There was a huge amount of hyperbole in the build up about that.
The redeveloped Anfield does look sweet, but adding 8k extra seats doesn't change the attitude of the team or as you say, mean the old stand was a barrier to success.

But people saying it was quiet are talking flat out nonsense! The volume & atmosphere in Anfield was brilliant!

James Fielden called Mainz/Hoffenheim for talkSPORT.

FS1 simulcast the World Feed for Mainz/Hoffenheim w/ the previously announced Derek Rae.

MLS - LA Galaxy v Orlando City:

Sky Sports 1 - Dave Farrar and Stewart Robson

Saturday 10th September - Channel 5

Football on 5

George Riley and Lynsey Hipgrave presented alongside Michael Gray and Chris Iwelumo

Fulham v Birmingham City - Paul Walker
Derby County v Newcastle United - Daniel Mann and David Prutton, with David Craig conducting interviews (as Sky Sports)
Reading v Ipswich Town (Friday) - Gary Weaver and Andy Hinchcliffe, with David Craig conducting interviews (as Sky Sports)

Championship round-ups - Tom Skippings, Sue Thearle, Nick Halling and Matt Williams
League One and Two round-ups - Tom Skippings, Sue Thearle, Nick Halling, Matt Williams, Will Cope and John Anderson

Chris Iwelumo talked over the Leeds United v Huddersfield Town action to open up the show, while Sue Thearle introduced the edit from Friday's Reading v Ipswich Town game as part of one of the Championship round-ups.

On another Football League note, I enjoyed seeing Ian Taylor providing punditry on Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest for Sky Sports. I'm a big fan of Ian's media work and think he's one of the better recently retired ex-pros out there - he's really personable and has a wicked sense of humour. I used to really enjoy the phone-in he did with Tom Ross on local radio in the Midlands and am sad that that has ended, so I would definitely like to see more of him on TV - both on live coverage (he's a punditry must if Villa v Derby is chosen by Sky) and highlights/magazine shows.

They didn't go quiet as soon as they started singing on Saturday - they did the whole of the team line-ups and formations over it … as they should - I'm not complaining about that - I'm just setting the record straight. Only for the last few seconds of the song did the commentators go quiet on this occasion, a reasonable balance, I think.




This I would agree with. I don't understand why presenters/pundits/commentators constantly go on about fantastic Anfield atmospheres. For most run-of-the-mill league games, it's dead most of the time. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard away fans chant, "Where's your famous atmosphere?" 8,000-odd more fans up in the gods won't change that.

Pleasant surprise that.
He was on MOTD2 last night alongside Chris Sutton. First time I've been able to watch Sutton in full and my goodness is he dour.

Seen BT got its usual criticism on here. Didn't see all the game but what I did see didn't look good. Losing the score DOG for 10 mins wasn't fantastic and that camera angle (even if they don't control it) isn't great. Luckily didn't hear much of the commentary or watch PLT but sounds like I had a lucky escape.
It sounded an atrocious line-up amyway so no surprise if it was awful

That said the use of Carragher on the Manchester Derby was pointless - he appeared so little that they might as well use him in the studio.

Also while big commentators on BT European games has been going on a while it still seemed slightly odd Peter Drury popping up on Mainz/Hoffenheim.


Totally agreed with this

It is very noticable how often the same pundits are better with Lineker than Jake

Sutton seems completely annoyed and disinterested in everything he sees when he is a pundit or commentating. But where as some other so called dour pundits actually come up with some constructive interesting points Sutton just doesnt seem to.

With Humphrey it is permanently the Jake show. Where as Lineker actually presents the program and talks to the pundits in a more informative way. The pundits prefer the way that Lineker talks to them and that in turn makes them come out with better analysis than when Humphrey does it. Part of the presenters job is to get the most out of the pundits and Lineker is one of the best at doing that. Humphrey just isn't and he often seems out of his depth on the PL coverage. It is strange in most ways to say that as when Humphrey did present the F1 for the BBC he was very good at getting information from the pundits whether it was Martin Brundle, Eddie Jordan or David Coulthard, Since joining BT Sport Humphrey seems to have gone downhill as a presenter at an alarming speed.

Total embarrassment just about sums up their 8.00 evening show at the moment, both Humphrey and Savage had one hell of a chip on their shoulders on Saturday.

If right interesting that Humphrey is presenting a champions league game this week, all he is doing is Man Utd game in the Europa League.

I quite enjoy Sutton's disdain for the most part. I always feel he's one sentence away from completing tearing someone apart, akin to Roy Keane's punditry.

As for Humphrey, when he was on F1 it was an open secret that he started off from knowing very little so therefore was kind of forced into asking the right questions in order for him to understand as much as the casual BBC One viewer. So with football he presumably knows a lot more to begin with, so therefore perhaps doesn't feel the need to ask his pundits to explain why something happened in great detail? Or at least doesn't want to come across as someone who doesn't know the game in the minutest detail, so gives opinions to agree/disagree with rather than lead pundits into fuller explanations.

Without wanting to sound like a broken record (as I'm sure half my posts on here recently are on Humphrey)...I agree with all the above.

What's interesting is BT clearly wanted an improvement for the CL...so got GL in to do the CL, yet feel he is good enough for the PL, and even let him host the follow up show now. Haven't seen it yet, but I suspect it is more of the same of Humphrey doing the same. It's very rare that a presenter irks me but he does e.g I never had a problem with Adrian Chiles or Geoff Stelling presenting football.

It sounds good - but once again I spotted a fair bit of criticism on other sites and John Dykes having to defend the show a lot on Twitter.

Not sure it's about the program per se but it being the only option broadcasters take. So to use the CL as an example basically rather than viewers getting PSG v Arsenal, they get the European Goals Show - as the only option.

Great if you want the latter but if you want the former not so much. And I've heard they are a bit trigger happy in changing games - fair enough for goals but apparently they were doing so for corners/near misses etc.
I think it's a good option but that it shouldn't be the only option - which the broadcasters are to blame for (Or maybe they don't feel it's worth the expense)

That said it's not a bad idea and I am sort of envious that we don't have the PLP coverage. It sounds as good as much of the coverage we get in the UK.

I really enjoyed Jake, EJ & DC on the BBC's F1 coverage and thought they worked well as a trio.

I've never had a BT Sport subscription or seen any of their coverage but can see on here that Humphrey is pretty much universally disliked. Indeed, I can't say I'm being given any motivation to upgrade to BT Sport as every other post on here is a declaration of discontent with their coverage or a negative remark about their pundits/presenters/commentators.

I would like to add that whilst I was questioning Humphrey's style earlier, I do generally really enjoy the whole BT Sport output and think it's been a great addition to the schedules these past few seasons. Their coverage of certain other sports is fantastic, particularly rugby union, and the majority of their football is very good. Some personnel decisions I don't agree with, largely the ex-ITV catalogue of Smith, Beglin, Drury and Champion not being used more prominently, but on the whole it's pretty good viewing.

Yes, I would agree with this. I enjoy their Conference coverage, I think it has plenty of enthusiasm and it's clear that they have a lot of respect from the clubs. As a fan of a Conference club I very much enjoy it when they're on, and it's far more imaginative than Sky's lower league coverage, and the presence of Matt Smith just improves it still further.

I don't watch the Scottish football but I have seen many people suggest that their coverage is light years ahead of Sky, and that Derek Rae is the best broadcaster on Scottish football. And of course people regularly say how much they enjoy James Richardson and the European coverage. They have some interesting documentaries as well. And it's good that we have a first class alternative to Sky to stop Sky getting complacent and boring.

Most of the comments here have been about specific presenters, pundits and commentators, but given Sky continually employ Jamie Redknapp and Paul Merson, plus do bloody awful shows like Soccer AM, In Off The Bar and Friday Night Football, you can criticise them just as much. There are good and bad points about all channels, and of course the quality of the actual match coverage is as good as everyone else because all sports broadcasters work to the highest standards.

If you like football you'll like BT because they show loads of football.

Phil Neville joins Jamie and David tonight on MNF

Just seen this on twitter. Sure someone (Thomas on Sat?) said Bilic was going to be involved? Maybe he decided change of mind after Sat loss?!

I guess Gary won't be a regularly anymore.

I can't believe Martin Tyler is still commentating. Surely this is his last season!? or are we heading for a Bob Paisley scenario?

I don't blame him if that's the reason.

Am I right in thinking something similar has happened before - not with Bilic with other PL managers i.e. They've been booked to appear but ended up not doing so after their side lost?
Apologies if it hasn't occurred but I'm sure I remember something like that happening.

John Roder's September update:

'September is busy, with the start of the Champions League and Europa League group stages. I have matches to do in both competitions for BT Sport, as well as Ligue 1 games from France for BT. For the BBC there are Premier League games for Match of the Day, and a couple of match report games for Final Score. The European Qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup get underway, I have some bookings for these, and there are South American World Cup qualifiers and Football League world feeds for Pitch International.

Add to that some classes for the students at UCFB Wembley on the journalism and broadcasting courses and September is reasonably full-on!'

It's Fletcher and Hargreaves for PSG-Arsenal tomorrow. Darke and Savage for Brugge-Leicester the following night. Jenas at Wembley on the Wednesday night (we assume with Mowbray), probably leaving McManaman on the Man City game (perhaps with Peter Drury).

I noticed some talk about Liverpool bias from BT earlier in the thread.

Well does this show Sutton being Pro Chelsea or just being the typical pundit just talking about the big team in a game..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/...ment_125380688

Despite there being a guest, MNF seems to have focused more on the weekend's game rather than a guests past games which is a welcome change. Not saying it awful but it doesn't work on the MNF format.

You'd think there were only one team involved in that game from that.
The usual mix of Sutton dourness and misery. Add that to the fact that he often seems to make ridiculous and controversial statements just to get a reaction and it means he really is an awful pundit.

The 'virtual reality' graphics Sky are using on MNF with David Jones to show the teams do look ridiculous - David Jones in a gigantic virtual Stadium of Light.
The ones last season weren't that different but didn't look half as ridiculous.

Thought the short mention David Jones made of Bradley Lowery was a nice touch.

Rob Hawthorne and Davie Provan commentating on Sunderland/Everton.

Empoli v Crotone - BT Sport 1 - Alistair Mann
Nurnberg v TSV 1860 Munchen - BT Sport 3 - Tim Caple

Oh no no no!!!

Savage with Darke on Weds, i was really looking foward to that game.

Still no sign of Owen in the commentray box?