.......................Team Annah..................................................................Team SirAF..........................................
British + Irish Draft: Annah vs Sir AF(Group B)
- Thread starter crappycraperson
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Don't know if it's just the way the graphic is set up...but having those 3 central mids so close together just looks off putting.
And the comment about Gerrard and Giggs breaking forward...seems like they're both running at the same corner.
And the comment about Gerrard and Giggs breaking forward...seems like they're both running at the same corner.
I absolutely love this comment btw. Completely nonchalant
Aye, it looks very peculiar. Based on what happened last match, I'd go for something like this:
It means dropping Baines - but I think it's clearly worth it. Throw Lineker (or Hurst, if one prefers that) on for added goal threat, play Starfish in a free role to the right - and the rest is what it has to be.
Btw Sansom at rb?
Aye. Not an obvious choice. I'm not sure, actually, but he may have deputized on the right for Arsenal at times - or played there as a youngster (he came from Palace, I think - maybe he played RB for them). But he is obviously first and foremost known as a left back - both for Arsenal and England.
I absolutely love this comment btw. Completely nonchalant
Don't take this too hard @SirAF.. first drafts are hard.
I would suggest you follow this draft till the end, will give you a lot of pointers.I'm getting destroyed!
Cheers, I'll be back with a vengeance in the next one
BTW, are those England shirts Annah's boys are wearing? That's asking for trouble - Leighton's boiling back there, I can imagine. He'll let Fergie grab a goal or two just to spite the manager, I reckon.
Will do.
They are. Oh boy, @Annahnomoss dropped a bollock here, almost half of his team looks seriously pissed off at their own manager and doesn't care about the game at all. No way, he's gonna win that match.
I'm following your example here - Annah really can't get away with this outrage: Until he changes them shirts, I'm changin' my vote.
Fergie4eva!
Samson was primarily a left back but he played more than a couple of matches - he played an entire season as a right back. He was left footed, but here I don't want him overlapping Stanley Matthews I prefer him remaining deep as my opponent has Giggs on the left as well as Gerrard who seems like he'd want to push forward.
I will have Ron Burgess on the left, who was capable as a wide midfielder, supporting Best on the left in a Di Maria role.
There will be holes left behind Giggs and Gerrard when they attack and it means Sir Stanley Matthews, arguably the best dribbler ever, will get to be 1 vs 1 with Baines. On the other side Best is in a free role, but he'll be likely to spend quite a while out wide as he's just up against Jardine who even if he's a great defender would have trouble if he's not getting a lot of help.
Especially when Burgess decides to bomb forward in to that space.
For the Arse? When was that? Can't say I remember it, but then - as I like to repeat, so I won't forget it - my memory ain't all that.
My team specifically asked me to get that legendary shirt of '99 from that brilliant team that beat those Germans in the final. I figured it must have been England and I must say the team looks on fire today.
Those look like England shirts though, not United
Goalkeeper is wearing same kit as outfield players. Surely a violation there.
They are England shirts.Those look like England shirts though, not United
Like they wanted.If your pre-match team talk is as confusing as this conversation, your team really is lostThey are England shirts.
Or you are so cocky.. you're playing Leighton as some sort of sweeper/rush goalie.. no one is in goal. I fancy O'Shea to pull off a couple of Beckham/Alonso style 70 yarders into the back of the net.
Bill Nicholson, who would later manage Blanchflower among others at Tottenham, was the one who devised Englands plan against Brazil in the 1958 World cup. Neither Garrincha nor Pele were yet playing, but the Brazilians were still a forbidding opponent. Nicholson's tactic meant playing the right back Don Howe in a central defensive position and using the wing half Bill Slater to stay tight on Didi.(Voted player of the tournament, arguably the best playmaking CM in history).
This freed up Eddie Clamp, his Wolves colleague to attack up the touchline like a wing back. The plan worked well, and England should maybe even have won it through a penalty which wasn't given when Brazils captain Hilderaldo Bellini seemed clearly to have foul Derek Kevan in the box. But a 0-0 draw was a great result as it meant a win versus Austria would put them through.
Bill Slater stuck to Didi like proverbial glue: "I rather enjoyed playing as an attacking wing half normally(club side), but I had to discipline myself not to let him make their game, as it were. He was their playmaker so I just marked him as tightly as I could."
Bill Slaters road to the national team was sad as he had replaced Duncan Edwards after the disaster. "In a sense you didn't welcome getting in the team on that basis, but once you're in the game these things just don't strike you. Perhaps after the game you might think a little about it."
This freed up Eddie Clamp, his Wolves colleague to attack up the touchline like a wing back. The plan worked well, and England should maybe even have won it through a penalty which wasn't given when Brazils captain Hilderaldo Bellini seemed clearly to have foul Derek Kevan in the box. But a 0-0 draw was a great result as it meant a win versus Austria would put them through.
Bill Slater stuck to Didi like proverbial glue: "I rather enjoyed playing as an attacking wing half normally(club side), but I had to discipline myself not to let him make their game, as it were. He was their playmaker so I just marked him as tightly as I could."
Bill Slaters road to the national team was sad as he had replaced Duncan Edwards after the disaster. "In a sense you didn't welcome getting in the team on that basis, but once you're in the game these things just don't strike you. Perhaps after the game you might think a little about it."
As this is quiet and I am reading some "books" from his managers and himself, I'll try to remove the part about his life and the story outside the football pitch in general. Can't directly quote anything, so have to write it all.
"With renewed vigour and confidence in himself Danny[Blanchflower] saw out the season with Barnsley, playing some of his finest football to date. Where he had always excelled going forward, his defensive game was now improving. In a game against Hull he came up against Raich Carter, The Barnsley Chronicles reported: "This was a shadow of the real Raich Carter, the Hull player-manager. The man who made the magic in the master's foot look miserably mediocrity was Blanchflower. When he was not checking a raid by Carter and company, he was prompting his forwards with a series of passes that traveled as smooth as the waters of Lough Neagh, near his native Belfast."
Michael Parkinson wrote about the glorious impact Danny had on his teammates and Gavin Smith, the outside right. "Danny would point, Gavin would gallop and at the precise moment he most wanted the ball, it would arrive in his path, perfectly weighted and so inviting it should have been edged in gilt."
"If others didn't need the early guidance[to make it as a top player] that Danny gave Maurice Norman, his leadership on the field helped later signings like Cliff Jones, John White, Les Allen and even Jimmy Greaves make the most of their ability"
He was one of the greatest tacticians of all time and as a player and captain he often made match winning tactical switches to counter the opponent managers game-plan. In a game versus West Ham at 3-1 down, he decided to send his last defender up on the corner kicks as he realized their presence was something West Ham struggled with during the game - which made for a great late equalizer. Things of the ordinary for Danny who thought he just did the job as a captain for his team when the newspapers lauded him with complements for being a genius of a footballing general. For Northern Ireland it was the same story as the manager Peter Doherty gave him the go ahead to make on field changes as he thought necessary.
"The biggest problem facing Spurs was the treatment Villa were giving Blanchflower. The Villa manager, Joe Mercer had decided to put Blanchflower out of the game" by man marking him. Some Tottenham players wouldn't pass to Danny as he was so tightly marked." Danny saw an opportunity to make man marking him in to something positive. "I took my Shadow back in to his own defense and advised[teammate] John White to exploit the space I created".
At half time Danny brought it up again to the entire team and asked why they wouldn't give him the ball.Tthe defenders replied that "You're marked" what to Danny replied "That is what Villa wants. You are doing their job for them! The solution is push-and-run, we're supposed to be good at that aren't we?[That Tottenham is known as the push-and-run team for excelling in that regard].
Give the ball to me, and I'll knock it back to you and you'll go on with it - not even a shadow is faster than a wall pass, thought Danny. In the second half Tottenham went on to dominate and win the game and the Villa marker got upset as their whole plan fell apart.
Towards his peak he was a very complete deep lying playmaker[He was extremely mobile and would after he sent the ball forward move towards it to continue and influence the game], capable of winning matches on his own with perfect performances. "Against Leicester, the adventurous Irish genius rewarded the small crowd for their loyal support by giving them a taste of the glory a team can inspire to when driven by one of the greatest wing halfs in the world.
He played like a man possessed, controlling the greasy ball as if it were attached to his boots by a piece of strings, stepping over the slippery pitch, spraying the ball around with uncanny accuracy. He won every tackle, every challenge, every fight for possession. He was playing this match for one man: Danny Blanchflower."
"With renewed vigour and confidence in himself Danny[Blanchflower] saw out the season with Barnsley, playing some of his finest football to date. Where he had always excelled going forward, his defensive game was now improving. In a game against Hull he came up against Raich Carter, The Barnsley Chronicles reported: "This was a shadow of the real Raich Carter, the Hull player-manager. The man who made the magic in the master's foot look miserably mediocrity was Blanchflower. When he was not checking a raid by Carter and company, he was prompting his forwards with a series of passes that traveled as smooth as the waters of Lough Neagh, near his native Belfast."
Michael Parkinson wrote about the glorious impact Danny had on his teammates and Gavin Smith, the outside right. "Danny would point, Gavin would gallop and at the precise moment he most wanted the ball, it would arrive in his path, perfectly weighted and so inviting it should have been edged in gilt."
"If others didn't need the early guidance[to make it as a top player] that Danny gave Maurice Norman, his leadership on the field helped later signings like Cliff Jones, John White, Les Allen and even Jimmy Greaves make the most of their ability"
He was one of the greatest tacticians of all time and as a player and captain he often made match winning tactical switches to counter the opponent managers game-plan. In a game versus West Ham at 3-1 down, he decided to send his last defender up on the corner kicks as he realized their presence was something West Ham struggled with during the game - which made for a great late equalizer. Things of the ordinary for Danny who thought he just did the job as a captain for his team when the newspapers lauded him with complements for being a genius of a footballing general. For Northern Ireland it was the same story as the manager Peter Doherty gave him the go ahead to make on field changes as he thought necessary.
"The biggest problem facing Spurs was the treatment Villa were giving Blanchflower. The Villa manager, Joe Mercer had decided to put Blanchflower out of the game" by man marking him. Some Tottenham players wouldn't pass to Danny as he was so tightly marked." Danny saw an opportunity to make man marking him in to something positive. "I took my Shadow back in to his own defense and advised[teammate] John White to exploit the space I created".
At half time Danny brought it up again to the entire team and asked why they wouldn't give him the ball.Tthe defenders replied that "You're marked" what to Danny replied "That is what Villa wants. You are doing their job for them! The solution is push-and-run, we're supposed to be good at that aren't we?[That Tottenham is known as the push-and-run team for excelling in that regard].
Give the ball to me, and I'll knock it back to you and you'll go on with it - not even a shadow is faster than a wall pass, thought Danny. In the second half Tottenham went on to dominate and win the game and the Villa marker got upset as their whole plan fell apart.
Towards his peak he was a very complete deep lying playmaker[He was extremely mobile and would after he sent the ball forward move towards it to continue and influence the game], capable of winning matches on his own with perfect performances. "Against Leicester, the adventurous Irish genius rewarded the small crowd for their loyal support by giving them a taste of the glory a team can inspire to when driven by one of the greatest wing halfs in the world.
He played like a man possessed, controlling the greasy ball as if it were attached to his boots by a piece of strings, stepping over the slippery pitch, spraying the ball around with uncanny accuracy. He won every tackle, every challenge, every fight for possession. He was playing this match for one man: Danny Blanchflower."
Forgot about this earlier today - but which season were you referring to, @Annahnomoss, when Sansom played at RB consistently?
Was it for Palace or the Arse? I was trying to remember who Arsenal sported at fullback in the 80s: Now, Sansom arrived in '80, I think - and he took over the LB slot from Sammy Nelson. My man, Pat Rice, left the same year - and Viv Anderson didn't arrive until '83 (or thereabouts), so there are two-three seasons there which I can't quite account for in terms of who played RB. Devine did play RB for them, I know that, but how regularly he featured I'm not sure (he could play elsewhere too).
But the main point would be that Sansom seems to have grabbed that LB slot from the start. He became a regular for England around the same time (got his first cap as early as '79) and he never played anything but LB for England, as far as I know: There was Neal and Mills at RB, then Viv got some games (never featured in an actual tournament but played a great deal in qualifiers), then Stevens came along.
So, in short - when did he feature at RB for a full season, and for whom?
Was it for Palace or the Arse? I was trying to remember who Arsenal sported at fullback in the 80s: Now, Sansom arrived in '80, I think - and he took over the LB slot from Sammy Nelson. My man, Pat Rice, left the same year - and Viv Anderson didn't arrive until '83 (or thereabouts), so there are two-three seasons there which I can't quite account for in terms of who played RB. Devine did play RB for them, I know that, but how regularly he featured I'm not sure (he could play elsewhere too).
But the main point would be that Sansom seems to have grabbed that LB slot from the start. He became a regular for England around the same time (got his first cap as early as '79) and he never played anything but LB for England, as far as I know: There was Neal and Mills at RB, then Viv got some games (never featured in an actual tournament but played a great deal in qualifiers), then Stevens came along.
So, in short - when did he feature at RB for a full season, and for whom?
When they brought in Winterburn, Sansom switched over and played on the right instead in 87-88. Made his name as a left back, but certainly capable of playing on the right as well. Is it the overlapping Kenny at his peak? Definitely not. On the right as expected by a left footer he'd play it more conservative and defensive.
Which is what I want here, a right back who will help defend against Gerrard and Giggs and help the three man defense on that side as the other doesn't have much threat.
Are you sure about this? As far as I can recall, it was the other way around: Winterburn played right back in his first season for 'em, then switched when Sansom moved on and Dixon arrived.
What Wiki says and PES Stats supports this. Will check for more sources on it to see if I can find more precise facts on the matter.
We could ask Storey.
EDIT Hang on - here it is:
EDIT Hang on - here it is:
Seen it previously, but there is the claim of the opposite and Sansom definitely wasn't a reserve in 87-88 as he had 34 starts in the league alone. Hopefully Storey will know more.
True enough, but we're talking about the season after that here, i.e. the 1988-89 season (he left in December '88): Winterburn arrived in the summer of '87, playing RB in the 1987-88 season (with Sansom at LB). Dixon arrived in the January window, 1988, and became a regular at RB from the 1988-89 season onwards, with Winterburn moving to LB and demoting Sansom - who then left halfway through that season (88-89).
That's how I read it - and it's how I remember the Winterburn thing too: Him and Dixon establishing themselves as a famous fullback pair was an important part of the success story that season - which ended with Arsenal winning the league (the Michael Thomas goal and all that).
Fair enough. Will look in to it closer for the next games!
Aye - it hardly matters in this one. Have a word with Storey or some other gooner who's been around for a while - they'll remember this better than me.
Boring fecks, I thought we had something going there giving Annah a scare over the use of England shirts. And rightly so!