Football/Soccer 2012/2013 Season Thread

[OVOxo]

So Rooney has revealed in his autobiography that he wants to play midfield when he gets older... interesting

EDIT: Diakite of QPR is suffering from depression and is expected to be out of the side for a long time

EDIT: England at Moldova! Let's get it on!

Also interesting to note:



Dunno if this considers RVP's Man Utd move since it's believed his wages are similar to Rooney's...

[Spriter]

EDIT: This is pretty nifty =o

This is a decent idea actually

Moldova were absolutely hammered last night, 5-0 to the English!

[OVOxo]

Cleverley really impressed me last night; MotM for me.
Götze scored for Germany, was a handy goal too =D

Ronaldo scored and create a number of chances for Portugal, apparently he pretty much got them the win

As I predicted on IRC, Bosnia unleashed havoc. Had no idea they were playing Liechtenstein until I saw the scores though haha

Phil Jones is out for two months

[K.I.O.S]

Sigh another match under Chris Coleman and yet another loss, we've lost our last four games under him not even sure if we've scored yet?

Scotland should've beat Serbia from what I heard?

[OVOxo]

^ You need to drop Collins. He's a walking disaster.

[K.I.O.S]

^Agreed I also don't understand why we played three at the back against Belgium.

[OVOxo]

Belgium only play with one out and out striker generally. There is logic behind it. Allows the wide midfielders to act more as wing backs or options of more holding midfielders (which against the likes of Hazard, Witsel and Fellaini it makes a lot of sense) too. You've also got to remember that Belgium are a really good side with bags of potential. Losing 2-0 when down to 10 men against them isn't really too bad of a result.

[K.I.O.S]

Belgium only play with one out and out striker generally. There is logic behind it. Allows the wide midfielders to act more as wing backs or options of more holding midfielders (which against the likes of Hazard, Witsel and Fellaini it makes a lot of sense) too. You've also got to remember that Belgium are a really good side with bags of potential. Losing 2-0 when down to 10 men against them isn't really too bad of a result.

I'm happy with the fact we only lost 2-0 against a side like Belgium I'm more annoyed by the fact it seems a rather common scoreline with us recently, I would've though with the likes of Hazard playing more of a 4-5-1 or a 5-4-1 would've been more fitting.

[OVOxo]

Three centre backs can almost act as a 5-4-1 rather than a 3-5-2... it's one of those funny situations where people change around. It's not the strongest tactically because you rely on players roaming and having more of an individual influence but it can work. The problem for Wales too is that their lack of strong DMs hurts them; Ramsey is more of a traditional box to box so you need someone stronger in defence to compensate that (perhaps Vaughan? I know he's been injured but he could do the shift I guess. Even then though he's not what I'd call a highly rated player). I guess it's all open to interpretation at the end of the day.

[K.I.O.S]

I wouldn't say we have many decent centre backs either, James Collins is just...meh since he moved to West Ham, Danny Collins is past it as is Gabbidon, Ashley Williams is the only really good centre back we have(with experience) so that's why I don't agree with us playing with 3 at the back. We (Wigan) seem to be able to use it well but that's mostly because we play with 2 wign backs rather than just 2 wide midfeilders coming back for support so that's maybe something wales should look into.

I quite rate David Vaughan for wales he's a really good player and seems to do well in a DM role for us, maybe if we start to play him more we can use mayeb use Ramsey in a more CAM role with him tracking back to the central of midfeild to defend.

I also reckon we need quality finishers Johnson is alright but he can't really score for Norwich let alone Wales, same goes for Earnshaw and Church really.

[OVOxo]

Playing Williams at DM was a massive mistake btw. Your best CB should be played in their prime position.

Ramsey I don't think should be played as a CAM until Allen comes back. Allen would free up Ramsey but until then you need someone to play the role of working both ends effectively.

Who's coming through in the Welsh youth btw? Haven't really had chance to follow their U18s-U21s recently.

[K.I.O.S]

Ashely Williams is a CB?

Agreed I'd like us to wait idealy till Ledley comes back as well that way we have some decent cover on the bench.

I haven't been following it as much as I should but from what I've seen Michael Doughty of QPR, Daniel Alfei of Swansea and Nathaniel Jarvis of Cardiff all seem pretty decent for us, Darius Waters (played for Wigan youth last season and is also a very good mate of mine) is also a good player but is without a club at the moment.

[OVOxo]

Yeah CB or RB. I meant to say it was a mistake to play him at DM; it has since been edited =]
But yeah, you need to play him in defence. He's a key player for Wales these days so he needs to be utilised properly.

Wales need to push through some youth tbh, with this current set there just isn't enough and if the youth can be brought up right there's potential. Bale and Ramsey are too examples, granted they're extreme examples but still =P

[K.I.O.S]

Fair enough, if I'm honest I think he should be our captain shows far better leadership qualities than Ramsey in my opinion.

[OVOxo]

I dunno... I can see why Ramsey is captain. Building for the future and all that. Purely because he has been given it he needs that support behind him so it can be a successful reign =]