DT

3. Thou shalt not buy anything resembling a 'defender'. EVER!

Heh heh. It's like it is a biblical parable or authoritarian tract, which is even more worrying. Those capitals around Club Policy say: 'Thou shall obey, and we are more powerful and sinister than the local rag, with the means (horses' heads, men with dark glasses etc) to shut you up if you differ from the party line'...Eek. Or perhaps I'm reading too much into it...(!) ;-)

More worrying is the club's clear grasp of grammar, as that kind of capitalisation (and it making the final cut of a statement) is the mark of an uneducated person. Even here we're a bit Championship.

Sorry, but this is balls. QPR gave it a real go yesterday and the team is coming together. They'll be fine. Reading less so but they're still better organised, with better personnel. I really think we are the worst team in the league.

Out of interest, I watched the QPR game yesterday. They would murder us. I also think Reading have the kind of formation and players to get a few results. In contrast our midfield and defence is like butter, so I think we're down unless we spend big on defenders and midfielders and get Nige to buck his ideas up or Nicola to butt out.

he has a very strangely shaped head

Yep, would be good, but doubt he would come or would want to, unfortunately. Or that the club, with its blindness to all things defensive, could see him.

This article does nail it, and it is unbelievable that those in charge really thought that a central defensive pairing which struggled in the Championship would magically thrive in the Premier. PS what on earth was that handball all about? Can't think why anybody would be so stupid

Blindly sticking to 4-3-3 is not vet clever when you have a leaky defence. I'd keep Clyne and Yoshida. If we had spent a sixth of the money we splurged on Ramirez acquiring a decent CB if would have been sensible. Need to spend big to get quality t the back in January and make it a captain type who we can give the armband to. Otherwise the defence will continue to play like Lallana.

I predicted it would be 3-1 and this board would go into meltdown. So even wronger than I thought.

Makes you wonder if Rirez is really injured or just can't face playing for this shower

4-1 so I even lost my bet. Great. (3-1). Could be the impetus for Nicola's itchy finger...

What DOES he say to them at half time? Must say, weird decisions today. Guly? No Gazza on bench? Odd. All too depressingly easy. Confidence shot.

That's no way to treat his wife

I predict we will lose 3-1 tomorrow and this board will go into meltdown

Fox really is that bad. He's appalling.

I'm still confused - didn't he play for his country the other night, while supposedly injured?

In other news, bears confirmed as doing something smelly in the woods. Neither the pope nor the park ranger were available for comment.

On the 9th October it was reported that Ramirez would be out for up to six weeks with a thigh injury. He played last night. Cannot compute.

Ooh, it's a very close poll. What a waste of time

It's still the same messag from me. Too much emphasis was paid to forward players when keeper and defence were so obviously more pressing. We won't progress while we have to play Fox (abysmal) or Jos (now realising he is out of his depth). What worries me is that the midfield has no urgency, and even players like Puncheon seemingly had no real desire to actually run at what was a woeful Fulham team. Lallana looks like a luxury. Ramirez greatly missed.

All Fox does is chip it up the line. Oh, and not do that boring 'defending' bit.

The worst team I've seen us not beat

Ah well. 10 points for my prediction league but that was dire. Needs fresh thinking. Fast.

Fonte saves Adkins' job