shurlock

Maybe but Wham shackled him very effectively last season whereas Jrod's elusiveness and willing running today kept them on their toes -thats why Mayuka has to be given a chance sooner or later. Unless the widemen in a 4-3-3 are quick to support the front man -and the criticism is that our widemen have been too gung-ho, neglecting their defensive responsibilities, you need more mobility up top to compensate. Arsenal showed that. And setpieces werent a problem in the main- indeed Guly made some very good defensive, clearing headers.

I thought we were more disciplined today - pushing Lallana inside and playing Guly on the left made a difference- and the goals came from poor defending (2, 3) and bad luck (1). Still sticky bandaids and all that.

Exactly -couldn't have put it better myself. What killed us had nothing to do with Lambert, so why would he have made a difference? That's where attention should be focused - everything else is secondary.

Went to the game -and I don't think Sue is million miles off TBF. The gameplan worked a treat in the first half, albeit against a very poor, predictable side. We commanded the midfield, my biggest fear going into the game and won most second balls. Davis and Schneiderlin were v.good. We will always miss Lambert's ability to conjure something out of nothing but in terms of teamplay and structure, Jrod offered us greater mobility and a decent outlet. Recall that Lambert had some of his poorest games against Wham last season, making Winston Reid look like a world-beater and didn't really trouble them after he came on. Whether that justifies dropping a potential matchwinner, though, is more debatable but to say that leaving Lambert out significantly lowered our chances of winning is nonsense. Frankly people are looking for simple, black-and-white answers to a problem that's a tad more complex. As for Guly, he wasn't great but he wasn't a like-for-like replacement for Lambert. He played on the left, a position nobody has made their own. Lambert would have struggled and Jrod has already shown he cant play there. Jrod, not Guly kept Lambert out -and Jrod is a 100% NA player for the conspiratorially-minded helmets. Again individual mistakes -not formations cost us -and the timing of the first and second goals knocked the stuffing out of us. Even then we managed to rally and nicked a goal -and some of the hammers fans I spoke to after the game thought we were the more likely team to score. But the pen -needlessly conceded- killed it. Not saying we were great -we flatter to deceive up top and lack pace but thats why we brought in Mayuka and Ramirez- but we were not out of our depth today. Still defensive frailties make talk about Lambert slightly indulgent and irrelevant -and with the limited personnel on our books, they are not going to disappear anytime soon. In absence of new signings, I cant see how any manager -NA or a newcomer- can address or wish these problems away.

We played 4-4-2 against Fulham.

Davis Lallana was nonexistent.

Would be a surprise if he was dropped but worth pointing out he had some of his worst performances against West Ham last season. Their CBs dealt comfortably with him.

And you really do mean it...

Yep, the latter is disturbing....if true.

Fair enough, my apologies, though it does seem that every and any accusation is being hurled at NC. To your original question, like everything else, I would want concrete evidence. And if the Chairman -whether Rupes or NC- was significant;y involved in transfers, I would want to know if this was done for 'good' reasons -deliberation/consultation by committee, putting the club's long-term development/interests above those of a manager who might be gone tmrw - or 'bad' - the chairman playing god in an area in which he has no expertise. ... on a side point, .f**king leeds

And that's undeniably a 'bad' reason for drawing a line under a club's history. The situation is slightly different with MLT as things are complicated by the failed pinnacle bid. Of course, Cortese may be overreacting -again time will tell- but prima facie things are less clear-cut than your example.

Think you're confusing why some people think this story is garbage...its got f**k all to do with MLT doing an interview or speaking out against NC. Its the fact that the story is unsupported. And your Rupes example is slightly loaded and disingenuous- has MLT accused NC of meddling with transfers and team selection (and I dont mean a few helmets on here who think NA is under orders to pick Guly? From a purely football perspective, being a c**k and miserable human being is one thing; overruling professional managers and experts is quite another....

Agree with this - got no doubt that Cortese has been on a mission to draw a line under our history - in part, it reflects the man's own complexes and insecurities; but in part, it's an understandable desire to stand above vested interests and politicking -and ex-pros have the opportunity and sometimes the motivation to do both. Time will tell whether Cortese's been acting for 'good' or 'bad' reasons.

It certainly is...and so is blind fantasy.

And, of course, your source would be rounded up and sent to the camps if you divulged anything more tangible...

Can't see us getting anything from the game. If they start the same way they did last season at their place, we'll get beaten comfortably. The sending off -totally justified- changed everything. Just a shame that Sharp's not around to jam home a 90th min winner... Listening to Morgan and NA's interviews, they're under no doubts what West Ham are about. You can put lipstick on a pig - they remain a hoofball outfit.

No he isn't/wasn't. You might have noticed that Lallana's been playing on the left now since the Man U game. Lallana playing in the middle was a pretty short-lived experiment.

Nah not really. Don't write snappily enough to become one even if I wanted to. Lets just say I have worked with enough journos to know what they're about -or at least know the tricks of the trade. In a way, its not entirely Peach's fault -rather he's reflecting what happens when news is outsourced to press agencies and pressures grow to fill more and more space with less and less investment. Blood from a stone stuff. But that's another discussion. Do I have a problem with an anti-Cortese story. No. Why would I? Indeed, do I really care about Cortese and MLT's feud? One one level, probably not, if its private. But, at the very least, it would be nice to have specifics for a story that, in one guise or another, has been doing the rounds for nearly three years. How does this story qualify as 'news'? Unlike some, I am capable of divorcing the principle from the personalities involved -a club legend and an enthusiastic saints supporter -both of whom I have obvious allegiances with. The story is garbage regardless who wrote it. If anything, you would hope (naively perhaps) that being a saints supporter would come with a heightened sense of responsibility -not a giddy desire to feed the dogs of war in any desperate way you can because that's what sells. Just saying.

Its because peach is a talentless, opportunistic hack who's banking on the fact that outside the saints community, the tiss/cortese isn't common knowledge or a f**ked horse that's been flogged to death. So an unevidenced, unsubstantiated quote is still worth a few throwaway lines' press coverage. Hope scraping for pennies works out for Peach - alternatively he might think about alternative employment or leaving journalism to professionals.

Nagatomo is one of the best LBs in the world- can cover the whole left hand side for 90 mins without breaking sweat. His youtube highlights alone are worth a watch. Japan is slowly but surely assembling a decent team - could probably beat England atm. Any player associated with the national team is no slouch.

Agree- everything went down our left second half-maybe they thought Fox was the weak link but Lallana didn't help. The partnership was a liability last season -nightmares of Adomah still linger- one reason why I was happy to see Lallana play in a more central position as he did early on in the season, though many were critical. Punch isn't as talented as AL but he arguably offers more defensively.

Hard truth is that we didn't have enough quality in possession. Even in the first half we gave the ball away very cheaply and were forced to do a lot of chasing. Part of the reason was that we were very direct -the most direct I've seen us play this season and invariably the ball kept coming back. We clearly missed Ramirez who would have slowed things down. We also missed Clyne's width and pace which would have stretched and wore them down a bit more. Yoshida understandably sat back. For all Punch's industry, he can't go on the outside, making it easier for defenses -contrast it with the torrid time their 31 gave us. Finally don't know if the 4-4-2 helped -Davis and Morgan were good but they had men left over. 4-4-2 with Lambert/Jrod also encouraged us to go long which became a security blanket, gifting back possession.

No problems with the subs themselves, though thought the personnel changes were odd. Punch was our MOTM in the first half but tired in the second, repeatedly running into traffic as he cut inside - he is not a wide player. Chaplow, however, offered little defensively or offensively with the result that they were able to push further up. It was crying out for pace to attack Riise -hence why I assumed Mayuka was coming on. The Lambert sub was fine -he didn't have a great game and I thought Guly brought some drive and aggression when he came on. Our mini resurgence towards the end arguably coincided with him coming on.

Thought we were poor -not just the pinball defending. More worrying was our ball retention - we looked slow in possession, turning the ball over numerous times and, apart from setpieces and Fulham's own laxness at the back, rarely threatened. Can't fault the effort but the quality wasn't there.

I'd start him- is an easy upgrade on Rodriguez. If Ramirez is out, we're going to need a bit more guile. And whoever comes in for Ramirez will probably offer more defensively, giving us greater scope to play Mayuka.