The9

I think I have a stalker, someone tell him I haven't been able to see his posts for about a month now.

Because Cedric's an attacking full back and Yoshida isn't. Sometimes we'll need an attacking full back.

Mata was offside so they didn't need to get out quicker, Yoshida probably isn't meant to be picking up the midfielder in a fairly central position in the box anyway - if anything a couple of times he was slightly too narrow due to gravitating to his usual position. Plus it was a transition, we cleared and Schneiderlin headed back in, that's always going to catch people slightly away from the ideal as they could be shaping to be in a position to receive a pass if we retain possession after the clearance.

Surely holding a high line against a player of the pace of Martial was absolutely asking for trouble? We tend not to push up because we can get caught by a ball into the space behind, and because usually our back 6 (ish) is capable of defending anything in front of them. Could be why Fonte was reluctant to get out. Also, the fact I noticed how high up the pitch we were at one point suggests it's not a usual tactic.

Koeman basically said he picked Yoshida because Cedric was better at going forward but that wasn't what was needed in this match. There will be plenty of matches where having an attacking RB will be key. As it was we scored from a right wing cross, so on that basis you can say he was right that we didn't need Cedric to get crosses in. As for "I'd like to see Bertrand", well yeah.

He does. Literally nearly every single game. I should have been keeping a log. Off the top of my head, against Newcastle he all but tackled Fonte in the box and we escaped with a corner; against Everton he was caught in possession on half way line by Lukaku leading to a goal. I think it was Arnhem home he got caught in possession near the goal-line in the box and just managed to get a toe in to save himself. Another home game he cleared straight to the striker just outside the box when Stekelenburg was telling him to put it out because he had no support. Man U he backpassed it straight to Martial for a goal - though I can't blame him for the tackle on Mata. There are plenty of other occasions too. It was also Everton when he went wrong side for no reason on the halfway line and Lukaku ran unopposed for 30 yards towards the box. As I said, I think using him as a defensive full back was a rational decision compared to Cedric's skillset, which is more than I can say for his back pass choice. Also, we completely stuffed Man U for half an hour in that "appalling performance".

If you think it's "one erroneous pass" you might want to try searching my posting history about his performances. Ironically when people were saying "should have picked Cedric" before kick off I was saying Yoshida might be a better option against Depay.

Actually, it is.

I have a set-piece which also deserves a wider audience, from Dag/Red v Newport. Not sure if I can get a link that works at work...

I went to Dagenham and Redbridge v Newport County on Saturday. 0-0 between the two sides which are currently the bottom two in the entire Football League. The standard was better than I was expecting, even though I did upload a video of an absolutely awful free-kick, and I've seen a lot of crap football. Worth noting that almost the entire Newport team is now ex-non-League players, players who have been recently relegated from League 2 (or League 1 when squad players) or never played in the League before, and they were still surprisingly organised. Were never going to score though.

Since going out of Europe I've only heard "we might try and win a cup".

What makes you think we're one of those? We're a club with top of mid-table ambitions. Sustainable and happy to sell best players on. We were just about getting used to being that in 2003/4 too and people started moaning about missing the relegation battle.

I'm absolutely fine with how we're doing at the moment with the injuries, even though I think we could finish below the top 6, plus Leicester, Palace, Stoke, Swansea and Everton (lost at home). I wouldn't bat an eyelid. We overperformed last season, have lost three of our best players on top of the ones we lost the year before, and we also have also had lot of concurrent injuries and whilst last year's team was the exception it often takes time for a LOT of new players to get used to each others' styles. Plus football is all about fine margins and we've been on the wrong end of a few of those this year as opposed to the right end of them last. Can't see us being worse than Sunderland, Norwich (beat at home), Watford (drew away), Newcastle (drew away), West Brom (drew away), Villa or Bournemouth and probably not worse than West Ham either. So somewhere midtable between 8th and 13th seems likely, with the specifics coming down to a red card here and an injury there in key moments. Martina looked fine, bit ponderous on the ball once or twice but playing completely out of position at left back and MUCH better than the last time I saw him there.

And how would you propose paying them?

The right side from which we crossed the ball for our first goal?

When you consider that they scored because Yoshida was only able to deflect the ball across his own area with a last-ditch tackle from the wrong side, I think it's fairly accurate to say the yard Mata was offside made all the difference. With Yoshida a yard nearer he gets his body across Mata.

All from the kind of terrible defending only Sunderland are likely to offer us in the Premier League. Bloody ridiculous match, nothing resembling any kind of defensive coherence or ability on show - shows perfectly what happens when you don't get a unit together to organise them in professional football.

I stopped caring about that one night in Denmark last month.

I watched some of the coverage last night when I got back, Koeman said he picked Yoshida for his defensive abilities as Cedric offers more going forward. I have left the facepalm off out of respect to Koeman. :/

No need, I've been saying it for months.

I went in 2003, in January. It was warm enough to go on the beach. Nice marina, I'd be surprised if the Coyote Ugly bar at the far end of it was still open but it was a good laugh at the time. There is a bus to the airport running from the beach front. I was there for about a week, you can tell me and the missus weren't getting on.

Not in 2007 he wasn't. He was in and out as DoF by August 2006.

And still hasn't, yet. One of those players that always looks like he might improve a team because he's creative and looks like he's working hard, but in practice is a bit of a stepover monkey, disappears from matches too often and never quite as hard a worker as he looked at first. Also the bloke who paints the touchline must hate his little hop hop shuffle onto the pitch.

There was one chorus of "he's a Kenyan" at West Brom. That was it. Not really the pre-rumours 20 minutes solid and singing it on the way out of the ground stuff, but then he was as mediocre in the West Brom game as he was against Watford, which some frothers were claiming was him being rubbish and not trying.

Was on loan here in 2007-8 so yes, Burley left in Jan 2008.