public enemy

Bah, got the sack as United manager. It seems the 'trick' I mentioned has its faults afterall, by Christmas you're usually in enough debt to get the boot no matter how well you're doing in the league. Bare that in mind, Johnny. I'm playing as Spurs now and sitting comfortably at the top of the league. I beat Arsenal 2-0 but only after they had both Gilberto and Cambell sent off, injurying Carrick for six months in the process! ...Bastards.

So...Anyone watching Ireland/Cyprus?

1-0, the final result. England were unlucky to lose Beckham but very lucky to get the points given the way they've played. EDIT: And Turbo, see ravenjuice's comments for my feelings on the whole substitution situation, they basically echo my own. As a gamble, it worked but given the resources that England have it was hardly a gamble they absolutley had to take. I'd much prefer to kill the game off with another goal, something a player like Owen could no doubt achieve on the break, than hold out for the last 15 minutes to much weaker opposition.

If Austria were to score, England would currently have no chance of coming back given the substitutions they've made. Crouch up front by himself and a packed defense protecting a one goal lead, doesn't seem like the way England should be playing to me.

Richardson for Owen? King for Joe Cole? ...Does Sven even know what he's doing? EDIT: Also, how the fuck does Owen get the captain's armband ahead of Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and Ferdinand - all of whom have been captain of they're respective clubs.

Beckham's just been sent off. England's self-destruct begins in 3...2...1

Has anyone who actually has the game, tried Manager mode yet? I've been working away with it all afternoon, playing the matches rather than simulating them and it's great. I kind of cheated to start as United though. The game doesn't let you begin with a 5* team, one way to avoid it is to change the team's starting XI to the worst possible and change it back once you've started...Handy trick, really. I'm not sure on the running of things though, I've won the majority of my matches but my job security is dropping rapidly due to me being well below my budget. I have the fan support though and hopefully winning the league will be enough to rid the club of the debt.

L.A. Confidential - 9/10

I didn't know who he was until like a week ago. Just seems like another attention whore to me.

How the hell does the skill function work? The manual mentions something about the right analogue stick but I can never get it to work in a real match. I always seem to get dispossessed or something and as a result my goals only ever come from crosses/headers. Its frustrating, as in training I can beat a whole field of men with step-overs and shit but in a real match I can't do anything to that effect.

Wow, great game. I can honestly say I had a giant sigh of relief come the final whistle. In the end it was basically a tale of two poor defences, we in particular conceded two goals quite unnecessarily. Park was fantastic the entire first-half, the fact that he was involved in all three goals - It was surely a crime he didn't get one after ninety minutes. With Giggs back in the fray, the Formation is looking a lot brighter and once we get our defence sorted out, we could go a similar run to Christmas last year.

Haven't played a FIFA game in years, the World Cup one was the last one I played I think. Got this one yesterday, me and few mates played four player to the early hours of this morning. So far it's been great, especially for good drunken night in.

Apparently it looks very likely at the moment. If he does leave, it'll be for Celtic. I honestly couldn't see him playing for any other club and he himself in the interview said it would be a team outside the premiership. As the figurehead he was and to an extent still is, he's irreplaceable. But Roy Keane as the player can and will be replaced and the void he'll leave will almost certainly be filled. If we do buy Ballack or even if Smith or any of the other youngsters comes through, Keane won't play second fiddle to anyone. At this stage of his career, leaving appears to be the only option.

The only major gripe I have with it is that the main cuts are blurry and are missing chunks in certain areas. Other than that, it's not too bad; I've seen a lot worse.

The music's shit, IMO. It verges from Duel Guitar Nu-Metal to shitty emo. Not my cup of tea at all. There's not very much variation aside from that, I've been playing the game all weekend and it feels like I've only heard about five songs at the most. Still, It'd take a lot more than that to put me off the game.

(Y) Good battle, thanks for the votes/comments everyone!

Trivium are playing over here shortly, tickets are only something like £12.50. Me and a few mates are going despite not really liking the band that much. Can't really complain for that price.

I wouldn't say a definite no, but the highlights would certainly have to be brief. There were very little chances created by either team but those that were may be worth seeing. Couldn't agree more with this anti-4-3-3 talk. It may work for the Chelsea's of this world who can afford to buy the right players to fit the formation but for us, we've got to work with what we've got and what our players have become acustomed to. Its no secret that we've worked the new system around Keane and how he needs protected in the middle, with him now out for a long period of time, there's really no reason why we should'nt experiment a little bit and get back to our old 4-4-2 ways.

Fair enough result today I thought. Neither us or Liverpool really did enough to warrent the win after 90 minutes. I was a bit surprised at Liverpool's layout when I first saw it, it certainly didn't look like one a home side should be putting out, Crouch up front with no-one to knock it down to practically showed that Liverpool would be happy with the point and that they would never be ambitious enough to take all three. Still, its a nice match to get out of the way at this point in the season. If you would've asked me before the season start which five away games would be most difficult. Everton, Newcastle and Liverpool would've been three. With Chelsea still to travel in those directions, the season may not be quite over as early as some people are suggesting.

The United/City game is on RTE (Irish channel) at 2:45. I'm not sure if you'll be able to get that over where you are but over here it's also available on Sky channel 268 as well as normal TV, so it's worth a shot. There's always the Arab channels at you're local pub if worse comes to worse...

More votes are needed, please. Our last battle ended because of not enough votes and I don't want it to happen again.