Whitey Grandad

probably a modelling contract

On a point of order! Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the team for the first game picked by Dodd & Gorman and wasn't Pearson only appointed a few hours before kick-off?

We would only have won if points had been awarded for artistic impression.

I call it 'crabby' football.

Well said! (or written, anyway) This should be engraved in stone at the top of every internet forum.

I said at the time that it wouldn't last...

But they were all highly successful in other countries, whereas Jan....

I'd settle for mid-table security - in the Premier League of course.

That was never a foul, it was a sliding block to cover a possible shot to the keeper's left and the referee quite rightly saw it that way too. Rudi was one of the few players who did very little wrong, it's a shame we shall be losing him in January (allegedly).

How about: 'make sure that we don't have to pay any win bonuses'?

When I bought my season tickets (before Lowe) I expected Pearson to be in charge and a team with passion, skill and commitment to carry on from the end of last season. At the start of this one I thought that our most probable finishing position would be 4th from bottom, give or take a couple of places, provided that we kept at least 2 of our proven goalscorers. I've been pleasantly surprised by a couple of the away wins but this ineffective, ponderous style of football will get us absolutely nowhere. Let's be clear about this: these are not our youngsters that we are blooding, these are cheap loans from other clubs that don't want them. There's no consistency and next season is going to be a lot worse than this!

He has the potential to be a good player but at 21 his development is 3 or 4 years behind where it should be. His workrate and speed of thought get slower as each game goes by.

d.o.b. 27th November 1987? In my day that would have made you a man.

I've had a bit of time to think about this so I logged back in to give my vote to James but now I find that he's not on the list! Last night for the first time I was impressed with him until his awful mistake, but I put that down to poor coaching. He is not a full-back and I don't think he ever will be but further up the pitch I thought he looked very promising. But what is it about our defensive coaches? Surely everyone knows that you don't let the ball bounce? At least he will have learned from his mistake last night and it made no difference to the outcome of the game.

In short, 'we're not very good'.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that this tippy-tappy football is going to be the downfall of us. It's ponderously slow, all the action takes place in a 10-yard area that usually involves 3 or 4 of our players, and it does nothing to pull around the 'shape' of the opposition who have plenty of time to get goalside and organised. Last Saturday I mad a special effort to watch what was happening off the ball, away from all the pretty patterns, and there was precious little movement or threat to the other side, especially since our players were outnumbered because our midfielders were tied up in little pretty knots. On the occasions when we did manage to create some forward momentum and we were all crying out for a snappy forward pass it would all break down when Lallana or somebody would suddenly get dizzy and pass it back to the full-back who then rolled it back to Davis. I would encourage all those who are bewitched by this football to make an effort to look at the wider picture at what is happening (or not) on the rest of the pitch.

All except three that I have seen at home.

That thought had also crossed my mind.

We're not in the relegation zone tonight but we're certainly in trouble.

Like taking candy from a baby. Did we have a shot on target?

Not that likely, apparently....

Almost as good as yours...

Pace! I was questioning my spelling of the onomatopaeic word 'kerching'. I was trying to say that you have hit the nail on the head (although that would make a different sort of sound).

Kerching! (spelling?)

So that means neither the ball nor our players in the opposition box (half the time) . In my opinion a large factor in our failure to score goals is the ponderous speed of the build-up play. This pretty football is all very attractive but if we can't pass the ball through the opposition there's no alternative option.