Aston Villa man do you think you can

[Sir X]

This is hilarious......Twan all whats missing is (please) ..If this is an indication of your players spirits Liverpool fate is in good hands....hehe

and what was that Lazie ? ...talk up nuh

[Sir X]

Mind the gap, Fergie Loosing his mind

Blame Manchester United’s recent title stumble on a loss of form or lack of discipline — and not on a loss of nerve


(Andrew yates/AFP/Getty Images)



Fernando Torres beats defender Nemanja Vidic to score



Image :1 of 2





By Jonathan Northcroft


IN the sports science laboratory at AC Milan’s Milanello training ground there is a suite called the Mind Room, in which medical alchemy is attempted. Players reclining on chairs are strapped to machines that measure seven physiological signs, including brain waves, heart waves, breathing and muscle tension. They are placed in meditative states and shown videos of past performances. Their agitation when the footage shows mistakes by them or their team is measured, and a psychologist gets them to relax again. The exercise is repeated until the players can watch without tension.
This system of utilising what developers call neurofeedback or biofeedback was created in Canada and is billed as allowing club boffins to get their hands on the “Holy Grail” of sports science — a way to anticipate when an athlete is likely to malfunction in competition, and a means of avoiding it. The jury is out on the Mind Room, however. Milan believe that neurofeedback helped them win the Champions League in 2007, but it has not stopped a sustained downturn. It is five years since they won Serie A. They were fifth last season and currently sit third, 14 points behind their rivals Inter. It seems bad form is something that, for now, remains beyond prediction and prevention.
It is easy enough to recognise when it is occurring, though. Manchester United’s past two Premier League games have been like one of cinema’s attempts to recreate football — the players are in the right shirts, performing the right movements, but can’t help looking like actors going through the motions. Nor is bad form difficult to measure. United had won 11 straight league games, dropped only four out of 48 points and conceded just two league goals in more than four months before the defeats by Liverpool and Fulham. They conceded six and scored one in those games and their lead at the top of the table was cut from seven points to one. At Craven Cottage, where United lost 2-0, no biofeedback was required to trace their angst: footage from the dugout of a normally inscrutable Paul Scholes, wincing and shaking his head, sufficed.
In their last game before the collapse, at home to Inter Milan in the second leg of the Champions League first knockout round, United were a little more careless in possession than normal, missed some chances and were caught out of shape defensively a couple of times. On that basis, some observers claim to have seen their struggles coming. If so, they are geniuses and should be taken straight to the Mind Room. United’s sloppiness on the night was only relative to their fastidious excellence in previous games. Few other sides would have critics quibbling about a night on which Italy’s champions were vanquished without a goal conceded. No, United’s loss of poise appears to have come upon them as abruptly as someone lounging in a chair who jumps out of his skin when someone creeps up and shouts “Boo”.
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Nemanja Vidic, United’s symbol of redoubtability when all-comers were being repelled and clean sheet records being set, is now their symbol of fallibility. The statistics provide a stark picture of Vidic’s sudden slump. In his past six league games he has won just 55% of his one-on-one duels, compared with 78% in his previous six matches. He has made fewer tackles, fewer interceptions and getting on for half the number of blocks. Wayne Rooney’s struggles are also measurable: his passing success is down from 86% to 65% and he has created an average of 1.6 chances per match compared with 5.3 in the six matches before. The figures for Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and Edwin van der Sar also show drop-offs in key categories.
Sir Alex Ferguson may have made some errors in tactics and selection (for instance, dropping Rooney at Fulham, then moving him to the right wing when he was leading a comeback), but the biggest problem is one that seems unpreventable and, perhaps, unsolvable — a group of key players losing form at exactly the same time.
Timing is everything in sport and United have got lucky — like a battered boxer saved by the bell — that there is an international break. Vidic can get his head back together by travelling to Romania with the Serbian national team; Rooney’s rehabilitation began at Wembley yesterday.
“The break has come at the right time. The players can go away and come back stronger,” said Arthur Albiston, the former United defender who is now an MUTV pundit. “The team had gone 14 games without conceding a goal. That was never going to last, and it’s unfortunate they came unstuck against their biggest rivals, Liverpool. But they’re still in a strong position with their game in hand. Two defeats but still top of the league and it’s seen as a crisis — that only happens because it’s United.”
But timing is everything. The difficulty for Ferguson and his men is that Liverpool have hit an upward curve as steep as United’s downturn. Rafael Benitez has always been a master of pacing his teams. Fabio Aurelio was in Benitez’s Valencia side when they won seven and drew one of their last eight games to overhaul Real Madrid and win La Liga in 2001-2.
“Madrid were a long way ahead, but we finished nine points ahead of them. That season showed you have to keep going. In football anything can happen and every game is a different game,” Aurelio said.
“Our fans support us in every game, and what a gift it would be to get them the title. It depends more or less on the game United have in hand. But more than anything, it depends on us, because if we don’t concede points and win all our games, we will have a chance of them making some mistakes and us winning the league.”
The young princes of Arsenal may be the Premier League’s king-makers. Arsène Wenger’s team are at Anfield on April 21 and Old Trafford on May 16. That last fixture will come in United’s key week. Seven days earlier is a home match against Manchester City, and their game in hand, against Wigan, is in between. “That’s a vital period, but at this stage of the season, with almost every side pushing for Europe or the title, or battling for their life, every game is difficult and you can’t afford slip-ups,” said Albiston. “The next match, versus Aston Villa, is crucial.”
Vidic, Rooney and Scholes are suspended for that game. Ferguson has always prided himself on his sides having good disciplinary records, but only Stoke (five) have had more red cards than United (four) in the league, and United, with 52, are seventh in the yellow cards table. Liverpool, with 40 yellows and no red cards, are among the country’s best-behaved teams. “United have to buckle down on the discipline side,” said Albiston. “The key players from now on will be the experienced ones. Even someone like Gary Neville, who has been out injured, has a big role to play.”
Neville, Scholes and Ryan Giggs have won 26 Premier League titles between them. Not one player of Liverpool’s has, but to see that it’s possible, Jamie Carragher and company do not need visualisation techniques or a Mind Room.

[Twan]

This is hilarious......Twan all whats missing is (please) ..If this is an indication of your players spirits Liverpool fate is in good hands....hehe

and what was that Lazie ? ...talk up nuh

Just feel good to have Lazie on the "backfoot"....

FYI- I am a GUNNER for life.

[Sir X]

If you say so , lazie always on his back foot, its good to see him in early flight .