derry

I thought I had made that obvious Ron from my first sentence. He was much better coming in from wide and was scoring regularly, which now seems to have dried up because of this narrow role. I think it's a real waste of his effectiveness.

His crosses from 30+ yds out in the main are gifting the ball to the opposition. His cross for Trotman's goal was pretty square not lofted in from near the halfway line.

Lallana is the key to how well we play. Pardew has him playing narrow on top of the CM, consequently there is little room for him to be effective. The team seem to be very compact which forces them to pass it sideways or backwards whilst waiting for players to get wide or just hit it up front. Unless the team spreads out and passes and moves we aren't going to pull teams apart. This way of playing reduces our effectiveness and against 10 men played into their hands. Yesterday we needed to play to the touchlines and utilise our extra man running the opposition into the ground with our movement, but we didn't. At times we were chasing shadows and often looked like we were a man short.

Rupert Lowe's four really crass decisions:- Poor selection of managers after Strachan, especially the demotivated Harry Redknapp, trading down of players, his arrogant know better than everybody attitude, together with hiring Sir Clive Woodward because of the disruption it caused, having been relegated and deposed, coming back and indulging in the Dutch experiment and being relegated. That era is thank goodness now over and I for one am grateful for a substantial blue chip owner to take us steadily forward in a sensible way.

Happy Christmas everybody.

Too many games on the pitch would ruin it.

The tortoise and the hare comes to mind, I would like to go up this year and build as we go. It wouldn't be the end of the world if we don't. If we don't we could end up with a superb strengthened team, easily the best in this division giving us super entertainment and pleasure.

He worked hard but it was in my view misplaced and a waste of his ability. It is a widely held misconception that packing a narrow midfield affords greater protection. It doesn't against a team that then proceeds to use the full width and free space wide and as Norwich did, pick off the isolated wide defenders. With wide players tracking the first wide attacker it affords greater protection to the full backs and alows a delay which enables the players in the middle and other side to slide across and back and consolidate, blocking off the attack and prevent any outflanking. It was the narrowness that prevented us from coherent attacking and allowed Norwich the room to pull us around.

Jan 1960, 3rd round FA Cup, third division Saints at Maine Road winning 5-1 with 10 1/2 men, (Cliff Huxford with a pulled thigh muscle played on) against first division Man City with 18 years old Bob Charles in goal. Terry Paine giving a virtuoso display and Derek Reeves getting 4 against the great Bert Trautmann. Several seasons scoring over a hundred goals in the league.

I agree with both of you, I realised early on in the game that they were playing to Pardew's instructions as he was taking no notice. The headless chicken remark was a little unfortunate as it was meant to describe the role and circumstances he was in, rather than his attitude, the effect rather than the cause. The way he played in the 5 games prior to Wycombe was at times brilliant and hard working. In those 5 games we were also effective and played good football but then against Wycombe and even more so against Norwich we played narrow and became ugly causing a lot of humping and little football. Pardew is saying we haven't played well, but doesn't say why, when it is obvious by playing narrow we are closing down our creative players, whilst allowing the opposition to get at us down the flanks. If we were narrow, but the players were using decoy runs out into the space to move defenders out, to make holes for others, it would make some sense, but we don't. Schneiderlin didn't seem to be playing much different to usual and the change bringing on Wotton in his place wasn't really changing anything. Schneiderlin certainly didn't play wide because nobody did. We need to use Lallana's ability wide left not in a centre field melee of massed bodies, he needs the room to drift about and use his ability to open up the opposition and be available to track opposing wide runners. He was totally wasted against Wycombe and Norwich. A couple of months ago we were saying we couldn't really see where he could play. Since the Norwich league game his play in the next five games was outstanding at left midfield which could prove to be his best position. We don't play well when he isn't there.

I thought it was an Antonio cross, headed by Lambert that Waigo knocked in, Lallana wasn't involved. But maybe if he had been playing left midfield, Norwich wouldn't have got the second goal which came from that area, with a through ball which almost drew a penalty before being knocked into an open goal.

It is obvious that this narrow play forces the central midfielders and defenders to knock the ball forwards or backwards to the full backs then to the keeper to belt it long. It allows decent sides who use the whole pitch to play round us and pick off the full backs in our case usually the left back. Norwich pulled us around last night and we were damn lucky to get away with it. Luckily the 99th or maybe it just seemed like it, speculative lump into the box, fell to Waigo with 10 seconds left. Luckily for us Norwich adopted our backing off tactics in the last 10 minutes and surrendered the initiative to us playing 3-5-2ish. If we don't occupy the whole pitch on Saturday the Leeds wide men will murder us. However bearing in mind that this is a known threat, I would be amazed if Waigo and Lallana aren't wide, tracking them. If they do, the knock on effect is much more availability for passes from the central midfield and defence, consequently we play better. Which is the full circle and why we lump it when we are narrow. What I am saying, because he is the best we have got, is that Lallana should have been playing as a proper left midfielder, for three reasons we are better defensively, more incisive in attack with Lallana free to blind side and we play better passing football across the whole pitch.

It was very narrow and pretty chaotic in the middle and up front there was precious little shape. Norwich were well on top for all but the last 10 minutes when they backed off and allowed our 3-5-2 or whatever to knock balls into the box. For the record they replaced Schneiderlin at half time but kept the same formation, on the hour Antonio came on for Mellis and we went 4-4-2 with Lallana still LM, then 15 mins from the end, Thomas replaced Perry and went to the right of Trotman with James to the left in a back three with Harding and Antonio wide, Hammond and Wotton were central with only Waigo and Lambert doing anything up front as Lallana was really only on the periphary. To sum it up, to date, 230 have voted in MOTM, but Lallana didn't get a vote.

The central midfield have a hard time when the wide midfielders tuck in, as the place they mostly want to play the ball to is out to the touchlines. With the wide midfielders tight to them and the opponents allowed to compact, it forces them to have to knock the ball forward. Schneiderlin is at his best when the touchlines are occupied.

Look I'm not arguing the toss with you about semantics, as I saw it Waigo played up in support of Lambert but does move across the line. Lallana did not play like a proper left sided midfielder and stayed most of the time in a central position. That allowed Harding to be picked off. If you don't understand the problem you aren't alone.

You are missing the point, he didn't play left midfield at any time but stayed mostly central. When we changed to 4-4-2 he was still supposed to be LM and it was only when we went 3-5-2 at the end that we had Harding out wide.

Spot on again Ron. The key to our whole game is Lallana. Tonight he was back to his best headless chicken mode almost never taking up an early wide left midfield position and floating around the centre of the pitch. In the first 20 minutes whilst Waigo was mostly wide right we had our best spell but as soon as he moved inside, more the fact that Lallana was narrow caused the back and midfield players to hit the ball up to the front. Lallana worked hard at what he was doing but it was counterproductive and caused him to be pretty much a non entity, it also allowed Norwich to get at us by picking off Harding as he wasn't tracking their wide runners. Starting with the Norwich league game, for 5 matches Lallana played like a proper left midfielder and we benefited, but on Saturday he was back to staying inside and going wide late, last night was even worse. Unless he disciplines himself and plays like a proper left sided midfielder we are going to get murdered down our left. We damn near lost that game last night because of it. Lambert up front on his own was only picking up scraps as we hardly put a move together after the first 20 minutes.

I was at a meeting last spring where Leon Crouch talked about the annual mortgage payment, I can't remember the actual figure but I think it was £2.8m. I am pretty certain it was over £2m. Added to that, the savings on the grossly overpaid players like Euell, Raziak, John etc, plus the interest on a £6m overdraft, the debt free club will have a fairly low break even, despite still having Saganowski and Thomas on high wages.

Of course it is, this ranks alongside one of the JPT matches that was originally sold as normal then after a lot of tickets sold with seat reservations was changed to the Luton scenario. Then to cap it all, only those that went through turnstile A were told by stewards that spectators were now being stacked from block 4 filling each block on the instructions of some middle manager. Most of those had tickets with seat numbers although later tickets showed unreserved. Consequently there was an immediate reaction, especially when the stewards said that blocks 5 upwards would be opened after 4 was full. It was pointed out that the inevitable result would be a rush from 4-5 etc once they opened. Eventually after a lot of people just stood on the steps and refused to go into block 4 the stewards opened the other blocks. I will say that the response from the stewards was that this was an unworkable stupidity but despite their efforts to get it changed the manager who had imposed it wouldn't change. When I showed the supervising steward my tickets with seat numbers he understood. The club may well be right that the crowd won't be big enough but it is a Saturday. It's the day after the bank holiday and I personally think that could well mean a good crowd despite the status of the opponents.

The Kingsland and Chapel ST holders are hacked off because they can't get their usual seats and if they still intend to go, will most probably go to the Itchen, as most view the Northam as a last resort. That leads to another hacked off group of ST holders in the Itchen, who can't get their seats because they have been sold to others. I already have the tickets for my seats in the Itchen, so don't have a problem, but I can see further problems for all concerned, if we do attract a normal Saturday gate, the Kingsland will be opened, causing ST holders to try and change their seats. It might have been better to open the usual Saturday areas, especially as it is the FA Cup and a Saturday.

It wasn't a goalkick.

Whatever the interpretation Waigo needs to pay more attention to the position of the opposition's last man and stay onside. There will be times with his pace that with a relative opposite movement, the last defender coming out and Waigo going towards goal, he will be onside at the moment the ball is kicked, but appear offside when the ball is on it's way. I can live with that but sometimes he is unaware he has drifted offside and because he isn't constantly checking the defender's position he stays offside and looks stupid.

Spot on Bill, you may be being a bit optimistic talking about width as I'm not sure it's seen as a priority although it should be. Waigo will give us a lot more than Antonio down the right and he doesn't get offside much when he is on the touchline. He is pretty good at tracking the wide runners and his pace means he doesn't get outrun. He is also a much better footballer than many on here give him credit for. He rarely gives the ball away and his crossing is good. Antonio had the touch of an Elephant yesterday. His poor ball control cancelled out his pace and he isn't at all clever. James slowness worries me, he does some good things but he is painfully slow. Thomas is the other alternative and I personally prefer him to James at right back. Either way Waigo would give better support to either and provide a cutting edge on the right. I expect Lallana to be a lot wider against Leeds as I think there will be an emphasis on supporting the full backs against their wide men. That could well work in our favour with the extra width giving the midfield wide options to get the passing game going. Perry had a decent game yesterday and Jaidi is very good in the air but is a bit slow. Trotman may be quicker than Perry but he is nowhere near as competent.

Another person who understands what was happening.

Me too.