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Roger_the_Pessimist

Listed below are comments made by Roger_the_Pessimist between Monday, 19th January 2009 and Monday, 27th April 2009.

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Cheer when an opponent shows skill 10:11am on 27 Apr 2009 I did it once when Nathan Lowndes scored a raker at Tynecastle for St Johnstone a few years ago. It cost us three points as I recall and not many folk joined in.
Rooney and Gerrard make Fabio smile 1:19pm on 31 Mar 2009 This drifting left position is untested at the highest level and will, as Phil points out, depend on Rooney dropping in and, equally, the left back covering the space. Such a formation could well come unstuck against, say, a Germany with players like Schweinsteiger and Lahm bombing up and down the right flank. Gerrard could find himself hemmed to the left touchline and unable to exert his influence in the middle of the park.

Only time will tell.
Can the Hand of God make a good fist of management? 10:40am on 24 Mar 2009 Spot on re Ronaldo not the getting credit he deserves. The thing about football is very few players are able to maintain a high level of consistency throughout their careers and are often remembered for the lows rather than the highs. Fans are unforgiving in that respect.

Pele appears to have been consistent but then he avoided the rigours of European football. Zidane maintained an excellent level of consistency and achieved everything in the game. A true great and one that will be apreciated more as the years pass. Di Stefano too, showed consistency, though only at club level as he didn't win an international tournament, though that isn't entirely his fault. He suffers, I believe, from playing just before the television age.

Cruyff, however, bottled it on the big occasions (74 and 78 finals). He doesn't deserve to be named the greatest. Too arrogant and self-centred in what is a team game. Maradona seemed to reinvent himself during a period of 3 incredible years but overall he wasn't as consistent as those mentioned above. His unbelievable genius seems to have mitigated against this. One friend of mine says he is the only player to win a world cup on his own.

Sadly for Ronaldo he will always be remembered for being fat and lazy at Real Madrid. Capello famously saw him in the changing room and asked "aren't you ashamed of yourself?" And he is also not viewed so fondly these days, like Michael Owen though Ronaldo was far better, because he changed his game from one based on pace to one based on nous. He had to do this because of injury. But when you've seen a player do this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsuhz-VbaYg - it's hard to accept him simply as a strong and intelligent penalty box striker. The appeal is infintely less.

Watch him in his pomp and he was truly one of the greatest players ever. His record speaks for itself too - an undisputed legend of the game.
Iron fist coaches consigned to history 2:24pm on 10 Mar 2009 That Adriano story, plus the bit on the physical demands, put it all in perspective.

Many's the time I have derided him as useless or lazy. Us fans expect the earth every 90 minutes and if they don't deliver they are castigated. It's a ruthless business!
Can Man Utd re-write history? 08:46am on 02 Mar 2009 I can't help thinking that the EPL is incredibly weak at the moment. None of the teams excite me bar Man Utd and they haven't exactly set the heather alight for me either. And yet the midweek CL results suggest that it's streets ahead of the other European leagues. Maybe, therefore, the EPL is actually really strong and the sign if a strong league is that all the teams cancel each other out. Dunno.

Either way, Man Utd appear to be on another planet and if they win back-to-back CLs will rightfully stake their claim as one of, if not the, best teams in history.
Music meets football in South America 1:49pm on 23 Feb 2009 Nothing to do with the content, Tim, which is great, but the format of this webpage means I cannot copy/paste a small chunk of text from your article, only the whole text.

I wanted to tell my mother about the Uruguayan welfare tradition (very interesting and surprising), using your quote as illustration in my e-mail, but can't see her wading through an article on football to read about it!

I don't understand why, since most webpages on the BBC site aren't designed this way and one can copy/paste individual sentences no problem. Is it deliberate?
Hiddink's grounds for optimism 1:22pm on 23 Feb 2009 Saturday was one of those sad days for smaller clubs - the day when Villa fans realised how far they still have to go to challenge the big boys (financially big - historically Villa are a bigger club than Chelsea).

I fancy Chelsea to claim second spot and get to at least one cup final. In the end, it will turn out to be an okay season for them.
Benitez relishes vital victory 11:19am on 02 Feb 2009 I think this season will be a walkover for Man Utd. They'll keep winning and the rest will keep slipping up. I reckon they'll win it by 12 points, maybe more.

It's remarkable how quickly things change in football. The EPL was brilliant entertainment last year with ManU and Chelsea going to the wire and Arsenal providing some memorable football. This season the EPL looks low on quality with Chelsea and Arsenal looking like also-rans and Liverpool and Villa not strong enough to challenge ManU. Look further down the league and there's little separating 14 teams. It makes for lots of entertaining matches and suprising results, and will provide a belter of a relegation battle, but the league appears to have lost its lustre a little.
Moyes masters defensive art 5:59pm on 26 Jan 2009 Liverpool were poor in both games and did not deserve to win either of them. End of story.
Kaka's transfer quandary 12:52pm on 19 Jan 2009 No one seems to be looking at this saga from the most important angle - Kaka will leave if Milan want the money. It's not all his decision. Far from it. So if Kaka does join City it may not be because he wants the money but because Milan wanted to sell him.

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