S-Clarke

Agreed, as I mentioned on another thread. 2 years ago on 28th December 2010 Blackpool were 8th with 25th points, and Wolves were bottom with 14 or so points. Wolves survived and Blackpool didn't. Weird league, every team has it's day throughout the season. I know every season is different, but one thing you can be sure of is that nothing is ever really decided by Christmas in any position.

Frustratingly Shaw has got injured again, and will miss the England U18 games.

We don't really have a similar player to replace him, and if we want this formation to work then we need 2 wide men in my opinion. He's as good as we have.

Yep, I honestly thought we'd get another CB and LB, so was surprised when we didn't. But I didn't think our current lot would look as bad as they are, if i'm honest.

He looked to have taken quite a knock to the thigh, I think NA mentioned a ''slight'' tear, so he won't be available for a while. He's a solid player, but I wouldn't want to rely on him much this year truth be told. I think we've exceeded quite a few players ability, but he's still decent enough backup for now.

In terms of experience, and their influences on the season so far. I'd plump for... Gazzaniga Clyne - Fonte - Yoshida - Fox Davis - Morgan Punchon Ramieriz Lallana Lambert There are 3 easy upgrades we can do to that team in January. An attacking left back, an attacking right midfield player and an upgrade on fonte. I'd say we'd have quite a competitive team then.

Why do players turn into world baters when they are either injured, or not playing for us? He was a decent player for us, don't get me wrong, but the same goes for Harding/Hammond and now Sharp - they're not world beaters and they moved on for a reason. It doesn't take a genius to see that Jay has much more to him in terms of an all round game, and I fail to see exactly what Sharp would have done on Saturday that Jay didn't. Can Sharp defend?

We were never, ever an average league 1 team. We were always the big boys of that league, with the most talented and expensive squad available. We were never average, that L1 job was a great job for any manager IMO. But Nigel took it on and evolved us at the next level too.

I think we'd exceeded both players ability and I don't think they'd have changed anything. It's frustrating we weren't' as ruthless in other area's as I still feel we're carrying players who aren't good enough. The one thing we don't have a problem with is retaining the ball in the middle, we intercept and use it well there. The problem occurs when the oppo are attacking and we don't have the ball.

Fair points, although to give him his due I think Puncheon has offered support to his full back this year when required.

I'm trying to scrape the barrel here, you're not helping

I can see why people can see comparisons, but that's just because we're losing every single week and the last time we did that was under the Dutch duo. So that's an easy comparison to make. As a club, we are on a whole new level since then. The management know what they're doing, and I still trust them. I don't think they'd have been able to get 2 successive promotions based on not knowing the game.

Frustratingly, we have played well for periods of games. We've looked the better team on occasions, even against the Manchester clubs. Our constant errors are our Achilles hill though, and my only hope is that we will now start to face a ''lesser'' quality of attacker, so our mistakes - which will probably still happen - aren't going to be punished as frequently.

I think he's more than just pace, seems to have a good brain and movement off the ball. I've only seen glimpses of him, but they've been positive. I know he's been nursing a knock the last few weeks, so I'd hope based on his sub appearance that he's nearing his full start.

But to be honest, even a half-fit, 1 legged Dawson is better than anything we have at present! A 6 month loan is a no brainer if available.

Guly isn't actually 2 bad as a central midfield player, I know people will argue that. I think he's more effective through the middle than he is out wide for instance. But I agree with your sentiment on Cork, I was a big fan of his last year - and even before he came here, I think he'll add a calmness that we sometimes seem to lack.

To throw a bit of a positive spin on this. After 17 games, on 28th December 2010 Blackpool were 8th in the Premier League with 25 points. Wolves were bottom 10 points away from Blackpool. 5 months later, Blackpool were relegated and Wolves survived. What I'm trying to get at is the PL is a long, hard, slog. Teams will have good runs, bad runs, and inconsistent runs all throughout the season. I think we'll improve, heck...that's all we can do from here, so on that basis we still have our best run of the season to come. Nothing is decided after 8 games, and as shown in Blackpool's season - not even 17 games. There's not much we can do until January, but we have a bunch of fixtures coming up which we need to take the most from and things may start to look brighter come January.

Personally I think it's time for Mayuka to be given a run. I'd say up front, but obviously seeing as Rickie will play there, he'll go out on the right. I would play... Gazzaniga Clyne - Fonte - Yoshida - Fox Davis - Morgan Mayuka Lallana Puncheon Lambert

I'd be surprised if we have a cats hells chance in signing Enrique.

You need to remember that JWP is a young kid, and throwing him into our current setup probably isn't great for his progression, let's be honest. Great player though he is, I think we've taken him out of the fire for a reason.

If I'm honest with you Alps I trusted our players too much. I ignored the failings towards the end of last season and brushed them under the carpet, the obvious reality is that those failings weren't fixed and are now being shown up in the big league. I'm personally gutted by our start, I knew we had a tough start on paper...but I thought once we got through that, we'd start to look competitive, but we look anything but. I want to be positive, I want to believe we'll stay up and I believe we will as that's my mindset, but that will come about due to a change in January to certain positions - something I must admit should have been done in the summer (I even felt disappointed we didn't get the LB and 2nd cb I felt we needed - but I didn't imagine it hurting us this much). I think we'll still be in touch come Jan, mainly due to us having games against the teams around us - so if we can avoid losing to them, then we can keep them all within striking distance.

I must admit, I did think along the same lines as you until the Fulham game and Saturdays result. It probably wasn't a 4-1 win for West Ham in terms of the game, but they won 4-1 because we made horrendous errors. Everton won 3-1, because we made horrendous errors. Fulham scored 2 goals against us, because we made horrendous errors. It's a theme, we can play well and dominate possession but if we continue to make errors, which looks very likely, then we will continue to lose. Saturdays result has really really worried me. Certain players are letting this club down massively and they need to have a long hard look at themselves Worryingly though, in certain positions, we scream lower-league. And we can't do anything about that until January. So all we can do is hope to god that we're still in touch come January, and we can then get some quality on board.

Probably about right though, I think Guly could be a bit higher though, but we're scraping the barrel here. It's incredibly depressing at the moment.

To be honest, if a squad gets in a rut then getting a double relegation is as likely as getting a double promotion. If, god forbid, we have a season where we get less/similar points as Derby then we will end up back in the championship with the biggest losing hangover ever. Our ''better'' players would leave, and we'd be left with a shell of unmotivated and un-confident football players. I'm not getting the view that we will bounce back up, if we go down we will not have it as ''straight forward'' as we had it last time in the NPC.

Who would you prefer over him then?