The9

No, because we were playing in League One and he actually looked pretty good right from the start. As I have no doubt Pelle would, in League One. Also, your first phrase "slow unmobile" is a tautology. Finally, "unmobile" should be "immobile".

He made Yoshida look less sh111t than usual on Saturday too. Or perhaps that was West Brom. It might even have been Fonte drawing the sting of criticism by cunningly making Pelle look worse than the defence, by endlessly dollying lobs at his head when marked by 2 defenders... I didn't think Liverpool's defence was any worse than everyone else's defence last night tbh, there's a reason loads of teams are shipping goals nowadays, teams are attacking in more numbers and more quickly than defences can cope. Also, Gerrard is a crap defensive midfielder who doesn't provide the kind of shield the likes of Wanyama and Schneiderlin do.

Yeah, that's not a flaw with the technology, that's a flaw with the officials completely unrelated to the technology.

""Two bits" first appeared in print in English in 1730 (and later developed the figurative sense of "something of small worth or importance"), followed in 1802 by its adjectival relative. These days, the adjective has far surpassed the noun in popularity." http://www.merriam-webster.com/word/word.php?date=Dec-26-2009

Or lack of change, in the case of Yoshida. Not sure we have too much to worry about if Liverpool can't catch us on the break, it will depend on how adventurous Koeman wants to be in trying to win it.

As an aside, I'm pleased to see that ugly red/gold badge has finally gone from St Mary's, the wife took this pic about 10 minutes ago

I thought he'd probably start a few games against bottom half sides when they're away in Europe and then home on the weekend, but signing Balotelli means they can rotate Sturridge, Balotelli and Sterling without too much concern for Lambert, so I do think he's now going to be purely a bench option and someone to come on when they're already a couple ahead.

Nowadays it's all

Or indeed Ideye, who I know nothing about...

I'm always surprised at how little fans care about the actual working hours of professional footballers. I'm sure someone out there can confirm the expected working hours for training on a regular "no mideweek game" week, when they do the video analysis, level of training activity each day, etc.?

The last 3 grounds I've been to are Premier League Liverpool, Championship Reading and League 2 Morecambe. I stood in seats at the first two and sat at the last one.

It's a frightening decision to have to make over which of them you'd take if you had to have one. I think I'd go for Welbeck tbh, unpredictable, pacy, some top level experience and scores sometimes when he's trying to control the ball. Compared to Townsend, who's good for 5 25-yard shots off target and about 7 corners a match.

I was one of those singing his name at Anfield, bloke did a hell of a job for us in League One, Championship and the first 6 months in the Prem, but he was never going to be what we needed to be consistently top half with his lack of mobility. Not sure Pelle is either, but then our expectations are hugely different.

I think we could probably improve him, but he's an expensive gamble. Still, it's not like Ferguson's getting rid of him so he's not a completely lost cause...

I've watched it back a couple of times now and there was basically no difference in their successful play in the first half and second half in the brief periods they were successful. The thing that gave us problems was the pace of Sterling on the break and their ability to support in numbers. They did that for about 15 minutes all match, and 10 of them were before Lambert was on the pitch. Even when he got on they went all around him with their play, he was just some bloke standing at the far post with his hand up being ignored by his team-mates for most of it.

I'm not so convinced that's what they'll do, balance of probability is that they will be cautious in a first away of the season though. We could go all out attack or take our time, they'll be trying to counter us anyway, and we'll still have Yoshida watching the ball sail over his head and not being able to get back and affect play either way - at least he won't be chasing Lukaku this time. All about where our full backs are when they break and whether the defensive midfielder(s) in front of them are bypassed or able to stop the ball getting played in behind at source. Just Berahino or Berahino and Anichebe?

In terms of Boruc, what I want is for him to shut up and sit on the bench until Forster makes a mistake and be there in case we need him. i.e. do his job. To be honest I've had a gutsful of players just sodding off, or mouthing off publicly, and their sense of entitlement despite contracts already, and if we do ship him out it should be a part of a part-ex for someone good enough to goalkeep in the Prem who is fine with some bench-sitting so we're not weakened. I honestly couldn't care less about his personal opinion of his worth, nor what he thinks of the likelihood of Forster getting dropped or him getting the chance to compete. Not sure my opinion of players generally could get much lower, but at least we knew this one was a headcase when we got him and I'm not deluded enough to think any of them are role models to begin with. He's been a good keeper for us, but as with so many others, their desire to leave when they don't get exactly what they want is more important to them than anything we care about, so let's keep it purely professional, eh? What I don't quite understand is the club's "we'll wait for the transfer window to close and see where it goes from there" approach - it could leave us with a big gap in goal in the event of an injury, which was the problem in the first place. Though reading between the lines that comes down to maintaining the no more sales position. "We are not selling you, you're a loon so we're not risking you near the team, and when the chance of leaving has gone, you'll do as we say or we'll be fining you".

In terms of playing style, not performances. West Ham fans would have voted for anyone over any of Allardyce's mob. Ok, I'll downgrade to "he was shi0te enough to get dropped for a sub keeper at West Ham for the second half of last season AND was also replaced by Adam Bogdan and sat on the bench for the second half of Bolton's relegation season in 2011/12" then.

Proves how bad they were and nothing else.

And Jaaskelainen has been spectacularly gash with jellied eels for wrists for about 3 years now, including losing his place to Adrian at West Ham - which just proves anyone can have a good day - just like Gazzaniga did at Cardiff on Boxing Day (though the official stats show he didn't make any saves - he made one superb stop from a defensive clearance/deflection).

We'd either have to loan him out for a fixed period (e.g. a month/two months) with a recall clause (and be subject to the various limitations on how many times a player can be loaned in a season / how many loaned players the loaning club can receive, etc), or a season-long loan from which the only recall allowed is during the January transfer window.

Depends how many football fans REALLY want safe standing. Also, you're definitely wrong on the former, too much money to be made to resist it for clubs who can't cram any more people in...

If you pass the ball directly to the opposition unnecessarily enough times in a match, you're going to justifiably get some of the blame. We conceded possession in our own half way too many times following Yoshida touches.

Wait, what? He's categorically stated that we ARE interested in Townsend then? When?

Which begs the question why some of the various Hillsborough-linked groups were still piping up against standing years later and numerous times it was used as a means of suggesting it was a taboo subject, even preventing formal discussion years after it should have been back on the agenda. Even the Taylor Report didn't blame "standing"!