dubai_phil

Although history has shown that nobody EVER wins in Afghanistan, and the loss of lives is wrong, nobody should be under any illusions that what is happening there is of vital importance for global security in the future. The world of Islam has many many nutters who's only thought is a world where the people live in their mud huts and pray 5 times a day. Many of those have access to huge wealth as well as a "moral right" in their constituencies" Afghanistan has been and will continue to be a magnet for those nutters. The problem with our presence there is that we are trying to fight with Cold War or out of date equipment. It is the type of conflict and terrain that will keep "being an issue" in the need to defend the UK. Future wars will be in mountains in Asia or Car Parks at Tesco. Helping moderate Muslim nations combat the nutters will determine our future safety. Pakistan is in a mess at this time with violence in the south and Taliban in the north and a useless PM solving the floods by shaking hands in London. Trident is critical, because Iran WILL get nukes and Pakistan COULD fail and suddenly "post Cold War" thinking and the need for a "first strike" capability becomes a whole different ball game, because IF the nutters get Nukes, you won't need a deterrent unfortunately, you'll need the capability to take them out one way or another. Politics is what causes the cost problems in the MoD, not the use of the forces. All very well having tanks in Germany, ain't going to be any use if you have to drive them to a conflict in say India if the nutters start to spread in 15-20 years

I know (many) real uberfans don't go to friendlies and so won't have read the OFFICIAL CLUB STATEMENTS Reading Programme Page three Reading Programme Page 9 AP's Notes So in answer to some posts, the club HAS communicated with the fans and has told us they are working on the new signings. Sorry if both an official CLUB statement and an official AP statement doesn't fit the NC wants AP out so won't spend money theory And finally

Yep or we could have been 4 or 5-0 up at Half time IF we'd had a cutting edge in the final third. Which did we miss more? Lambert's presence on the box of Lallana's final ball/creativity? Mute point both ways. The REAL problem today was When the 1st half didn't work and Plymouth tweaked things and pressed us (and got a goal from a defensive error) we had no plan B available from the bench. Not many managers ever switch to 4-5-1 early in the second half when they go a goal behind at home.

We won the midfield battle in the first half but created one half chance for Hammond coming from Midfield. FFS we had 77% possession in the first 15 minutes but no end product as our two strikers were running away from the ball to create space for - noone or to get flick ons from noone. We NEED the cover or we have to change our style for the wrong reasons. Connolly as a lone striker If Barnard runs out of steam or gets crocked/suspended. Sorry but IMHO after the Reading game Ryan Doble isn't ready yet so going into a League match without a sub striker on the bench is a problem. Connolly & Barnard are more than good enough for this League as the 2nd striker but at the moment with Rickie out we lack balance up front. BUT as I have been saying since last season (along with Alps) we DO need a CM cover as well. I have argued elsewhere on the 3 times thread that the PROBLEM is finding somebody who would be happy to be cover for Rickie they do NOt have to be another RL just allow us to play the same way WHEN we need to play 2 up front. THAT is what I see is AP's problem, NOT that AP/NC isn't trying to find someone

Yes but then you are chopping and changing tactics and playing style because of the playeres available, NOT because of the the opposition and the tactics needed. Playing 4-5-1 may work against many teams, but the simple issue today as you said is that we had two "2nd strikers" playing together today". Would you play Connolly alone in a 4-5-1 if Barnard got a knock as well? May work in the PL but in League 1 against teams packing the defence? hmm

Nicloa Cortese's paranoia about a Mole appear to have been confirmed today

Actually Alps... Spot on. We needed cover for Lambert back in January last year. OK I know it is VERY hard to find a player who is good enough to cover for him and who (last season) would have played abouyt 2 games from the start, BUT we needed it. Surely there are some lumpy CF's out there where Connolly or Barnard playing off them could make up for the lack of all round game that Lambert has. We need SOMETHING on the bench and it needs to be a wise old head OR a youngster. We needed cover in CM - Today showed us that the cover we need is a creative player not necessarily a DM - Wotton could do that hoof job but today showed that as much as we missed RL's presence in the box we missed Lallana "making things happen". Puncheon flatters to deceive - he LOOKS like he could create but doesn't yet show the bottle, arrogance & confidence of Lallana. Where would you find a second fiddle to Lallana? A PL youngster on loan - they ain't available just yet We need that option of pace from the bench. Oxy-Chamberlain when he came on against Reading changed the game for around 15 minutes. That he faded away shows he has the potential but isn't there yet. That is where we miss Waigo/Antonio, BUT last season it seemed to be one OR the other making the difference. Would Anotonio alone make it this season? I understand why we haven't (yet) gone that route again a PL Loan springs to mind. Is it REALLY going to be Lee Holmes? So we're between a rock and a hard place. We need COVER for Lambert, no "superstar" is going to sign up for THAT role and is there really anyone out there at our level that would kick Lambert out the team? No So finding someone who'll sit on the bench for 35 games ain't easy. Then I think we need some PL youngsters on loan as the impact players - they aren't going to be available for another 3/4 weeks

Thank fook we've got the first game out the way. Damned angry I knew this would happen but still stupidly optimistically put us down for a draw. Have fun over there, hope Samaritans ain't too busy Pnly 3 mins to go before back to the cricket

Right, that's it. I blame the Iranians. Things haven't been right down here with Internet and stuff since (allegedly) the Yanks tried to blow up Ahminaphoneboothdad last week. Off to try to reboot the telly again

arrgh This channel is blocked by admin as well Merrington it is then

Cheers not as good as the one I had bit juddery

Dammit feed frozen

See, I said he looked good at LM :-) I'm liking this OK we aren't getting penetration at the moment but we ARE showing technical quality out there and it is attractive tidy football Still have this as a draw though 0-0 all over it Oh 47C down here it is fecking hot

Oh how we are crying out for a big beefy CF to get on the end of some of these crosses. What was AP thinking not bringing one in? :-)

Neat tidy start no real cearl cut chances so here we go back to squeaky bum time

Puncheon vs Molyneux Lol Moly coming 3rd

This is a disgrace Tidy on the deck football and creating chances already It's the first game of the season FFS

Are we using the Jabulani ball? Two over hit corners in a row

125th strip bingo 2 mentions so far

Found a good stream for a change hope it stays that way (from the stream link thread. Al Jazeera has packed up completely so no idea if it's actually on TV here

Over 20,000 in the ground no Lambo or Lallana Great atmosphere

Kick off close COYR

Thanks Draino Am really hacked off having actually PAID for a subscription to the TV station that has the rights to the FL, they then don't bother to show games choosing instead to show Synchronised swimming instead. Ho hum shows how much we have to do to get back into the real spotlight

PMSL You think the TEAM are ever going to see any of that 48 mil? Oh dear, long way to go chaps to reach the land of understanding

Ian, have you never heard the phrase "Whingeing Poms"? The moaners and the nay sayers are actually HAPPY. It is a deep down part of the British psyche to be always negative. The amount of negativity this close season is higher than usual BECAUSE we have such a great chance of success. It NEVER happens to us and people don't feel comfortable with that. Many are still in shock at winning a match at Wembley, it simply doesn't happen to us and it messes up our entire lives. We'll go up safely enough with bad days and very bad days along the way. Only beating some team 7-0 and losing to some no hopers 0-1 thanks to a bad referee and we'll STILL be moaning. See the negativity for what it actually is - a cartoonesque spoof on reality And cheer up, if we weren't whingeing we'd be Yanks or Aussies or worse Yarpies