The9

This is part of the issue, there's no point having a 3-4-3 when we don't have the personnel. Fox is clearly better suited to a wide position, apart from getting caught upfield and the space in behind him being a problem, a narrow starting position also negates the wide angle he has for his diagonal forward passes - if he's narrow, those passes are too straight and he concedes possession far too often. So he can't really start in a narrow back 3. To be honest even at the moment his switching of the ball is rather high risk for the possession game we play, though of course it's always good to mix it up and stay a little unpredictable.

Modern use depends on how many strikers you're playing against. Bielsa with Chile were ridiculously flexible around a basic 3-3-3 structure and used to play 1-3-3-3, 3-1-3-3, or sometimes 3-3-1-3 depending on where the other team was strongest. There's some stuff about them here : http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/03/24/three-man-defence-in-football-soccer/ http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/08/marcelo-bielsa-chile-world-cup-2010-tactics/ although it implies Bielsa always played 3-3-1-3 which is contradicted by some of the text. Against Honduras they slipped into 4 at the back without changing personnel. http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/08/08/marcelo-bielsa-tactics-athletic-bilbao/ Using the same 3 basic "defenders" and a DM flexibly works for the first two formations, using the same 4 midfield players in a 1-3 or 3-1 midfield works for the latter two. But you probably can't use the same group of players for the 1-3-3-3 and the 3-3-1-3 unless you have a very versatile midfield. Which Bielsa's Chile had. Couldn't tell you about Wigan, I haven't watched them !

Nor has Martinez. He's been a Premier League manager for 3 seasons though.

I've left LOADS of clues all over the site over the past month or so. You just have to read between the lines.

I have no intention of making one. I already know what next season's home kit will look like.

Balls if I'm paying for that...

I am in Winchester and can confirm I haven't seen him yet.

It's not a bad likeness, but St Mary's doesn't have 2 tiers anywhere, which IIRC British Modern has on both side stands. I'm still waiting on a stadium editor with bated breath. Well, ok, actually I'm not that bothered, but it would be nice - and I'd want it to be better than the one on PES. Even being able to create a local park surround would be decent, for all the crappy parks sides I've created on there. I also seem to be one of few people online who doesn't just slam all their created players up to 99. Even creating average teams to play against using every other created player in the world is a hardship. There are literally no created players with skills under 45, so what's the point of the bottom half of that scale ? And why can't I just scan faces for everyone, why only my one Created player at a time ? Bloody daft.

Maybe we could thread drift it into a discussion about the ridiculous spelling of ridiculous, which would at least serve some kind of purpose.

We're not in the Premiership, and we're not likely to be unless Barclays rebrand the competition again, or there's a new sponsor for the Premier League who wants to change its name, or we start playing rugby. As for the rest of it, Liverpool's fanbase and profile won't have sunk much, who knows whether the Fenway lot will still be there and he'll always be a scouser with affection for Liverpool, so much of it isn't going to go away anyway. Yeah sure, if Saints become awesome it might delay it, just as if we go to poop he may never be considered - and the timing may never be quite right either, but Liverpool being consistently better than us over the next 5 years is probably more likely than us being consistently better than them at the moment. Though it is a lot closer than their fans might like to admit, and only one of us is progressing.

I saw a dog in a Saints kit outside the Capitol Centre in Cardiff, for which I will be forever grateful.

Either this is a wind up, or you're very stupid. Come to think of it, that's pretty stupid either way. Still, nothing else worth discussing until I get my kit thread up... Enormous international fanbase (still, despite being only above average to decent for 20 years), significant financial investment, the chance to work with top international players (and some England ones) and a high profile job that could lead to worldwide opportunities. He could also get a significant payrise (though I don't doubt Cortese would match it if needed) AND he's a scouser. It's only Liverpool maybe wanting a bigger name or someone with proven Prem experience that's stopping an offer coming in - but once he's got a couple of seasons Prem experience (like Martinez or Rodgers) this will come around again and we'll see if he's promising enough or a big enough name for them then.

I'm torn between the idea that Liverpool fans still have a clue about football (like they seemed to in the 1980s, I distinctly remember them applauding other teams' performances at Anfield for instance) and the idea that they're all JCL insta-results manager-firing stroppy teenage plastic Prem idiot-types. The people interviewed on SSN yesterday ALL, without fail, said that Dalglish should have had longer. That doesn't help, as I now can't decide if they're deluded about their chances of success because it's King Kev... er, I mean Kenny, or they're realistic and genuinely glad because they actually won a trophy for the first time in 6 years and also got to the FA Cup Final.

Why is it "great" to see a player Saints sold to a "big club" doing well, when all it means is that any other Saints players who think they're undervalued or being overlooked for international recognition will see his example and might reconsider sticking around with us if they think they can get a few more quid higher up the league and shortcut themselves into an international team ?

I disagree, he stopped everything and make some saves he had no right to make. Plus they hammered us for the best part of 90 minutes and had loads of efforts ON target. Oh, and while I'm at it, I never, EVER notice when defensive midfielders play well. Ever. But I thought Cork was breaking up play and linking well in the first few weeks of the season and looked a class apart. Sufficiently for me to start saying his standards had dropped by September on various threads on here. So he must have been doing something special in those matches. Meanwhile, I've never really been all that impressed by Hooiveld's goalscoring, nice though it is, and he still looks a little ponderous and uncomfortable on the ball for a Prem defender and I always took that into consideration when people were hyping him up - but he's still a fcVk sight better than Reading's Alex Pearce is with a ball at his feet, I had to laugh when I saw him on his return, he won't last 5 minutes in the Prem.

I ended up on here the day after, along with a load of other people posting about where we went after the match on the thread that was on here then.

The obvious answer to that would be "when it gets worked out" - we changed our winning League One formula for the Championship and we'd changed our successful autumn set up by February to address the issue of the full-backs getting caught upfield (as well as the problems and new signings in January), and started keeping more clean sheets. We'll continue to evolve, just like we'd got stale in December and got worked out before Lambert's suspension and the poor results in January. Sharp and Lambert are still building a partnership, Tadanari Lee hasn't got established yet, so I think there's plenty of potential for change within the system yet - but it will depend who we add and what the plans are.

Chelsea nicked it from Mourinho's Real Madrid, who nicked it from Mourinho's Internazionale who used it against Barca a couple of seasons ago in the CL semi finals, to bring the recent incarnations of it up to date.

Well aside from the 3-4-3, which I love as a concept but outside of Bielsa (and Martinez) doesn't seem to get a lot of outings, Cork's a terrible right back and to go with 3 you need 3 (mobile) CBs really. Also, who's going to win the ball in midfield when it's not on the right side ? Sharp's going to start more games than Lambert next season, this is my bold and probably stupid prediction. Also, as a side we have a significant weakness against pacy wide 4-3-3 and 4-5-1s, not sure how leaving the wide defenders even further up the pitch will help with that.

Which goal did he score in 2007 that you're referring to ?

Good job Jack Butland is only 4th choice...

That midfield is absolutely abysmal on an international level. No obvious left sider other than Downing, pedestrian Barry who's already failed against the Germans in 2010 and got nowhere with Man City in Europe, the ageing and occasionally competent Gerrard and Lampard who still can't both play together, and Parker, who's half decent but probably injured. Then there's Phil Jones who's still growing into it, and Jordan Henderson as back up if one of them drop out. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott are much of a muchness and still a little naive (Walcott still is) and I honestly can't see them getting out of the group. The defence is past it, and the attack is weak, suspended or not going. If they achieve anything, Hodgson is a miracle worker.

We'll have to be up there for at least 1 year before they bother doing proper face scanning, we'll have a team full of comedy mask-faces in FIFA13, just like we do now in 12. As for "Panini" sticker books, either Topps or Merlin have the Prem licence and have had for a while. Plus there was a Championship album this season anyway which didn't even merit a mention on here. I don't give a toss about the trappings of the Premier League, even being on the telly all the time doesn't mean anything if you're going.

Never underestimate the fickleness of the plastic Prem fan, a bunch of my ex-football mates from pre-2005 are already suddenly engaging in "how do I get a ticket" discussions again, including away games against teams they weren't bothered to see us play in League One or the Championship.