shurlock

Passing too pedestrian in midfield to make effective use of him and his crossing his erratic. Prefer him up top buzzing off lambert where the ball does get delivered quicker.

It works in our favour on a number of levels. Quite apart from his potential contribution on the put, we get another chance to put him in the shop window -and its much harder to sell a player when they're not playing- and we signal to others that he's part of our plans and won't go for a knockdown price in the summer etc. Ideally we would have sold him before now; but as soon as that wasn't likely to happen, only right to bring him back into the fold.

Love the photo - in his blazer and shirt, playing mental chess with the don.

On here no doubt.

We will rock you yesterday was f**king awful. However, the choice of soul music, if a little generic, was better than most of the halftime filler you hear elsewhere.

Too right - still what the silly fecker did at brighton was inexcusable. Anyway blue line and all that.

Oh christ cue the mongs who see the scanning potential of lee, rosie and pompey

He's hardly going to win a 50-50 with Matt Mills FFS; but can be very effective if he has a target to play off as he showed at Forest and Brighton *****il Lambert went off). Definitely has something to offer but we need a more reliable option there -a player who can play with and without Lambert.

So tadanari HAS just arrived in Heathrow according to the aforementioned twitter (journo?) but saints won't let him speak to the media. guess there's a big pack there.

Way too reductive - coincidentally the best half of recent football we've played recently was Blackpool at home with Morgan on the right. Why did NA play Morgan there? If the guy can ping a cross field ball to feet, surely he can hit Lambert at the backpost (as he did against Palace). I agree it is not balanced and i dont particularly like it but focusing on the three midfielders overstates its effect on the team and what would have happened with SDR - see Bristol home which up until yesterday was easily our worst performance (or indeed your belief that Richardson and SDR would have trouble playing together). We've been sh*t in lots of areas and for lots of different reasons- and banging on about the three midfielders obscures rather than illuminates that reality.

Go to the top of block 4 - perhaps some of our lot will wake up and realise its a massive game, prompting the club to open blocks 1-3. If so that's the place to be - worth waiting a few days and seeing how sales go.

You talk some c**p sometimes. De ridder played against donny, crystal palace and bristol rovers (two of which we lost). He was injured after that and only returned to full fitness this week -hardly NA's fault.

Absolutely-think he's an excellent player. Even against us, showed he had something about him.

Beckford was anonymous and we conceded two very sloppy goals. They won it in midfield.

Wouldn't need anything like 12m to secure their services - much better players available for that money.

You make it sound so easy - stick to being a bedroom manager on FM.

Top lad.

Agree with this - the stodgy Schneiderlin/Hammond partnership has dogged us since L1 days and two years and a half years on, its still the same. Cork brought some movement in but he's still defensively minded and it was unlikely he could do it alone, especially as NA likes to rotate things. Chaplow's been a miss; but he was playing out of his skin -and who knows he'll hit the same form again. I thought we've need another CM for a while- someone who can drive forward and up the tempo.

Craig Mackaill Smith (a ton of clubs were in for him, including WHU and Leicester - average NPC record. glad we didn't get him) Charlie Austin (never had a chance once NPC teams came calling and Ipswich were outbid by Burnley) Billy Sharp (if reports are true, we had a decent bid accepted but he didn't want to leave for private reasons - note he's subsequently rejected Leicester who rolled out the red carpet) Jay Rodriqiuez (again if reports are true, we put a decent bid in but he wanted to stay close to home and establish himself -arguably to attract bigger and better suitors) Jermain Beckford (god knows what he was picking up each week at Everton- but happy we didn't go in for him. Last night confirmed that relief) Nicky Maynard (playing hardball in his last season at Bristol and believes he'll be going straight to the Prem once he's on a free- never a chance) Gary Hooper (some people say £4m, others say £7m - decent money by anyone's standards but the politics -from title challenges to contract negotiations- were very complex such that the approach was always a long-shot) Jordan Rhodes (never a chance he was going to leave udders mid season -the lad is too sensible and knows he has time on his side. When it does come, he';; be a cheap gamble for quite a few prem teams) Lukas Jutekitz (i thought he offered something; but many didn't and there's no point spunking your lot on a player who's only 50-50. Its not like anyone can afford to stockpile centre-forwards. you only get one chance) [/b] All this is conjecture; but at least I'm happy to acknowledge it.

And do what instead? Don't know if its true but NA said on film that he couldn't play puncheon because otherwise saints would lose the right to sell him - something about transfer rules. In those circumstances, why is there need for him to feature? And why aren't we justified in holding out - unless you want him to go for a nominal fee and that's simply moronic.

That plenty of other teams have been in for them and failed? Do you know why those bids -if they're actually true- failed? And if they failed, how far they were down to fees? And if they were down to fees, how far did we penny pinch or were being held to ransom? Etc, etc, etc. Stick to the div board.

Would take the OP seriously if he knew who NA wants and the extent of our transfer activity and he knew that Cortese micromanaged. As he knows neither, fair to say its boll*cks.

Said it from day one we are quite direct at times and rely on a target man with good strength and awareness. Lambert is the closest we have to one, even if he's had to change his game a bit. Even when Lambert's been playing, we've struggled when opposing CBs have won the aerial/physical duels. We don't have a plan B; but people are confused about what our plan A is which is clever, direct football.

They beat a poor Forest side. Prior to that they had lost to Barnsley at home and had only won one game in over a month and a half (like us against Palace), with some really poor performances thrown in (as i say, I've got to see them quite a bit). Fans actually daring to question their saviour Pearson after Barnsley. Maybe Forest provided a kickstart but it would have taken very little to dent their confidence. This was a very brittle team.

SDR was very good - only player along with Frazer to show any drive and get them on the back foot. My fear is that assurances have been made to Spurs that Falque will get match time. I'm happy to give the lad some time -and he probably offers more in the hole than on the wing and possibly more on the right than the left; but on tonight's performance he looked desperately lightweight.