Roiling football blather

[baboon2004]

Oh well, bad luck Arsenal. Milan really could've been the kings of bottling it had van Persie scored that (relatively) easy chance.

 

[e/y]

Yeah, very proud of the team. The Ox was really great, Kos too. shame we were so comprehensively poor in the 1st leg.

 

[IdleRich]

"but what counts is if a goal has been scored, right? so if you have a player who is really good at finding space and making an ugly, clumsy-looking toe poke (and I think that is a skill, absolutely, see Inzaghi, a fantastic and unfairly maligned footballer) that results in a shot / goal, and another who is equally good at playing gorgeous 30 meter passes that leave defenders on their backsides, aesthetically I would of course like the latter, but their contribution is, I would argue, the same (in purely practical terms, anyway)."

I'm not sure, you might have a player who has played loads of through-balls so you buy him and put him in your team instead of your less successful through-ball player and he gets fewer balls through. Why? Because he could only put through the easy ones and the player you had was better at the harder ones which are what you get in this team.
Also, I don't think it matters for the purposes of this stat whether or not a goal has been scored - it just matters if the ball went through to the striker.

 

[e/y]

I'm not sure, you might have a player who has played loads of through-balls so you buy him and put him in your team instead of your less successful through-ball player and he gets fewer balls through. Why? Because he could only put through the easy ones and the player you had was better at the harder ones which are what you get in this team.

I agree, which is why I think statistics should be used only as one of many factors in evaluating a player. still useful, though.

...

F365:

Some Of Andy's Best Friends/Mothers Are Women
Interesting interview in The Evening Standard with Andy Gray on Tuesday.

Mr Gray discusses some comments or other that he made while working for some TV company or other about some sort of sexism or other.

Anyway, in an effort to prove that he isn't a great big sexist, Gray firstly described his comments (twice) as 'banter', which isn't the best way to get in Mediawatch's good books. Secondly, he offered a few pieces of mitigation.

"I do not see myself as sexist," he said "Not in a million years. I have four daughters and I was brought up by a wonderful mother on her own. She's 91 and is distraught about what happened."

So, thanks to random genetics, he has four daughters, who are all ladies, and through parental necessity, a mother, who is also a lady.

There's more: 'As proof he explains that the rector of the church in Lower Slaughter in Gloucestershire for his third marriage last month was female. "Veronica [James] was fantastic and we had a lovely Church of England wedding. There you are."'

There you are indeed. You'll note that he likes women so much he's married three of them.

We hope that has put all of you who unhappy about Gray's conduct in your places. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

 

[IdleRich]

Ha ha.

As proof he explains that the rector of the church in Lower Slaughter in Gloucestershire for his third marriage last month was female. "Veronica [James] was fantastic and we had a lovely Church of England wedding. There you are."'

But would she have understood the off-side rule?

 

[Phaedo]

anyone watching Barca? football doesnt get much better than this lol

 

[paolo]

The vicar who married my parents used to play for Aston Villa. Can't remember his name but they got married in 1980 so he would have been playing in the 60s/70s. Beat that Gray

 

[e/y]

can't begin to imagine how frustrating it is to play against them in a game like this

Messi made a Valencia centre back cry a few years ago.

 

[yyaldrin]

As a club I think Barcelona is so boring, would hate to be a fan of them.

 

[baboon2004]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/08/liverpool-glen-johnson-luis-suarez

what a fuckwit. sure as a black Liverpool player he's in a horrible situation in terms of the Suarez/Evra affair, but coming out all guns blazing in support of a twat like Suarez makes you look like...a twat.

Barcelona - can you imagine having a season ticket? It would be like actual real entertainment, as opposed to most live football watching, which I have to say is better seen as edited highlights or through the prism of drink. Fans of Arsenal or Tottenham may disagree.

 

[IdleRich]

I suppose it depends on what kind of entertainment you want from football.

 

[baboon2004]

true - maybe it's more about the competition than Barcelona themselves. i think the knockout stages of the Champions' League constitutes far and away the most entertaining competition in football, and perhaps watching Barca dismantle smaller teams in Spain week after week would get dull.

 

[IdleRich]

Well, I don't disagree. I'm personally more of a fan of the beautiful game than I am of turning out on wet weekend along with four other people to watch two non-league teams with players worse than me kick lumps out of each other and slide around in the mud. But I feel guilty about that.

 

[baboon2004]

I dunno if you should feel guilty, it's ok to want to watch the best as in any other discipline. As a Wednesday fan, selling League One football as entertainment seems a bit farfetched to me, and the average/midtable prem games I've attended have been shockingly boring.

Guess at least if you're vying for promotion in league One it has drama value though.

 

[IdleRich]

"As a Wednesday fan, selling League One football as entertainment seems a bit farfetched to me, and the average/midtable prem games I've attended have been shockingly boring."

I dunno. I think that football is played at a higher level than it's ever been and the touch and ability of midtable prem sides is way higher than it would have been twenty years ago or whatever. So if skill levels translate to entertainment that should count for something. We also want drama though which can occur at any level I guess but arguably the very best games are those with drama and skill. I think that the champions league does create the most of that - the only problem is that arguably some of the drama is sucked out of it by the background knowledge that ninety percent of the players are highly-skilled mercenaries who have fuck-all loyalty to the club or connection with the people who pay an arm and a leg to watch them and subsidise their salaries.
To be honest - I'd rather play the game. You can always find the right skill level for you and there's often drama.

 

[Esp]

arguably some of the drama is sucked out of it by the background knowledge that ninety percent of the players are highly-skilled mercenaries who have fuck-all loyalty to the club or connection with the people who pay an arm and a leg to watch them and subsidise their salaries.

This doesnt take anything away from it for me. Players are obviously overpaid in relation to (most of) the rest of society but I dont see club loyalty as a factor. Its not like the fans are particularly loyal to the players if they see a dip in form - look at the difference in attitude to Walcott in the first and second half of the Spurs game.

 

[IdleRich]

"This doesnt take anything away from it for me. Players are obviously overpaid in relation to (most of) the rest of society but I dont see club loyalty as a factor. Its not like the fans are particularly loyal to the players if they see a dip in form - look at the difference in attitude to Walcott in the first and second half of the Spurs game."

Agreed on the last bit for sure. And that was how I always felt about the first bit until relatively recently. It's not the wages I disagree with at such, I guess it's just that I find it hard to care about which randomly assembled group beats another randomly assembled group. What am I supporting - the shirt, the area? I dunno. I'd probably feel different if I'd grown up with an attachment to one of my local teams (born Swindon, grew up near Oxford) but I followed my Dad (a manc) in supporting Manchester United. That's kinda what I was talking about in terms of guilt previously. Perhaps I'd be better off supporting a London team near where I live now but it seems wrong to change.
I do really enjoy playing in two evening sides though and I care a lot more about how they get on than any team on the telly. Which is a shame cos the one I'm gonna play for tonight is locked in a relegation battle with only two wins in seven games.

 

[paolo]

Anyone else follow the Guardian's Secret Footballer? He's (allegedly) a Premiership player with a weekly column, and I think he's ace - http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/series/the-secret-footballer

Also, Robbie Di Matteo 100% win record >>>>>>

 

[IdleRich]

I'd like to know who it is. My friend works on the Guardian but he can't find anything out. I can't think of many prem players I'd credit with that degree of thoughtfulness to be honest.

 

[e/y]

bet it's Paul Doyle.