shurlock

Before tonight, Leicester's league form was as bad as ours - this was hardly an upwardly mobile team oozing bags of confidence.

A few things to put the performance in context (apart from the bleedingly obvious that the entire f**king spine of the team has been ripped out). We were outfought in midfield - if there's a problem with the midfield, its going forward, not defensively. So it came as a surprise that 3 DMs couldn't get hold of the ball and control the middle - whether we would have done anything with it given the poverty of options upfront is a side issue. I've seen quite a bit of Leicester this season (note their recent form is worse than ours), and the one area where they are weak is in the middle. Richie Wellens, their club captain, is on reduced training regime because they worry about his match day intensity FFS. It is a very narrow and flat midfield yet we made it look good. Indeed, it is the one area where we can't really complain about injuries - as we had most of our midfield available minus obviously Chaplow. That's a worry. The new lad looked a passenger tonight. What seemed clear is that he was uncomfortable playing as a wideman. Looks like he could combine well with Richardson but that assumes a fit and ready Lallana. No doubt, he'll improve, especially in a more confident team but the difference between him and SDR who is an impact player was night and day. Will say it again, we are not a tippy-tappy team that will cut opponents apart on the ground but we are quite direct and reliant on a powerful target man who can come deep, hold players off and link up play. Guly tried tonight but his touch made a rapist look suave and silky. Lambert will be back; but its not an area where we can afford to be light. For me, Jayrod would give us the most in that area; Luckas J would have given us a cheaper variant of the same option and we arguably missed a trick if as reports suggest he was available on loan in December. Finally, there are lot of silly presumptions about our transfer activity - who the f**k knows whether we have put all our eggs in the Hooper basket - one that that was always a long shot. The only reason that news broke is because Celtic couldn't keep things private. It says nothing about our other targets and the extent of our activity and I have no doubt those clubs have shown greater discretion and professionalism in their dealings. None of you clowns will be any the wiser until something happens, so stop assuming that we've been going up blind alleys.

Without sounding flippant, if all your pre-match predictions had materialised, we's be scrapping against relegation. Its a bed of roses after the game when we've won but I don't think I've read one build up thread where you haven't feared the worse. You make alpine look like he's on a serotonin rush

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Cundiff has an atrocious record from 50+ yards hell he can't even convert from 32 yards. Question mark whether they should have gone for a 4th down and inches early in the game but I thought the FG, at such an early point in the game, was the right decision. In general, I thought the Ravens game plan worked perfectly -even Cam Cameron wasn't a liability. The Ravens were the better team - NE were nothing like a steamroller- the Ravens just couldn't execute when they needed to.

What a gutting loss - first Lee Evans who had looked so good earlier and then Billy Cundiff, a pro-bowler last year. Up to that point, the defense had contained Brady, Welker, the TEs to FGS and Flacco (once again) proved the critics wrong. Those two plays are going to haunt the Ravens for ages while everyone else revels in the NE love-in. Absolutely gutted.

It was reported quite openly and casually in the Japanese press earlier in the week that he wouldn't be leaving till the weekend at the very earliest. We might question why but it suggests this was agreed with Lee for a while, not that an emergency has cropped up that parties are now furiously trying to fire fight behind the scenes. People looking for cloak and daggers where they don't exist again.

Only players that are realistically leaving are sordell, maynard and perhaps sharp.

Like a good, p!ssed off belfast/jant accent and yorkshire birds; cant stand mancs and anything west of soton.

£6m at the end of the season and i'll bite your hand off.

I'd happily take £5-6m for him at the end of the season.

Johno is what happens when you make signings on deadline day and roundly get told to f**k off when skimping on bids. TBF, he has put a few decent shifts and wasn't too bad at Brighton but I hope the lesson's been learned. (and its not as if we have the likes of DC or Oxo returning from injury like last year)

Cant see Rhodes, Hooper, JRod leaving in this window. Think Maynard and Sordell could and possibly though less likely Sharp and Beckford.

Just a shame I can't get the image of jermaine wright out of my head.

Exactly. If you had a shred of ambition, why the f**k would you want to play against that dross week in week out. Its hunger football.

No way it will happen in this transfer window- Hooper's gone on record and the sweaties have been pretty firm. Looking for smoke and daggers where they don't exist. Of course, would f**kin love it if it did.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20120117-00000013-dal-socc http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20120116-00000048-dal-socc For those who read Japanese, articles suggest that the earliest Lee will be leaving Japan is the 21st - one of the articles goes onto say that he might be in contention for Leicester but that seems unlikely if he's leaving things so late.

薄汚い魚野郎の試合でゴールを決めることが昔からの夢でした

Problem was that much of the 2010/11 team were loanees, so they were bound to make wholesale changes in the summer. The issue atm is not so much the addition or integration of new players, though Sven overpaid for his signings while failing to strengthen key positions; but Pearson's reliance on the old guard. Their midfield is basically the same one that played in L1 -and most Leicester fans think its stale and short of width and creativity.

Guess that's our wide player now sorted - would guess that Commons, Whittingham etc were our first choices. Just leaves a striker now and perhaps a CB.

We've been taken for mugs in our various transfer/loan dealings with Spurs; hopefully, we get something useful out of this one.

So the Mail were right?

Not sure the changes made THAT much difference Richardson was out; but Harding did his job to get forward and provide width (2 of the 3 goals indeed came from crosses). Similarly Guly was tasked with the Lambert role of holding up the ball/linking up play but I know who I would rather have doing that - see Donny. Yes, we took a few more gambles from distance; but until Schneiderlin scored, I was reminded why we rarely do. Just before the goal Schneiderlin had lollipopped one to Camp which must have bounced 3 or 4 times. Our shooting from distance in the first half was poor, especially as we had better options down the right. Key difference was not Lambert/Richardson's absence but Connolly's inclusion, even if he ran out of steam as the game went on. And lets not underestimate the quality of the opposition - Forest were a shower of sh*te. And until the sending off, for all the control we had, we ere hardly carving them open. Indeed, I thought our first half performance at Brighton was actually better.

Any bids in particular?

First celtic player up, yep.