S-Clarke

How can you say this thread is OTT, and then come out with that comment? Sunderland was one of those days, but I think most fans appreciate that as a team and a club we have turned a massive corner since October. Personally based on our start we are better off than I thought we'd be, so I'm pleased with that. Now, if i was a Reading fan I'd have serious course for concern....but I think at the moment we're ticking along alright. We'll be down there until the final day, I'm sure, but we've shown the fight and the quality to make an impression on the teams down there. I'm not as nervous as I was a month or so back, that's for sure.

Rickie has penalties nailed, hit it with power as far to the corner as possible and it's pretty much a guaranteed goal. The GK may get a touch to it, and it may look a bit scruffy at times, but with the pace Rickie hits it with it's often passed him before he's got a decent hand - so GK's don't really have a chance.

Pretty sure it changed to 7 when the amnesty cut off point was moved to the new year. used to be in Feb. Might be wrong, but rings a bell.

Morgan has a decent brain on him, he can attack. Remember him popping up on a few occasions this year inside the box, he's got a couple of goals and even a couple of assists IIRC. He's shown a bit of variety to his game this year. But what you describe is pretty much par the course in any team. Attacking midfielders, and defensive midfielders. Some attack, some defend - all rounders are rare, and are at the big, big clubs. (i.e Yaya Toure). What most teams at our level do is have 2 of each, and alternate them around to suit the situation and game. If anything, we need another defensive midfielder who has a bit of baulk about him. Other than that we're fine there, we've got the ''crafters'' and the passers in there.

It's the world of a football fan though, we're all football managers in our heads and we all think we know better! So when we lose, we know of why and how to fix it in our heads....!! If only the real world was a straight forward as that!

Boruc would be my shout for this game as well if I'm honest. Someone strong and confident enough to dominate the area, that can't be said about our current 2 of we're honest. I remember he was brought in against West Ham because of their physical power in and around the box, didn't work out that well though as we were well beaten (but that was the entire team playing a stinker) - but I can see Adkins making that call again.

I didn't know Cameron was on 4 yellows....sorry.

Good news that Shawcross AND Cameron will be missing, 2 key players for them at the back. Didn't expect both to be missing. If this is a bit like ''after the lord mares show'' for them, we have a chance. Let's hope we catch them off guard, got a funny feeling that we may do.

Need to hope they're off their game, that's the only chance we have. Let's hope the Liverpool game took a fair bit out of them.

The only chance we have is if they're knackered by the time they play us. But if they play anywhere near their level, then it's an impossible game for us to get anything from. We just don't have the players to contain their play, so we just need to hope that they're off it on Saturday.

Don't agree with the idea of changing the back 4 around. It's working now, so why change it? We look more assured that we have done, and they've hit off a decent partnership back there. Only change it if one is injured.

I dunno, these days that's probably a 30-40m player. A 14m outlay in the PL isn't a huge deal if we're honest, not really. It is for us, and I think we've got a talented player for it, but if he was the sort of player who could win games on his own at the moment he wouldn't be here. He has the potential to do so, but at the moment he's still growing.

What's that all about? Weird. They've been ticking along quite nicely.

Their young players are pretty bog-standard average to be honest. Players like Herd and Baker, IMO, from what I've seen, shouldn't be playing the PL.

Maybe he could be on his way back after all. For no apparent reason, up there with our bizarre sacking of Pardew, forest have sacked O'Driscoll

Villa have looked pathetically bad again tonight. We could be visiting them at a very good time.

In my opinion, based on the start we had and how out of our depth we looked, we need to thank our lucky stars that we're not only in touch with safety...we actually have our heads above water!

Very nice touch, look forward to see him introduced next week!

Will have to catch some of the highlights later, didn't catch any of today's game frustratingly.

It's probably an adjustment we've had to make. We could have continued to play open, attacking football, and be picked off constantly - or we could try a be a bit more competitive and have other options to launch the ball. It's helped, because we're so much more solid now.

May be been just those 1 or 2 games he played through the middle...but I remember making an effort to watch him in the 2 games just after he'd signed for us. And he was in the middle in those games. He may have played on the left since though, no idea. Still think he's a natural number 10 though, that's where you get the best from him. Any other position and it's a bit square peggy, especially as he's still adapting to this league. We need to address those wide area's in January ASAP.

The thing with Sharp is that he never got a chance, he looked pretty bright in pre-season and we all assumed he'd be part of the squad - so it was a suprise to most that he didn't even get a crack. I'd have him back for the next 6 months, no harm to be done having another goal scorer in the team.

I think we're getting progressively better, we're more competitive and we're giving teams games, as opposed to playing so open and losing 3-2, 3-1 etc. We're exactly where I wanted and hoped we'd be, and if i'm honest back in September/October I thought we'd be well adrift - but to our credit, we've got our head above water, we're battling away and luckily for us the sides below us are complete and utter dog ****e. Lucky. Now we get to the January window with our head above water and in touch with mid-table, and we need to improve on what we have. Probably Adkins biggest ever transfer window, he needs to get it right. We still lack quality in certain area's which we need to sort out if we're going to stay up.

Wouldn't say no to recalling Sharp if I'm honest. Goal scorer is a goal scorer, stick him on when we're chasing a goal and his movement would pull CB's all over the show. His record is second to none, whoever he plays for.

In the games I've seen him for Uruguay he's always in the middle, just behind.