The Square Ball

The Square Ball • Re: PREDICTIONS: NORWICH (A) 21/10/14 19.45PM

2014-10-20T14:29:33+00:00

2-0 Leeds
Antenucci
Adryan

Statistics: Posted by Ponte — Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:29 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Fantasy Football 14/15 - details in OP

2014-10-20T14:14:20+00:00

It's tempting to splurge on Aguero but from experience I know it's a fool's errand to chase last week's points.

My transfers have been excellent this season but my substitutions awful.

Statistics: Posted by Tommy — Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:14 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Mickey Apples Appreciation Thread aka The Sack Race

2014-10-20T14:12:49+00:00

With hindsight it's disappointing that we didn't beat them.

Statistics: Posted by Tommy — Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:12 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T14:12:17+00:00

He's visibly frustrated in interviews, seems as though he senses the wolf at the door.

Statistics: Posted by Tommy — Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:12 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Mickey Apples Appreciation Thread aka The Sack Race

2014-10-20T13:31:06+00:00

Birmingham's Lee Clark has got the chop. Unfortunate for Moscow, who enjoyed us making him cry.

Statistics: Posted by topbin — Mon Oct 20, 2014 1:31 pm

The Square Ball • Re: t'premiership

2014-10-20T13:15:11+00:00

the flying pig wrote:
I chuckled http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/29683379

Always trying to throw the blame elsewhere that cunt, bookies have him odds on to be next for the boot

http://sports.williamhill.com/bet/en-gb ... Leave.html

Never been a wheeler dealer though

Statistics: Posted by welshwhite — Mon Oct 20, 2014 1:15 pm

The Square Ball • Re: PREDICTIONS: NORWICH (A) 21/10/14 19.45PM

2014-10-20T13:09:32+00:00

Norwich City 2

Leeds United 0

Statistics: Posted by Mr Reality — Mon Oct 20, 2014 1:09 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Fantasy Football 14/15 - details in OP

2014-10-20T13:05:14+00:00

costa's injury [only officially confirmed by the time it was too late for anyone not permanently glued to the ff site to change their team] got me so angry that i unthinkingly transferred both him & raheem sterling [partly inspired by all the tiredgate nonsense] out, losing all the holding gains i'd made on both.

bah.

Statistics: Posted by the flying pig — Mon Oct 20, 2014 1:05 pm

The Square Ball • Re: t'premiership

2014-10-20T13:02:19+00:00

topbin wrote:
Yeah, £25m for a terraced house? Fuck. That.

yeah, i mean, in london terraced housing is just so much the norm that it's not at all surprising to see that most of the most expensive places are terraced.

but, yeah, £25m for that place, which is £3.5k per squ foot, is a bit... mental.

http://search.knightfrank.co.uk/knq151645

it's also rentable for £15k per week, if that rate is available for relatively short term lets then the implied gross rental yield of 3.1% is insanely low, & suggestive of, well, the fact that almost all property within certain London postcodes has become more of a store of wealth for foreigners than anything more useful.

Statistics: Posted by the flying pig — Mon Oct 20, 2014 1:02 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T12:49:36+00:00

eric olthwaite wrote:
“It was difficult and we were under pressure but not every game is like this.

What, so is Darko just saying that every time we face a team who play like Rotherham, we're going to lose?

Yeah, that was a particularly dim comment. I'm hoping his real meaning was lost inside the translation going on in his head. He can't be that stoopid, Shirley?

Statistics: Posted by dirty leeds — Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:49 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T12:44:31+00:00

MightyWhite wrote:
welshwhite wrote:Our next two games are Norwich and Wolves, I would not bet a single penny on us getting anything out of those two games 'hope to be proven wrong of course'.

If we do get fuck all then Darko would have taken 2 points out of 18.

He's not going to survive that.

I expect us to get something at home to Wolves

If for some miracle we were to get a win and a draw out of those two tough games it would still only be 6 points out of 18 for Darko.

Not good enough for the crazy President methinks.

Statistics: Posted by welshwhite — Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:44 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T12:41:37+00:00

It's easy to sniff at the way teams like Brentford and Rotherham play but we have to work out how to get results against that sort of team or we're going nowhere. There are no moral victories in football and our football isn't that pretty in the first place.

Statistics: Posted by Tommy — Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:41 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T12:30:30+00:00

gazurtoids wrote:
Hmmm.

It's really not so long ago that we were all deriding Neil-the-Hoofosaurus for his agricultural Cornwall & Tractors football and now there are many grumblings, seemingly, against a lack of pragmatic Div-2-appropriate directness from Darko-the-Diamond-Geezer.

Well, I think the point is...

the flying pig wrote:
though it's easy to get into false dichotomies in these discussions.

See, 'hoofball' seems to connote some notion of Wimbledon, c.'88. But that's a bit of a simplistic and unfair view of the way Rotherham played us. Personally, I don't have any great philosophical objection to the notion of short passes to feet whilst in possession, but if you don't have the players with the technical ability to use such a technique to move the ball past the opposition midfield whilst they're are being effectively pressed, you're fucked, essentially.

“It was difficult and we were under pressure but not every game is like this.

What, so is Darko just saying that every time we face a team who play like Rotherham, we're going to lose?

All I'd like to see is a manager who, when faced with a particular situation, changes things around to make it hard for the particular opposition on the specific occasion. Not one who says, 'Fuck off, this is how we play and I'm not changing for anyone'.

Statistics: Posted by eric olthwaite — Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:30 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T12:30:01+00:00

welshwhite wrote:
Our next two games are Norwich and Wolves, I would not bet a single penny on us getting anything out of those two games 'hope to be proven wrong of course'.

If we do get fuck all then Darko would have taken 2 points out of 18.

He's not going to survive that.

I expect us to get something at home to Wolves

Statistics: Posted by MightyWhite — Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:30 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T12:28:00+00:00

Our next two games are Norwich and Wolves, I would not bet a single penny on us getting anything out of those two games 'hope to be proven wrong of course'.

If we do get fuck all then Darko would have taken 2 points out of 18.

He's not going to survive that.

Statistics: Posted by welshwhite — Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:28 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T12:21:07+00:00

Thinking back to the many teams who have comprehensively beaten us on their way to promotion since we've been in the Championship, one thing they all had in common was they had lots of different ways of scoring past us. We seem to have one and it only works some of the time. Maybe one day it will work more often but as has been said, Cellino isn't a man renowned for his patience and we run the risk of losing key players every season we don't achieve promotion.

As I've said we look a bit like a decent late 90s European side of the sort I'd see lose to less cultured but more direct English sides in the European cups. The potential is there and it's nice when it does click but alas, the system we're employing will probably always be undone by good League One sides like Brentford and Rotherham but probably also by the recently relegated Premiership sides who are used to dealing with the marginally smarter football of the upper tier. We'll probably continue to do alright against the middling Championship sides but that's not enough points for us to get a top six finish.

It's frustrating because Cellino, Salerno and Redfearn have collectively produced a squad that seems capable of great things but what we're missing now is a good manager given sufficient time to instil a style and ethos to produce the results we need to mount a credible promotion challenge. Maybe Milanic is that man but early signs aren't particularly promising and I'm not sure he'll survive much longer given the testing fixtures before the new year arrives.

Statistics: Posted by Tommy — Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:21 pm

The Square Ball • Re: PREDICTIONS: NORWICH (A) 21/10/14 19.45PM

2014-10-20T12:10:21+00:00

Norwich 1 Leeds 1

Adryan

Statistics: Posted by Proud to be Leeds — Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:10 pm

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T11:37:28+00:00

It'll take us a while to adapt to being a passing team, but I'd say we have a better chance of doing it now we have some decently skilled players on the books. Sam/Berardi/Bellusci/Warnock/Cook/Mowatt/Bianchi/Antenucci/Adryan ought to be capable of doing it at this level. Doukara was great against Bournemouth but hasn't been that good since. Patience is what we need. Patience is what we probably won't get.
I agree with Gaz - developing a passing team into one that can be more direct sometimes or faster on the transition is the way to go. Maybe Darko can do this. I don't know.

Is there a stream for tomorrow night's match? A vid stream, I mean.

Statistics: Posted by dirty leeds — Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:37 am

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T11:33:12+00:00

Imagine how Wilko's direct style would be greeted!

Statistics: Posted by Ponte — Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:33 am

The Square Ball • Re: Rovrum cyberkop....

2014-10-20T11:27:14+00:00

Tommy wrote:
If a scintillating cross from the left flank like the one Mowatt curved onto Smith's head last season against Brum is hoofball can we please play hoofball at least sometimes?

It's interesting reading stuff coaches have to come up with to defend Cellino's diamond formation. I recall Hockaday's was some piffle about how the days of wingers standing out on the flanks waiting to receive the ball are long gone. When you watch the best teams in the world, they play down the flanks and score from crosses all the time. It's nonsense.

Yes, they play down the flanks, but they don't necessarily have dedicated players to stand on them.

Hockaday's argument was daft only because it seemed to be predicated on the idea that people wanted Stanley Matthews 1950s-style touchline-huggers. Teams do have wide players but he was essentially correct that out-and-out wingers are a relative rarity these days. I don't think that can be denied.

We need to play with width but we don't necessarily need wingers.

That Brum goal was one of my favourites of last season too but Smith isn't here anymore. Is Antenucci any good in the air? I have no idea.

Statistics: Posted by gazurtoids — Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:27 am