derry

Have you heard what I've heard?

How much are the Leibherr family asking for the club? Anyone ITK?

If we are going to play a passing game, then what question does Puncheon answer because he hardly ever passes without trying to beat men first? Holmes has a football brain and his crossing, corners and free kicks are spot on. We looked a better team with him on. Not quick but sharp.

It was the words freeloader and parasite that bemused him. It was ironic that this was a week that he had given up his time on two evenings to raise money for charity.

Two of his brothers post on here and will be pleased to read these comments.

No problem, Mike told me during the exclusivity that he thought Pinnacle couldn't raise the money and although he didn't know who the Swiss people were, he did know that they were blue chip. His worry was that the Swiss would walk away. I and his brothers talked to Mike about this thread which he looked at and to say that he was upset would be an understatement. He was at a loss to understand why people would think he was a free loader and a parasite when he gave so much of his time to charitable causes free of charge, he was that upset that he felt it just wasn't worth it. I have talked to Mike quite a bit about the club and never once has he voiced any criticism about Cortese or the club despite me being obviously critical of Pardew. It is understandable that LM and MLT because of their SFC background could resent the new organisation that they are no longer part of.

If we are going to play a pass and move, high tempo game unless Schneiderlin plays like Scholes as a midfield fulcrum he will have to involve himself more. If we played a nominal 4-5-1/4-3-3 and played a holding midfielder it would really need two attacking in the hole behind the front striker. If we do that and pass the ball Barnard could be the lone striker with Lambert and Lallana in the hole and Schneiderlin behind. But if it's 4-4-2 we don't need one sitting, we need to to get both midfielders rotating, covering each other but at least one getting in amongst the strikers.

He gave the ball away quite a few times yesterday. More than anyone else. It's the same every match. We need to move on now. He either has to put this right or he will be discarded, because possession is now the name of the game and giving the ball to the opposition will be an issue.

Mike Osman gave up a day free of charge on Friday for a golf day in aid of the Oakhaven Hospice. Although I know Mike quite well I saw the real Mike Osman on Friday night. Mike was going to run the fundraising, draw and auction plus a bit of comedy but things didn't go according to plan. The son and daughter of the person whose anniversary it was, were going to do the prize giving after a thankyou, in the midst of which the lad understandably broke down in tears. Before anybody else had a chance to move, Mike got up and put his arm around the lad's shoulder and told him it was no problem. led him to his seat saying that he would do the raffle and when he felt better the boy could carry on with the prize giving. Mike put on an absolutely marvellous performance which ended up with the lad coming back with a smile on his face and doing the prizegiving. For anybody to criticize Mike Osman calling him a free loader and a parasite is totally out of order. This year alone Mike, LM and MLT plus others have given their time willingly for many charitable events totally free. Without them the events couldn't have happened and if they did certainly wouldn't have raised the thousands of pounds for causes such as helping to fund the care for Kevin Moore and Oakhaven Hospice.

If the team firms up it's shape and plays outside to in attacking and inside to out defending, the fact that the two central midfielders break beyond the strikers needn't make us vulnerable, as the defensive full back and the two centre backs will come closer on the halfway line, but because of the overloads that we are creating we are going to suck in their attackers into their defence at the very least well into their own half. We then have to build the awareness that on the breakdown of any move the players defend aggressively from the front while the rest of the team funnel back and consolidate in front of the back three. I have two options, play Schneiderlin/Guly or Schneiderlin/Puncheon but Schneiderlin has to look for the opportunity to get into the box. Hammond is a poor passer of the ball and as such is likely to prove an impediment to high tempo pass and move football.

I think the Puncheon thing came to a head when he went walkabout, a la Pardew, and Schneiderlin had the ball but no left option. Hammond is no leader/captain or driving midfielder. I don't want to see Schneiderlin just parked in midfield, he needs to be teamed with an attacking midfielder and learn how to drive forward. If we are going to be the best team in the league we have to play like it and forget any idea of holding mdfielders. We need to just keep the ball and get rapid movement from the players. I think this is what Adkin's wants.

A better shape yesterday, nobody playing on their wrong side, attempted to start playing a passing game, but the passing and movement was as yet slow, so defence allowed to consolidate. Adkins knows what he is about and I expect to see dramatic improvement by the end of October. Holmes although not pacy is a good footballer and the only player in the team apart from Lambert that can put in dangerous crosses. Dickson improved the penetration down the left but need to see more of him before deciding on his defensive quality. Hammond's movement, awareness and passing is woeful. Our central midfield needs to start making runs through and beyond the strikers to try and overload the defences, to enable this Barnard's lateral ovement is good but Lambert is very static. If Lambert is carrying an injury, we need to rest him and/or get it sorted. In the meantime get a loan replacement in to cover. If he is medically fit but overweight and unfit then we need to get that sorted pdq which I'm sure NA will, but we can't be going on like this. All in all, not a bad start, whilst a little slow at the moment I expect the tempo of play, pass and move etc to be ratcheted up rapidly. I was hoping De Prado would be brought on for Hammond for the last twenty minutes to up the attacking pace and movement.

No.

And the Pope is bigoted! This thread in places is a pretty good example of ingrained bigotry.

Let me get this right, we are going to play two wide men narrow, reinforcing the central strikers, the full backs are going to be up wide to provide width, the central midfielders are going to sit deep in front of the centre backs and the counter attack when we lose possession is going to cut us to pieces down the lines. Who is covering the full backs now then? The mere fact having two dangerous wide attackers inhibits the full backs from attacking, so the easy counter is to push two wide attackers into the space left behind the full backs. The full backs will no longer be able to attack freely. Playing very quick players like Waigo and Antonio wide immediately ties down the full backs. Their presence alone inhibits the full backs, our full backs weren't being attacked by two as happens when the wide men come inside and we are counter attacked wide, the opposing full backs are free to reinforce the attack. Often last season when Lallana was narrow Harding had to cope with two wide attackers down his wing.

I'd like to have the chance to vote on a poll.

The four idiots embark on another dead end journey of self delusion. Isn't the statement classic Chorley with the sound turned down?

At the start of last season we again had a poor start and could hardly buy a goal but then we brought in Waigo whose pace and width immediately got us started scoring goals. He was then followed in by Antonio who despite being raw increased the pace and width and impact factor. As far as Pardew was concerned he didn't fancy Waigo and hardly surprisingly Waigo disliked Pardew and didn't want to stay. We are now back to square one, no real pace apart from a reasonably quick potentially good barely 17 year old. The manager needs to replace Davis, Jaidi, Hammond, possibly Schneiderlin, bring in pace and width plus two strikers, one to compete and cover Lambert and a quickie. This was the requirement in June plus a right back or two which we brought in. This is essentially the Pardew promise in May to create a NPC winning side for this season including Markus's/Cortese's demand for a more exciting, compelling brand of football. Unless this is done we can kiss goodbye to a good season. Why are we poor in the second half, a good bet is preparing for the season with the first team only playing in some of the matches, and then for a maximum of 45 minutes. We really were poorly prepared. I bet there is going to be some pre-season type training going on for the next three weeks.

It would be a big mistake if he doesn't, as this thread has drawn a line under this subject and the attitude shown. I would expect this poster to get a lot of antagonistic comments in due course, which would be a pity, but inevitable if he doesn't apologise for his nasty untrue remarks.

Mike Osman was anti Pinnacle and felt the Swiss were our only hope at the time, he told me Pinnacle had no backers and was worried as they were getting in the way before they finally dropped out. I speak to him about the club regularly and he has never criticised Cortese to me. I know MLT has and LM has commented also with reference to Pardew. However I think that getting rid of Pardew may well prove to be the making of this club despite what MLT/LM think. I think you should apologise for your remarks about Mike Osman because they are absolutely out of order..

Dave, there are plenty of people on this site that know Mike Osman and his family and will not allow these ignorant and bigoted comments to go unanswered.

You really are an objectionable prat. Mike Osman gives an enormous amount of his time to charitable causes and doesn't charge a dime. He is doing an event in aid of the Oakhaven Hospice on Friday that's the second charity event he's done this week. Mike Osman is a decent man and I for one think some of the snidy remarks from a few no marks reflect more on them for their bigotry and stupidity than Mike Osman.

Some of the comments on here about Cortese are deluded. It's not a democracy, it's a privately owned business, if anybody thinks they are going to drive out Cortese they are nuts. If you want to go to the matches, pay the asking price and go, then again if you don't want to pay, don't go, it's your choice. Whilst Cortese could have done things differently none of the things have affected me and many others, I for one really don't give a rats arse what he does, if he annoys me, I'll do something else. I know that last year we were down and bloody near out whilst, this year, whatever the short term fiasco the team is going through, brought on by the stupid low key pre season, we are in a bloody good position and I for one have no interest in an anti Cortese campaign.

Well it now looks that the criticism on here about the amateurish preparation for the season was pretty much spot on. Unfit, poor start again, so how good was Pardew, or wasn't he in charge of pre-season? This sounds more like it but I expected nothing less from Nigel Atkinson. Maybe at last we'll have some decent football to watch and I'll be able to stop taking painkillers for a stiff neck.

Bloody hell Mark, how did you manage to get it all right and only use four sentences.