Anyone else fed up with this rubbish?

Unless you seen the Manchester United, Liverpool game on Saturday you would never have known a game took place. There was little to no mention of the result afterwards or any talk of the performance by either team. Not even the referee got a look-in this week. No, unless you seen the game take place you would have assumed that both teams turned up at Old Trafford, lined up for a handshake and then went home again.

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Balotelli’s latest moment of madness (the ref definitely didn’t see it!)

Another weekend of big matches in the English football calendar and another Monday morning where the football doesn’t make the headlines. Or so it would seem if you picked up a paper or flicked open an English based website to see the face of Manchester City’s bad boy striker, Mario Balotelli staring back at you thanks to his latest run-in with indiscipline. But in this case the incident did have a big impact on the game itself, and it was certainly a relief for it to be something other than the brandishing of fake cards by players, or indeed managers. Balotelli’s stamp on the face of Spurs midfielder Scott Parker — “Scott has a lovely cut on his head,” said his manager, Harry Redknapp — should have seen the City player sent off. As it turned out the referee missed it, Balotelli stayed on, won a penalty and stepped up to convert it and win the game for City. Cue the outrage from Redknapp.

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After a string of poor performances by Liverpool, the pitchforks are out and the torches are being lit. Questions are being asked in some media circles about the purchases made by manager Kenny Dalglish with most of the attention being poured on and almost daily basis via some article or another, onto the shoulders of £35-million man, Andy Carroll. Despite the fact that no player sets his own fee, the likes of Carroll has been joined by Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson as players being hailed as ‘transfer busts’ by the club. Rightly neither of the three have panned out, but for each of them there has been a Luis Enrique, Charlie Adam, Craig Bellamy and Luis Suarez; not to mention the money brought in by the sale of Fernando Torres.

Under Kenny Dalglish’s tenure let’s take a look at his purchases, sales and analyse them by the player age, position, the price paid, whether I’d make the deal again and a reason to be positive about that player going forward.

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Tomorrow afternoon the media will bill the afternoon’s games between Arsenal v Manchester United and Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur as “Revenge Sunday” as both London based sides look to avenge thumping defeats by the two Manchester sides on the same day early this season. United beat Arsenal at home on August 28th 8-2 while City went down to North London and put 5 past Spurs who managed just 1 in reply.

In today’s Times iPad edition there was an article about how teams in the past have responded to a thumping defeat by an opponent in their next game against that team:  Read more»

Dalglish didn’t like what he seen from his team, but deserves the chance to put it right

If there is to be a worse performance by Liverpool this season then I hope I am unable to be in front of a television to watch it. Today’s 3-1 away defeat to Bolton had better be the low point of the season and certainly the last time I have to watch a Liverpool side put forward such a lack of effort or willingness to be in the game. Only Craig Bellamy, Steven Gerrard and the ever dependable Pepe Reina can hold their heads high on the club bus ride back up to Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish knows it having threatened after the game to wield the axe of change on anyone not properly focused.

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Adidas have long been associated with Liverpool. They were there at the tail end of the glory days in the mid-late 80′s and baring a short hiatus when the club went with Reebok, they have been with them through the last several years. But now it would seem their loss of support for, and faith in the club is Liverpool’s gain after it was announced the club had signed a £25-million kit deal with Warrior Sports.

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The Premier League 2011/12 is 21 games old now. The teams have made the turn and are on the way back towards the finish line. And you know what that means, don’t you? It means pressure. Nerves. Nitty-gritty. Mind games. Squeeky bum time. Big points up for grabs (as if three points in the second half of the season counted for more than the first half). Let’s see where everyone is at and what we can look forward to for the ‘run-in’.

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