derry

The SOS group received over £1m in pledges but was always a back up. However despite the blue chip Liebherr bid, for some reason despite using borrowed deposit money the Pinnacle bid was given preferred status. A lot of time was lost but SFC continued to trade out of administration with contributions from Leon Crouch, then by selling players. Thankfully in the end the Pinnacle bid collapsed, immediately Markus Liebherr and Nicola Cortese stepped in and bought the club. The SOS group had met with club directors, politicians and councillors who had indicated the possibility and short time scale needed for the City Council to buy St Mary's. The Pinnacle bid used up so much time that it is unlikely that a rescue could have been completed. Owning Staplewood, the 41 acre Jackson's Farm at Hedge End, a stadium that Aviva had placed a £7m asking price on with about £2m other debts and a solvent football club was an attractive proposition. In the event the approx £14m to buy the assets and pay off all the debts of SLH was a good deal. The football club avoided going into administration and so continued to trade and paid it's debts. Any guesses what it is worth now? This year the total outlay together with the further investment by Markus Liebherr amounting to £33m was converted into equity making the club debt free.

My position is that there should be no concessions on religious grounds in the workplace. If one group is given a concession then all the other groups can use religion as a legitimate reason for their particular point. I don't see the first point as discriminatory as there would be no religous grounds, everybody conforms with the rules in place or go somewhere where the rules are suited to their customs. Christians want to wear crosses go where it's allowed, Sikhs wear crash helmets or don't ride motorbikes, Muslims don't wear their choice of clothes or go where it is allowed. It is not discrimination, the law shouldn't have exceptions on religious grounds. I also think that if common sense was used by all involved there would be no need for these court cases. Provided everybody would accept a degree of compromise there would be no issues on either side. It is the zealots that spoil it for everybody, and as far as I am concerned when that occurrs rule one should apply.

At £12m+ he has to be the best player on the team. If he isn't ready Cortese needs sectioning. I don't remember him in the Olympics being anything out of the ordinary in a poor side. Only Cavani and Suarez showed if only intermittently. As far as I'm concerned with the money he has cost and the money he is getting, I'm not prepared to cut him any slack at all.

There should be no religous special concessions for ANY religion. All should conform with the law and company rules but no exceptions. If there is a concession for one, there should be no restrictions on ANY religion.

Nick you are totally blinkered. I saw Bogdan once and he looked decent I just mentioned his name, I've seen Davis well over a hundred times. Good shotstopper, Flaps at the ball, poor communicator, poor on crosses, poor on distribution, and now looking like a rabbit in the headlights. We didn't buy Gazzaniga without the intention of putting him in if necessary. It could be getting very close to being necessary. Davis if he was unlucky could break an arm tomorrow so Gazzaniga would be the only goalkeeper. A free agent, not much choice there, would be the only option unless a dispensation on a loan was given by the PL. I've never rated Davis apart from his shot stopping but even that is now not enough.

I thought 22 plus 9 under 22s. That means three spares.

I've thought this through since last night. From where I stand the wrong way to set up a team is pick a formation and make a team play it even if it doesn't suit some of the players. The right way is to pick a formation that gets the best out of the team. In the same way it is not possible to take a team and suddenly tell it 'we are now going to play a passing game' because again some of the players just don't get it. Wes Tender said above that sometimes it is appropriate at other times not, this is absolutely the rule. I thought about our great striker Ron Davies, the best attacking header of a ball I've ever seen, if he had been placed in a short passing strait jacket he would have been useless but stand the ball up in front of goal and he was like an eight foot tall Lambert, unplayable. We have to evolve the style but not to the exclusion of variation because possession is all well and good a lot of the time but there is a time to put a boot through the ball. If we want a goalkeeper playing out from the back we have to sign one that plays that way, the same with some other players. The answer to my throw in remark is a lot more movement from more players not just pass it back to the thrower from five yards. This team is nowhere near the finished article in terms of personnel and needs a good few more of the sort of players that suit the passing game. Even the best teams play in a variety of ways although technique and ball possession is second nature. We also need players that can take on defenders with pace and trickery and also keep possession. Passing isn't the holy grail putting the ball in the opponents net is.

Fox technically is a decent player but his awareness is poor. He focusses on play and doesn't keep a check behind him. He needs to keep checking his blindside even if nothing is there. ball watching is a habit and he needs to be coached out of it. It cost us goals v both City and Utd as he lost sight of his mark. Harding had a similar problem. It makes an otherwise decent player into a liability. It won't take the Premier clubs with the constant TV exposure long to exploit this flaw on a regular basis.

It is great to have the luxury to play like Barcelona but it is evolution not revolution. It is no good trying to get players to exceed their abilities against in the main, certainly this year much more experienced and accomplished players. The only target this year is to stay up whatever it takes. It will take more additions of the right players to get this team to the level where passing is 90% of it's game. Until then we have to adapt and get enough points to give us another season to evolve some more.

We have caused ourselves problems at throwins especially late in games because not enough players are showing for the ball. Most are just standing watching and usually only one comes for the ball and puts it back to the thrower and invariably we lose possession. What I am talking about is moving the play forward then playing the passing game. A means to an end.

Agreed but slow motion inviting pressure in our own half with individuals making howlers isn't going to work. I felt that Utd were very uncomfortable with the high ball coming down but pressed our attempts at possession well. I also think throwins are a weakness and until we are going well I would like to see us reinforce the touchline and chuck it long up the line looking for the defender to give another throwin away. At the moment, usually there is only one inside option that comes short and is immediately challenged, we regularly concede possession.

For all the passing football from both sides 5 crosses provided the goals. In the first half one of the best attacks was a steeple high up and under clearance from Fonte that Lambert caused the centrebacks all sorts of trouble. Also our first goal was a break as were the two at MC. The passing around from both sides provided little of substance. This just goes to show that we have to play it all ways not just pass.

Precisely, and reinforces the under pressure defenders. Standing on the bloody line helps nobody but in Davis's case understandable because coming off the line late doesn't work. Gazzaniga takes up a great position and will get better as an understanding with defenders develop.

Well Davis is decisive he stays rooted to the line and that doesn't work either. If you saw the same matches I did we didn't concede from any crosses with Gazzaniga in goal.

Better two go for the same ball rather than like yesterday, nobody. Man to man marking works if the markers are up to it and get tight and stay tight. I suspect it's the fact that we don't that Adkins has gone for the other option. Hoiveldt has to be the main ball winner with short and long options. Fonte had the short option and was worrying about VP rather than going for the ball. Fonte in particular is a poor challenger and mainly pushes or holds rather than going for the ball. I don't think he will figure much longer if Yoshida is up to it. I think Adkins is right but needs a keeper to be active and yet again KD isn't the answer. I have seen Gazzaniga a few times now and I like the positive way he takes up position in the centre of the six yd box letting everybody know he is going for it, all 6' 5" of him, so look out or get a big fist in the ear.

He should start. Hoiveldt came straight in. We have problems at the back, playing Fonte won't solve them.

Bill, it's not the zonal marking it's the fact that nobody went for the ball. At corners etc our best headers of the ball have to forget about marking space/players and bloody well get to the ball first.

I've just been scanning through the thread and wondering why nobody was picking up on Scholes. I felt yesterday when he came on that we should step hard on Scholes and Carrick their central playmakers to stop Utd controlling the game. Instead of marking them tight we retreated in front of them allowing their runners to cause us problems. Fox has a major fault when he comes inside he never checks to his left or behind, for the first goal he drifted in marking space, Valencia drifted wide received the ball laid in the cross to the far post for VP, Fox had lost him. For the second goal Rodriguez was left to mark two, Guly was asleep and Fox was in the six yard box, FFS it's the defenders job to close the winger down not leave it to two forwards. Fonte looks as though he is struggling to cope and his rushed sliced clearances and general lack of composure plus particularly his unawareness of VP moving for the third goal is indicative of that. The ckickens are finally coming home to roost with Kelvin Davis pretty much in the same category as Fonte. Schneiderlin has always looked that he had the tools to be a really good midfield player but spoilt it for me by playing in a low key comfort zone. Yesterday he stepped out of that comfort zone, got up the field and showed what he could really achieve if he gave it a go. All the other starting players played really well. The substitutions at the time were probably sensible to give us fresh legs but I do question the logic. JR needed to be central probably with Mayuka or Lee whilst somebody needed to walk all over Scholes.

Roadrunner?

I think we name a 25 man squad by tonight and then there are no changes until Jan 1st.

That was in Div 1, Morgan isn't pinging anybody in the Premier up to now.

We can pass it around but now if we put in pacy players the others will have to utilise those strengths as Swansea do.

It's down to the team to utilise this guy's pace not for him to forage for scraps that DeRidder had to do. I wouldn't want to be players that decided to ignore that, as I think without buying into this guy's strengths we won't get anywhere. If that happens the results will be poor and the management sacked and more of the players replaced in January.

We were dead and buried v Hull and he changed the game, there were several other games that he made decisive contributions that added up to us gaining enough points to be promoted rather than the playoffs.

I answered post 322 but 323 beat me to it. It's not about passing the ball to him, like DeRidder getting the ball facing his own goal, and the full back bypassing him trying to overlap. Pace needs the ball well in front in the opponents half or to be given quick ball in own half to use pace on the break. We have to tailor our service to his strengths not expect him to indulge in passfests in slow motion while the opponents consolidate.