Was the game really that boring?

[windie]

Seen a lot worse to be honest, it was bloody cold and the ref was shite.

Now the Portsmouth game was bad felt like 90 hours not minutes.

 

[Cheltblue]

For me, it was dire.
Game played in the midfield (the front of theirs, the back of ours) between two teams giving the ball away at every opportunity.
Given and Reina cud have set up camp as they had fuck all else to do for 8o minutes.

boring boring boring

 

[mcfc83]

This put it into perspective for me. If the stakes we are playing for are titles, Chumps Lge and silver cups, I'd expect more of the same.

Liverpool 0-0 Man Utd 19/09/2005.

IT SEEMS odd that barely a month into the season, two sides with credible title ambitions can be embroiled in a game they dare not lose.

Yet that was the depressing experience a disbelieving capacity crowd at Anfield endured yesterday, as the fear of defeat inhibited both Liverpool and Manchester United to the extent that two sides brimming with attacking talent barely produced a chance.

It does not require the knowledge of a footballing knight to work out who benefits most from this dull stalemate... Jose Mourinho's Chelsea. Sir Alex Ferguson's face at the end of this contest - sour even by his lofty standards - illustrated such a frustrating story perfectly.Chelsea enjoy a seven-point lead over United in the Premiership, and a 12-point buffer ahead of Liverpool. Yet it is not just the result that will satisfy Mourinho.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2005/09/19/stupor-sunday-115875-16147811/

Yeah I found something pretty much the same, talking about the "fear factor":

Stalemate at Eastlands is symptomatic of clubs' fear of missing out on fourth place.

Relegation battles produce dour football. That's always been the case at the foot of the table as average sides resort to scrapping for survival. But it looks true at the top now too as Liverpool's manager Rafa Benitez seems to have decided that's the only way to live up to his "guarantee" of finishing fourth.

Yesterday's trip to Manchester City produced the ultimate goalless draw as Benitez set up a side that was dull even by his cautious standards, and Roberto Mancini also stayed true to his Italian safety first principles to protect his club's status as the team in possession of the magical fourth spot.

Ironically, however, both lost out as Harry Redknapp's more adventurous approach at Wigan brought Tottenham a late flurry of two goals by Roman Pavlyuchenko and a 3-0 win that took them there on goal difference.

source:Premier League football blog

Both teams didn't want to lose, and probably couldn't afford to lose, so it is perhaps no surprise that it ended goalless.

 

[Tricky_Rici]

When it's your own team you never find a match boring, there was too much riding on it for it too get tedious. However I watched a re-run of the game today and I have to admit it wasn't the best, and one neutrals won't have enjoyed.

Spot on mate.

I'm a Stoke fan and very rarely find our games boring (perhaps Pompey at home and Sunderland away may get a sniff) and yet we're told every single day of every week how boring we are to watch by fans of other teams.

I'm not here to slag you off before anybody jumps all over me. ;-)

When you boys turn up with your A-game you're great to watch and along with Spurs and Arsenal i always tune in hoping to see a good match. Throwing that to one side though, the game against Liverpool was terrible. Two teams too scared to go for the win and more fearful of the consequences of losing. Sounds like a tactic a relatively new team to the league should take. ;-)

Didn't totally surprise me though as Liverpool are always shit to watch and have been for years.

 

[PowderBlue]

This put it into perspective for me. If the stakes we are playing for are titles, Chumps Lge and silver cups, I'd expect more of the same.

Liverpool 0-0 Man Utd 19/09/2005.

IT SEEMS odd that barely a month into the season, two sides with credible title ambitions can be embroiled in a game they dare not lose.

Yet that was the depressing experience a disbelieving capacity crowd at Anfield endured yesterday, as the fear of defeat inhibited both Liverpool and Manchester United to the extent that two sides brimming with attacking talent barely produced a chance.

It does not require the knowledge of a footballing knight to work out who benefits most from this dull stalemate... Jose Mourinho's Chelsea. Sir Alex Ferguson's face at the end of this contest - sour even by his lofty standards - illustrated such a frustrating story perfectly.Chelsea enjoy a seven-point lead over United in the Premiership, and a 12-point buffer ahead of Liverpool. Yet it is not just the result that will satisfy Mourinho.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2005/09/19/stupor-sunday-115875-16147811/

Yeah I found something pretty much the same, talking about the "fear factor":

Stalemate at Eastlands is symptomatic of clubs' fear of missing out on fourth place.

Relegation battles produce dour football. That's always been the case at the foot of the table as average sides resort to scrapping for survival. But it looks true at the top now too as Liverpool's manager Rafa Benitez seems to have decided that's the only way to live up to his "guarantee" of finishing fourth.

Yesterday's trip to Manchester City produced the ultimate goalless draw as Benitez set up a side that was dull even by his cautious standards, and Roberto Mancini also stayed true to his Italian safety first principles to protect his club's status as the team in possession of the magical fourth spot.

Ironically, however, both lost out as Harry Redknapp's more adventurous approach at Wigan brought Tottenham a late flurry of two goals by Roman Pavlyuchenko and a 3-0 win that took them there on goal difference.

Both teams didn't want to lose, and probably couldn't afford to lose, so it is perhaps no surprise that it ended goalless.

That quote about Arry made me laugh - they scored a blatant offside goal meaning that Wigan had to come out and attack and then got caught twice

 

[Bill]

Yes. It was awful.

agreed.

 

[SambaMike]

Wasn't that bad at all. One of the best goal less draws that I've seen in a long time.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I didn't think so! For a 0-0 it was pretty good. I think the ref was diabolical but it made the game more interesting.

Sick of all these pundits saying it was boring + worst game of the season.

It might have been the worst game they've seen but they want to see sendings off, drama, goals, something that is easy to write about. Give them a game of chess and their minds will go blank. If they want to see boring nil nils then they can look up the season we had all those no score draws - we beat EFC on New Year's Day and didn't score at home for the rest of the season. Ten goals at home all season if I remember rightly. Was it Pee-arse or Sven?

 

[Born to be Blue]

Certainly not a classic. Tactical battle between two teams who both wanted to avoid defeat at all costs. Hence neither team "going for it". But some of the media comments - most boring game of the season etc are really wide of the mark. The press really seem to have an agenda as far as City are concerned and despite all the jokes about "if its in the Sun it must be true" etc a lot of people do believe everything they read. At the moment the press are doing a good job at fanning the flames of fan unrest. Its the price to pay for us now being newsworthy once more. For anyone worried about the quality of football we are watching at the moment I caught a bit of the Rotherham v Shrewsbury game last night - I feel sorry for the poor buggers paying to watch that every week.

 

[Sigster100]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Sorry, what was that?