verlaine1979

I agree about Cork - he wouldn't be in my England squad. superb player for us, but as you say, to win the WC these days you need 'complete' midfielders rather than the water-carriers of old.

I've not seen Mavuba, so I cede to your knowledge there, but my point was mostly that whoever is 4th choice for CM in France is going to be so far behind Cabaye/Pogba/Matuidi that the only way they'll get any game time is if France end up in the third place play-off.

Morgan is an excellent player (though his defensive stats look less impressive now we spend more time with the ball and less time trying to get it back) but if France start the World Cup with a midfield two from Cabaye, Pogba & Matuidi, I think you'd be very hard pressed to argue that he warrants a place above any of those. That leaves one spare, with the remaining squad CM probably just along for the scenery.

Yup, lovely bit of composure and skill to start the move.

Our attack has been profligate all season - Lambert doesn't get into scoring positions as much as he used to, and both Lallana & JRod are average finishers at best.. Against lower half of the table crap (Hull, Fulham etc) our stranglehold on possession means that we get to keep trying until we score, while they struggle to get near our goal. Against anyone with even a whiff of mid-table about them, even if we dominate possession, the game becomes a finishing contest, which we have to be having a very good day to win.

Jesus, the quality of crossing has been atrocious. Maybe time to give up on that and try something else? Bring on Gaston & Clyne, and maybe Gallagher too.

Movement up front has been really poor. Midfield eventually get impatient with no one creating an angle ahead of them and obligingly pop up a straight chipped pass for WH CBs to head away, setting up the counter.

I think they're fine things to have if the club is successful enough to be able to sustain them, but they certainly aren't what I'd have the CEO spend his time worrying about, no.

Modern football clubs acquire new fans and retain old ones by producing successful teams that play attractive football. Team does well and is fun to watch, more people want tickets; team does poorly and plays hoofball, fewer people want tickets. Loyalty aside (which the CEO can't do much to alter, since loyalty that only exists while the club are pandering isn't really loyalty at all) the contribution of other intangibles such as fan outreach and community spirit to the long-term future of the club is pretty much a rounding error.

As a fan, the only thing I care about is whether the team do well during the 90+ minutes of each game. Everything else is vanity.

I fully expect the new man to come in claiming that too much time has been spent establishing a coherent playing style for all levels of the club and professionalising the first team's various support structures, and that his energies will be directed more towards meet-and-greets with grumbling fans and loud-mouth local businesses.

Couldn't care less about relationship with fans or local businesses. Focus on running a professional and successful football club without mortgaging its future to unsustainable debt. Everything else barely qualifies as a nice-to-have.

Superb vision from Gaston.

Absolutely dire attacking performance. Witless.

The nutjob stream is actually an embedded frame of cdn.tiv.pw/stream3.html - if you view that, it's just a plain page with the flash video - no ads or anything else as far as I can tell.

Blimey, not even an illicit radio stream.

Couldn't get the ball off hazard all game, then same story once the Oscar and willian came on. Of course that's 130m of attacking talent mentioned in the previous sentence.

Lallana is good, but he isn't anywhere near the level of Reus, who is one of the world's top ten attackers. Moyes needs to make a statement of intent with a world class acquisition - Lallana isn't that.

Club surely bluffing on subject of whether we'll recruit anyone in Jan. Performance from 2nd string pretty much shambolic.

To be fair, I was in the process of writing a very whiney post, but that was superb.

Well done JRod - great decision-making and composed finish.

Haven't laid a glove on them so far. JWP pass-back our only effort on target.

Err, well at least we have a few genuine attacking options on the bench?

Tiote was excellent against Man U.

Exactly. Oh for another Brett Ormerod.