Manish Bhasin will be anchoring the show tonight

Good to see Manish presenting MOTD2, I've always thought he was a very underrated presenter.

It was fine but I don't think it really added all that much in all honesty. Was probably done to ease Carragher into his co-commentary role.

Shame the coverage feels a little cheaper (if that's the right word) now though. Straight to the ad breaks at HT without handing back to the studio which felt very ITV. Also the third ad break in the half time segment which is disappointing but understandable. Finally, sorry to keep banging on about graphics but Sky's glossy ones really do look dated and ugly compared to BT's now. The team line up graphics with the full length players doesn't look as good as the previous ones which only showed their upper body so I'm surprised those survived too.

Has Manish ever presented MOTD/MOTD 2 before?

MLS - Seattle Sounders v Real Salt Lake:

Sky Sports 1 - Gary Taphouse and Iain Dowie

I thought Alan and Gary proved to be pretty good pundits, as it happens. I know you've been far more critical than me about Football League Tonight/Football on 5, while I'm generally pretty satisfied with it, so each to their own.

I think Alan in particular gets a pretty hard wrap, his punditry efforts seem to be spoken down on forums like this because he doesn't have the most dynamic style in a way I don't see when it comes to other downbeat-sounding experts like Lee Dixon. I thought he made some interesting points on this, as a Saddlers fan I always like hearing my team referenced in a positive light so I was intrigued to learn that he was on the panel that ruled on Will Grigg's tribunal fee when he moved from Walsall to Brentford. Channel 5 did spoil it somewhat by showing that Matt Dolan goal again for the umpteenth time though.

I suppose Megson and Curbishley are a bit of a shift from the youthful, recently-retired (or, occasionally, still playing) footballers they tend to go for, but I felt it was a welcome change - particularly as it meant we didn't have to put up with any pointless pundits-talk-over-the-goals edits on one or two games, with instead all of the non-featured games getting a proper voiceover. Which is never a bad thing.

On a general note, I'm glad Channel 5 seemed to have moved away from using Adam Virgo as a mainstay pundit who appears from week to week (he hasn't turned up so far this season). Don't get me wrong, Adam's a thoughtful, articulate pundit and I do quite like him, but I felt he had become overexposed during the first half of last season. With him doing so many Football League related things (Channel 5, a column in The Football League Paper and bits for the Up The League talkSPORT radio show), I began to notice the holes in his knowledge which isn't ideal when he is positioned as an EFL guru. For example, when highlighting the best players in League One (the division I'm most familiar with) part of the way through last season, he didn't mention anyone from Burton Albion or Walsall despite both being in the top six for virtually the whole campaign, instead going with those known from the bigger ex-Premier League clubs, southern-based sides (which is where he is based geographically) and those who've recently played in the National League (who obviously he's more familiar with due to his BT Sport work).

I find things like that start to grate in a way they wouldn't if the pundit in question only appeared in small doses, so I think for Channel 5 to move away from using Virgo frequently to having a rotation of different pundits, with a few regulars in him, Chris Iwelumo and Michael Gray, is a much preferable set-up.

Phil Blacker was on Shanghai Shenhua v Guangzhou Evergrande on Saturday lunchtime on Sky.

I'm glad I didn't have to witness Gary Megson on my TV, after having met him, my impression of him wasn't great!

Super Sunday sounds interesting and doesn't seem to have gone down too badly on here despite the criticism BT have got for a 3-man commentary team. However, if Carragher just speaks now & again, then I imagine it would work with those 3, maybe not so much with other 3 man teams.

Couple of questions:

Who were the pundits on MOTD2?
What happened at the end of Super Sunday in terms of studio line up?

Ah, thanks for the correction, Pako! I actually watched this game for a couple of minutes, and I got it into my head that it was WB on comms! Hopefully, will identify the correct commentator for the next CSL game when back on here next Saturday. Cheers!

Other things I've noticed:

1. MOTD new titles, I quite like them, a good update
2. Guy Mowbray completely messed up Hull's first goal, calling the wrong scorer
3. Cameras have switched sides at Boro's ground

Well I think they both touched the ball at the same time but guess that could have been sorted in the editing..

total agree

Sky Sport is still the best for English football coverage

But BT Sport is still the best for live European domestic football coverage as Sky had no presenter and pundits for the spanish super cup.
BT Sport had presenter/pundits for the german super cup last night

He's done MOTD in the FA Cup, but I'm not sure he's done it for the Premier League.


Murphy and Jenas were the pundits. The Super Sunday line-up remained as it was, but Carragher looked in from the gantry for some more chat. Neville wasn't present.

Brighton vs Forest - Introduced by Scott Minto with Keith Andrews and Peter Beagrie, commentary by Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe
Hull vs Leicester - Introduced by Simon Thomas with Thierry Henry and Jamie Redknapp, commentary by Alan Parry and Alan Smith
Man City vs Sunderland - Introduced by Jake Humphrey with Richard Dunne and Rio Ferdinand, commentary by Darren Fletcher, Steve McManaman and Glenn Hoddle
Norwich vs Sheff Wed - Introduced by Kelly Cates with Ian Holloway and David Prutton, commentary by Gary Weaver and Danny Higginbotham
Super Sunday - Introduced by Dave Jones with Thierry Henry, Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness, Bournemouth vs Man U commentary by Rob Hawthorne and Alan Smith, Arsenal vs Liverpool commentary by Martin Tyler and Gary Neville

Manish was very good on MOTD2 last night from the bits i saw. He for me is a very safe pair of hands, while he isn't as good as Mark Chapman he is better than Jason Mohammad and although others will probably disagree i find Manish a better presenter than Dan Walker as well. He is just less in your face that Walker and is a lot more professional.

Good punditry lineup as well, Murphy is much better as a pundit and he and Jenas are very good together, they are perhaps one of the best pairings that MOTD have during their pundit rotation.

Also MOTD is now on iPlayer a day earlier which is good!

Have to say catching up on BT Sport Score, I don't think it's a bad watch. Poughtach is a very good anchor, okay not as good as Stelling, but he's an upgrade on Final Score's Jason Mohammed. I like the use of the studio and the use of 5 fairly opinionated voices. I don't think it's quite in Soccer Saturday's league but it seems a better alternative to Final Score in my opinion.

No he didn't.
All he said was that it looked as if Hernandez had scored, which it did, or that maybe Diamonde had............which is also did.
I believe Alan Parry on Sky said the same.

It was impossible to tell even watching umpteen replays, as both players seem to have touched the ball TOGETHER.

Sometimes, a natural reaction to a completely confusing incident that happened in the blink of an eye is perfectly acceptable, and, in Guy's case, had it been changed in the edit to make it look as if he had x-ray vision the rest of the world isn't blessed with would have sounded ridiculous!

My first reaction on flicking from one to the other(Sky/BT) was that having reports from around the grounds gives the Sky viewers much more varied information and more of a "live" newsy feel - and a break between constant updates and chat, related or otherwise, on the games the pundits are watching.

Nothing really wrong with BT's programme, but nothing special about it either.

Viewers have got used to Jeff's style and the whole format of Sky's programme with its wide-ranging coverage, and, personally, as someone interested in all the divisions and not just the PL, it will take something exceptional to make me switch over!

But as I say, that's just my opinion!

And where we be without it now?

I think we'd all feel lost!

It was David Hill, a very innovative Australian at Sky, who suggested it, I believe, when I was commentating in the early days there with Big Ron Atkinson - and we all said no way will that ever catch on!

But he was right on that......even though he knew very little about football, he was a great man for spotting something new that would enhance TV coverage of a particular sport.

He was also I think the man behind the "duck" waddling across the screen for cricket, though, and that didn't turn out so well!

Few thoughts:

- The Carragher analysis on the tiny screen pre-Arsenal v Liv was a bit ridiculous. Hope they get rid.
-Personally didn't see the need for him to be added during commentary, but wasn't annoying either - so no massive issue with this.
- Disappointed Sky Sports haven't really refreshed their graphics this season. Cost-saving perhaps?
- Henry seems like he has improved based on last nights showing

- Like the new BT graphics.
- BT coverage still has a long way to go. Jake Humphrey seems to be annoying me even more now. He seems to be very keen to get his own opinion of the match/teams across and seeing if pundits agree, rather than letting the pundits talk.
- Poor Ian Darke.

BT Sport need to get rid of Jake Humphrey. Jake is BT Sport's worst football host
BT Sport should just have a commentator and a co-commentator for live English PL's games.

Ian Wright should not be a TV pundit on any channel as he is so bad

Not here but on Australian tv the duck still waddles!

Darren Fletcher on Man City qualifying first leg for BT and Leicester v Arsenal on Saturday. Expected Darke to be on at least one of these to be honest.

Darke on Dundalk?

Agree with this, if they do similar again they should deploy the Sky Cart with a full-size 90inch touchscreen.


Sky normally run in 3 year graphics refreshes, therefore they would be due to refresh next season. Would doubt it would be cost-cutting especially as they've made them 4k compatible.

David Jones has settled well into MNF.