tajjuk

What's interesting? This bit - Name: Michu Current Team: Swansea Full Name: Miguel Pérez Cuesta Shirt Number: 9 Positions: Attacking Midfielder (Center) Forward or maybe this:- Aerial Duels Very Strong Holding on to the ball Strong Finishing Strong Headed attempts Strong All the attributes I'm sure cork shares.

You could just call it the 'European Cup', no pre-requisite for Champions there.

5 scottish clubs is 4 too many. Can see arguments for this though, I mean Barcelona play rubbish Romanian, Belarusian, Norweigan teams in the Champions league group stages anyway so it's not likely to lessen the quality that much. However how would they do this without increasing the number of games, essentially you would have to have two group stages and the big clubs would then get a bye through to the second one, so the first group stage would end up like the Europa league anyway.

Pace, work rate, tackling ability. He's looked a very much a languid attacker to me. He is both, I would say his best position is in the hole, where gaston plays, but with his size he is very similar in tyle and play to Lambert hence why Swansea push him up there to hold up the ball and bring other people in, so AMC, second striker, no 10, falso number 9, whatever you want to call it it's a very attacking position with very little defensive responsibilites. Lambert has the ability to play in the hole as has doen for us.

Walcott hasn't failed however - 'England Regular' - not really, squad regular maybe. 'Arsenal Regular' - not this season, has more substitute appearances than starts. 'been to a world cup' - didn't play and wasn't selected for 2010. Not a failure but maybe not as good as he could have been.

Personally I think playing Michu in that position would be like playing Gaston there, frankly a disaster. Davis struggled to do it well enough and he's a lot less forward thinking than Michu. At Swansea he has at least one and often two holding mids behind him. He has great attacking qualities and as someone above said at £2 million looks an absolute bargain so we probably did miss out, but I reckon he would only add squad depth not improve the squad overall. I accept other viewpoints but I don't accept weak arguments.

I disagree about Theo I think his progress stalled at Arsenal and that has prevented him from becoming a top level player. He's a good player and an international, but with his talent he should be a better player than he is. I'm not saying he should have stayed with us, we were in the championship and the club wasn;t that stable at the time, but a move to say an Everton or a Villa at the time I think would have benefitted him a lot more than his low appearances for Arsenal as he would have played a lot more, at 18,19, 20 players that play week in week out develop a lot quicker than those that don't. Maybe Arsenal should have loaned him out for a season or two like they did with Wilshere. I'm more applying this thinking to where JWP and Shaw are now, with us currently they will get far more first team opportunities against top players and teams and in the long run this will make them better players than making an early move to a Man Utd or Arsenal where they appearances will be limited and they might have to fill in a position where they don't want to play. You are correct though, they arent established in our team yet and not fully hitting the headlines. If Man Utd or Arsenal or Chelsea come knocking we will then see their resolve to develop with us tested.

about here - I do, but I also can't see how you can say this considering neither Jay Rod and especially mauka get any game time, there is no place in our current system for Kone as he is no Lambert. Like I said Michu would be a good Lambert back up player but I doubt he would like sitting on the bench. As I said I don;t rate Kone at all and at 29 he will only get worse and has no re-sale value. Jay Rod has a lot of potential and I think will be a far better player than Kone, he's been harshly judged on this forum for a handful of appearances, some of which out position. "Look, you obviously have a massive problem with me" - not at all. "would argue black is white" - possibly "just to try and get one over on me" - not at all. "There is no reason for you to come on and spend your time trying to pick fights with me" - just responding to threads that I see. "I was asking peoples opinions on what they would do, I was not encouraging critiques of mine" - anyone starting a thread has to expect some level of critique, that's the nature of beast. "So why don't you offer an opinion on who you would have signed", - I'm happy with our signings and can see the logic behind all them, although the lack of game time for Mayuka is odd. I believe Douglas from Twente might have been another good centre back option, a big, strong defender who would have been a better version of Jos. I also think Ince/Phillips/Zaha might have been a good idea at the start of the season as another option instead of Puncheon/Lallana. We obviosuly tried for Phillips but I reckon Ince is the better player and I reckon a Zaha would ahve ben available at the start of the season. Biglia who were were linked with as well I think would have been a good option. Left back wise I can't think of anyone, I think there is a dearth of quality full backs around, hence why we need to hang onto Shaw. Michu is at the moment looking like the signing of the season (maybe that Yacob for WBA), however I can't see a place for him in our current set up. Bassong looks very good, but personally I thought a gamble after last seasons performances for Wolves, especially as he was going to cost around £6 million.

Yeh he did, but for a 16 year old considered good enough for England, at now 23 and with 7 years to develop he's not really progressed that much from when he played for us, certainly not as much as people expected him to have. Moving from us as a championship or league 1 team to the premiership is fair enough, but in hindsight they would have been better moving to a more mid-table/lower premiership team for a few years and getting regular games. Oxlaide-Chamberlain is maybe a bit different because he broke into the Arsenal team pretty much straight away, but both Walcott and Bale went from playing every week to a handful of appearances and it both took them a little while to recover from this. This is hopefully what Shaw and JWP realise and they will stick with us for a bit longer.

Where is the giant facepalm when you need it. I hope you see the irony in your mongboard comment. Lambert started his career as a midfielder, he'd probably played loads of games in midfield when joined us, does that mean he would be a good choice as a holding midfielder? Michu is a forward, that is his natural position. Jack Cork has played loads of games as a full back, doesn't mean he should be playing there. It's irrelevant where he used to play, especially seeing he has had so much success as an attacking mid and a forward. The fact that we played Davis out of position as a holding mid for so many games was part of our defensive problems, yet you think it would have been good idea to have signed a far more attacking player than Davis and then played him in the same position. "but the other 2 wouldn't", so what's f*cking point then, how are they going to so much better than Mayuka and Rodriguez? You would think after the amount idiotic forum posts of yours people have dragged up over recent days that you might think a bit before you posted your next new thread.

How exactly, Theo in particular spent a lot of time not playing football when he was at a crucial period where he needed to be playing regularly to develop his game. He's not the player people expect him to be when he first broke onto the scene. Bale also struggled for appearances his first two seasons.

He's an attacking midfielder and a striker, he played up front against Liverpool on his own. He's played as many games up front as he has in midfield. You suggested that he would have been a good replacement for Cork, who is a defensive/holding midfielder, which is plain stupidity. I will repeat Kone is sh*te, and wouldn't get anywhere near our team. His career goal scoring record is worse than 1 in 4, he scored 1 goal in 40 games for Sevilla and at 29 he's not going to get any better. He's got pace but that's about it, to say he's better than Mayuka is silly when Mayuka has only started one game, is 22 and has already been the African cup of nations top scorer. Most players will be hitting their peak at about 26/27, a bit later maybe for defenders and goalkeepers. Some peak later due to various reasons, like Lambert who wasn't very professional early in his career and also changed positions. Michu might be another one, seeing as it looks like his 'natural' position is actually as forward, and I still don;t think he would get in our team as he's not better than Ramirez or Lambert and those are the positions he plays.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4669141/Luke-Shaw-I-wont-quit-Southampton.html Good to hear, maybe the experiences of Theo, and to a lesser extent Bale and Chamberlain are starting to show these youngsters that rushing off to a big club to play in the reserves isn't the best idea. Hopefully we will get him signed up with a big contract.

I'd have Ruddy and probably Bassong, who I didn't rate before the season as I thought he was poor at Wolves last year, but he is maybe showing why Spurs paid £8 million for him. Garrido is a decent left back but I don;t think he's massively better than Shaw and Shaw has immense potential. The thing with Norwich is they are a very good team, lots of togerthness, work really hard, organised and solid. They also play better football than most people give them credit for. However they have only scored 4 away from home and don't have a win so we should beat them. Wouldn't underestimate Holt, he'll bully our centre backs and Fonte hasn't been good in the past against big physical strikers, he seems to go all petty against them and loses his head.

You would have played a Striker in defensive midfield? Michu is the Spanish Lambert, very similar in playing styles. Arouna Kone is also Sh*te, he wouldn't get anywhere near our team. Will agree on Bassong he has been good for Norwich, but at the time I thought a bit of gamble as he looked poor for Wolves last year and poor for Spurs. Also I would add:- Bassong 26 Michu 26 Kone 29 Jay Rod 23 Yoshida 24 Mayuka 22 Our players are much younger and are still improving, the above players are pretty much as good as they will be.

If a Champions league club comes knocking..........no unless the player has some sense and actually wants to play some football, I mean JWP is struggling to get into our team so he would be no where near Man Utds etc. If we get relegated...............no, they might stay for a bit in the championship but if they started playing well they would go. We should be financially sound though to get good deals for them, eek out as muchmoney as possible and get good sell on clauses etc. Stay in the prem, get more established and we should be able to keep hold of most, but the most talented will go to the bigger clubs, but then that's the reality even for clubs like spurs and arsenal, I doubt they will be able to hold onto Bale for much longer.

Draws but unless QPR win we will be back in the bottom 3.

Because we were away from home and West Ham defended fairly solidly whilst offering little in attack? Had the same situation continued in the second half then it would have been a 0-0 draw or we might have won. We didn't loose the game because Lambert wasn't on the pitch, we lost it because the defence and gk f*cked up. I was responding to this particular thread, it was a massive overreaction.

Big games tonight and most likely we will be back in the bottom 3. Best results draw all round? Not sure I would like to see a QPR win but we could also do with Sunderland being dragged down a bit.

Peter Shilton? Kevin Keegan? Channon? I think this, if Matt Le Tiss pulled out they probably had Le Saux or someone lined up.

Personally I think now he has had a few games to settle in he has bought calmness to the back four, he reads the game well, he's good in the tackle and he's fairly quick. As someone above pointed out he won 3 out of his 4 aerial duels on Sunday (75%) whereas Ba won just 9% and Cisee 14%. He might not be the biggest physically but a lot of defending is in the head. Cannavaro was one of the best defenders in the world and he was only 5 ft 9 1⁄2 in. Sometimes you also accept that the striker is going to win the header, it's what they do after that's important. Andy Carroll wins a massive 11 aerial duels per game, yet he has one goal and no assists in the league.

It's all those things, however I think the main reason is that the team have got to grips with the league and have gelled together. I think Adkins has played a big role in this as well as he has kept the confidence up and convinced the players that they can compete in this league and compete playing the way they have. The main assumption about QPR's woes is the lack of team cohesion, 'queens park strangers', but with Boruc, Gazza, Clyne, Yoshida, Davis, Ramirez, Mayuka, and Rodriguez we have had a fair few new faces ourselves so maybe that has been a factor as well. This was our line up against coventry last game of the season - 01 Davis 06 Fonte 12 Butterfield 13 Fox 26 Hooiveld 04 Schneiderlin 10 Guly 14 Hammond (Cork - 37' ) 20 Lallana (Puncheon - 82' ) 07 Lambert 11 Sharp And this was the line up Sunday - 12 Gazzaniga 02 Clyne 03 Yoshida 06 Fonte Booked 23 Shaw (Hooiveld - 90' ) 04 Schneiderlin 10 Ramirez Booked (S Davis - 78' ) 18 Cork 20 Lallana 42 Puncheon 07 Lambert (Rodriguez - 76' ) Half the team has changed.

Title of the thread - "Rickie on the bench? **** it, I've had enough, Adkins out." Opening Post - Essentially he wanted Adkins sacked because Lambert was on the bench and you don;t see why people are 'having a pop at him' We were thrashed at West Ham because we gave away 3 stupid goals in like 10 minutes when we had been controlling the game in the first half. I'm sure Lambert would have made a huge difference to the individual defensive mistakes, or was he going to score 5? The thread was stupid then and is embarrassing now.

Just because the media have this 'judge on ten games' time mentality doesn;t mean you have to follow it, make your own mind up, a lot of us thought it very harsh to judge a manager on his first 10 games in the premier league, especially considering his previous success. I would have thought 2 successive promotions would earn more loyalty from fans than just 10 games?

Maybe he just gets on better with Shaw, or maybe he just rates him more than he does Fox and there is a bit of mutual respect there. Partnerhsips like that can go a long way to helping build succesful teams. It's pleasing to see how well Ramirez seems to have fitted in, he instantly seems to be on the same wavelength as the other players and on the pitch at least they seem to get on well. No 'big ego' evidence there especially considering he's working with players that have grown through the lower leagues.