Window Cleaner

Exactly, why oh why are there so many people who just can't catch this one off the bat. Our squad is too small, I'd think that we have the smallest number of Senior Players in the PL, probably in PL history. Only Shaw and Chambers of the youth are really PL quality so that leaves us with just 18 players to do everything with,you already have to tack on JWP who is showing himself not to be up to it really. Dejan and Gaston are out so we've got 16-17 in all reality. So to make up our matchday 18 it's all hands to the pump whether they're in a fit condition to play or not because there is just nothing else. Yesterday Boruc was ill apparently so we drafted in Gazzaniga to fill his place and the young lad McQueen who in all reality was just a fart in a thunderstorm. The squad has been reduced too far so the manager really has his hands tied every time one or two first teamers are out for a few games. Every time we have to play Jos, Davis/Gazza and Guly against top level opposition the result is the same, we lose and everybody starts moaning.

By the by from you game people, what was the Argentine CB Vergini that Sunderland signed recently like ? I don't remember from the TV. Any better than Jos, totally hopeless or nondescript.

No I don't but it should have been something along the lines of wondering why he was on the bench and that old fool was in goal again. Probably wasn't though. We should have ditched Davis 2 years ago when he had some sort of status, why we might have even got a couple of quid for him. Poor keeper, just do not understand why he's still here with years yet on his contract.

And why would that be then, they lost the game not the manager or was it Mauricio himself who missed a few easy chances and failed to close Gardener down correctly ? Basically all this stuff is ******, in my opinion MP will be gone this summer anyway. Anyway the CEO needs to step up to his new pay grade and sort it out, it's his job..oh and the Ice Hockey guy as well and the obscure players agent from Austria and the chairwoman or is that charwoman.

We don't have any reserves, just the U21s and that's a whole set up apart. I don't know that any first team player apart from Gazzaniga on odd occasions has played for them all season.

So why didn't we play him in midfield instead of Guly then, light injury maybe.

But there is no alternative to Guly and Jos. Eliminate the 3 players who had nothing left to give (JRod,Morgan and Jack) José with his leg..ouch and what is left, Isgrove ? some U21 flash in the pan...other than that Guly is all that's left. I've been saying this since January, too many games and not enough players. We needed signings but our current management crisis put paid to that, all we've done is offlaod players and got nothing in, so you're left with the dregs who are nowhere near the level required. We do have an attacker but his dad died last week and although we made him go to Hull with the team it obviously didn't work out well.

Because those players provide the type of energy that's difficult to produce every 3 or 4 days for months on end. 5 games in 18 days where those lads have produced enormous amounts of energy, just the performance against Arsenal would have knocked the stuffing out of an averagely fit bloke for a month and yet they turn it on every 3.5 days. Our system requires energy by the shedload and you could see at the end of Tuesday's game (well on TV where you can study stuff) that those lads were running on empty, the reserve had gone and they had a thimblefull in the tank.

But that's the point, the engine room was missing. I mean a Bentley is a lovely looking motor and it should go fast but if it doesn't have an engine it's only got about the same performance potential as a skip. Jack and Morgan are the hub of our side, without them nothing goes as it should. Have we actually won a game without Morgan this season ? Perhaps we have, I can't remember.

Lambert is nearly finished basically, if we had had an alternative we'd have played him today but we don't so we didn't. It's no good slagging the bloke off for that, he's 31 and is just dreaming of getting on the plane to Brazil, Woy wasn't watching him today so nothing is lost and nothing is gained. The squad for the next round of internationals is already picked and if he's in that I wouldn't doubt that it's far more important to him than having to play at Sunderland just because we couldn't be assed to sign another striker.

Oh that's unfair, they're obviously concerned about what fans think about free parking, the fate of ageing heros and the quality of the beer and pies. I just assume where it concerns football they think that the average fan knows squat and they'd not be totally wrong. Sunderland are a good cup side, too good for our war weary and makeshift side today. Anyway the man who was driving the club on has gone and as we've a bean counter in his place nothing is surprising.

I see Chelsea are going out then and they have virtually their first XI on the pitch, bet Everton crush Swansea tomorrow as well. You just can't overestimate enough the importance of being at home and having had a match less during the week. Citeh and Sunderland should have been made to play their games on Thursday, otherwise it tilts the whole playing board. We still had 5 or 6 players on the pitch today who were still playing in Hull on tuesday evening at nearly 10pm, Sunderland had zero players who've played this week and probably only 3 or 4 who've played at all in the last 14 days.

Anyone want to explain to me why they think that the Sunderland team was weak today ? No go on then man for man, all I can see is a lot of full internationals from good footballing nations. If I were they I'd be insulted by some of the reflections on their quality. I bet they had more full internationals on the pitch today than we did. When you look at some of them and their cost you wonder why we didn't try to sign some of them, like Vergini,I mean he has got to be better than Jos surely, 400K loan fee, drop in the ocean, they made that much and more from today's game. Think he comes from the same place as Mauricio as well, won the Argentine championship last season. Sometimes you have to wonder if our recruitment system is worth anything whatsoever. We probably just couldn't be assed to apply for work permits or would have been refused them because of our shocking record in the past, you know like Bleidilis and Tadanari Lee.

Told you so http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?49001-Hull-vs-Saints-Build-Up/page2&highlight=lambast#.Uv-z2WJ5OSo post 88

Oh don't get fooled, Bearsy is a very erudite person, he just usually hides his light not under a bushel but under a ton of crap and tomfoolery, in fact he likes to play the King's fool. I would not be surprised if he's journalism graduate from somewhere or other, when he applies himself (not usually here it's true but elsewhere) it's as good as any Mirror or Sun hack that you care to name.

At last someone who can see that you can't choose players that you don't actually possess. Their is no way that Jos Hooieveld and Guly do Prado should still be in the first team squad at a PL club, Mauricio obviously agrees because he hardly ever plays them unless he's absolutely desperate. Apart form the 4 lads who've come from the U21 squad all the rest is either still way off or non-existent. We've cut and trimmed all the surplus but really can anyone tell me that Sam McQueen could do an better job whenst called upon than Billy Sharp,Tadanari Lee or even Lee Barnard (not that I'm a fan of any of them mind you). We should have kept Osvaldo, no something is wrong and I put that down to Cortese's departure. We're cost cutting and being all smarmy to try to cover it up.

But that's just the point, it wasn't a weakened team, it was a different team, they have far more squad depth than we do, anyone who has full internationals for major nations on their bench has a better squad than we do. Who would you rather have in reserve Giaccherini or Guly, Larsson or JWP, it's a f*cking non-starter. We do not have enough squad depth and every time we need to replace players it's the same f*cking shambles.

Which is why what ? 3 clubs out of the top 10 in the PL will be left in it come tomorrow afty.Might even be only 2 can't remember where Swansea are in the league. They need to put it into mid-week, then there will be no illusion who's going for it and who isn't.

Far too little consideration for Sunderland actually, in fact their team today was probably far better than their normal XI. Tack on Mannone and Johnston and it would do better than they usually do. they still had O'Shea in CD, 2 Italian internationals,Gardener, Larsson and a few decent subs. Sunderland's squad is in fact far better than their league position would suggest but then I guess they have DiCanio to thank for that. They've now won 7 out of their last 10,beaten Utd,Newcastle and crushed Fulham. They beat Chelsea in the C1C quarters, in fact they're probably not a bad side at all Hull beat them because they were down to 10 men after 4 minutes, do you think we'd have beaten Hull on Tuesday if José or Maya had been sent off after only 4 minutes ?

There'll not be much money for the squad unless someone other than the current owner is providing it.

We might have had but the untimely injuries to Gaston and Dejan have left us shorter than short. How can we be expected to compete with Sunderland (who had no game on Tuesday) who have nearly twice the number of senior players available that we do. Realistically our "squad" is wafer thin, right now it's just 14 senior pros (inc 2 keepers) and the 2 good U21s who play nigh on every week. So unless you use the substandard like Guly and Jos what can you flipping well do, players can't play 45 games a season plus internationals without cracking sooner or later and with 16 players (OK add in JWP if you like to make 17) you really hyave no option but to keep on flogging the same old same old until they drop and lose form through overuse. We should never have let Osvaldo go without a replacement, no matter what he'd done he should have still been here until another decent striker came in. Lambert is finished and whoever made the decision to send out Osvaldo needs hanging.

He did step up for a few games but it's about 30 odd games a season not just 3 or 4 plums and a load of crap like the SPL. Expressed doubt about his durability and consistency at the time and that seems to be relevant just now. Anyway Morgan probably makes him look better than he actually is, one of his great attributes, usually where he needs to be when he needs to be to cut out the result of everyone else's f*cks up. I blame Victor for today's goal, gave the ball away when he shouldn't have. Anyway if City want to give us the sum we paid for him, then this way with the cheque gents.

Hodgson's thought process will be whomsoever Rooney and Sturridge feel most at home playing with. They expressed themselves on the subject when Rickie was selected last time. Let's face it they're the 2 strikers who are going to carry the burden of England's goal scoring this summer and if they feel more at home with Carroll he'll get the nod. He's a big athletic lad who can jump and outmuscle big defenders. Lambert is just a fading frontman who drops back into midfield most of the time instead of throwing his weight about in the box. Sterling can put in some wicked crosses and we'll need something solid on the end of them. Do not write Carroll off yet.

no it would seem to be the changes in the team to me. In a normal game our CMs (or DMs) if you prefer touch the ball about 90 times each (176 touches between them on Tuesday). Today Victor played 63 balls and Steve Davis 60 so the count is way off, Jos can't pass accurately neither does he have the composure to do so and we don't use the keeper in the same way when it's Davis and not Boruc. You just have to accept that playing these substandard players just throws everything out of sync. We found that out in December didn't we ?

towards the end of the first half (I think..correct me if I'm wrong) they showed Mauricio talking to D'Agostinio,I think Victor had just cocked up perhaps, he (MD) just shook his head and sort of shrugged his shoulders, they could see it wasn't right but it would appear they knew they had no real solutions available.