benjii

Lol. Jesus Christ

I would bring Cork in for Morgan alongside Vic but also bring Davis in to the "hole" role to add some fresh energy. Lambert up front with Lallana, Davis and Osvaldo supporting. JWP and Rod on the bench for this one. Think they both looked a little jaded on Sunday. Thought Lovren looked off the pace too. If he's not 100% I'd give Jos a game. I'm not a fan of shoehorning Lambert and Osvaldo into the team but I want Lambert in for this one and we will never see the best of Osvaldo if the only time he starts is away to the top teams.

The area we should look to strengthen is in creative midfield. In Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez we have a great set of striking attributes. The issue is often in the speed of transition between ball retention and all-out attack. Ramirez is supposed to do that but MP either doesn't rate him or is sending him a message at the moment. Lallana is clearly capable of creating but he does that with dribbling as his passing's really not that great. We could do with someone who has a bit of acceleration and the ability to play forward looking passes. Ben Arfa is not getting in the Newcastle team and would be perfect IMO but I doubt they would want to sell him to us. Other than that, I don't see what more we could realistically expect so far. The defence and midfield have been great. It's also worth noting that expecting someone to be exceptional because they cost 12 million or 15 million is pretty silly. There's no reason why that sort of player should be any better than what we already have as a lot of our players have proven to be worth as much, if not quite a bit more. We can't go and sign a 30million pound player because they will want Champs League and 150k a week so we have to stick to the 10-15 mill sort of range and try to develop our own for now. Suggesting we should have signed more cheaper players and not taken a punt on some exciting signings is pretty stupid. How would more cheaper players have helped? They wouldn't have played, for a start. Our squad is pretty young and likely to increase in value. We're not throwing tens of millions at last-legs type players. Our strategy has been brave and pretty much spot on. We have had tough away fixtures but easy home ones so far. I think we are somewhere between seventh and ninth best team and that is where we will finish. For a team in it's second season up, with a carefully assembled young squad, that's a good place to be.

The "back 7" is an automatic pick and Lallana will play, rightly, if fit. So, it's a case of two from JWP, Davis, Rodriguez, Ramirez and the kids and one from Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez. Personally, I would go with JWP and Davis from the off, I think. The danger from Chelsea comes if Hazard/Oscar/Mata are facing our goal with space 20-40 yards out. Let's push them right back from the off. Looked like Eto was hitting some form but will be out. Obviously Torres is a threat on the break but our backline's organisation is usually so good that we shouldn't be too worried about pushing right up. Upfront, Lambert is benched. He hasn't, in truth, been playing all that well in a lot of our games and away from home he really does struggle to find space in dangerous positions. I would probably start with Osvaldo as we need to try to play him into form but I would also be interested to see Rodriguez play up top in an away match soon. Either way, I think Poch needs to resist the temptation to accommodate Lambert and Osvaldo.

Like Saville, it seems as though a lot of people must have known he was up to something awful for a long time. And, like Savile, if you look at the weight of material on the Internet (there is plenty predating the criminal charges against Watkins) it is hard to imagine how he was able to carry on like this without the involvement of the authorities sooner. This case, aside from the shocking child abuse, also offers a stark illustration of the vacuity and danger of celebrity-obsessed culture and idolisation in general. It seems that his "star" status was used as a lever for abuse for years and that a lot of young women may have been victimised through it.

What's stupid is volunteering to be institutionalised to the extent that someone gives a **** how long your stride is.

This was shown on BBC4 as part of the Storyville series. I strongly recommend the series to anyone who wants to watch well made programmes which embody a gravitas seldom found on television these days. Even if the subject matter is not of interest to you in a particular programme, I bet you end up engrossed. Far better than Panaroma or suchlike guff.

He even did the tell-tale phantom free-kick in our favour on their next corner. Proper ****. In a way I'm glad Boruc made that mistake when he did because if we'd lost to that penalty decision I would have been gutted. Yes, Fonte pulle some shirt but are we seriously expected to believe that's the only shirt pull from a set piece that the ref saw all match? Come off it. Shocking decisions this weekend again. Ridiculous red card for Wes Brown. Rooney volleys someone off the ball and gets a yellow.

Agreed.

Some of the comments in here are bewildering. Excellent performance at league leaders, who are a top European team. We lost, it happens. Encouraging stuff though.

Apparently they are teaming up with Milwall, Rangers, Stoke, Besikats and Red Star Belgrade to give us a pasting.

Picked one too many. Holiday for Jones.

My England team: ------------------??-------------- Clyne----Jagielka---Cahill-----Cole ---------Carrick---Henderson----- Townsend----Lallana-----Ox-C ----------------Rooney----------- Rest of squad: GK x2 Smalling Jones Baines Barry Wilshere Barkley/Cleverley/Berahino/JWP... Basically, up for grabs. Gerard Walcott Milner Sturridge Lambert

Cleverley has been one of our best players. Better than Gerard, at least.

Probably trying to emulate Daniel "have a shot" Sturridge.

Prefer Range Rovers.

Robert Webb is less funny than Lenny Henry.

Travesty if Clyne doesn't go to World Cup and continues to play like he has been.

Leelawadee on Commercial Road is very nice (although small).

In terms of quality of football, most Bundesliga teams would struggle in the Prem. Bayern and Dortmund are as good as anyone but the mid-table teams are pretty rubbish. That said, the ability to stand safely and have a beer in your seat is clearly a good thing.

I think that might be a step too far.

Clyne is the best English right back in my opinion.

My ambition in the remainder of 2013 is to use the phrase "full bore bonk" in serious circumstances at work.

Labour's demolition of educational standards and mindless participation targets have ensured that anyone save a borderline retard can get into uni. So yes, we could, I guess. But it's probably not much of a loss.

Arsenal's a funny one. There seemed to be a sense they were struggling at the start of the season (losing first gome at home didn't help) but I think I'm right in thinking they already had more Premier League points in 2013 than any other team which kind of suggests they were perfectly capable of winning the title, especially with one or two good additions. Obviously Ozil is one and Giroud has found form. They probably don't have the squad depth of a Chelsea or City which should see one of those two pick up the title but if Arsenal can sustain their form until Jan and maybe add another couple then there's no reason why they can't win it. United have not been a particularly good team for the last few years but have managed to win the league a couple of times because City and Chelsea have conducted their management so badly. I wouldn't be surprised to see United between 4th and 6th. Saints have done great away from home. At home, we should probably have more points as Sunderland and West Ham are rubbish. That said, we didn't play badly against them and were a tad unlucky. By contrast, we were pretty lucky to beat Swansea. I don't think we're playing as well going forwards as I'd hoped but when you are solid at the back it means you can win games anyway; we have enough talent to stick the ball in the net without playing superb football. Hopefully we continue to gel and improve. I think we lack another midfielder who can go past a player - Lallana has been very good for the last few games but if he were to go missing for a while I fear we would become very predictable in attack. In theory, Ramirez should be that player but you have to wonder whether the writing's on the wall there. Depends what's been said behind the scenes; if he's still in contention then I hope he plays his way into the team. If he doesn't then we should be looking to sign a player who can pick the ball up and drive forwards. Someone in the style of Ben Arfa would be perfect. We have no depth at left back or goalkeeper and that could be a problem if we have long-term absences there but you can't really expect to have a squad without any weaknesses without spending City/Chelsea type money.