Pundits you like

on the polish channel i watch they have jerzy engel, the poland manager at the last world cup. very good analyst - really perceptive, knows his stuff, aware of many things most pundits wouldn't have a clue about. he uses a chalkboard replay thing and analyses key moments with genuine insight and experience. he points out signs a player is carrying an injury, lacks fitness, is straying out of position, has his body shape wrong, is not predicting the play right etc etc. one of the best pundits i've heard.

unfortunately they also have a celebrity united 'fan' who they wheel out whenever a big game is on. some tool off a polish soap opera who turns up in a united scarf and top £#%&!ing hat. the mute button gets used copiously.

Originally Posted by borsuk

on the polish channel i watch they have jerzy engel, the poland manager at the last world cup. very good analyst - really perceptive, knows his stuff, aware of many things most pundits wouldn't have a clue about. he uses a chalkboard replay thing and analyses key moments with genuine insight and experience. he points out signs a player is carrying an injury, lacks fitness, is straying out of position, has his body shape wrong, is not predicting the play right etc etc. one of the best pundits i've heard.

unfortunately they also have a celebrity united 'fan' who they wheel out whenever a big game is on. some tool off a polish soap opera who turns up in a united scarf and top £#%&!ing hat. the mute button gets used copiously.

How did the ex manager do when he was managing? You'd think that with all that insight and knowledge he'd be at the top of his game. do you think he'd do well in the Prem for example or was he shit but talks a good game (like Sounness)?

Also, how do you know what they are saying, surely they speak in Russian in Poland?

Originally Posted by borsuk

on the polish channel i watch they have jerzy engel, the poland manager at the last world cup. very good analyst - really perceptive, knows his stuff, aware of many things most pundits wouldn't have a clue about. he uses a chalkboard replay thing and analyses key moments with genuine insight and experience. he points out signs a player is carrying an injury, lacks fitness, is straying out of position, has his body shape wrong, is not predicting the play right etc etc. one of the best pundits i've heard.

.

Johnny Giles used to do that on Irish televison years ago but for some reason he stopped analysing games and turned to incessently bitching and whinging about the modern game.

I would much prefer a pundit to talk about how a defence was broken down or why one midfield dominated another instead of wow did you see that throw in - Thank you very much Jamie Redknapp.

Paul Merson is utterly hilarious on Soccer Saturday, it's like someone's wheeled him out on day release & probably feeds him off screen with baby food at halftime. £#%&!ing clown.

Originally Posted by Spiffy

How did the ex manager do when he was managing? You'd think that with all that insight and knowledge he'd be at the top of his game. do you think he'd do well in the Prem for example or was he shit but talks a good game (like Sounness)?

he was very good, actually. they got to the finals unbeaten (first time they had qualified for something like 20 years, i think) and - from memory - lost to s korea (semifinalists), beat the us (quarterfinalists) and lost to portugal. in retrospect it was a really tough group.

engel was slated very unfairly imo - just getting to the finals was a huge achievement but expectations were horribly unrealistic. boniek (fabulous player, awful manager) took over, switched the system overnight to 3-5-2 (no-one in poland plays that) and lost something like four matches in a row. bye bye boniek, hello pawel janas. he did ok - qualified for euro champs but playing turgid negative stuff. they crashed out with 3 defeats out of 3 and ructions in the squad. in comes leo beernhaker who is a class act and has them playing decent stuff and winning consistently.

Also, how do you know what they are saying, surely they speak in Russian in Poland?

denis will have your balls for that if he sees it.

Paul Merson is good for entertainment but manages to predict everything arseways. If he said day would follow night it probably wouldn't.

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Paul Merson is utterly hilarious on Soccer Saturday, it's like someone's wheeled him out on day release & probably feeds him off screen with baby food at halftime. £#%&!ing clown.

I think he's class. He's obviously just there for comedy value and he makes me piss when somebody scores in the game he's watching.

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

I genuinely rate Souness as a pundit, love the way he bangs on about "proper players" & loves the attacking football we play. He's usually the only one making salient points about the game or influences during CL games on SKY.

Agree with that. Alongside Ruud Gullit, they're both quality for Champions League stuff on Sky. Just a shame they have that @#%&! Keys cutting them off to ask clowns like Charlie Nicholas their opinion

Most football analysis on british television is £#%&!ing crap. Consists mainly of a bunch of semi articulate former players who display very little incite or intelligence, preferring to bore the audience with the same old clichés. The fact that the majority of the "footy" watching muppets in this country take what sky/bbc/the tabloid press says as gospel is quite depressing.

Souness is ok. The only one worth a fart for me is Jimmy Armfield.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Agree with that. Alongside Ruud Gullit, they're both quality for Champions League stuff on Sky. Just a shame they have that @#%&! Keys cutting them off to ask clowns like Charlie Nicholas their opinion

Most football analysis on british television is £#%&!ing crap. Consists mainly of a bunch of semi articulate former players who display very little incite or intelligence, preferring to bore the audience with the same old clichés. The fact that the majority of the "footy" watching muppets in this country take what sky/bbc/the tabloid press says as gospel is quite depressing.

Agreed.

Most punditry is unchallenging, misguided or inoffensive.

Or a combo of the three.

The problem is that most of them don't watch teams as regularly as the fans do but are expected to display insight that us mere mortals couldn't. Rather than take an overview, they pretend they know each and every player inside out and bullshit their way through.

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Paul Merson is utterly hilarious on Soccer Saturday, it's like someone's wheeled him out on day release & probably feeds him off screen with baby food at halftime. £#%&!ing clown.

paul merson is quality mate.
and i like his no nonsense analysis of players...

"so and so is a nothing player"
"some of the ****** players can pass water let alone a football"

Originally Posted by The Return of JC

Agreed.

Most punditry is unchallenging, misguided or inoffensive.

Or a combo of the three.

The problem is that most of them don't watch teams as regularly as the fans do but are expected to display insight that us mere mortals couldn't. Rather than take an overview, they pretend they know each and every player inside out and bullshit their way through.

European/Internationals bring out the worst in these idiots. When United were paired with Roma last season, most of these @#%&!s came out with the usual shite about how Roma would be cagy, playing a catenaccio style of foobtall Yet, anyone who'd seen them play in Serie A would know that they were anything but a "defensive" team, as the game in Rome showed. £#%&!ing clowns, going in for the usual national stereotypes.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

European/Internationals bring out the worst in these idiots. When United were paired with Roma last season, most of these @#%&!s came out with the usual shite about how Roma would be cagy, playing a catenaccio style of foobtall Yet, anyone who'd seen them play in Serie A would know that they were anything but a "defensive" team, as the game in Rome showed. £#%&!ing clowns, going in for the usual national stereotypes.

Exactly. They generalise or go the other way. I.e. they select footage that fits a theory they have.

Gray did it by suggesting United never go down the flanks anymore. He showed some attacks from Sunday where we went centrally, but he could've just as easily shown Tevez's late header, Nani's chance and Giggs' cross for Tevez's other miss. All came down the flanks. Bullpoo.

Souness for me too, as explained by many already.

Hansen too - he is actually United by all accounts.

And also Gullit.

Gray I now cannot tolerate at all. So gerrard obsessed it's unreal. I had become so used to hitting mute every time that scouse sports HD ad came on it was getting silly.

Tyler is a #@&%! - a gooner, pearce and crooks on bbc are absolute clowns.

I even saw monkey magic keown on sky yesterday £#%&! knows how that mong is getting a run.

Can't stand redknapp. Full of shit.

Paul Merson for comedy value

Graeme Souness because he is a closet red.

Redmike, with all due respect, you just named every pundit.

Andy Gray was amusing for the first couple of seasons of Sky football.

Now he's just tiresome.

I've always found Hansen alright, in the 90s United dominance period he was always suitable awe-struck by Cantona, Hughes, Giggs etc. And he's able to laugh at himself and admit it when he's wrong, such as his 'you win nothing with kids' comment.

On the radio, Mark Bright is a complete @#%&! and that cockney tosser who played for Millwall should not be allowed near the world of broadcasting.

Edit:

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Most football analysis on british television is £#%&!ing crap. Consists mainly of a bunch of semi articulate former players who display very little incite or intelligence, preferring to bore the audience with the same old clichés. The fact that the majority of the "footy" watching muppets in this country take what sky/bbc/the tabloid press says as gospel is quite depressing

Spot on. Someone on here cited a really good example a few months back, where some know-nothing @#%&! was wheeled out to trot out the same tired old cliches about the Germans: 'Well they're German so they'll be efficient and defensive', when in fact it was Werder Bremen who were and are an attacking football side. No insight, no valuable contributions, just borderline racist bullshit that you can read in any toilet paper tabloid.

Merson is £#%&!in quality. Says it how it is!

On why Fratton park is a hard place to go:

"It's just a dump really innit"

On Lehmann when him and Drogba put on that laurel and hardy show diving:

"His kids are gonna get ripped to shreds at school"....Keys - "Well, they are now Paul"

Legend!!

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Most football analysis on british television is £#%&!ing crap. Consists mainly of a bunch of semi articulate former players who display very little incite or intelligence, preferring to bore the audience with the same old clichés. The fact that the majority of the "footy" watching muppets in this country take what sky/bbc/the tabloid press says as gospel is quite depressing.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

European/Internationals bring out the worst in these idiots. When United were paired with Roma last season, most of these @#%&!s came out with the usual shite about how Roma would be cagy, playing a catenaccio style of foobtall Yet, anyone who'd seen them play in Serie A would know that they were anything but a "defensive" team, as the game in Rome showed. £#%&!ing clowns, going in for the usual national stereotypes.

Originally Posted by Zorg

Someone on here cited a really good example a few months back, where some know-nothing @#%&! was wheeled out to trot out the same tired old cliches about the Germans: 'Well they're German so they'll be efficient and defensive', when in fact it was Werder Bremen who were and are an attacking football side. No insight, no valuable contributions, just borderline racist bullshit that you can read in any toilet paper tabloid.

agree with all of that. if you've watched/listened to european analysts or read some of what the papers write it's often light years ahead of what you find in the british press. the closest you ever get to genuine tactical analysis is some barely intelligible muttering about 4-4-2, target men and defending in the opponent's half. ruud gullit was one of the few who could actually talk intelligently about tactics and team play, rather than just who was playing well and who wasn't.