Saint_clark

At least it wasn't the worst penalty of the night...

Bournemouth players all got their arms round each other, Barnard stood on the end left out. Doesn't seem like he's fitting in.

Get in there Bompey!

Can't see anything about pass completion there? I reckon we'd be pretty high on that as well.

3-2 loss is the new 3-1 win.

I can't picture what part of the song the "na na na"s fit into?

I'm not saying go 4-4-2 again. I'm saying the other 2 CM would sit a lot deeper and not go forward as often.

The more I think about it, the most it sounds like it would be a stroke of genius. Schneiderlin/Davis/Cork/Ward-prowse rotating in the deeper midfield roles to do all the running work, with Del Piero playing almost a trequartista role and playing the passes for the wingers and centre forward. Also, the more I think about it the more it sounds like a crazy dream that I'll wake up from and feel gutted that it wasn't reality.

Dare I say, Barnard and Forecast?

We'd be amazing playing 5-a-side "FIFA street" style.

There is a massive gulf in quality between those two, although I get what point you're trying to make.

I think they will give us till the january window and see how things are going then. Unlike in '05 when we were full of unprofessional mercenaries, these players have proven their loyalty and commitment to the cause. However this is all just speculation until we find out if we're actually relegated or not. I'm still confident of staying up.

Pardew always talked in interviews about building a team from the back. Alpine is right on this one.

I'd wager that most of them didn't.

I think we'd play him at the tip of the midfield 3 rather than up front.

Aside from Ramirez I honestly don't think we'd lose anybody we didn't want to.

Boruc is the only one that might be a good move for us, but I'd like to see Gazzaniga given a chance.

Regarding the Hooiveld penalty (without turning this into a match debate) it p*ssed me off that it was given purely because Lescott did exactly the same thing on Rodriguez when we played at the Etihad a couple of weeks ago, but hey ho. As far as the do no wrong attitude, it only applies to certain players. Watch Guly, Hammond or Fox get slated next time they make a "debatable" mistake.

As with any new system there will be faults. It is shocking, I agree, but give them a chance to work out the bugs.

It was amazing how many times people around me shouted "get rid of it!" when our defenders were on the ball and not even under any pressure.

Agreed. Nothing good/constructive will come from this.

Against the better players, yes. Worth noting that Clyne had an absolute shocker when we played Palace.

Really brave.

Well Fox has been written off after only two more than that against MUCH better opposition, so I don't see why we can't do the same for Shaw.

Personally I rate them both, they're still relatively young and will improve a lot in the next couple of years if we stick with them. Maybe not enough for the level we should hopefully be at by then, but at least they'll have a much larger sale value.