CanadaSaint

Wow, and we complain about NA's substitutions. That's a "change for the sake of change" manager if ever I saw one. Not for me I'm afraid, Wade and Bearsy.

All the more so for the fact that the financial gap between the Premier League and the rest will increase dramatically after this season. It's very noble for people to say that if we go back down Nigel can bring us straight back up again, but we can pretty much guarantee that Cortese doesn't see the situation like that. I reckon NA has until mid-November at the latest to achieve a fairly solid footing but I'm still hopeful he can do it.

No, I certainly don't want him gone but he has to show clear signs that he is adapting to the higher level, just like the players. That's not going to happen in seven games, but there has to be clear evidence of progress. Questionable substitutions, positional/tactical indiscipline and even relatively small things like players (from a shallow squad) getting booked unnecessarily are not really signs that he is making that progress yet. I'm very hopeful that he will, and that we will soon be in a more comfortable position, which is why I voted No, but ask again at the end of November. That's the time to make a change, god forbid it should be needed, because the new guy would need time to properly assess the squad before the window opens.

In his younger days he fell victim to the "fart in a thunderstorm" syndrome, being all over the place because he had always been good enough to do it. Now he's up with the big boys it's becoming a more glaring weakness on the days when it ends up being unproductive. I have a lot of faith that he'll learn but giving him the captaincy hardly suggests that the coaching team recognizes that he can be quite an immature player at times.

The Richardson injury both helped and hurt us. It helped us because I think we would have had big problems down our right side if he had stayed on, but it hurt us because it forced us to reunite the Fonte/Jos partnership which IMO doesn't work at this level. Fonte improved considerably when Yoshida became his partner. Fonte and Jos often go for the same ball, and on other occasions neither goes for it. Yoshida reads things better alongside Fonte, and they are different enough to complement eachother. Like most, I'm struggling to understand why NA would take Lambert off. Regardless of the fact that he wasn't at his best today, he's the main goal threat and Fulham lost respect for our attack after he left. The change enabled them to push forward in bigger numbers. I'm still trying to understand what Rodriguez's role is in this team - and I think he is too. But let's not forget that we could and should have been three goals up at half time. The PL is cruel on teams that don't take their chances while they're getting them.

No kidding. And two impact injuries by the sound of it FFS. Jeez, we've hurt more of our own than we've hurt opponents this year.

This might be quite a bit more than a "niggle" or a "simple bruise." The danger surrounds bleeding into the muscle mass, and it's not to be treated lightly without the risk of long term consequences. They don't hospitalize players without good reason, so I fear that Ramirez could be gone for 2-4 weeks or more. It's rather troubling that he could pick up what sounds like a significant impact injury during training, although we don't know the circumstances.

No, you're right Steve. But it's his reputation, which (his evident ego would suggest) is very important to him.

I trust Cortese (and Markus's family) to run the club prudently and responsibly. However, and they are big "howevers" IMO: I was really pleased with the acquisition of Ramirez, but that was based on the assumption that we were signing him from Markus's "pot of gold" - not loan funding. If I'd thought we were borrowing money to sign him I would have been far less enthusiastic. This revelation adds question marks to the issue of whether we'll be able to significantly upgrade our defence in January, as we absolutely must. I can't help but wonder whether there's any connection between this and the decision to suspend Stapelwood development. Having said that, it does make sense to step outside this year's business model because next year's (assuming that we survive) has a major income increase. Yes, it's a risk because it has a potentially deep downside but it also has a very high upside. Cortese obviously has big gonads for a little guy.

I couldn't agree more. We can't keep waiting to "sort it out at half time" because we lack the ability to address issue on the pitch during the game. That has been a feature of (probably) four of our games so far, with Nigel being very animated on the sideline trying to convey the adjustments needed because we've fallen off the "game plan." As much as I like Lallana, his all-action style doesn't leave much time for receiving input from the bench and having a word in the appropriate ears. That's why we keep making recurrent tactical mistakes, and it's no coincidence that we've tended to be better after half time. It would make a big difference if we could address this issue because the adjustments have, for the most part, been effective. Late but effective. The captaincy is not an accolade, it's a job - and a really important one.

Still very concerned about our defensive woes but I think we've actually tightened up there with Yoshida alongside Fonte. Today's main problems (as at Arsenal) were in midfield IMO, and we sorted them at half time for the most part. Too bad that we were already effectively out of the game by then. We didn't choose to change a winning team, we were forced to do so, and that hurt us big-time. I'm still quite optimistic about staying up and perhaps doing better than just that. In our first six games we've played Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal and Everton (who have gained more points in 2012 than anyone bar City and United.) And our points total and goal difference are not much worse than teams that haven't played all those juggernauts.

The PL is a bit of a snob's league covered by a very snobbish media, so it's to be expected. We have to earn our respect up here, and that takes time. That's why Liverpool are being cut a load of slack despite an easier start than ours, while we are written-off after four games. Yes, we've earned respect for our attacking style but lost it to our glaring defensive weaknesses. With so many ex-players in the media, we encounter the players' mentality - "Show us yer medals. If you don't have any, STFU."

He's got some wheels, that's for sure. For the penalty my first thought was that the ball was a couple of yards too long for him, and that the keeper would get there first. Those two yards disappeared in an instant, and then Mayuka had the touch to push it past the keeper. He could give us a very different offensive threat to the one we've relied on for 2+ years, and he could be deadly in the last twenty minutes of games.

That I completely agree with, and he also needs to shoot more often. But IMO he made a major contribution today all over the pitch. And I have a feeling that Ramirez will be very good for him - giving him more space, rewarding his runs, showing him a thing or two, and so on.

Not an unreasonable opinion from the Villa lot but I bet most of them would rather have seen him in their shirt than ours today. They had a few that went AWOL after 45 minutes.

Yes.

You need to watch the game again and see Lallana's effort and involvement in every third of the pitch, because you obviously missed it first time around. Sure, many of the magical moments came from the feet of Ramirez but we would not have won that game without Lallana's contribution. "Ramirez makes Lallana look silly", my arse. God, you do come out with some drivel.

Yep, that's exactly the point DD. I think Rickie was a little slow because he din't think the pass was "on", which - for 90%+ of players, it wasn't. I don't think that will be lost on Rickie, and he'll be quicker next time.

He learned a lot about them in the first half and put the knowledge into practice in the second half, but I don't think we've seen his full array of talents yet. When the other get familiar with him and keep making the runs he's capable of feeding, we could really see some goals.

He's a great believer in positivity so it was really good to see him get some positive reinforcement from the fans. His reaction to "There's only one Nigel Adkins" was actually quite touching in the cold, calculating, unforgiving world of the Premier League.

Exactly the same ball-watching that he's been doing for two seasons or more. Hopefully the ghost has been exorcised permanently.

You could see that our guys were still learning how to play with eachother as the game developed. That's a "tough ask" in training sessions because it can only be done in real-game situations. Ramirez took it all in during the first half and saw the little, angled runs that he started to feed in the second half. The others started to appreciate what he brings to the table, and they - in turn - gave him the ball in the right situations and then pulled off to create a pass option for him. Very impressive.

A big nod to Nigel for having the courage to drop Kelvin and pull Fox off at HT. Without those two decisions I doubt we'd have won.

I thought Lallana was superb all over the pitch.

I couldn't agree more that Fox is the main reason we've been pulled out of shape defensively. Yoshida looks excellent and he certainly did help Fonte to play much better. I don't share your optimism about Richardson - I think he'll get done regularly at this level. I don't think it will happen but I'd like to see Yoshida at LB with Fonte and Jos in the middle, and Clyne going back to RB.