense but amidst sherwood's abundant cynicism and perfidy it's nonetheless something he believes in, it's apparent in all of those 110%isms, outdesiring to use sherwood's own term, the idea that desire can be a multiplier as much as tactics

english football culture retains a capacity for distinctiveness that doesn't work so well when extrapolated -- english people tend to overstate their separateness from other european nations (and that might include even something as acute as p anderson's 'element of the national culture' as much as yr usual tabloid remedials)

i think the 'technique' thing is over-egged and that the problems lies with the attitudes towards coaching and the jobs for the boys mentality.

fair. early this evening i was pondering what "desire" might look like filtered thru technical competency - it isn't a redundant quality and it's hard to imagine a world-level successful team that hasn't demonstatred it - the ubiquitousness of "wanting it" shd offer an easy dismissal to proponents of tactics tho

sorry, xp

"technique" is only over-egged in the sense that default pundit mentality in the UK wants to downplay it despite decades of evidence to the contrary

i think the 'technique' thing is over-egged and that the problems lies with the attitudes towards coaching and the jobs for the boys mentality.

― Chris, Friday, 21 March 2014 00:19 (2 minutes ago)

that is closer to the truth, even in their own nation the deficit of most british coaches with respect to foreign ones is huge, certainly greater than the technical limitations of domestic players compared to imports

liverpool are in lethal form fielding 7/11 british players, largely the same players that laboured like wastemen under a tactical naif like dalglish but are quite capable of playing quick, refined counterattacking football when educated properly

sherwood getting that job unqualified was a fucking joke, but not a surprise. and the likes of kevin nolan have the cheek to say that players should be fast-tracked, when the odds are massively in their favour anyway. they even get assessed differently to the non-ex-players. "You’ve got to take time out of your scheduled six weeks at the end of the season to do the badges – it’s not as if you can get off work for a couple of weeks. I’ve got to bite the bullet and do it. But telling your missus you’ve got to go away for two weeks doesn’t go down to well when you’ve been away most of the year." Boo fucking hoo.

sorry for soiling the europa thread

whom will kevin nolan manage

rochdale

i suppose those in glass divisions shdnt pelt but we've chosen the way of european short-passing sophistication, or something. feeling weirdly optimistic about charlton despite our heart being ripped out, or so the story goes

good comments

sadly unlike most people on ILX I don't like the ideological, wilfullly shambolic and unvirtuosic anti-rockist lineage of green gartside and postpunk rockcrit.

(well I like lots of pop writing. But I don't really like 'postpunk' or Scritti Politti)

glad to see Sherwood's perfidy noted above

I meant post-punk in the strictly temporal "after punk" sense rather than post-punk itself. I might take this to another thread though.

AZ v Benfica
Lyon v Juventus
Basel v Valencia
Porto v Sevilla

kinda bummed that Napoli and Salzburg went out last night. Salzburg's performance vs Ajax in the round of 32 was one of the best I've seen this season. Could get with a Benfica-Juve final.

The whole "commitment" and "desire" lads-gave-me-100-percent-and-I-can't-fault-their-attitude stuff does my head. The most desire and commitment I've ever seen from a team is peak Barcelona under Guardiola. Their desire to score and create and most importantly to get the ball back in forward areas was frightening to behold - I kept counting them because it looked like they had extra players. That's nothing like this Real England shite where desire basically means going hard through cunts who are better than you and squaring up like it was their fault and occasionally pointing and shouting at people.

Sherwood being quoted as saying that other Prem teams will have seen Tottenham's performance last night and won't fancy playing them. Were they really that good?

hahahs

I suspected as much

think i said upthread - a great opportunist goal from Chadli initiated a 10 minute ripple in Benfica's game plan but for the rest of the match they were running it at will imo

Sherwood is saying that with all the conviction of a dude who just got dumped telling himself that he could have any woman he wanted.

in other words the cretinism of Townswend will be tomorrow's narrative but really u had 75 minutes of Benfica dominance, a flash of individual skillz from Chadli, 5 mins of Benfica getting rattled then business as per

― fhingerbhangra (Noodle Vague)

this is absolutely 100% correct and claims otherwise need teeth kicked out

Good luck to Jibe's boys tonight vs Juventus. Judging from what I saw of them vs St Etienne at the weekend they're gonna need it. Tho' the goal they scored was class and I kinda love Lacazette. See if ITV are even showing this.

thx pandemic. i missed the first half, saw the second with a friend and quickly enough it felt like i'd get to enjoy the usual lyon performance in european cups, the hundredth reenactment of "we were so close but lost it in the final minutes". i really wasn't hoping for much seeing as half our starting players are injured (bisevac, grenier, gourcuff, lopes, as well as his replacement dabo), and others just came back from injury for this game (umtiti, who was uncertain until today, bedimo who returned from injury against st étienne this weekend). when i saw it was still 0-0 at the half i really wanted to believe. oh well, same old sameold for lyon i guess, they really need to figure out why half the team is always injured, it's a real problem.

meanwhile, nice job basel, they really do seem to thrive in the europa league after last year's semfinal (iirc?).

oh btw, right now the teams that look more likely to qualify for the semifinals are juventus, benfica, porto and basel. all teams that were in the group stages of the champions league. i really hate this stupid rule that brings 3rd place teams from the CL group stages to the europa league.

Yes, the rule is terrible and wrong.

This is the last year of it I think?

Yep, it's a bad rule but i suspect ending it will make things much less competitive. There would only have been about six teams in with a shot of winning it, rather than a dozen or so when the CL group gets dropped in.

Quaresma's cross for the Porto goal yesterday was a beauty.

Ismael, you sure that this is the last year of this? if true, then thank god, finally !
ShariVari, it might make things slightly less competitive sure. but only 6 teams in it with a shot of winning it is still probably more than you can say for the CL year after year. i'm really starting to like the europa league a lot more than the champions league, which is boringly predictable until the quarter finals more or less.

I had thought so, but I can't find proof and it seems the parachute is still there next year. The EL winners do qualify for the CL from next year though, so everyone should take it more seriously at least.

also, and this is coming from a lyon fan, my team has absolutely no chance to win the CL and even in their best days not so long ago they never stood a chance. whereas in the europa league, they could maybe win it based on group stage teams. a lot less likely ifyou face CL teams who really have no reason to be there, who see this as some lame consolation prize or whatever.

xp oh didn't know about qualifying for the CL if you win, that's a good idea

Sevilla looking pretty good atm.

Three nil up now.

Valencia also three nil up, squaring the tie.

5-0 aet, that's one hell of a turnaround

dammit, i'm going to start believing i'm bad luck for lyon. last week i started watching the game, lyon seemed to be dominating and then they just broke down and gave upa stupid goal 15mns later. today i start watching during the second half, see lyon is tied 1-1 with juve, they are dominating. 15 mns later juve score another shitty goal.
tbh i had very little hope of seeing them beat juve to go through but man it felt so close

ya im the same way with spurs this past ooooo twenty yearn

God this ITV commentator's intro to the game is some sub-Peter Drury gunk.

1-0 Benfica after 2 mins

useless from Bonucci

That goal looked much better than it was. Great camera angle at the Stadium of Light, I think that's it.

yah love seeing so much of the pitch. Proper view from highish seats on the halfway line feel to it.

They deserve that. EL latter stages pwning the CL as usual.

ooh, whatta hit

Benfica suddenly rampant after half-an-hour on the ropes

This is a cracking game

caught the second half, pleasingly frantic end w/ lima's bolt from the blue, feels like a proper semi final

Half-an-hour to go in Turin, nil-nil, really loud, teeming down; Juventus need a goal, have been absurdly close a number of times, but are starting to leave gaps for Benfica at the back. Pretty much ideal circumstances for football imo.

Benfica red.

What a pair of morons

Did you see what they did to deserve that?

ooooooooooooouch

Vucinic seemed to talk himself into it, it looked like the ref only wanted a word at first. No idea with Markovic.

ow, pisser for Valencia

Can't believe that Markovic has cost himself a place in the final like that. Rowing on the bench with Vucinic. Juve p uninspired although tevez and vidal were good.

Glad Emery has stuck it to Valencia.

Jorge Jesus gets points for annoying Sherwood so beautifully but the curse is funny and I like Emery and Rakitic so Sevilla all the way.

hardly ever watch the europa league, not that it doesnt have some interesting games but thursday is or ought to be like a sabbatarian repose from fitba on every other damn day

not sure who i want to win this, whoever plays better fitba which will probably be benfica

This game not going as I expected. Sevilla having far more of the play than I predicted.

only turned on 30 minutes in but the pace is p relentless, can't see either team maintaining it for the second half

is there any aspect of european culture more thoroughly dominated by the latin countries, their football has almost outstripped their pre-eminence in viticulture

the occasional rakitic or modric or ibrahimovic in their teams is like a rare, exceptional concession to the rule

that was a great minute

sevilla leaving themselves man-on-man at the back

second half off to a good start, lots of chances

a sub warming up just stepped on the field for a penalty shout, that was weird, is that allowed?

this game is amazing. so many last ditch tackles.

reyes should have finished that

rakitic is lovely

This is frenetic

Ooof

Ooooof

im not really watching this but i have it on a window on my laptop and every time i glance at it something silly is happening

its def not an unai emery sort of game, he prefers things to be more controlled than this

maybe more of a jorge jesus game, he has a bit of anarchy about him

ah one of chelsea's 400 players

maxi p. has been terrific

open goal more or less

i want extra time, no late goals plz

extra time of matches like this is usually just a lot of people with cramp trying not to do anything

yeah true, it already feels like sevilla are slowing down

not sure marin has touched the ball since he came on

never seen marin do anything, he is probably the shittest person to be compared even ironically to messi

classic mbia there

lol

Tough game

that ball from rakitic!!!!!!!

holy shit that rakitic pass !

should never miss the target there

I applaud the effort tbh

Lol Marin

hahaha

that's brutal

hahaha removing marin...

Merko

emery and that jacket cannot win this

lol smh sherwood describing the rakitic pass as "smashes it ahht"

bodies laid out everywhere

the carnage of extra-time

seen rakitic miss a few pens this season

wait did rakitic just let benifica take the first pen??

terrible decision statistically speaking

iirc 60% of teams going first win

Could tell he was going to miss.

hahaha that idiotic kick by cardozo

retake surely?

beto miles of his line but cardozo deserved it for that shite.

hate when refs allow that. dudek excepted

mbia lol

And again.

how the fuck does the 3 refs not see that

Maybe itll work next time

sevilla's pens have been mint tbf

sevilla players are all thumping the ball in, benfica should take note rather than go for those lame shots

Fuckin bump never gonna happen thread for rodrigo

Nine European finals in a row lost since 1962.

great pens

cursed

Sevilla's pens were all alpha as fuck

like when an original europa team wins rather than cl drop-out

lol xp

benfica couldnt even get past a beto

pleased to see those stupid stuttering runups fail

speaking statistically that sub-Aldridge faux-jinky runup must have such poorer results than any other recognised way of approaching a spotkick

lol good penalty, now back to Loftus Road with you Stephane

couldn't care less about goalies stepping off their line if the taker's gonna try that wait-and-see bollix, seems like a fair enough response really

if the keeper doesn't take the bait the kicker should just stop. at worst get a yellow card, and then take the kick properly.

if a player is sent off while taking a penalty, but before striking the ball, is the penalty considered missed?

YOU ARE THE REF

no, someone else takes it?

which one of those alpha sevilla players was wearing a fedoria