sandwichsaint

We lost at Arsenal and Chelsea no real surprises, but unfortunately the changes against Villa cost us, normal back 5 and we win that 2-0. problems now are going forward, any injury to Boruc was going to leave us horribly exposed and that's exactly what's happened. Shaw and Cork both been below par last two games and suspect both carrying g niggles in the last two games, Clyne now confirmed. looking at Tuesday looks like lovren possibly and Fonte definitely not 100/ . Ms out with unspecified 'muscular' problem. that looks to me like 5 of the back 7 have developed or are on the way to developing fatigue related injuries, the other two have broken bones from relatively innocuous collisions. Proclamations of two players for each position now looking very hollow. Take out Boruc, one of he CHS, MS and VW and we start to look like a Capital Cup side. hindsight is a wonderful thing but we are right up against it now for the Xmas fixture rush, time for MP to come up with a credible plan B and to limit our losses till we can get through to the window.

0-0 Italy 1-1 Costa Rica 2-2 Uruguay We'll go out in the group stages unbeaten and with our dignity semi-intact.

Not sure what your point is? That's a pretty decent showing for a sub coming on at half time for his first PL action of the season. Looks to me like he is doing in that graphic exactly what he was meant to do? 97% passing rate (probably our highest stat for any player in any game this season). I thought he gave us a bit of tempo at the start of the second half, his ball speed is better than VW's and he got us on the front foot a bit quicker which led to the first equaliser. He was involved in the second goal we conceded, poor decisions/technique/options from Gazza then Shaw then Cork got sacked. We were saying at 1-1 (and us absolutely flying) when are they going to score another goal from a defensive cock-up, sure enough it arrived right on cue! Ridiculous scapegoating of Cork on a couple of threads that I've seen (I haven't read all of it yet, traffic awful last night. got in at 01-45 this morning after dropping my Villa supporting nephew in Horsham, the longest journey, not a happy bunny this morning!)

Chamakh for England,

Scarey (if true?)

People not picking Cork in these line-ups .... is that because you are second guessing Poch and trying to pick the line-up you think he will play, or is it because you are picking the team you would like to see playing tommo? People seem to have v. short memories sometimes - one of our very best players over the previous two seasons, he always brought energy and tempo to our play, he covers a terrific amount of ground, he recycles and keeps possession very well. Would be absolutely ideal player to come in fresh tomorrow, point to prove and he would give a lift to everybody. JWP (still a very young player) looked like he was running on empty on Sunday, I'd give him the night off and have him ready for Saturday.

Three good points, number 1 is particularly valid and may well go a long way to explaining the relative under performance of Ramirez/Osvaldo ... looks like we need to buy athletes over footballers (it won't be pretty but it might be successful!)

Interesting thread and I think our good start has somewhat glossed over what was a concern at the back end of last season. I also think you have to factor in the standard of defending in the PL which is generally pretty good, chances are hard to create (for most teams) and scoring in general is running a little below where it has been for the last few seasons; change of formations? safety first tactics? video analysis/media saturation- every team knows every other team inside out? . I watched an entertaining game last night (Lazio losing 2-4 at home), it had some great goals (great finishes) but the defending looked a lot weaker than we see in the PL, three really good finishes in the second half but I don’t think any of those three goals would have gone past a PL defence (maybe Fulham or Palace LOL). The teams that are scoring goals are generally the teams with the best players, or at least the players that are on form (no shi7 Shurlock!) – Aguero, Suarez, Ramsey, Rooney etc. last time I looked we didn’t have any of these guys playing for us and unfortunately our two big money marquee signings, for whatever reason, haven’t really come off in the way we hoped. We are where we are, we have a very strong/balanced back 7 (subject to Boruc missing some games now), going fd we can be pretty pedestrian and pretty predictable, we don’t have (enough) pace or power to unsettle the opposition, instead we aim to play through them and use our superior thought/technique to create chances. Our FBs do give us good options going forward but that’s obviously more limited away from home and against better opposition. Poch has obviously set out his stall to play a certain way and the defensive side is certainly paying off, in theory one or two goals a game would see us to a very healthy points return and I’m sure he would say he is using the resources at his disposal the best way he can. It just seems weird how we (he?) can’t accommodate two internationals into our system? Rather begs the question where we go from here? Should we buy more/better foreign fancy Dans, the jury’s out on that one for me. Top and bottom is that we create relatively few chances, our attacking play is ‘constructive’ rather than ‘instinctive’, we are severely constrained by a lack of pace which means we mainly play in front of the opposition defence. Perhaps in the final analysis our attacking talent isn’t quite as strong as some on here like to believe? We would be a hell of a team if we had a Rooney or a Suarez!

Five results from five .... I hope GS is noting my long-range tipping skills. Things are due to pick up again now though but 7 points from the next three games looks a big ask!

Blue line, win on Wednesday and we can all move on.

We could swap him for Dixon and Speedie.

Reel 'em in, I love big Vic. I was digging at Batman's sensationalism (almost Alpine-esque at times) to see a negative in every positive. Unless I've been whooshed? Wanyama may very well pick up a suspension at some stage, it goes with the territory, but till then 'together as one' yes?

Always look on the bright side of life, de doo, de doo de doo do .....

No chance, Boruc will play and he will now do one of two things: he will either go on a really good run of form, or he will spectacularly self-destruct. It will be interesting to see which way it goes.

Ash, you have pm.

Agree. He is the only proper quick player out of all the front options (and despite what people on here might tell you 'some' pace is essential, ideally several doses of pace would be even better, your attacking options are much reduced if you don't have any pace in your front players). Would think that AL and JRod are pretty much nailed on for two of the front four positions every game they are fit, which leaves a choice between SD/JWP, and/or SRL/Osv with GR as the wild card. Which is pretty much how it has panned out so far (have AL and JRod started every game? Would have thought so).

Yes, but what a warm-up! A different trick every week and one of the two most 'natural' footballers I've ever seen, every touch was timed to perfection, pure balance and every touch a caress; the other was Hoddle (booo!) who was the purest ball striker I've ever seen. Bergkamp and Zola both come close, but the cigars go to Frank and Glenn. Think how good Frank might have been .... Good OP, Shilton is a shoo in for me. After that it gets harder, we must have had a good few CH's better than Fonte, Richards and Wright are the stand-out choices for me, Mark Wright goes in alongside Lovren. Where else could we strengthen? I'd be looking for a footballing goalscorer who puts in a shift every game, I don't think you can look any further than KK for that one ............... Shilts ..................... Clyne..... Lovren .... Wright ...... Shaw ..........MS ........ VW ............ JWP ........... Lallana ................ JRod ..................... KK ...................... Boruc Fonte Cork Davis Osvaldo Ramirez SRL Champions League here we come!

Really hoping this goes to general sale, I'm targeting this as one of the few away games that the ordinary fan can get to see this season.

Sort of, 140*12=£1680 New ST 550(?), 19 away games x £30=£570 Tickets approx 550+570=£1220 Leaves £460/38 for travel = £12/game home and away Nothing there for beer or food. You can't quite do it for 140/month but it's not a million miles away, you could comfortably do the 19 home games, and chuck in a few aways as well (subject to you being within a reasonable radius of SMS), but subject to you giving up the opportunity cost of your TV subscription on the other 6 and a half days a week. Probably best stick to free streams, chuck in plenty of beer and pizza, watch a few down the pub and then pick your live games and a couple of decent aways, and still have change out of 1680 quid.

OMG!

What's Spanish for, 'This is a proper football club' ?

In hockey this is called a 'simultaneous breach of the rules' and play is restarted with a bully off. In 40 years of playing/coaching/umpiring I've never seen this rule given. In that case football can probably manage without it too and the referee should therefore compute: the relative histories of the two sides, who's at home, the media profile and potential grief he is going to get from the two managers, ditto the meejah, he should also consult the league tables and the relative position of the two sides, and consider the TV companies advertising interests. After he's done all this he should give the decision to the top-4 club, that's how it works. cf Chelsea v West Brom in the last round of games. Agree A got hold of B, fractionally before D got hold of C; B was never in any position to play the ball though A didn't help by looking guilty as feck!

Shame he didn't hoof it upfield 10 times out of 10 (we might have got a 0-0 then). Only joking (sort of).

I'm sure it's only a coincidence that this has come out just at the same time as the NoTW/Brookes case gets going. 'Busted-Banker, rubbish at his job, free'n'easy with the expense account, a taste for the high-life and an obscene amount of money to fund that lifestyle choice, and with an interesting back-story', he can't be the only one can he?

A few years back I found a filofax that had been left in a phone box (told you it was a few years back), it was absolutely bulging with business contents and plans and schedules, and obviously the guy was running his whole world from it. I worked out his name, contacted him, he was about 25 miles away, and he didn't want it posted and he agreed to come out and meet me where he'd left it. He turned up 45 minutes late, snatched it out my hand, didn't even say thank you, got in his fat car and fecked off! True story, I would bother again though, people like this are the exception.