Am I the only one who found Owen Hargreaves cringeworthy and embrassment
Saying man utd could easy win this game with their first team really Owen
Pogba 90 million French international
De gea Spanish national keeper
Rashford/smalling both englsnd internationals (unbelievably in latter's case)
Amongst others
The fact thst they had 2 shots on target in 90 mins too
Know Owen is former man utd player but seriously thst was embrassment to listen to him.

Plus a player worth 90 million in their midfield apparently..

Probably a case of over confidence/underestimating the opposition:>

The third commentator is a former manager offering a more tactical insight.


Supposedly.

The three man commentary team just doesnt work in football full stop. The two man team just works, it provides description and analysis as the game goes on. Rugby is the exception where the three person commentary team works well as there usually is a commentator and a forward and a back being the two co-commentators. Rugby is far better with a commentary team of three but football is not.

I would find it a little amusing to see the thread's reaction if there was once a 3 man commentary team of Darren Fletcher, Robbie Savage and Harry Redknapp then
We'd have the '100mph' main commentator, Savage's 'y'know' and his excited nature and Redknapp's 'he's a top, top player...twiffic finish.'

I see your point but I think it has been established, as you have suggested, Hoddle doesn't really add very much in that position. Even worse that he's started calling Darren "Fletch" incessantly now as well!

Hull v Arsenal- Guy Mowbray for MotD
Leicester v Burnley- Martin Fisher for MotD
Man City v Bournemouth- Steve Bower for MotD
Everton v Boro- Steve Wilson for MotD

Tuesday 27 September on TV3

Leicester City v FC Porto- David McIntyre and Kevin Kilbane.

Wednesday 28 September on RTE2

Celtic v Manchester City- Darragh Maloney introduces. With analysis from Didi Hamann and Liam Brady, and commentary by George Hamilton and Jim Beglin.

To be fair on the EFS lot I'd say BT are more than making use of them. Think they appeared 4 days in a row this week - EFS, EFS Extra and then the Goals Show.

If you were to add Score to that, that'd mean some of them might be appearing 5 days in a row on CL weeks. As much as we are all fans, they really could become overexposed very quickly.


Brilliant description

Both seem to wibble on so much that by the end you've lost interest in what they're saying.

Aalso, if they are adding them to provide the manager's perspective I'm not sure how relevant both are. Neither have managed in the last 10 years.
Not that I ever, ever want him anywhere near a commentary box (I cannot stress that enough) but if they do want some to fill a 'manager' role on the commentary then frankly 'Arry Redknapp has more recent managerial experience.

Though not sure why BT only use it on the domestic games. The fact they're not using it on CL/EL suggests they themselves aren't totally confident in it.


Savage at times actually seems better the bigger the game or compeititon. He was good on Olympiakos/Arsenal in the CL last season and in the Euros he was good. He seems to realise he needs to behave seriously and can sometimes produce good commentaries

In the PL, EL and FA Cup on the other hand he at times doesn't seem to care and frankly produces some embarrassing commentaries. The 'Play their best team' and Southampton/Arsenal commentaries he produced were among the very worst of last season (and there was quite some competition for that honour). And for me those commentaries more than cancel out the good ones.

The Fletcher, Hoddle, Mcmanaman and Webb partnership has a particular bad cases of the 'Fletches'.

Don't go giving BT ideas. The thread reaction would be brilliant but on the other hand I'd probably have muted long before the end.
Though the absolute worst would be a Fletch, Jamo and 'Arry commentary. Though the Casinoman rant afterwards would perhaps be worth it

Sky are tweeting asking for questions for Jamie Carragher, Thierry Henry and Graeme Souness so I think we can assume they'll all be involved in today's coverage.
That as well with Tyler and Neville seemingly on commentary it should be a very strong team. It will be my first chance to see Friday Night Football as well, hopefully it will be a bit better than what I heard about the first effort- they should have had a chance to hone in on what they want to do with the slot now.

PLP have John Dykes, Phil Neville and Michael Owen in the studio for Chelsea/Liverpool.

Manish Bhasin and Alan Shearer are pitchside.

Put me down as a Hargreaves hater. I, too, find him cringeworthy. Let's count the ways.

First, as many here have noted, is the sensationalist and gross overuse of amplifiers: "so quick", "so gifted", "exceptional", "absolutely brilliant".

Second, he often conflates dominating possession to dominating a match.

Then there is the narcissism: the annoying passive-aggressive way that he pats himself on the back when something he mentioned earlier in a broadcast comes to fruition. I also remember the Man City-Real Madrid CL SF last season when he kept telling us how *he* was talking to (an injured) Cristiano Ronaldo pre-match--which was conveniently captured on video, too.

But worst of all, I find there's this intellectual dishonesty with Hargreaves. GNev, Michael Owen, McManaman have all unabashedly declared their allegiance for the English sides when they are commentating on a European match. Hargreaves, meanwhile, feigns impartiality--and proclaims himself "a citizen of the world." Yet his bias seeps through, as it seems (from this forum here) on the United UEL match this past Thurs, or the Liv-Sev UEL final back in May, or, as everybody has mentioned ad infinitum, on any Bayern match.

Perhaps Sir Alex summed it up best about Hargreaves: "there's just something about him that I didn't like."

I might be able to zero in (at least based on his television work) and provide two words: pretentious and smarmy.

** Yes, I'm telling you how I really feel **

I don't know if anyone has noticed but Everton V Crystal Palace and Swansea V Liverpool on the 30th September/1st October is moving to Sky Sports 2. Apart from the final day and the midweek on Wednesday where Sky had two games, I believe this is the first time and correct me if I'm wrong but this is the first game in 3 years where we had no PL games on SS1 unless this happend in 2014? Presumably the Ryder Cup is taking priority.

I remember that Sky use to regularly put Saturday Premier League games on Sky Sports 2 before the 2013/14 contract.

Yes, entire Ryder Cup is live on SS1 (and SS4) on Fri, Sat and Sun except:

On Sun, Ryder Cup starts at 4pm on SS4 only.

Super Sunday is on SS1 until 7pm and then Ryder Cup is also on SS1 from 7pm.

I do wonder if the above may change - ie whether Burnley v Arsenal will get moved and Ryder Cup will be on SS1 from 4.15pm - but we'll see.

First tee shot on Sun is just after 5pm.

Thursday 15th September - ITV

UEFA Europa League Highlights

Mark Pougatch presented alongside Paul Ince and Glenn Hoddle

Feyenoord v Manchester United - Sam Matterface
Southampton v AC Sparta Praha - Clive Tyldesley, with Sue Thearle conducting interviews
AZ Alkmaar v Dundalk - Joe Speight, with Des Curran (as eir Sport 1) conducting interviews

Round-ups - Tom Skippings and Mark Scott

I know mightymillie posted most of the information over the page, but I thought I'd complete it by identifying the interviewer ITV used from the Dundalk game. In addition, Mark Pougatch voiced the pick of the goals from the two other games from the English clubs' groups.

eir Sport 1's coverage of AZ Alkmaar v Dundalk was hosted by Connor Morris from the studio alongside Damian Lynch, Kenny Cunningham and Pat Fenlon, with commentary from Des Curran and Brian Kerr. Coverage of that game was followed by Southampton v AC Sparta Praha, where Morris and Cunningham were joined in the studio by John Hartson. Paul Dempsey and Gary Breen commentated from St Mary's Stadium. Not sure how eir Sport 2 covered the Manchester United and Internazionale games, their Twitter feed suggests they utilised BT Sport's commentaries. eir Sport 1 made their AZ Alkmaar v Dundalk coverage free-to-air on the Sky platform in Ireland.

BBC Match of the Day - Saturday 17th September

Chelsea v Liverpool - Simon Brotherton

Hull City v Arsenal - Guy Mowbray
Leicester v Burnley - Martin Fisher
Man City v Bournemouth - Steve Bower
West Brom v West Ham - Mark Scott
Everton v Middlesbrough - Steve Wilson


BBC Match of the Day 2 - Sunday 18th September

Watford v Man United - Steve Bower
Crystal Palace v Stoke - Simon Brotherton
Southampton v Swansea - John Roder
Tottenham v Sunderland - Jonathan Pearce

Well FNF has at least started with a different tone to last time - much more normal, sober studio discussion.

Studio looks the same as for Sat night Football League?

One less pundit is certainly helping things.

I completely missed FNF last time but this seems pretty solid. They haven't completely binned Tubes though — they were trailing a feature involving him that'll be coming up later on.

Cologne/Freiburg

FS1: Ross Dyer, Brian Dunseth

World Feed: Derek Rae

talkSPORT: Tim Long

That leaves BT Sport 2.

A bit of naive moral outrage on FNF re: David Luiz tweeting 30 minutes ahead of kick-off.

The tweet was sent from the Twitter Web Client so I'd say it's unlikely to have been sent from the dressing room unless Mr. Luiz was in there complete with laptop.

...and of course, other Twitter apps offer scheduled tweets so the time of a tweet doesn't mean the user is actively tweeting it.

Awful call for the first Liverpool goal - I assume Tyler thought it was about to be ruled offside?

Ian Darke will commentate on Crystal Palace vs. Stoke with David Prutton this Sunday.

Jon Champion and Jim Beglin at Stamford Bridge.

Sampdoria v AC Milan - BT Sport 2.

Commentators: Adam Summerton and Stewart Robson

Caen v PSG - BT Sport 3.

Commentators: Jonathan Pearce and Adam Virgo

Sutton United v Tranmere Rovers (Saturday,12:15pm) - BT Sport 1.

Matt Smith to present coverage from Gander Green Lane with Kevin Davies, Chris Hargreaves and David James. Natalie Quirk reporting.

Commentators: Adam Summerton and Adam Virgo

FC Köln v SC Freiburg - BT Sport ESPN - Jonathan Beck