More Man City but football related. Haaland is getting a bit of stick after his performance yesterday; ESPN - Haaland helps City? He was utterly woeful against Spurs. He got nowhere near the ball, and was on the periphery all game. He is an undoubted talent, but are teams figuring him out? The article points out that City have scored the same amount of goals at this stage of the season as they did last season, 53 but this round Haaland has scored almost half of their total goals. Stop him and stop City?

It was an open and shut case for UEFA yet City got away with it. I heard that too. City's owners said to UEFA that they have enough money to sue UEFA forever so go for it. UEFA backed off and fined them instead. My guess is it will create lots of news stories then fizzle into a fine.

Thanks to ESPN I'll be watching tomorrow. Rovers haven't had much luck against Wigan over the years. I've seen some abject performances going back to Ince's demise. I have no idea what Rovers team will turn up, hopefully the good one. To add to the striker debate; Gallagher's goal scoring average for Rovers is 1 goal every 5 games. That's not good enough for a forward player. His size makes him out to be a target man, but he is rarely played there. He works extremely hard, but is missing something. I've not seen much of Vale, but from what I've seen so far he has a long way to go.

Danny Higginbotham's take on US TV was that Mane leaving has caused lot of the issues. In his opinion Mane set the press and everybody followed. He's gone and his replacements can't do it leaving them all at sea. I think that is one of many problems Klopp has. They are conceding easy goals and missing easy chances, which is a bad combination. They do have a lot of injuries which has forced chopping and changing but that does not excuse the individual errors littering each game. Salah is a passenger. TAA's lack of defensive nous is getting worse. Any of their midfielders operate too slowly. Their strikers can't finish. They are also very easy to play against. All teams are doing is sitting deep, playing narrow, and letting Liverpool pass it in front of them without any penetration. Barring an instant upturn in form it's hard to see that they'll be a Champs League team next season. Is the prospect of them being sold causing strife?

Mason Greenwood's criminal proceedings have been discontinued; ESPN - Greenwood case dropped Now what? More charges later? A free man? Will he play again?

It isn't. I'll guess that it's because ESPN have the FA cup rights. Although I went to ESPN+ hoping for the game, but it's not on their either. Saturday's was.

The Kansas City Chiefs will play the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. The Eagles easily beat San Fransisco, and KC scraped by the Bengals. There was some dodgy refereeing in both games. I don't think that it would have changed the result of the 49'ers-Eagles game, but I'd be a bit fed up if I was a Bengals fan.

I thought that it wasn't a bad performance. There have certainly been a lot worse. Rovers should have won it. 2 mistakes cost 2 goals. Unfortunate but at least there was no capitulation after conceding so early. Having Dack scoring is a lifeline. If you ask me injuries robbed hm of a chance to play in the Premier League. I hope that he signs a contract extension.

There are strong rumours that Caicedo is going to Arsenal from Brighton for a big fee. Gregg Broughton needs to do some research on how Brighton operate. They've made big money on players whilst also improving their league position over the past few seasons. They are doing something right.

I thought the same. A bloke looking exactly like Garry Flitctoft posing for a picture with a sign behind him saying "Flitcraft" really had me struggling to figure out who it was. I'm glad that Dunn has seen sense and seemingly given up on trying to be a football manager. He was a bit of a plank for thinking that his past efforts "wood" have led to a sustainable future for him.

I'm not going to go back through your posts but you have defended Lampard over and over since he was appointed at Everton. I (others too) have continually pulled you up on it. You've gone from explicitly stating that he was the man for the job, to give him time, and now that he's been fired your stance is that it's the club that's in a mess, therefore not Lampard's fault as nobody would do a good job.

Everton is a mess and Lampard is not good enough. Both can be true at the same time. Ownership issues + bad manager = trouble. Rovers fans are all too aware of this calculation. I struggle to understand your continued defence of Lampard. They finished 10th in Ancelotti's only full season; BBC - Ancelotti leaves Everton His win % was still better than the 5 previous managers at over 40%. In contrast, Lampard won 9 games giving him a less than 25% win rate.

So he has; BBC - Lampard sacked The article is some grim reading. 38 games in charge 35 points. That points total usually buys relegation. The club has its issues which will be trotted out in his defence, however, he shouldn't get another top job in football. He doesn't have the necessary talent to succeed. Would he improve if he dropped down to league 1 for a few years?

No live Rovers for me to watch this past weekend so I had to make do with Prem football. Liverpool-Chelsea was terrible. Two teams shorn of confidence playing not to lose. I think that Liverpool have a hangover from their close attempt at the quadruple last year. Chelsea are a hodgepodge of expensive players, not a team. I think that Potter will get them organised but it won't be until next season. Mudryk looked a player. Everton were woeful, but they have been for a while. I've been consistent in saying that Lampard isn't up to it and each week he continues to confirm my opinion. I see that BRFCS's resident Evertonian thinks a few signings will help Lampard turn it around. He bought 3 new defenders last summer - 2 of them with England caps - yet they still can't keep a clean sheet. Arsenal-Man U was a very good game. Ten Hag has surprised me. He is getting a tune out of what was a bad bunch. Arsenal keep on trucking.

I bet that he feels good about that move. 😁

An awful decision. The opposite happened in the Brighton-Liverpool game. TAA was in an offside position. A Liverpool player shot, it deflected off a Brighton defender, and TAA without touching it shepherded it out for a throw. Linesman flagged, offside given. Zero consistency.

I should have switched it over to the Manchester derby after the first minute. Concede first and Rovers lose. I think the only blip in that statistic is Sunderland away, and Rovers lost that one too. An awful performance from first minute to the last. Are Rovers in a false position? a, no because after 20 odd games the table doesn't lie. b, yes because teams challenging for the play offs don't routinely get beat by 3 or 4 goals. Last season's post Christmas death spiral is fresh in the minds of many. JDT needs to change some of what he's doing.

Me either. A quick search pulls up lots of stories speculating. All of them seem to be based on former Brazil international Carlos Alberto making the claim on a podcast. He also reckoned that he's in line to be Mourinho's assistant. He might me in the frame but it all sounds iffy to me. From 2003-2013 Mourinho was the best in the business. His lost some of his mojo after his return to Chelsea. He thrived on being the underdog which became a hard act to pull off the more he won. It was easy for him to do at Porto, Chelsea, and Inter. He got to Real and his philosophy became impossible. Real Madrid were always favourites. Guardiola's superb team didn't help him either.

9 days later Hamlin is now home from the hospital; BBC: Demar Hamlin discharged I expect that he'll be playing next season. I have no idea if, like Eriksen, he had a pacemaker fitted, or it is a case of him rehabbing back to full fitness. His gofundme has over $8m in it.

Thanks for the explanation. I was looking at it through a small prism. I hadn't thought about financial penalties. I should have thought more cynically on the parent club scenario too. In my mind a player would want to try his heart out and prove his worth.

If Rovers do then that's a daft agreement. Surely those contracts would be unenforceable? What if Morton was a dolloper? A manager should be free to choose who they play in any match. Much like when teams play a weakened side (see Huddersfield the season Rovers went down to League 1) they should be allowed to play anyone. Imagine if Rovers had done the same with Hirst? Calamity. Whilst I'm at it, do loaner clubs still attach clauses that said player isn't allowed to play against them? If so, they should be banned too. A team get a loan player, he's theirs and should be available for each and every game regardless of opponent.

It really is. People at the top end of the pyramid acting like spoiled brats is not a good look. It happens at youth level regularly, but the national team. Terrible. US Soccer needs to get hold of it and sort it out. Berhalter's contract was up at the end of 2022, it's not been renewed yet. If he doesn't get one this will be the reason cited which is not fair. If they do get rid it should be because he has taken the team as far as he can. Berhalter took over a mess and managed to get the US to Qatar but he hasn't pulled up any trees in doing so. There were some very underwhelming performances over the last 3 years and with a decent set of young players available plus the US hosting in 2026 there is strong sentiment over here that the US needs to go for broke and get a big name. He won't be in charge for their next set of friendlies his assistant Anthony Hudson will be. Older posters will remember his dad; the mercurial Alan Hudson - ex-Stoke and Chelsea.

I heard this on the radio earlier; BBC: Cameroon find 21 of 30 u17 players are not u17 This has been going on for decades. Eto'o looks like he's trying to stop it. I played against the odd African lad when I was younger and I certainly wondered if they were the same age as me.

Pele, Best, Cruyff were all before my time but I've no doubt that they were all unbelievable. Pele was already legendary when I was a kid in the 80's. Puskas and Di Stefano before them. Players I know who were a class above the rest; Maradona, Zidane, C Ronaldo, Messi, Ronaldo, van Basten. Baggio, Baresi, and Maldini are close. English players; Gascoigne, Shearer. Without injuries Brazilian Ronaldo would have been it for me.

I'll put this here as World Cup 2022 is done. There is a soap opera occurring over here regarding World Cup coach Gregg Berhalter. He is under investigation by the US federation for kicking his girlfriend in 1991. It turns out that his ex-team mate Claudio Reyna (formerly of Man City) grassed him up after it became public knowledge that Berhalter almost sent his son (Gio - plays for Dortmund) home from Qatar for being lazy and uncooperative. ESPN: Reyna told authorities about Berhalter What adds to the intrigue is that the girlfriend was, and still is, Berhalter's wife. Reyna's wife and Berhalter's wife played on the same university football team. Reyna and Berhalter have been mates for decades.