The Milner

Aye Reynolds was outstanding, him and Anderson have been rocks in the Europe games. What id want to know, is why didnt Anderson play like this 10 years ago! He looks so comfortable on the ball on and he reads the game so well. He was always more of a braveheart centre back in his younger days. He looked dead on his feet at the end of last night tho, i cant see him starting sundays game. 

Pawlett is the funny one for me. Electric at times and then goes completely missing for large parts of the game, i think thats the one thing stopping him from being bought right now. Jack on the other hand i really dont see lasting the season, he looks 3/4 steps ahead from his game from last year, absolutely outstanding in all 6 games and didnt look out of place at that level of football. Flood gives his all, but you can see why he is in Scotland, gives the ball away far too much, but then does everything possible to win it back. Goodwilie i thought was a huge positive last night as well, showed nice touches, good movement and seemed to link up really well with McGinn and Pawlett. Rooney is a great goal scorer, but Goodwillie can pull defences apart and leave space behind for the two really quick guys. 

If we play like that all season, almost no one in Scotland could cope with us, but we still have the issue of when Pawlett goes off, we go long ball. Hopefully McInnes has a plan B for the times without him this season. 

Apple wankers. How does the battery life of iPhone 5 compare to 4/4s?

Shite, i get a day at best out of my 5, easily got a day or two out of my 4. 

I'd assume that Pique and Matthieu would be the first choice pairing  but there's been a suggestion that Enrique might play a back three so he might complete that. They definitely need at least one player back there with the transfer ban still hanging over them. 

 

Milner, I felt we had a chance, if we could have got a third quickly and really rattled them. However that was probably just wishful thinking, realistically they are a much better side and were always going to get another goal.

 

 

I'm well up for Sunday though. Can't wait. Hopefully the ground is packed out again (without vuvuzelas please). united have apparently just about sold out their allocation. 

Yeah if we had gotten a 3rd quickly, they would have panicked, but i think the team thought that and tried to rush it too much, we had half an hour left at that point, we didnt need to bypass the midfield so much. Still tho, could not be more proud with how the guys went about it, a team  that is a country mile ahead of us and we gave them a good go. 

15,000 tickets sold for Sunday and i dont think there will be cash sales on the day, so probably top tier of the RDS closed. Should be a great day out. 

Im a bit gutted really, the game was there for the taking at 2-1, but we lost our way a bit, just resorted to lumping it forward when the passing game was working much better.

Still proud as punch with the boys and if we play like that this season, we could actually push for the league, especially considering how bad Celtic are at the moment. 

no worries

Your not a real person. 

Khedira is the starting DM, Kramer played in the final when Khedira got injured in the warm up.  The only other game he played in was as an extra time sub.

Fair enough, i really dont know enough about the German national team and clearly i could be very wrong with what im saying, stats can be made to back up almost any point if presented in the right way. This came up on an Arsenal thread with almost all the Arsenal fans saying they would rather not have him to play the DM role, and obviously that chart came into it. 

Hmm, it's a good graphical representation of things, but realistically he doesn't play that role for Madrid, does he? It's Alonso that sits/has sat in there, largely.

 

I'd be interested to see the same graphic of his performances for the German national side.

Quite possibly, but then why are Arsenal wanting to buy him as a DM, if he doesnt really play as a DM? 

There is a chart at the bottom for the boy Kramer, who i believe is the starting Germany DM isnt he? 

They have also just bought Chambers, who started life as a DM and has been converted into a defender in the last couple of years. 

It just seems like a lot of money for a guy who may not really do the job they need. They have battling mids like Ramsey already there, what they really need is a good, disciplined sitting DM, who isnt Arteta. 

You can soak the oats overnight, and heat it up that morning - it's pretty stodgy if you reheat it.

that was my worry, it would just become a lump of stodge. If i soak them, can i then just heat it up in the micro? 

 

 

 

Statistics are absolutely wonderful, and I love reading them, especially when represented graphically. I'd quite like to see the "stat thing" you refer to, if you reckon you could dig it up?

 

In my opinion, without corroborating statistics, Khedira is precisely the sort of player Arsenal require in a pivot midfielder. He's highly intelligent, positions himself brilliantly, and he's physically strong. He's not an all-out tenacious ball winner, like some modern defensive midfielders, but I think it's important to recognise that Arsenal do not need an aggressive ball winner per se - they need a dynamic and disciplined midfield pivot who links the centre-backs to the central offensive midfielders. Essentially, they need someone like Arteta but with a physical presence and the ability to stop counter-attacks and stop opponents finding that crucial space between the lines. Khedira does this marvellously, in my opinion. He keeps the game remarkably simple, and I personally feel that's precisly what Arsenal need, given their strategic approach to games and the other players they have.

 

Luis Gustavo could be a candidate, but he's more of a "third centre-back" sort of defensive midfielder, who always sits incredibly deep and focuses entirely on winning the ball and roughing up opponents. I'm not convinced Arsenal need that.

 

Khedira is a World Cup winner and a fine footballer. If it is wages that are the stumbling block, I think Arsenal should perhaps just bite the bullet and adhere to his demands. It could be the difference between yet another barren season and some worthwhile silverware. But then again, all clubs have a wage structure, and it's admirable to stick with it and work within it.

 

Amazingly i found it quite quickly!

http://www.statsbomb.com/2014/07/is-sami-khedira-arsenals-answer-at-defensive-mid/

A follow on from my porridge pet hate.

Can you re-heat porridge? Every one of those little tubs you can buy are either sweetened or made with milk, neither of which i like, but i want to have porridge at work if possible, can i make it in the morning and re-heat the stuff or is that a no no?

I dont think Khedira is the one they should go for. There was a stat thing i was looking at the other day and he doesnt actually do the things Arsenal need from a DM. They need someone to figure out how to get Flamini to play well, regularly and they would be fine, short of that they should be trying to get that Brazlian guy who plays for Wolfsburg. 

Is salty porridge a Scottish thing? Seems common around these parts, but totally alien to me, and my palette doesn't appreciate it. Folk at work seem to have their salty porridge oats with water and not milk. Isn't that essentially gruel?

 

I don't care for salty foods in general. Probably why I also don't care for rowies. Or gruel. I'd rather have a sugary porridge, or with a blob of jam. Then again, porridge is very low down on my cereal pecking order anyway.

I make mines with water and salt, i add cold milk ontop when eating it. Anything else is just wrong imo. 

Sweet porridge. Whoever decided to put sugar or anything sweet in porridge should be shot and burried somewhere. Porridge should only ever be served with salt in it. 

England i dont really care, but i can see Chelsea having a good year and United doing a bit better.

Scotland wise i think we will finish second, but i dont think it will be as cut and dry as some make out. United will be up there this season and Motherwell somehow always do well in the league. I can see Hamilton going down with Killie in the playoff. I can also see Celtic putting JC in charge before the end of the year, with the new guy sacked. He wont be able to achieve what he wants with no money and limited skilled players. 

Dons for one of the cups, United for the other. 

I get annoyed when people shorten my name to "dave" in emails. I've never been known as dave, no one calls me dave, and my name is either David or Milner. I cant understand why people dont know this before they speak to me. 

Would you sell the headset separately? 

Strangely enough, when i left Southampton for Inter ill give you one guess who replaced me! He also went on to win the Europa League and the FA cup in his first season, second season beaten Europa finalists! I never got close to that before i walked out on them! 

I remember a lot more of Secrets of the Ooze, the second Turtles film than the first. It's the one I had on video and of course it had "Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!" so it wins.

Was that the second one?! I struggle to remember them seperately. Was it the first one or the second one where they fought Shredder? 

Apparently Jose had washed his hands of Lukaku last season when he asked to go on loan rather than stay and play a bit part for the season. 

Another re-boot, with Johhny Knoxville as the voice of Rafael........and Megan Fox.......

It looks unlikely. I tweeted @PremierSportsTV earlier on - you should maybe do the same!

 

The problem is they've achieved what they wanted - a bunch of subscribers. It's unlikely that taking on the Sociedad fixture will mean an extra bunch of new subscribers again because they all have the channel from the previous ties!

They have tweeted it will be shown!  

Did they once reside in the hands of flights? They seem familiar.