Window Cleaner

What for?? all we have to do is get Hammond fit again, failing that we try the Gillett/Schneiderlin pairing which didn't look at all bad at the beginning of last season when we actually played the ball on the ground to wide men.I just cannot understand the Gillett situation,sure he isn't going to make the England side any time soon but to rate him as worse than James or Wotton must be a real insult to him. Especially as he seems to do quite well at Donny playing instead of folk hero (around these parts) Stock.

So then tell me how many players Lambert has signed at Norwich or Boothroyd at Colchester (could be hundreds for all I know) not all managers are Harry Redknapp types,some can do a good job with whatever they are given,probably because it's what they're used to doing.

But this is where you have to have a set of 11 first choice players who make up the team when they're fit.A lad comes in has 1 good game against a different style of opponent and then screws up big time in the next game. A manager must have 1 first team and peripheral players who come in a do a job when the first team isn't fit or out of form. Football management isn't a greek democracy.

Have just had a look at the "highlights", thought we missed a lot of easy chances, Lambert got in the way of Fonté for their goal and that Fonté missed a couple of easy headers which, combined with James giving the ball away, nearly led to them scoring again Can see what AP means about quality, Lambert should have put his early chance away, Lallana and Puncheon had reasonably doable chances as well.

And we had chances to do just that, just as we did against Brentford, you don't need 2 of the division's leading strikers and a Senegalese international to put away 1 easy chance out of every 4 or 5.The strike force is still a big problem as far as I'm concerned, because it's never settled and you have the nebulous Lallana getting under their feet all the time, one minute he's there ,next minute he isn't.Lambert has to step up and start scoring from open play again or be rested. We have plenty of others who can hit juicy free kicks and take penalties, perhaps then we'll start playing the ball on the ground again.

I really don't see the problem, these are good players, they are not "Pardew's boys" there are managers in our league who are doing far better with far worse. The problem is that either the players aren't motivated for the League (which I could see being true because contrary to popular opinion the play-offs were all but gone last September) or that they're being deployed wrongly and that is p*ssing them off.It could also be that there are "new boys" on salaries vastly superior to the others.Now if I was Connolly on a paupers contract and then Barnard comes in at 5K a week more I might just tell them to shove it.I don't say that's happened but it's a distinct possibility, hence the mysterious injury which got better and then got worse all by itself.

Who's judging the manager on the last couple of games, certainly not me. Although I'd be prepared to accept this season's results as a positive step it's obvious that to the top management they aren't what's required. Our league results have been erratic all season, that's why we only have obtained 44 points from 28 games and Norwich have obtained 60 odd despite a poor start.We have good players, we've had them all season and have some even better ones now.AP has been erratic in his team selection and has made some f**k awful substitutions which have cost us games (ie the double horror shocker at Huddersfield ) Waigo isn't always used correctly, he's a striker, always has been, always will be, no point playing him wide, Thomas is vastly undersused and Gillett and Holmes never had a chance from day 1, perhaps with reason.AP is erratic in his team selections and has "binkies" like James for whom a place must be found every game.

2 losses realy doesn't come into the equation.Not losing to sides like Brentford and Exeter and beating Stockport 2-0 isn't to be taken as a sign of success.With the players we have at our disposal we should beat Stockport 5.,6 or even 7 nil .The players that we have are really good for our league, the fact that we've taken the better players from other sides and haven't been able to get the same results with them is pretty damning for the coaching staff and I don't really mean just AP here. It has crossed my mind more than once that perhaps the talent of our coaches isn't great enough,or at least too staid, for the talent of our players..Remember Georges Prost, when he left we just didn't produce class players any more,but at Lyon they do

Lallana isn't a midfielder player really. He's an inefficient striker and certainly doesn' have the qualities to play "in the hole" he just isn't either smart enough or "badarse" enough. That role needs real attributes and he doesn't have them.I'm sure I'm alone in thinking this but the day he moves on will be the day Saints really start to click,

We need to get Hammond and Morgan back together in midfield and play them with Lallana and ¨Puncheon and stop tinkering with Antonio in the starting 11. 2 from 4 of Barnard?Connolly,Lambert and Papa in attack.

Not so sure, think he might lack the savvy to be a really good player. Too erratic

We needed a younger,fitter Connolly stereotype, problem is they probably cost around 10million nowadays and want 80K a week.See Leon Best even went for 2 million.

AP's persistence with certain players and refusal of others is sometimes alarming. I would have thought he could use Gillett instead of James and see what happens even if it's for half an hour against Exeter.Thomas seems to be another cast out, only get's a game if we have no other option,if AP doesn't want him here why didn't he move on in the window,bet James plays right back tomorrow evening.

I could see that a bloke with the intelligence of Coppell (Economics Degree) would appeal to Cortese.

Incorrect, Glasgow started by saying that the results weren't good enough compared to the money spent.So he was just preempting what NC has apparently said.Says AP isn't getting the best out of the players and he's probably not wrong.But it's not just AP, it's the coaches working with him as well.It's quite obvious that the players follow instructions most of the time they don't just ad-lib the game plan to suit themselves. Perhaps some of them are having all their natural talent coached out of them.l

I'm sure it's not the new signings that are being judged.I'm sure that NC is going back further than just the last few league games.Colchester was a poor result and that was before the new boys were here.We have a great squad,some players may have wanted to move on in the last window but NC was perhaps persuaded by AP not to let them go,but certain results just aren't good enough,Brentford and Exter of late,Colchester before that.

No,we have more than enough quality players, perhaps even too many for League 1. We can't keep a clean sheet away from home or score more than 1 goal either. I really question the continual playing of Lambert every game.We needed to give him a break either against Brentford,Stockport or Exeter and see what the others could do instead.Waigo and Barnard perhaps.Rickie has played something like 38 games for us this season ans scored about 12/15 goals from open play,we need to see if there is an alternative to give him a rest.

Maybe even before that.I'm sure they have a contigency plan in place already. Coppell perhaps.

I suspect few of our co-forumists will ever have had any dealings with a Swiss banker or a Swiss in general.Obviously there are exceptions but most of them fit the description involving velvet gloves and iron fists, even the womenfolk. The swiss do not mess about....over anything.

Play-offs?? not unless we win 15 out of our last 18 and even then it might not happen.The top 5 plus Millwall and Huddersfield just need to win at home and draw away and then we'd need 80 points or more.

Still there was no reason to continue with Mills over Harding on Saturday was there? Apparently(according to my cousin) some of our corners and free kicks could have been better if they had been taken by a tyro league player. You work hard,get corners and free kicks (and you do work to get them) and then you just waste them through basic kickng faults.

trouble is we wre getting decent results, one's that if continued would have got us into the play-offs.Then we started chopping and changing,some it it forced by injury,and the results took a downturn,mainly because of the loss of Connolly I suppose.Then we spent a lot of money on central defenders,but we still concede stupid goals from set pieces.What we have to admit is that Connolly is vital to good league results and that Lambert for all his goals probably can't cut it on his own, not from open play.

A very small bird told me,and I have been ridiculed for it already, that AP got his arse kicked into next week after we lost at home to Brizzle, there was no public statement after that,just some really decent results, this time it looks like a sort of public warning.

Bolleau:Dx, that's 1-0 to the moaning minnies then. I really do think AP is on quicksand over this, as I indicated in the not an AP out thread.If there's one thing that people who have made stacks of cash hate it's wasting money with no end result.

I'm not quite sure that Nick's stats are quite accurate for the last 19 league games, perhaps we've only won 10 and drawn 1 more. Anyway,that aside' it seems to me that some of our better results have been obtained with James at right back,perhaps he gives us a little something extra from there,as he has a natural penchant for getting forward.Not at all sure he brings much contribution to midfield at all.On the other hand keeping Mills at LB on Saturday wasn't really productive as he was given James role on corners etc.Not sure that AP likes his CM players taking set pieces.