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Adkins would be a good choice.

Davis is a only a shotstopper the rest of his game is poor. Hammond was poor the other night, Schneiderlin was worse. We need to find a way to beat defensive teams at SMS and Hammond and Schneiderlin with their lack of movement and negative passing aren't going to do that except on the odd occasion. The Swindon game showed our deficiencies. What I put forward was a player that has already played in central midfield for the club teamed with a player brought in to play central midfield, both with a bit of pace and able to attack the opposition. Lambert is immobile because of injury and Schneiderlin and Hammond are static. Lambert needs some assistance and neither of the midfield will do that so it needs to be changed. Davis as club captain is one thing but on the field we are lacking a proper captain and Hammond is no natural leader.

I haven't a clue, this came from the same source as the Lallana injury details. I think, the weight, training issue and reduced mobility is the problem. Probably IMO just needs rest to heal but is having to be played now because of circumstances, when he probably shouldn't be.

Nice to see a rational response whilst disagreeing in part.

May not agree but spare me the ludicrous comments.

If he wanted to pull out you can be certain that the Liebherr family would give him the job of getting rid of the millstone for a nice bonus and a nice profit for them. They after all only paid about £13m for the lot. Furthermore you can also guarantee there would be no more investment by them and as soon as the people that were attracted by the multi billionaire backing see them going they will be looking for an early exit. Cortese is the future, Pardew is gone, get over it and move on.

6'-2 1/2" and halfway up the stand. I know crap when I see it.

You know what you are talking about with this. The media thing is total nonsense

Be careful what you wish for. If Cortese gets to the point that we are not worth his trouble you can bet your bottom dollar we will be up for sale. Bought by some chancer that wants a football club and uses the debt free assets to mortgage up to the hilt and borrow against the rest. Give me Cortese every time. This is the best opportunity we will ever get with the backing of the Liebherr family to make this the great club we have never been. I really couldn't give a stuff that we have lost a pretty average manager that most of the time promoted a brand of football that gave me neck ache. Maybe now we will get a proper manager that concentrates on making a real footballing team and can work harmoniously with the other important parts of the club. I can't see Cortese making the same mistake again.

The only announcement from the club is that Pardew, Downes and Murdoch have been relieved of their duties. In other words suspended pending termination in due course when all details are sorted. There is no doubt that they will at some point no longer work for the club but that point doesn't seem to have been reached yet as the lawyers on all sides probably do their work.

Absolutely, Schneiderlin is giving us nothing at the moment. Personally I'd like to see Puncheon alongside De Prado with Chamberlain and Dickson wide and no holding midfielders. What do we need holding midfielders for when the opposition is coming to SMS and packing the penalty area. It's pace and penetration we want not trying to break the front door down.

Weston Saint is a friend of David Lallana, Adams father, EV man is connected to the family but we are stll working out who.

The main reason these players are inneffective on their natural side is that they lack the pace to go outside and struggle to come inside on their weak foot so they adapt to playing on the wrong side and can be very effective, however all the examples mentioned are playing at the top level not many have the skill to do it further down the leagues nor have the support skills and mobility levels in their colleagues to make it work.

It needs players that understand the demands not just any old player stuck on the wrong side as we did with De Prado on Tuesday. It is wrong to compare skilled high class sides playing with wrong footed players in highly mobile top class teams, with third division players copying the system without either them or their colleagues having the organisation, intelligence or mobility to make it work. Top class sides find a way to maintain their width but mostly when our players are narrow, then we usually have no wide option, which is probably the reason we are unable to break down packed defences, as we rarely get round behind them but persist in trying to break the door down with frontal attack which doesn't work. When it comes down to breaking down defensive set ups at home it is the wrong footed wide midfield that contributes most to our inability to figure it out and outflank it and create an overload at the back post.

The problem was , it wasn't Arjen Robben it was De Prado who was totally lost at left midfield, and Puncheon was negated by two static midfielders and the injured Lambert. The only movement came from Connolly. It's alright with Johnson/Milner who go either way but only Puncheon can go both ways but rarely this season choosing to go across the field. In addition it can work well in 4-3-3 with a holding central midfielder and two runners through the channels. It needs the full backs to overlap as soon as the wide man comes inside to maintain the width and allow the ball to be fed wide if the run is blocked. Lallana scored most of his goals when he drifted in late to the edge of the box rarely when he stayed inside he nearly always checked back looking for support from behind rarely getting to the line. I will say that he is a unique talent that is getting better both from a physical point of view and skill, I personally think the time may have come to play him on the right side of central midfield with a strong partner.

On the other hand Bert, a really confident coach seeing how unbalanced and static the whole thing was would be radical on the grounds he had little to lose and if he made changes which moved things on, the management might just say 'hang on a minute this guy is good, let's give him time to see what he can do', It's what the good managers do, whatever the level.

Lambert is still struggling with the groin injury. He struggles to train and as a result isn't getting surplus weight off. Source-a first team player.

Leaving out Dickson, Barnard and Martin was dumb with Lambert suffering from a groin strain and immobile. Playing an unbalanced side was plain stupid. De Prado was brought in as a central/right attacking midfielder, he has no left foot and playing him at left midfield was naive. The continuation of the left footed Puncheon on the right compounded the error. Allowing the central midfield to stagnate and then not change it when 0-2 down meant the changes made were inneffective. Not up to the job, this is possibly another Dodd/Gorman results scenario. I hope the players can rise above the managerial selection stupidity.

If he's really annoyed Cortese he could be just paid his salary for two years. Probably a lot more expensive though.

I see the sun is advertising cruises from a south coast port.

He would be a fool to publicise his views if he wants to work as a manager again. Football is a small world.

This came through a first team player. I don't like it either, now Barnard has given us few options.

I'd like to see us doing something different. If Lambert is going to play and I don't think he should because his groin injury hasn't healed yet, I'd like to see us inject a bit of pace into central midfield. I personally would like to see Bialkowski in goal but obviously it will be Davis. The back four picks itself for me Butterfield, Fonte, Martin, Harding. The midfield has been a major problem making the buildup slow and lacking pace. Because of that I would do something radical. Chamberlain, De Prado, Puncheon, Dickson, with Connolly and Lambert up front. Everybody playing on their natural side with hard running players with pace from midfield helping out the at the moment immobile Lambert. I know about no defensive midfielder, but that really worked well against Swindon with two of them sitting even at 0-2 didn't it? Schneiderlin needs to rethink his roll and it isn't as a one dimensional strolling square passer and Hammond is way off the pace. In any event they would be on the bench if it didn't work, but somehow I think Rochdale would have their hands full with the pace and again if they are coming to park the bus why do we need two negative central midfield players?

He stll has the Groin injury and is limited in training and struggling to get weight down. Lallana was having pain killing injections (not cortisone) before the match and at half time. I don't know but it could be the same for Lambert. He needs to get it right before he plays again.

The more I think about it the better I feel about it, as long he is a team player and is prepared to be part of the re building without the ego bit. But then I can't see Cortese taking any more with egos