Zatman Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 29 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said: Yeah one of my favourite non-Villa players as well. The foreign pundits always seem better than the English ones. I think British pundits are shackled by the station to praise the team and the Premier League and not allowed say what they reallly think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One For The Road Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 (edited) Ugh... Jonathan Pearce and Kevin Kilbane. I think I shall reach immediately for the remote and watch the Mexicans instead. Edit: Until you realise it's Phil Neville on the other game. Ffs... Edited June 27, 2018 by One For The Road 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 Stuart Pearce on the pre match build up “I’m surprised they (England) haven’t gone 4 at the back”.. ... are you Stuart? Why? Even wi H changes in personnel we would always keep the same shape today 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 Obviously Januzaj didn't get the memo then. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 (edited) Gary Neville with a Michael Owen-esque quote last night when analysing Pickford's "odd" attempt at saving the goal... "his feet were off the ground when he jumped" That's usually how these things work Gary. Edited June 29, 2018 by Genie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 1 minute ago, Genie said: Gary Neville with a Michael Owen-esque quote last night when analysing Pickford's "odd" attempt at saving the goal... "his feet were off the ground when he jumped" That's usually how these things work Gary. Neville is such a bad pundit these days. Started off as a breath of fresh air but since his coaching failures he just seems to have changed his style to a more deluded man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 The only co-commentator who has been any good (imo) has been Ally McCoist. ITV's studio panels are horrendous though (barring a usually glowering Roy Keane) whilst the BBC have a fairly decent line up, but like the England team the second string aren't that desirable either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Someone please give this man a job. https://mobile.twitter.com/RetroPunishment/status/1012657568542593025 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted June 30, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted June 30, 2018 Words can't describe Sol Campbell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 1 hour ago, rodders0223 said: Someone please give this man a job. https://mobile.twitter.com/RetroPunishment/status/1012657568542593025 Easier to play the race card than admit that you're an arrogant, idiotic prick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 Really interesting article in the Guardian by Jorge Valdano about statistics and what the really show, or doesn't. Quote ‘I love football because it’s the opposite of science: contradictory, primitive, emotional’ Jorge Valdano These days we know someone ran 12.345km during a game. An admirable figure but did he run to help? To get in the way? As he ran, did he think? We need the context. If not, let’s leave the numbers for something else. Let’s not allow the uncertainty of results, the patriotic feeling football provokes or the increasing money generated by this fantastic industry to distract us from the evolution of the game itself, the play. Regressive tactics advance at greater speed than creative ones and the obsession with statistics contributes to that. At this World Cup, more than ever before, we want to know everything with mathematical precision, even though football is beautiful when two and two don’t make four. Or when South Korea beat Germany, say. What’s wrong with Argentina? We now value ‘balls’ more than talent We want calculations to be proven correct before the game has even started. Big data and mathematical projections are making their way on to the field of play to tell us things I don’t want to know. We love football for its imprecision, its moments of genius and its mistakes, when the ball bounces badly and the left-back plays terribly because he’s had a fight with his girlfriend before the game. And there’s no equation that can explain that. Of course the data helps but in the world of play, like in art, we have to put a limit on it because these are realms of freedom. The big problem is that with every step we take towards “scientific certainties”, players lose a little more freedom. Freedom for what? To think. There’s a reason they’re the protagonists. It’s worth clarifying, so that you know who’s talking to you here, that I love football more than I love a team, that I admire any given player more than the greatest manager, that the ball fascinates me as much as the “science” of the game. In fact, I think football is the opposite of technology precisely because of its exaggeratedly human condition: contradictory, primitive, emotional. So you’ll understand that I see VAR as an aberration, for example. If we want justice, let’s fight for it – but in real life, not on a football pitch. Football is a child of its time, of a moment, and that identity as a primitive game exempts it from the need to be all modern and cutting edge. Yes, I know: it’s a losing battle. Anyway, let’s continue. For some time now, a silent battle has been fought between those who know about football because they played it and that taught them endless things – lots of ex-players don’t even know all that they know – and those who, while they know less, explain it better because university gave them knowledge and the tools of persuasion. When football club directors are in a bind all they want is someone to lie to them offering a version of events that is optimistic and irrefutable, based on “scientific” evidence. (Speech marks are vitally important every time the word science is used applied to football.) The battle is being won by the educated. But a word of warning: we are underestimating, and risk losing, the huge amount of wisdom that exists on the side of those who don’t even know all that they know. Johan Cruyff understood that well and always mistrusted intruders. I’m not talking about coaches who never played – there are too many brilliant cases for that – but the army of people getting close to the game with sophisticated ideas that appear to have the solution to every problem. Some are obsessed with the mind, others the body, still more with tactics. They forget that players are people who play. It’s very useful to integrate every element, but the main one continues to reside somewhere in their instinct. An example: there are “revolutionary” advances (more speech marks) like using drones to film and analyse training sessions, allowing you to see what is happening from above. Daft and pointless, whichever way you look at it. But, careful, here’s the thing: the coach that doesn’t have a drone gets labelled old-fashioned even by the players themselves and that’s terrible if they want to stay in a job. We know a lot. Like the fact that a player ran 12.345 kilometres. It’s an admirable figure, in athletic terms. But, did he run to help? To get in the way? To give the ball to a team-mate? Or to an opponent? To bring order? Chaos? As he ran, did he think? We need the context. If not, let’s leave the numbers for something else. As I always liked this game when the ball is at a player’s feet, let’s analyse another stat: the one that says a player touched the ball 100 times and did so with a 95% success rate. Javier Mascherano was the player who touched the ball more times in a single game than anyone else in the group phase – more than 140 touches against Iceland. Did Mascherano play well? That’s another story. Because the players with the second- and third-most touches in that game were Argentina’s two centre-backs, a sign that the passes were routine, inoffensive, without purpose. They didn’t threaten the opponent, they didn’t break through lines. They didn’t fulfil the first rule of any attacking move: eliminate opponents. But analysing football through numbers rather than letters seems to comfort specialists, as if it offered incontestable evidence and thus certainty. There are players who are unmarked but keep running, presumably so that the kilometre count doesn’t make them look bad. And where do the players stand in this evolution of the game? With every step, they become just another piece in the machinery. That requires discipline, responsibility, solidarity, sacrifice – all virtues found in a good citizen. As we continue on this path, intensity defeats the ability to pause, to slow down; passing defeats dribbling; predictability defeats trickery ... and on it goes. The coach wants control and that’s easier to achieve without the ball than with it, working on defensive movements rather than offensive ones, the ball stopped rather than in motion. As Antoine Griezmann said after the sad draw between France and Denmark: this is just the way it is. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/29/jorge-valdano-love-football-opposite-of-science Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 The way nobody can say 'Koke' without it sounding like 'cokehead' 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 I love listening to Slaven Bilic. Difficult for anyone to work for porno dwarf so I'd be intrigued to see how he did at a "normal club" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 3 minutes ago, av1 said: I love listening to Slaven Bilic. Difficult for anyone to work for porno dwarf so I'd be intrigued to see how he did at a "normal club" He had worst season ever in Lokomotive Moscow in his season there and then won nothing in Besiktas. He is a motivator but not a great manager tactically or able to turn tide. Like a Croatian MON and more suited to international team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 Warren Barton is destroying this experience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 1, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted July 1, 2018 On 30/06/2018 at 17:05, Troglodyte said: Words can't describe Sol Campbell. They can, but the VT swear filter spoils it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VILLAMARV Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 Which idiot Neville is on ITV again? they both kinda morph into one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkyvilla Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 1 minute ago, VILLAMARV said: Which idiot Neville is on ITV again? they both kinda morph into one Gary. He was alright but the disaster at Valencia seems to have sucked any enthusiasm for the game out of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villaphan04 Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 On 21/06/2018 at 09:29, Villaphan04 said: Warren Barton seems to be a decent commentator i seem to have gotten this all wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villaphan04 Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 4 hours ago, maqroll said: Warren Barton is destroying this experience i think he's not the worst on fox but still it isn't pretty. Also I'm pretty sure he did the MLS game yesterday... did fox not send all of the commentators over to Russia or what Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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