positivepete

I thought there were a lot of police relative to the size of the crowd, perhaps that's how we got got nearly 15K, they counted the law as well

I was talking to Chris Kamara at a function last night, and he asked me the question, "Do you know how much MLT earned a week?", I replied "not much" and he said less than 4k. He is a Lallana fan, but knew nothing about Schneiderlin as he doesn't cover Championship this season.

Quite right, what it needs is for 25,000 turn up tonight and sing their hearts out for the lads, and when they win, do it again the next match. That will teach the club that you can't do it without the crowd. But I expect most of you will sit at home sniping on this site saying I told you so.

The Echo reflect that truism of journalists, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.........

this means we now potentially have Holmes, Surman, Skacel, Gasmi, and Smith that can fit in the left sided role, before we add the right footed players that have played there so far. Does it mean Gasmi is out for longer than expected, I assume that Smith will go back when Holmes is fit unless he does well

From the report on the reserve game........ We also defended well across the back four and particularly Ben Reeves who had to deal with the former-Arsenal and England Under-19 winger Ryan Smith. Thought at the time I read it that it was unusual for a report on a reserve game to single out an opposition player

Is it? It is only one league game, we play 46. If we lose a cup game we are out. I would have thought that cup income was very important to the club, and losing against Rotherham would have been a big blow in view of the fact we are losing about £100k of gate receipts each home league match.

That's handy, we need a new ground. Doing very well this season, all based around total football!

The secret is to do with varying the pace of the play, and keeping possession. On Wednesday when Ipswich had the chance they defended with a bank of four defenders and a bank of five midfield players and no space in between. Then we had to be patient, keep possession, go back and start again, which we tried to do. We forced the pace when we broke from the back, and hit the longer passes to give us a chance to attack before Ipswich regained their shape. As you say Arsenal are masters at this varying their pace. Arsenal are better at home this season because they can now vary the pace during a phase of play, last season they could not and they also struggled at home. On Wednesday our two strategies did not always come off, and for a period in the second half we ran out of ideas. I said earlier this season that we may do better away from home as the season progresses, where the pace we have in the side this season will allow us to break more effectively. I know that I am enjoying watching the young lads who want to play for the shirt this season. We also have some experienced pros who want to help the youngsters, Wotton was outstanding on Wednesday, leading by example and encouraging and helping the younger players. He may have his best playing days behind him but he was a true leader out there.

3-3 away 5-1 at home!

Well said, I have been going on about this on a number of threads over the past few weeks. We do not want "traditional" full backs in this system, our full backs have to be comfortable on the ball and be able to link up play and get forward. Both did that well yesterday. Surman had a very good first half. The biggest problem with Holmes and Surman is that they are not yet on the same wavelength, Holmes sold Surman badly a number of times yesterday, and this has happened in previous matches as well. The position that seems most up for grabs to me is the right side where we have used Thompson, Dyer, McGoldrick, and White. Maybe he might try McGoldrick there again to give space to Pekhart, but I wouldn't change too much yet, we need to give them time to settle into the pace. Just look at the total appearances of this team, it needs games, we should give them support, despite three defeats they are not out of their depth, we have only lost by one goal on each occasion, and yesterday was the first match we have not scored in. Yesterday we just tried to have too many touches before releasing the ball, I am sure they will be working on getting back to the two touch football they played pre-season and in the first few games. I have a sneaking suspicion that we will have better results away this season.

The main difference today was that we wanted too many touches. In the first few matches we have played 2 touch and as a result the pace of the game was quicker and got the ball forward before the opposition had time to get their shape. Gillett and Svensson had poor games by their standards, Gillett has looked good so far this season and hasn't looked out of his depth. His work rate and short passing has set the tempo in earlier games, he suffered today and so did the team. Sorry for Jamie, a local lad making his home debut, lets hope he comes back stronger from this. Anyone know why Jake Thompson has dropped out of the reckoning? Maybe we will do better away from home this season, as our counter attacking style may suit teams coming at us better. Keep the faith, we have some good talent there. Anyway we didn't want the lads to play well in front of the cameras a few days before the transfer deadline did we?!

JW was a much maligned player, he kept turning out in whatever position he was asked to, without complaining, even when he was carrying injuries. Its a shame some of the other didn't show his commitment last season. He clearly wants to play every week, that's why he left, good luck to him.

Yes the balance is affected by the lack of left footers, so if Rudi goes, or does not pull his finger out and compete for a place we are short of cover on the left.

I would normally say Arsenal away, so I can see the new stadium and a football feast, but as JP is on a minimum wage and on a bonus for cup runs and attendance i say a home tie we can win, with a full house he deserves the bonus!

I am really impressed how much some posters have learned about football in the last month or so. When I previously mentioned that DH was just a hoofer who couldn't pass a ball to a team mate I was met with howls of derision and comments about how this is the sort of player needed in this division. Now we are talking about wanting footballing defenders and liking the new style of play. Well done, keep it up!

He does change it. In both games Svensson has gone up front at the end and we have attempted to get the ball forward more directly.

First, Surman is a class player end of. Pace is not a guarantee of being a good footballer, we have had a number of examples of players from Terry Curran to Nathan Dyer who have pace but couldnt do anything with a football at their feet. Second, the system we are playing calls for midfielders at full back who can use the ball, pass accurately and incisively to their team mates. Forget old style full backs, possession is the key word in this team, not percentage balls curled up the line for forwards to chase.

Snowballs2 The truth is that we have played two and lost two...put whatever spin you want to on the results to date and it does not change this. I went to Cardiff last week, I saw a team that was too young and inexperienced at this level. I would suggest that our "youngsters" are older than a lot of, say Arsenals youngsters. Schneiderlin and Thompson are the only two under 20. Lallana and James are 20, Holmes and McGoldrick are 21, Surman and Gillett are 22. They might not have a lot of games between them, but as six of those eight have been at the club for a while and it could be argued should have had more experience by now, especially Gillett. Incidentally Surman has the same number of club appearances (82) as Svensson!

If he goes to Stoke he will be back in the Championship next season.

Its the system Liverpool used to use in their hey day, buy promising players such as Ian Rush, and stick them in the reserves for a season to learn the Liverpool way of playing.

I watched the Bristol City vs Derby match on tele, and lets hope Derby play like they did in the first half, because if they do we will embarrass them. You could say it was bit like our first two games, Bristol dominated the first half and should have been out of sight, but the failure to score the second let Derby back into it. They were not good but more robust and organised in the second half.

I've seen the matches against West Ham, Cardiff and Birmingham and have enjoyed watching the way we play. It is a simple system, we keep possession, its not one dimensional when we have creative players like Lallana and Schneiderlin. After watching these three games I would say one problem we have is on the left, where Holmes often seems unwilling to bring Surman into the game. Perhaps bringing back Skacel at left back and moving Surman forward would help, Skacel is a good enough player to adapt to this style. We are not going to walk the league but we will do ok this season. We have played last years cup finalists and a team who has come out of the premiership with a very good squad still mainly intact. The football is the best we have seen for some time, its good to see the youngsters play with freedom and confidence and we should support them for that. JP has said he want the play to start from the back and wants footballers at full back, so midfielders who can make a range of passes are key to that, so don't expect him to sign traditional full backs. I cant believe most people would want to watch journeyman hoofers over young exciting footballers. Get behind the lads, come and watch them and enjoy the football, its the best since the Chris Nichol era.

Just checked with the Cardiff ticket office and they confirmed you can buy tickets on the day for the away end

Anyone else got a ticket please? Again, can meet you at or near the ground. Cheers