Joey™

Testing is underway in Jerez. Kimi Raikkonen is currently fastest in the Lotus already going faster than the quickest time in last years test session (set by Rubens in a really crap Williams).

We've seen some of the new car designs, do we believe that McLaren used the 2012 rules to build their 2011 chassis, therefore having a years worth of data towards the ruling, or have they messed up and are using that as a cover up? And what is 'that' vent on the Red Bull? Is it to cool the KERS system that they struggled with last year or is it purely another stroke or aerodynamical genius from Newey?

This season should be awesome.

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My personal thoughts are that Suarez comes from a country where using a skin colour as a nickname is common practice - Maxi Pereira is known as El Mono "The Monkey". The FA are making an example out of Suarez and putting a message out there, you want to work and earn a living in our country, you abide by our rules.

I've no doubt they will reduce his ban for racism to 5 games and then give him a 3 match ban for his gesture at Fulham.

What do you think?

100. Leandro Damiao
99. Rio Ferdinand
98. Giuseppe Rossi
97. Kevin-Prince Boateng
96. Maicon
95. Miroslav Klose
94. Javier Mascherano
93. Joe Hart
92. Fernando Llorente
91. Diego Lugano
90. Alvaro Pereira
89. Thomas Muller
88. Mario Balotelli
87. Javi Martinez
86. Gianluigi Buffon
85. Lucio
84. Jack Wilshere
83. Pepe Reina
82. Santi Cazorla
81. Diego Forlan
80. Yann M’Vila
79. Pepe
78. Steven Gerrard
77. Claudio Marchisio
76. Christian Eriksen
75. Robinho
74. Hulk
73. Daniele De Rossi
72. Marek Hamsik
71. Kaka
70. Alexis Sanchez
69. Alexandre Pato
68. Shinji Kagawa
67. Edin Dzeko
66. Giorgio Chiellini
65. Michael Essien
64. Hugo Lloris
63. Eric Abidal
62. Radamel Falcao
61. Carlos Tevez
60. Andrea Pirlo
59. Marcelo
58. Carles Puyol
57. Sergio Ramos
56. Frank Lampard
55. Victor Valdes
54. Rafael Van der Vaart
53. Didier Drogba
52. Antonio Di Natale
51. Mario Gomez
50. John Terry
49. Arjen Robben
48. Eden Hazard
47. Javier Hernandez
46. Mats Hummels
45. Gareth Bale
44. Juan Mata
43. Patrice Evra
42. Fernando Torres
41. Mario Goetze
40. Fabio Coentrao
39. Yaya Toure
38. Franck Ribery
37. Xabi Alonso
36. Nani
35. Vincent Kompany
34. Ashley Cole
33. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
32. Thiago Silva
31. Angel Di Maria
30. Karim Benzema
29. Samuel Eto’o
28. Pedro Rodriguez
27. Samir Nasri
26. Edinson Cavani
25. Javier Pastore
24. Dani Alves
23. Neymar
22. Gonzalo Higuain
21. Philip Lahm
20. Luis Suarez
19. Iker Casillas
18. Luka Modric
17. Sergio Busquets
16. Nemanja Vidic
15. Manuel Neuer
14. Sergio Aguero
13. Wesley Sneijder
12. Bastian Schweinsteiger
11. Cesc Fabregas
10. Mesut Oezil
9. Robin Van Persie
8. Gerard Pique
7. David Silva
6. Wayne Rooney
5. David Villa
4. Andres Iniesta
3. Xavi
2. Cristiano Ronaldo
1. Lionel Messi

Agree, disagree, discuss...

Are you a fan of a particular journalist's work? Who would you recommend we follow? Who would you/do you abuse because of their utter tripe?

Personally I keep an eye on Tim Vickery, Sid Lowe, Gabriele Marcotti, Matt Lawton etc etc

One that winds me up on Twitter is Oliver Holt from The Mirror, but after hearing a podcast he featured on, I now find him less of a twat!

The floor, is yours...

Captain Miles’ blog Part 1

So yesterday saw the first of Miles Jacobson’s blogs regarding Football Manager 2012 and more excitingly an announcement regarding the release of the game. No longer are we being told the generic ‘before Christmas’ we have a solid date, Friday, October 21st.

The guys at SI have clearly been working all hours to get the next instalment of the game ready for us and Miles himself has started to explain some of the new features we are going to see in Football Manager 2012.

Scouting

Thankfully, Miles has gone straight in at the deep end and announced some big features straight off the bat regarding scouting. A revised team report now allows you not only to scout your next opposition, it allows you to request a team report from any club in the game, just by asking one of your scouts.

The revised team report screen will open with a strength overview screen which gives you a report listing the top 3 players at each position at the club, with star ratings for each player. You can delve deeper and use the position strength option which will give you the ratings of all players in a particular position.

We are now going to be able to use a scouting pool to scout players, we can send a scout or member of your backroom staff to report on a player without having to specifically designate a member of staff.

The inclusion of more intelligent staff is something to look forward to. Your scouts will inform you if they disagree with your decision to send them to the Arctic Circle and if you hire the right scout they may come armed with a ready-made scouting list.

In terms of direct scouting we will be seeing feedback on a player’s best tactical role, comparisons with other players in our squad, stronger and more accurate feedback on player weaknesses and the ability to scout for specific attributes. There will also be this little hints and tips ticker appearing in your game no doubt;

‘If you just scout a player once, and they aren’t famous, you’d better keep scouting them every year or else you may find their stats become hidden’

Tactical Analysis

Miles briefly touched on some new tactic analysis features from the new game. We are going to have the ability to see how our teams have performed using specific tactics, with information available to see how many times we’ve started with a specific tactic, how many minutes we’ve used them for, how many goals we’ve scored and how many goals we’ve leaked. Each tactic will have a paragraph of specific analysis.

We will also be able to analyse how many goals we’ve scored and conceded against different rankings of teams (higher, similar and smaller rated teams) which should be good when deciding which tactics to use.

We are all used to our normal scouting/coaching reports indicating when we are more likely to score or concede, in Football Manager 2012, we’ll be able to see a more in-depth report which will itemise times of goals scored/conceded, where the assists came from, types of goals scored/conceded and the type of assist for or against. This, to me, is a brilliant tool when deciding on your tactics.

Miles will be back later today with a new blog, which we’ll regurgitate and post on the forum tomorrow.

See the original SI Games thread, here