The Kraken

Sorry, are you suggesting they both played really well? Just so I know; I can't work it out. If Gaston played really well, why was he (according to the commentators I watched) rightly taken off? Why did the radio summary I heard say he played "poorly"? Did MP make an error here? If Ramirez and Lallana massively contributed to setting up 15 chances, the manager must be wrong and so must the commentators for criticising Ramirez's performance? Surely? If you could clarify that, that would be great. I though Ramirez was well below par and so was Lallana; but I'd be happy to to hear the other point of view of how they actually played brilliantly, and I'm just too stupid to appreciate it.

Of course there is. I'll be the first to admit that I was at the front of the queue of the "get him out, he's past it and not good enough" brigade. I'm happy to admit that I was very wrong; since January onwards Boruc has been brilliant. In my defence (of which there is little) I still maintained that in spite of his underwhelming start, Boruc was still better than the other 2 of Davis and Gazzaniga but that we needed a change. If its Boruc until the end of the season and beyond, I'll be very happy, such is my turnaround. And I'm happy to admit my error.

Pat, you lie like a cheap watch.

You definitely missed the point, apology accepted. My point was: even if the pitch was sh*t, it's no excuse for the various misplaced passes and averageness we saw from some of our players (Lallana and Ramirez especially). And player in the 70s and 80s would have dreamed of playing on a pitch as good as today. Rarely heard them complaining about lack of fatigue and misplaced passes.

Why don't you just ignore them if it bothers you so much? There's a perfectly good ignore function to help you along too, apparently. Christ, there really are some sensitive bell-ends on here lately. "Boo hoo, he said something I disagree with, shut down the forum immediately". Pathetic.

I know there was. What on earth point are you trying to make?

I unfortunatelty know the sad truth. Mauricio Pochettino is a massive racist. It is sad, but true. Look at the evidence: 1) Jason Puncheon dropped today, for a white man. 2) Nathaniel Clyne dropped today for an oriental gentleman. 3) Jonno Quick farmed out on loan. 4) Guly only on the bench and never given a requisite amount of time for his God-given talents to shine through. 5) Mayuka not even on the bench. It's quite clear to me; MP doesn't like darkies. The horrible racist.

You're making zero sense now.

You've changed your tune, Patsy.

Really?

Yes. Bless our players for not being able to string a pass together on a terrible pitch. It shouldn't be allowed, really. Our artisans should only be allowed to show their grace on bowling green type pitches. Shame on the Premier League for allowing today's farce to go ahead and make our experts look so average; it's just not on.

He's got better, I'll obviously agree with that (though it was a fairly low benchmark to begin with). I agree with the rest of your assessment though; £7M plus the £12M for Ramirez was rather wasted IMO. But there we go.

Clearly I wouldn't, but for someone who only thinks in such extremes I can see why you're so easily confused.

You see, I'm just not seeing it. I thought he was laboured today, ineffectual in front of goal, and I thought he blunted our attack overall.

Agree with you there, West.

Actually, there is IMO. "Luke Shaw foul". I assume by Snodgrass. Clearly outside the area, and barely any contact (though I think it was just enough for a foul, but not to go to ground). "The ball was heading out". Utterly irrelevant to whether it was a foul inside the area or not. "Lambert and Rodriguez together". I actually couldn't disagree more. And Boruc made an amazing save, really hats off there. But he had little else to do all game; had we lost that game there would be some serious finger-pointing going on right now. Lallana poor, Ramirez poor, our most productive midfielder kept on the bench for all but 5 minutes.

Yeah, maybe not too many choices. The pojnt is; if Puncheon (or Clyne for that matter) are not fit and incapable of playing even one full half, I don't see the point of them being on the bench. Subs are for impact, or for defensively closing up and replacing attacking players and bringing a new dimension. Puncheon didn't do either, he had no time to. Mayuka is another discussion altogether, that one is just plainly bizarre.

Yes, that's exactly the same. F*cking hell, that's good even from you :lol:

Its a fair comment, but as it wasn't given (and the penalty was) that's all that matters, really. Similar to the first half incident which, as you say, was clear as day but not given.

Getting things right 100% from the officials would be nice, but its never going to happen. Neither is 100% of the population agreeing with a decision going to happen either. Smart play from fatty Holt; he got the wrong side of Shaw and Shaw did enough to justify the fould being given. Similar to the other end of teh pitch when Shaw went down when Snodgrass grabbed at his arm, it was minimal but it was a foul. I have no problems with the decision for a penalty at all, I'd have been livid if we had been denied such a case.

Perhaps if he's not worthy of more than 5 minutes on the pitch he shouldn't be on the bench in first place.

If it had been up the other end it would be nailed on. The commentators both agreed it was a clear penalty. Obviously I forgot about the tinted approach you get on here to clear decisions against us. Carry on.

Agreed. Lambert's movement and positioning is excellent; however when he drops out wide it needs someone who can do the business to fill in to the middle. In lower league days Lallana, Guly, Oxlade etc all used to do that. In this division its harder, and we have a misfiring Lallana, a wet fanny Ramirez and an ineffectual Rodriguez. JRod's shinner from JWP's knockdown was a point in case; laid on a plate and he couldn't even kick it properly. Good performance but a Boruc super save bailed us out of the sh*t, and shows up the massive deficiencies we have to be safe in this division, let alone whatever the longer term ambitions are.

Of course it won't. It'll be brushed under the carpet. Ramirez especially and Lallana were both utterly turd today. Puncheon must have been tearing his hair out to get on in front of those two misfires. Rodriguez was sh*t too.

110 persaint a penalty I'm afraid.