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MattChall

Listed below are comments made by MattChall between Thursday, 12th June 2008 and Thursday, 28th May 2009.

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Brilliant Barcelona outclass Man Utd 12:30pm on 28 May 2009 Couple of points to throw in the mix here.
1: Carrick. Not a big game player? Seems to come unstuck when opposed by real quality. Maybe this is why he has never been able to establish himself as an international player.
2: Anderson. What is he? We know getting forward is not his strong point yet he does not play as a holding player either. Perhaps not the player required to step into the void created by the ever decreasing contributions (games played) of Scholes and Giggs?
All in all the difference between the two teams last night is easy to spot. Barca were perpetual motion, better in every position than Utd including their so called weaker areas of goalkeeper and defence and neither Fletcher nor positional changes would have made any difference. All the talk in the build up of individual match ups such as Evra vs Messi was rendered irrelevant by the fluidity of Barca's play and the exceptional pressing game they play when not in possession of the ball, in theory it should leave huge gaps yet they always seem to have a covering player. Utd were just not up to it and it is interesting to note the comments on where this leaves our much lauded Premier League.
A personal view is that no other team was able to apply any pressure to Utd this season and as a consequence they never had to be at their best to retain the title. Talk of a decline however may be going a little too far. Maybe with so many options they simply do not have any one system with which they are 100% comfortable with when faced with better quality opposition? Their record this season would suggest that the better teams have been able to take points/results from them in a way that did not seem possible last season.
Woods sets the agenda in thrilling style 10:58am on 30 Mar 2009 It does seem that any sports person who dominates their field as Tiger does attracts negative publicity, but to call him over hyped seems a little unfair. Tiger attracts the coverage because of what he has done on the golf course, winning more tournaments he enters than anyone has ever done before. This includes majors, ask any golfer alive if they would take multiple major victories to their name but none would be won when behind on the final round and I think everyone knows what the answer would be. You simply cant critisice him for the manor in which he has won all his majors.
Tiger has stimulated interest in a game that was perhaps begining to look a little stale, prize money flooded into the sport and a lot of players who would have had to achieve far more in the way of tournament results pre Tiger to attain the gilt edged lives they now lead owe it all to the Woods phenomenon.
Lend him like Beckham 4:29pm on 22 Jan 2009 It would seem to me that there is almost a two tier loan system operating at the moment. One the one side you have the big clubs sending out developing players. It is claimed that this is done to give them first team experience, however I think on many occasions the real reason is to put the player in the shop window as the big parent club has no intention of offering a contract but want to maximize the players value with a view to a sale. There are of course occasions where the player is sent with genuine intent by the parent club, Beckham going Preston before breaking in to Utd's first team is a good example. However my feeling here is that the player often feels that actually he is really a Man Utd/Arsenal/Liverpool/Chelsea player and may not be fully prepared to put his head in where it hurts for the cause of a team he feels are not "his".
On the other hand you have loans in the lower leagues which seem to offer a much better balance all round, where a single loan is often of benefit to both the borrowing and lending club as well as to the player himself

Loved post No 14's comments about Wayne Routledge being a yo yo player. Agree that Chopra definitely is and would argue that David Healy and James Beattie could be added to that list as well.
The most divisive and tasteless selection in cricket history 4:33pm on 09 Sep 2008 The simplest solution for the England squad to avoid the divisiveness that will unquestionably occur once the final 11 is selected is surely to get every player in the current 15 man squad to agree to pool all monies earned from the fixture giving each squad member an even 1/15th share. Each player gets a decent payday and no one is left out.
This seems far too simple, there must be a flaw to this logic?

The other option is to ignore this vulgar fixture and allow the England players to play in the IPL…..seems funny now that this appears the more palatable option.
Saying hello to Birkdale 10:27am on 16 Jul 2008 Birkdale Memories:
As a thirteen year old boy I was lucky enough to be taken to the 1983 open at Birkdale by some family friends who at the time ran most of the hospitality catering. This meant we had access to behind the ropes areas and spent a memorable week on the course from around 6 in the morning to 8 or 9 at night. The trip also included an eye opening introduction into the world of professional sport.
Graham Marsh was a friend of my hosts and had a particularly good tournament that year. We were there on the first tee of his first round when his brother, the legendary Aussie wicketkeeper Rod Marsh strolled up. After nearly knocking me out with a gentle pat on the head he proceeded to work his way through the case of beer that was perched on his shoulder as he followed his brother’s fortunes whilst regaling us with tales the whole way round. He then repeated this trick on each of the subsequent days regardless of tee off times. He made sure that wherever we stopped that we had good vantage points and could not have been nicer to us impressionable young lads.
If I remember correctly the weather was fantastic all week as well.
Looking forward to a great open and have a strong feeling for a European win, fiver each on Garcia and Westwood.
You Are The Ref #9 3:09pm on 20 Jun 2008 realluisgarcia:

Re your scenario. I say goal.
Although I do believe that you should base future scenarios on reality!!.
You Are The Ref #9 3:04pm on 20 Jun 2008 realluisgarcia:

Question is addressed to Keith Hackett.

I suppose England would get away with it if Capello had picked Chuckles the monkey .......no-one would notice the difference between him and Rooney.
You Are The Ref #9 2:40pm on 20 Jun 2008 O.K.
It is England v Brazil in the world cup final (we can dream cant we).
Capello has sprung a selectorial surprise and picked Keith Harris and Orville at centre forward.
The game starts and England immediately attack forcing a corner. The kick comes in and Orville rises like a salmon (we all know he can’t actually fly) and powers an unstoppable header past the Brazilian keeper. Cue wild celebrations. However on the bench the Brazilian management have realised that instead of the expected Rooney at centre forward they are in fact facing said Harris/Orville combination. They begin to protest that;
a) Orville’s header is technically handball
b) Technically England have 12 players on the field.
Keith, what do you do?
Your chance to quiz Gordon 12:36pm on 13 Jun 2008 Hello Gordon

Hope you are enjoying Euro 2008. Whist I would prefer to have British interest the fact that there is none means we have a clean slate.
It is like having 16 potential girlfriends to choose from and you get a free hand to select the one that tickles your fancy.

Anyway a question; Recent criticism regarding domestic cup football and teams not caring about FA cup, Scottish cup etc has been plentiful. How about creating a British cup so teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales compete for the trophy. Yes I know that each countries FA would have a palpitations at the thought of loosing a showpiece competition but it would generate revenue for the less wealthy home nations and make fantastic viewing for us fans wouldn’t it?
You Are The Ref #5 3:26pm on 12 Jun 2008 realluis:
Good point, you can have no intent to commit a foul yet mis time a tackle but I think the laws regarding handball are more categorical in that you must deliberately handle the ball for it to be deemed an offence.
I reckon the only way forward is to de-regulate the game so it resembles British Bulldog and anything goes! England might even qualify for the next tournament under these rules. First name on team sheet….. Joey Barton!.

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