S-Clarke

Good team are Palace, but they play quite an attacking game so they won't be as dull to watch as Albion. However, we've still got to show some more imagination. Our season is in danger of collapsing through the floor if we're not careful.

I imagine the deals are already sewn up in the background to be honest.

Speed it up. It's not that hard is it? Stick a rocket up Mane's arse and get him to stay onside, and can someone wake up Elia as I've not seen him since Newcastle away. But whilst Pelle has been poor and was particularly horrific today, it doesn't help that the players around him are equally as horrific right now. The rest of the team is fine, but the attack is dead. I'd throw Long in. Not the most refined footballer, but he'll run channels and run defenses. It'll drag people out of position and create space. We don't do that at the moment, we play at a pedestrian pace waiting to slowly unlock a defense. WBA must have thought all their birthdays had come at once. I don't remember any real terrific defending they had to do, and their back 4 was slow. So, it sounds simple - but we need to zip it about.

Horrific today. Dire, dire. Awful. No more to say.

We look dead of idea's, well and truly dead. Hard to see it changing with this current lot. Pelle and Tadic are about as useful as a blind gorilla. They are doing my head in. Elia as well, I think bar 2 goals v Newcastle he has been horrific and I would not go near him in terms of a permanent signing. Other than that, the only positive is that we're still 5th. But it clearly won't be for long if we don't remember how to score. Just dross to watch. Fair enough we keep the ball, but I almost fell asleep. What is the point of keeping the ball if you do **** all with it? It is the same every week, routeen for defenses. I bet teams cant' wait to defend against us as it's so easy. The main worry for me is that it's not we're missing chances, we just don't look likely from anywhere to score at any time. We've got a big task on, otherwise the first half of the season will be seen as nothing other than a fluke result.

Ah, Alpine is back!

That's a good idea.

I'd have preferred both teams to stay in Europe to be honest. It looks as if ourselves, Spurs, Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal all have a clear run to the end of the season without any European distractions. Could have done with 1 or 2 having mid-week games...

Could have done with them staying in Europe for the run in. Bit of a bummer.

And it's really just as simple as that....

What is this guy all about??? Jeez, just retire. Surely we can sue him for gross misconduct? As I'm pretty sure he's been in breach of his contract a zillion times...

It'll be quite annoying to see our 2 full backs playing at Utd, but that's the name of the game and that's what we have to accept. We're a stepping stone club and will always be a stepping stone club. The hope is that we get a couple of top seasons from these players and they can get us into a position (like now) where we can attract decent level replacements. ...and there the cycle starts again.

Not just yet I don't think, will wait and see how he performs for barca over the next couple of years and what honours he wins, by all accounts he's had quite a slow start to his career there. And once he stops biting people...

In my mind there are levels of player - you've got world class, which includes the likes of Ineista, Messi, Ronaldo, Rodriguez, Kroos, Bastian S. , etc - players who have consistently performed at international, club and European level. They hold most of the major honours you could even earn as a footballer. Then you've got the next group down - the likes of bale, benzema, Aguero, Suarez, Di Maria etc The likes of Mane, Elia, Djuricic, Toby, Morgan etc are some way from that level and will probably never be world class. If we had a potential world class player in our side, they'd be long gone by now it pains me to say. - And they certainly wouldn't be offered to us on loan deals!!

They might as well not have broadcasted it at all, just a bit of a non-show. At least St Mary's looked good on it. I think we saw parts which would suggest it would have made a decent series, some good characters. but whatever.

I don't think they did a great deal to keep him as they couldn't offer him regular football. He did the same with Pique as you said, but I think that was more because he signed Jones and Smalling that summer. Still, not a great thing to talk about. Whops.

lol.

I know us fans like to have a good old moan and debate about the ref, but it says something when most fans of every team are having the same moans every week.....surely the top bods can see it? the standard is horrific right now. Not just ref's, but even the linesmen. Just basic technical errors such as not staying up with play, not being in line - basics for any referee. And what gets up my goat more than anything is that you can't critisie them, otherwise you get a fine (as Jose has found). I totally get his rant at the weekend, he can see it...and he's not stupid. The fact that 2 ref's have been dropped for this weekend says it all. You should not be in a position where you are dropping 2 top flight referees in a week, it screams that there's a problem right now.

It doesn't make any sense what so ever. If they've reduced it, then they obviously understand his reaction slightly to what was an horrific tackle. Yet they didn't punish the bad tackle.....so why has it been reduced? what's the reason? Just to keep Jose quiet? Staggering amount of incompetency and inconsistency among the associations and the officials these days.

Olsson isn't playing for them these days. Likely to be Dawson and Lescott.

That team just looks much better, that spine of Toby, Morgan, Vic is massive for us. Then as you said, we'd likely have Djuricic, Tadic, Long, Gardos, Yoshida, JWP on the bench. Then you've got the kids beyond that - Reed, Targett, Hasketh, Gallagher, Isgrove. The squad is looking a hell of a lot better and I'm still of the opinion that we have more depth than we did last year, once everyone is fit. We've got near enough a full starting 11 and bench of full internationals. That's impressive.

Lol @ Man Utd.

But that record is nothing to do with Forster trousers, nothing what so ever. He's crap, should be in L1 and Boruc is better. Get with the times and stop posting facts!!!

I think we saw the best from Tadic when he was predominantly on the left. He did have good games when he was deployed on the right, but he was much more threatening and 'cute' when coming from the left as it was his natural side, the downturn in form has coincided with his shift to the right (to accommodate Mane at the time). I know it seems the fashion at the moment to have wingers on their opposite sides so they can cut in etc, but I think a team is more threatening when you've got a natural left sider/right sider bombing down the flank and whipping a cross in. Bertrand is a great outlet for us on the left because of that. And I think when you're struggling for goals and struggling to break teams down, there's no harm going back to basics for a bit.