The only reason I'm mentioning it is that was one of the more infamous 'lol JD' castigations, you can see in last years thread I got absolutely slaughtered for it (and have today). In fact it seems at the very least it's a reasonable opinion.

The problem with Fernandinho is that lazy public opinion is still stuck in Christmas 2013, I doubt 25% of pundits and sportswriter shave actually realised he's been dropped from the first team for 8 months.

I agree with everything you say with the exception of Willian and Rooney. Agree 1000% on Welbeck and Mata looks like he's only worth £40m if a team is built around him to cover for his multiple deficiencies.

from memory i believe most of us had your contention framed as barry > fernandinho due to you contending that barry > fernandinho, which i see is now a terrible piece of miscommunication since barry is a tactically adept physically meh technically meh DM and fernandinho is a very complete CM with a leg rocket but less tactically disciplined.

really i blame lolpellegrini playing 3 players who dont participate in any pressing and the loldefense led by lolkompany's miserable marshaling of whatever random depth of line he feels like at the time

2/11/13:


I was ripped apart for that, mostly on Fernandinho.

Obviously the fact they won could (and is) used to justify the favourites tag that I was arguing against; Liverpool and Chelsea choking allowed them to come through (with Fernandinho being dropped for Milner/Garcia) and clinch the title with the second lowest points total in the last decade.

So...Barry > Fernandinho?

Fernandinho still starts half the games and plays in every one. He's a huge part of their squad; it's not like he's been exiled to Siberia. If you want to highlight a real issue that summer, it's the broader one of City spending 85m euros on instantly depreciated assets (Fernandinho, Negredo, Navas).

17/4/14:

Seems I got there before you DB, bit of a slow pony.

I think the issue of depreciating assets re the age of the players purchased have to weighed against the quantum of flying f's given by the sheiks with the cheques and that the players were pivotal parts in allowing TROPHIES and LOLERPOOL and LOLSLIPPYG and GLORY and that FLAGS FLY FOREVER

Also, fwiw, the "when it...strengthened the best team outside the top level teams it compounds the error" part is exactly backwards. It's an awesome bonus if you can strengthen a side that is never competing with you but has chances to take points off all your rivals.

FFP though
Fair, obviously.
damn got

Gonna stop inflating my ego now and get back to passport renewal but came across this one, also on 17/4/14:

did you manage to find the posts where u booked some bets re early season arsenal and man utd futures among all this crowing?

on most impressions of city playing against non-epldregs i get is lolkompany

he wants to impose some kind of caveman dominance and corinthian competitive spirit, i say that because he is so impulsive re wtf he is doing re zonal or man-marking and so bad at playing offside traps that pretty sure all his managers have given up and just plays a deep line since lolkompany, its like he defends on an island of 1 instead of an unit of 11. dude is not good at the mental side of defending. massive case of the reverse-ozils

Without a doubt my worst predictions/analysis was on Moyes' United, don't need to find the posts because the $300 lost is memory enough. Like Fergie, I believed Moyes was going to be very successful, although in terms of the Arsenal side, I clearly stated they were going to finish 4th; this was when they were top of the table and Ozilmania was running wild.

Pelle tho.

You never gave any analysis of Fernandinho as a player, seemingly writing him off as lol Ukrainian league < brave English lion.

Would Barry of been as good last year if he played in a 2 man midfield with Yaya as opposed to the 3 man midfield he played in last year?

You can't even begin to compare these two players and how effective they are or whether or not they were worth the money they cost if you don't take into account the system and players around them.

Van gaal arguably worse off than moyes vs last year in comparative results by a siginificant margin. This is the same thing that happens to fish in poker when they run super hot then finally stop running like god and end up on the other side of variance for a while.

Cliffs: lolutd.

although, it was right around December when the Moyes effect really started to take a hold on United...

and suarez. cliffs: eyetest > scorepoints

iirc didnt they win 7 or 8 in a row just before the turn of the year? and then the wheels started to completely fall off with the league cup & fa cup fails in jan

Just as far as league goes, they lost two in early Dec (Everton/Newcastle), won five (Hull/Stoke/Villa/WHU/Norwich), then lost two again in early Jan. Didn't play particularly well over the five-game stretch, though.

Yes, this has been widely observed.

aye, didn't he get manager of the month around that time?

lvg has had a hugely easier ride from the press aswell

Moyes got a ridiculously easy ride from the press over his first ~5 months. It took until Jan/Feb (FA Cup, League Cup, 2-0 loss vs. Olympiakos, Fulham farce) until it started to turn.

Some great post hoc justification there. Would like him to unpack the Carroll transfer as well though, just for balance.

that's not how I remember it. genuinely don't know anyone who thinks that. I know Everton fans who have completely turned against Moyes who think he was treated appallingly.

I think the comparison isn't even fair, and United have played a whole lot better than last year, but just wanted to point out this is probably the peak for Moyes when compared to LVG

Spent a bajillion dollars this time around .