Saint Martini

I prefer Jos to Fonte every day of the week. Better in the air and although he tackles more he is less likely to concede a penalty because he can actually mark a player without trying to undress him at the same time. Fonte is a penalty decision waiting to happen at every corner/freekick. The reason Jos and Yosh work so well together is because they complement each other. Jos is better in the air and can deal with a targetman much better. Yosh is quicker, more agile and reads the game better. That said, this is probably the position that is rather easy to get a better replacement in the summer.

He wasted a few freekicks but on the other hand he hits them very high risk. The one where Ricky almost scored (and where the ref ruled offside, which it wasn't) was brilliant and he did a carbon copy of that freekick a bit later but the nobody got on the end of it so it looked a waste. In reality that was also a good freekick its just that Ramirez didn't have their timing synced to perfection, a bit unfair to criticize him too much for that since he obviously gets instructions to take the freekicks like that.

How can a team that has Suarez in it be 2nd in the fair play table...

C'mon ref the ball has crossed the line by about this much!

If another player has possesion of. The ball and you go in like that you can expect to be booked. But Federici didn't have the ball, in fact he didn't get close until after Rodriguez played the ball with his studs. Federici was caught on the follow through by Jay-Rods legs. If Federici gets to the ball first and Jay-Rod flies in like that he can go for an early shower.

Not the first time I see that list But evry time I do I feel sorry for Wenger. For all the crap he gets for not winning thropies he has to do it on a budget. Yes they can afford to pay big wages but not as big as Manu, Chelsea and City and when it comes to buying players the gap is even bigger. This list also vindicates to a degree our transferpolicy. Yes we've spend a lot of money but almost all of them are players where we can expect a return on our investment.As for sending them down, I'm a bit undecided. They have better support then many other teams which is a plus but they also play dinosaur football with a lot of their matches not worth 5 mnutes on MotD. They're the total opposite of Wigan who play nice football but as a club offer nothng else.

From the BBC live commentary:

Awful first 30 minutes but we should have scored at least one more after Rodriguez' goal.

Great determination by Rodriguez. Goalkkeping like that makes me wonder why Adkins was interested in him while at Saints. Truly average goalkeeper and hardly better then Davis.

This article is about thescouting of managers. A very sensible and well informed article and to me it seems very clear that Cortese has scouted several managers before he got his man. Perhaps this is why Adkins didn't get replaced at the start of the season, Cortese was not satisfied with the candidates on his list. For me Adkins can feel hard done by because of the timing but in right now it is becoming more and more apparent that Adkins wasn't getting the most out of several players and as Kelvin Davis said in the interview the other day the results (and quality of play) so far have proven Cortese right to a certain degree.

And this agenda would be?The headline is a bit sensationalist but the article itself is nothing special.

Best. Sentence. Ever. I hope he'll get his chance after the summer. Otherwise he might start demanding a move to get a chance to play in the WC.

Not only that, they're comments are always directly related to the result and not the quality of play. If you win you're good, if you lose you're poor. This will be correct most of the time but not always. Co Adriaanse (former Ajax, Porto, AZ & Twente manager) once had a falling out with a reporter because he criticized the performance when Adriaanse claimed it was only the result that was dissapointing. He then came up with a term that directly translated would be "result-journalism". This is what I like why I read comments from Neville, he analyzes the performance and not (only) the result.

I don't think their readers can handle more information.

Great watch, good to finally see a bit of his analysis (can't get it here in Sweden). So much better then the generalizations the MOTD pundits throw out there week after week.

Pure comedy. Still not sure if he slipped or dived.

"Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin alive, stayin alive."

Why do all these good teams keep playing poorly at St.Marys?

Scoring so quickly after an qualizer can be deflating for the opposition and by the looks of it Chelsea are just waiting for HT and some new ideas. If we get another in the next few minutes that could be K.O.

****ing hell, that header was very very easy. Hooiveld lost him too easily.

Eventually its impossible, the trick is to keep them 1 or 2 more seasons so that you reap the benefits of them becoming Premier League quality players for a longer time and they become worth more money. This gives you a window to qualify for Europe and that will make the decision to stay an extra season easier.

The more important part of this interview is not the racist abuse and his reaction. We were all aware he was getting a lot of abuse at the time and it doesn't really matter if its racist or "normal" abuse. As a professional football player you should be able to ignore it, otherwise you're going to have have a hard time at away matches. For me the more important part is his comments concerning Adkins. There's a bit of bad blood between Boruc and Adkins and perhaps he is one of the reasons Cortese decided to get rid of Adkins. In the end Cortese brought in Boruc because we were leaking goals and then Adkins ignores him for a long time but when he does get a second chance because of injuries and sub-par performances of the other goallies he vindicates Cortese's choice to sign him even if Adkins didn't believe it was necessary.

So your whole argument is that its better to play a match then to train a bit extra during the week? I can see certain advantages with having a match but surely this late in the season a bit of rest can also be a good thing? Plus, a match caries a larger risk of injury then training and it gives Pochettino a chance to have good look at some of the youth players.

He had a gash on his knee but I think he was pointing to his Achilles' heel which he apparently injured when Suarez clipped him trying to get to the ball.

I meant in the Premier League.