The Kraken

On that showing, neither, to be fair.

Not sure what 5'7" Lallana was doing squaring up to Nolan there; a bit of a mismatch! Good half from Saints; missing JRod's channel running though, Lambert has looked a bit isolated at times. Playing some nice stuff given the conditions, and an immense save from Jaaskelainen to keep it level.

Jack Cork has been immense so far.

He's had some good games, but he's also punctuated a lot of them with significant errors. Like giving Terry a free header from 6 yards out against Chelsea. He never seems to far away from a ricket, to me. That said we need someone with a bit of physicality to stand up against Carroll (and not pull his hair FFS) so its probably a wise choice today.

I'm having faith in Fox today. He gets a lot of stick on here (some justified, some over the top) but despite his limitations he's the best available LB we've got. C'mon Danny Boy, time to step up.

If he can't come in and play 90 minutes at full back then there's something wrong. He may not be sharp (what's new) but fitness really shouldn't be a problem for a left back.

Subs: K. Davis, Fonte, Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse, Guly, Puncheon, Mayuka. We really have very few defensive options in the squad right now. One keeper, one defender, one midfielder and 4 attacking players in reserve.

Assuming Shaw and JRod aren't fit enough for the first team, that's the best team I would have hoped for.

That's exactly what I was thinking! And not just complaining; that email reply seems to suggest the complaint was asking for Lawrenson to be removed from his job!

What did you vote for, troozers?

Spot on. Still, they seem to want to have their day in the sun for some strange reason.

Yep, and I think this is exactly why we've taken a long term punt on him.

Very covert. Who told you what? Or is it all secret squirrel talking in codes

Go you.

True. Dreaming that he might be on the bench might be a good start.

My point was illustrated above so that should point it out for you. Not sure why you're getting so stroppy with a genuine question though.

Thank you young Charles. As I said to the other chap I can only remember their last goal. While I don't think West Ham are anywhere near as bad a long ball team as others on here are conviced of, against us its probably their best plan. Even against Reading last week our defence looked most troubled with balls into the box. Chuck Andy Carroll and/or Carlton Cole into the mix and its the area I'd be most worried about, especially from corners.

I don't know, I can't remember, it was a genuine question. I can only remember their last goal.

How many of West Ham's 4 goals against us at their place were from hoofball, by the way?

I've seen little of him since pre-season, but it was clear then that he had a long, long way to go before he could be considered for first team games. Against Wolves especially he was well out of his depth and really struggled, and it was clear that to be a CB he would need to fill out a bit and get a bit more strength. I also watched him in the U21 game at St. Mary's and while he had little to do to stand out, he had a fairly quiet game and I saw little to make him stand out from the crowd. Still, he's definitely being seen as one for the future and I doubt we're shelling out much on him so its of course a gamble worth taking; and we'll see how he develops in the next year or two.

Its probably a good idea if your intention is to be patronising and glib to actually read the original post that people are responding to, before acting the goon. Otherwise you end up looking a bit daft, and wading into a thread just for the sake of an argument. The only person that mentioned Jack Stephens was, erm, you. Just saying.

You also have to consider the impact our press has on the England manager. Its hugely pressurised, and even friendly games (where we should be experimenting) are treated as a total disaster if we lose. Saying that I've been disappointed with Hodgson, in that I genuinely thought he would bring something different to the table and wouldn't be afraid to take a punt on players outside the establishment. He's almost been blinded by the lights of it all and reverted to type of taking the extremely safe option each time. He really could have been a breath of fresh air; and with each squad call up 2 or 3 newer players who have been performing superbly at club level. Christ, he could even have done this without any genuine intention to pick them and create a squad over time that has 30 or 40 players very used to going away on international duty. As it is we've got this core of his and you can predict what the squad will be despite how well any of them are playing for their home sides.

Wes raises some very good points that I agree with. And from the article, this: pretty much echos my feelings on it all.

rofl!!!

The mongboard yin and yang has been re-established.