Sheaf Saint

http://www.nutjob.eu/ssnewstv.html

Absolute BS. There is no agenda - it's all about people voicing (or typing, in this case) their opinions based on their own observations, nothing more sinister than that. The reason that Gaston generates a lot of discussion is because we smashed our transfer record to sign him, so it stands to reason that the fans will have certain expectations from him. This thread, and many others before it, show that many fans have genuine concerns as to whether or not those expectations have been met, or ever will be. Quite simply, for a signing that generated as much hyped and excitement as it did, nobody can deny that he has - so far - underperformed. I have been openly critical of him, as is my right. That is, after all, what a forum is all about: to discuss opinions. Personally I think he doesn't have the right mindset to play in the PL. He expects to be able to waltz through defences as he did in Italy. When I watched him at Barnsley he looked as though he was constantly expecting to get fouled when he was in possession and as such he waited for it to happen, rather than actually try and do something useful with it. There's no agenda from me or anybody else that I can see. I'm just being honest about my own opinions and calling it how I see it.

It will be interesting to hear from those who were at SMS how Lee played tonight. Overall, exactly what I expected. A reserve XI against a half-decent L1 team, it could have been a lot tougher for us but a good enough result to put us in the draw for the next round. Not many minnows left to be drawn against so we will probably need to field a much stronger team next time if we want to progress.

If he gets his chance. There are a few others who could claim that honour as well. The young lad who has just come on - Omar Rowe - looked a real handful against Barnsley in the last round, as did Isgrove.

It's tuesday night - and Jos Hooiveld does his duty! :-)

Salako on Sky reckons Brizzle have dominated the game for the last 10 minutes or so.

Good old BBC stats - still showing we've had no shots on goal despite being 1-0 up.

Nope.

2003? Don't know if that was actually the last time but I remember going to Ashton Gate and seeing us win 3-0 in one of the cups.

I've become thoroughly bored of watching it this season. I could happily watch Vettel win every race if it was close and he had to fight hard for it, but the way he just scampers off into the distance every time now is just depressing and dull to watch. Really can't be bothered with it any more. The only saving grace for the sport on the whole that I can see is there are some big regulation changes for next season (1.6 litre V6 turbocharged engines instead of the current 2.4 litre V8, and an enhanced energy recovery system), and the varying degrees to which the teams adapt to these should shake things up a bit. When Maclaren designed this year's car they did it with half an eye on these new rules for next season so they should be a lot more competitive at least. I'm done for 2013. Really don't care how the rest of the season pans out because the title is already Vettel's barring an injury that stops him from racing. I'll tune in for the first few races of next season and see if it is any better, and if normal service is resumed then I'll quit watching it for good I reckon.

Isn't it far more likely that there is a much simpler explanation for Lallana always being subbed: because he runs his socks off for the team and is knackered by the 70 minute mark?

.... We looked so much better and more likely to score after Lambert went off yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way writing him off because he still has a lot to offer. But I just don't see how we can accommodate him in our current game plan. Opposition teams have sussed out that he can be marked out of the game and it's costing us badly at the moment IMO. I honestly think we would be better off playing Davis or Gaston in the hole and using SRL as an impact sub to come on when the defenders are tiring. Just my opinion. No doubt many of you will disagree.

Yep, we do. Mine was lightning quick to text me after the game to say he thought we deserved it. There was quite a delay on the stream I was watching and I got the text before the ref blew for full time!

You say it was pretty clear, but it really wasn't. Having seen it again from a couple of angles on MOTD it does look like Lovren didn't make any contact with the ball (just), but initially when I saw the replay it looked like he did. The ref obviously didn't have a great view either, Sturridge wasn't exactly in a shooting position and he didn't go down, so it's easy to see why he didn't give it. I've seen softer ones given before certainly, but then we've had a couple of blatant ones denied already this season so it's swings and roundabouts.

He seems so much more confident this season alongside Lovren. Our defense has been immense so far with three clean sheets in five games (I know - I had to re-read that myself!) and he has been a core part of that. Long may it continue.

Lovren MOTM on Setanta

Agreed. We look a lot more composed and dangerous since Davis came on.

What did Clyne get booked for? My stream was buffering.

Really poor from Wanyama to get dispossessed there.

Very bad misjudgement from Clyne there trying to shepherd the ball out and giving away a corner.

And it would have been a blatant dive cos there was no contact from Shaw.

Defending too deeply now and can't keep possession when we get out of our half. I don't reckon we'll be able to hold on to this.

Should never have been a FK though cos of a blatant push from Sterling on one of our players right before it.

The Liverpool bias on Setanta is ridiculous. All the HT analysis has been about them and their inability to unlock our defence. Hardly surprising with John Barnes and Didi Harman as the studio pundits, but still it's very depressing.