Saint_Tony

When we have Cork, Schneiderlin and Davis playing, theres not enough of a goal threat for me. A lot of the time we play like Arsenal, looking to fashion a chance whilst playing around the edge of the box. We really need a midfielder who can weigh in with more goals and who will take pot shots from outside the box

Sunderland (A) draw 1-1 Arsenal (H) draw 1-1 Fulham (A) win 1-0 Stoke (H) win 2-0 Hull (A) draw 1-1 West Ham (A) lose 3-1 Liverpool (H) lose 2-0 Palace (A) draw 2-2 Norwich (H) win 2-1 13 points, and still sitting rather comfortably in 9th

I'd take a point. I'm a bit worried we might get stuck in 9th for the rest of the season, hopefully we can get a cup run going to keep things interesting

No coincidence we keep a clean sheet as soon as Boruc comes back. 3 points is all that matters,very happy with that

There are generally lots of positive threads when things are going well. As they have not recently, is it not understandable that there are more threads and posts asking why things are not so good? We can't all be raving about how good we are when we've only won 1 league game in the last 8 or 9. If we win today, then let's get going on a positive thread. In an ideal world, 3-0 Lambert hat trick.

Best line up we've had for 2 months, expecting a big performance today

Signing players on loan who are no better than what we already have? That's a great strategy, we'll be in the Champions League in no time

Why are people getting all angry at anyone suggesting we need better players to come in this window? Is that not the logical thing to do to improve our league position?

I'd be disappointed if we weren't looking around, although the quotes from Kouyate's agent suggest we have made enquiries for him. Have to agree with Alpine, let's hope the club are just trying to keep things quiet as it would be a huge mistake if we're not actively seeking some reinforcements for the squad.As usual, think we might leave it late. A couple of quality additions and we could see ourselves on the 40 point mark by the end of February

Long is a good shout. Seems to be in and out of the side. Remember their game against Villa, scored 2 quality goals in the first 10 minutes.

Spot on there. At least Hooiveld can actually win the ball in the air, Yoshida never looks comfortable on the pitch in any situation

The agent of Cheikhou Kouyate says he has been in talks with us, as well as Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal. So no chance of getting him, but at least it looks like we are actively seeking a CB. This was the guy linked back in the summer, maybe we should have made our move then

In all fairness Osvaldo has contributed very little other than that wonder strike against Man City. Without him, we'd probably still be in 9th, so it would be no great loss. However, rumours on players coming in are very quiet which is worrying. Surely the last 2 months have shown MP we need to improve the squad?

It's not a con, it's because there's not much chance of him going anywhere

The main issue is strength in depth. Everton for example had Baines out injured, Oviedo has come in and done a fantastic job. Shaw gets injured, we have Fox to come in, says it all. Also, all of these possession stats and injury excuses really mean nothing when we have failed to win the game. We are 5/6 Quality players away from even beginning to think about challenging for a top 6 spot, so a long, long way. So forget about the fact that we had 55% possession against Man City, it's rather insignificant

Staying on topic with Greece, Kostas Mitroglou would be an amazing signing. Not sure how realistic it is though as Olympiakos are through to the last 16 of the Champions League

Lallana looks a certainty now, but we all know Roy likes to overload the squad with central midfielders. Losing Walcott isn't much of a blow, he's in the same mould as Townsend, and has really failed to deliver for the national side since that hat trick on Croatia, which was years ago. Rooney aside, any player is replaceable which says a lot about the quality we have right now

Don't rate him at all, but who could we bring in to replace him? Need to be looking at a player of the same quality as Lovren

It looks like, as sad as it is to say, that our league position won't alter much for the rest of the season, so we should really go for the cup

The thing is, 9th would have been acceptable, but following our good start I think many people's expectations changed. I don't mean Champions League qualification but at least a push for a 6th/7th place finish, which now looks as likely as relegation. However, we have half the season still to go and there's time to turn things around. For me, another centre back is an absolute must. We've given ourselves a chance in the cup and have a favourable draw, but we look a bit lost in mid table, need to get the confidence back and at the very least make a push for 7th, even though it looks unlikely. Rumours have been very quiet though, we certainly need to keep Lambert, and good cbs are hard to come by but it can be done

Yeah I was in the queue online for about 45 minutes. Doesn't look like there's a lot left, managed to find 2 seats together at the back of block 10.

Difficult to judge when Ings and Vokes they were up against Hooiveld and Yoshida, who are both Championship level defenders.

Decent enough draw, should be a victory, they won't be as testing as Burnley

It's an attractive proposition. Watching their game now reminds me of our time under Poortvliet and Wotte

Plymouth/Port Vale at home. Doesn't seem so long ago that we were all so ecstatic to draw Man Utd