after watching liverpool v. arsenal, there is no way I would choose joe cole over dempsey, especially for Hodgs system. It has nothing to do with style or flair or whatever, it has to do with winning 50/50 balls at midfield. Dempsey became expert at this and lead to perhaps 5% more possession for fulham. In Hodgs system, that is crucial to maintaining shape and slowly chocking your opponent. Cole both lost possession often and won few 50/50 balls. Against Bolton, Dempsey did what subs should do: he made an immediate impact. Given perhaps 10 more minutes of playing time, he probably would ahve scored or assisted in a score. Sparky is a moron, much as Hodgs was until he started dempsey in the midfield, then they went to 7th, made the Euros, then did pretty well last season. It was Dempsey's double injury that hurt his playing time and Hodgs and now sparky's manlove for english/welsh/irish players.
To be fair, Mark Hughes was a very good manager for Blackburn. Didn't he win the Carling Cup with them?
I don't believe so, but he did make a few FA Cup semis and got them to Europe one season (no small feat for a club like Blackburn).
The English are funny (and you think Spain's success would have taught them something). It isn't a wrestling match. I guess they think Modric is too lightweight as well. Coyle likes him for now and that is all that matters.
To be fair he has drawn 18 straight matches with both awesome talent and mediocre talent. He is mediocre.
Is he Jose Mourinho, no? But is he mediocre? Sorry, not buying it. After taking over in the middle of the 04-05 season, the following three seasons he led B'burn to 6th (qualifying them for Europe), 10th and 7th place finishes. No small feat for a club of limited means like Blackburn. They also had a few Cup semifinal appearances during his reign.
Yes, one of only four clubs that has ever won the PL. But as you probably know, that title was "bought" by Jack Walker, and once the money went away, B'Burn faded back to mid table mediocrity (in fact, they spent two year in the Championship). So yeah, for a smallish club like B'Burn, top ten finishes and a UEFA Cup appearance are pretty nice accomplishments.
He gained US Citizenship at birth from Jus Sioli (Rule of the Soil or Land) and Norwegian Citizenship at birth from Jus Sanguini (Rule of the Blood). He therefore never had to apply for Norwegian (or US) citizenship so the Dual Citizenship law, regarding application for citizenship would not apply. I'm familiar with the laws, being the son of an American father and English mother, born in England, in which dual citizenship application laws are similar to Norway's.
I finally got to watch the match yesterday. Strangely, even though he didn't have as many touches, I thought Stu's second half was just about as good but more so for his defensive contributions and runs into the box. Two tackles he made led directly to attacks for Bolton and he was regularly flying into the penalty area to get on the end of crosses that didn't come. It was obvious to me why he was left in instead of Muabma, he adds more to the attack. Clint looked good and he just has to win over Sparky. At the same time, they just signed a new striker and competition is good for everyone. Kind of surprised that Konchesky was left on the bench but then I saw that Liverpool is after him as well. The announcer was raving about Kelly but he is simply a defender and not nearly as good as Konchesky at getting forward.
I got laughed off the board when I suggested Konchesky was exactly the kind of back the National team needed to kind of calm them down. I didnt see his name on the bench and thought he was left off the squad entirely. Dempsey needs to leave. I see nothing good under Sparky. I thought Brede looked disinterested. You could see the cracks in the defense. You can begin to see the limits of exclusively sending 33 year old wingers to fuel your entire attack. Davies, Duff, Murphy? Huh? that's like 230 years of experience right there. What I liked about Hodgs and Fulham is they could slow the game down and control it but never manged to bore me. Under sparky he might have them flying down the edges, but I dont really enjoy watching a disorganized team.
I don't think he should leave. Way too early for that and I think he will convince the manager in time. His salary is decent at Fulham ($3.5m US?) and I think he is on the second year of a four year contract. If Hughes makes it clear he is not in the plans then he can ask for a transfer or loan at the winter break. I think by then there would be quite a few mid-table teams happy to have him for 5 months.
THis is the first time I have advocated that he move. 1. there is nowhere to go but down. 2. there is nothing left to prove. 3. 4 manager is enough. 4. If he was being benched on a GOOD team, I could understand. 5. He has been one of the top 10 midfielders in the EPL over the last three years. Stats are the proof in this case, not some English mancrush mumbo jumbo. It is pretty obvious the numbers were not right for a move. No one wanted him enough.