shurlock

I've got no issue with that. We're desperately short of pace in places though I dont think every position has to be blessed with it, not least our central midfield which is a frequent criticism on here. Nor do I think we can play 4-4-2 with two wingers, another bit of wishful thinking on here.

Come on- you would still be calling out for pace either way. What's your preference: 4-4-2 with two pacy wide men?

It happened at times last season, esp when Connolly and Lambert were playing -two players who don't have the mobility or pace or power (in the case of DC) to beat a man. Both were dropping into midfield to get the ball so that at times we had 6 in the middle of the park, making it easy for the oppo to push up.

It does and it doesn't. It depends how deep you have to drop to collect and hold up the ball. The deeper you drop, evidently to get clear of your CB, the harder it is for others to launch any kind of meaningful attack -everything just gets bunched up in the middle. The criticism of Drogba was that over time he was dropping deeper and deeper. Lambert has also been guity of this at times.

NA is known for complicating things- has always spoken of the need to have multiple formations to the point where he has frequently chopped and changed during games - sometimes to the confusion of the players. In short, NA has got a track record. Fat Adam seems to be getting carried away, jumping from the fact that NC is responsible for transfers (most chairmen's prerogative) and concluding everything therefore is laid down from above. Or maybe he's so starved for stories that he's having to read between the lines -and the ones in question are pretty innocuous. If Nic wasn't such a tolerant, thick-skinned chap, I'd say Fat Adam might be looking at a ban

Guly's doing the samba...I'd be damned.

"We are the champions" coming or "barcelona" in a twist of self-depreciation.

Muse - dear god. Tonight is the musical equivalent of Atlanta 96.

From Mr Bean to Bright Side, country's still trading on the lovable loser image

Beady Eye's greatest hit.

Royalties - that's where the £9bn's gone

All the decent action has been going on at Hyde Park.

Its stars in their eyes. And now we've got ray lewington.

Queen was the semi-official anthem of CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster during the games.

Not as bad as I thought it would be. For all the rusty passing, we had options to pass to and closed down well. JWP didn't have a bad game by any stretch but Davis looked bright when he came on. Udinese were more direct than us and showed the value of having mobility up. Hard pressed to think of any attacks we started down the left.

This is like pre-match at SMS, waiting for a p i$$.

Madness, pet shop boys, george michael FFS...admittedly, the last few weeks have featured lots of ethiopians but its 2012, not 1984 and Band Aid.

Will say the performance is not as bad as scoreline suggests, though Udinese at times played well within themselves.

No Guly?

Agree about the wide men. An interesting question is what kind of skills they need. Dont think pace is a must, though it would be nice. A good engine to get up and down the pitch and an ability to support the strikers is arguably more important. Its a position that requires discipline balancing defensive and attacking responsibilities. As such, wonder if a forward-minded player is really suited to the role given many are defensively naive and end up chasing the ball or getting dragged out of position, leaving us isolated if and when we get a chance to break.

Possibly he's holding the fort and getting match fit, though worth remembering that Jrod played quite a bit on the wing for Burnley. Another possibility is that Fox is the problem, not the system. That Fox just isn't getting the ball enough to Jrod or linking up well enough with him (Lallana found that out last season), so perhaps things would be better with a different fullback.

I know. He might as well not have been playing.

Unlikely to work. Both like to drop deep and so need players playing on the last shoulder or breaking forward. That's also a problem at the moment with two deep-lying CMs and bits and pieces for width but at least we're a bit tighter defensively.

That will happen with the current formation - its expected to double up as a 4-5-1 when we're not in possession -sensible enough as we can't go gung-ho in the prem. But its very hard not leave the striker isolated unless the wide men can get up quickly and support him. In theory, Lallana should be able to support Lambert but I think he's confused by his mix of responsibilities in the current set-up.

Agree. Possibly a risk-reward thing, that NA wants to make us difficult to beat before anything else esp as our midfield got overrun at times last season. If the philosophy is about being solid, then it makes it doubly important to tighten the central defence. We seem to be taking a leaf out of Swansea’s book yet while they have Sinclair and Dyer to make the system work, we have nothing like that kind of pace in our team. The likes of JWP who shouldn’t near the starting line-up looked OK against Ajax because they sat back and made the game a stroll but any other team is going to push up against us, knowing that we have neither the mobility nor the pace to break on them. Always thought that Jrod and Lambert might struggle together –both like to come deep (why Jrod thrived with a player like Austin). As such, don’t see how they would be better suited to 4-4-2 unless we decide to go much more direct which, of course, is what we did a lot last season – despite the myth that we somehow played like Barcelona.