Monk

In bits at some of these. Well played gents, great thread.

That is ****ing SUPERB.

To be honest I think (I hope) some people are taking the majority of posts out of context. It's not that maintaining possession isn't beneficial, I again assume people are getting frustrated of the lack of 'line penetrating' passes. There have been a number of games when we haven't played a penetrating pass against the line. To be fair it is what Gaston is superb at and we saw it with our first goal. The reason most teams maintain possession around their own area(or high defensive line) is to draw any initial press from the opposition and take out each line (attacking - strikers, wingers and holding players CDMs,CMs) with no more than two passes. It doesn't always work and you can now see Barcelona play a number of diagonal balls to cut out the first pressing line.

[video=youtube;l7F5wrO-PFE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7F5wrO-PFE

I can happily show you a number of grassroots/academy teams that can play around their own penalty area at the correct time from U8's - U18's. I encourage my current team to do it when its appropriate.

Adebayor will prove to be the difference(again). 3-1 Spurs.

Really rate Morgan, think he is exactly what England are missing in the CDM/CM role but; -The rule is mad and should only apply if the player has lived in the country as an infant/child -He's not even remotely English -His international recognition should be with France but Didier is bit of a ****. -I would be very surprised if the FA budged on their policy.

Please return to the pre-historic ages.

Cheers Toon.

Marshall has had a fantastic season so far. I believe he is the highest shot stopper? Some interesting stats here; http://www.thescore.com/epl/goalie_splits/shots_faced

Que?

THE HEAD HIT NAIL ON.

You're cute. You would make a fantastic 'soccer mom'. "YAY, let's go you SAINTS, WOOO". The point is you simple minded rake, *your post has minimal relevance in relation to our current events/results. *The FA Cup is long gone and we haven't recently been knocked out so why are you even thinking about it? *It's a ridiculously obvious and unnecessary statement to make, of course we would ALL like to see us win the trophy (or any trophy for that matter). *Apparently as you cannot comprehend anything simple, I am not trolling, just mocking your incredibly random and pointless thread.

No, no, you're right. It would be nice to do this again and thank you so much for using a video re-iterate your point. May I go one better for the even more simple souls such as Da Kraken and start a thread about doing something new; LeT'S WiN DA leaGUe!!!! The fact you cannot process and identify why I am mocking this utterly pointless thread (regardless of the nice intent) then thank you, now you are my favourite 'nice but dim' poster. Go on, nibble.

If that's the theme of your post, you may as well add videos of us; Beating Pompey Playing in Europe Beating Man U 6-3 As I would like to do them all over again too, that'll be rather nice.

One thing I have noticed from todays game (watching on Sky) is the intensity of our pressing in groups has dramatically reduced along with the engaging of the opposition ball carrier in their defensive third. Anybody else notice this? Was today a one off?

Some of the comments regarding JWP are embarrassing. He hasn't gone backwards, he hasn't gone side-ways either he just hasn't 'excelled' at the speed as the majority of people expected because of the initial hype around him. His development is just fine for somebody in and out of the side, playing in three different ROLES and positions (yes there is a difference), aged 19. Settle down when he plays a stormer and don't squinny when he has a stinker.

Erm kid, we aren't in the FA Cup.

Thanks Hutch, interesting and never before seen this.

Start with a perfect hat trick today then Rickie.

Rather interesting on here; Nicola is receiving far too much praise from a number of you and not enough from the other half. He did an ok job. I mean if we all had a short back and sides, custom tailored suits , somebody else's £50m debit card and enough testosterone to fuel a Golds Gym we all would of done a decent job. He came from a banking & investments background, no previous in sport commercial deals. The fact he was abrupt, direct and wanted the best for this club, people took to him especially after other clubs tried to exploit our previous financial surroundings & he ****ed them off. He genuinely wanted us/him to be the best, pioneers in everything we do but clearly failed with empathy and man management of staff (admin,H.R) yet excelled when dealing with players? The reason Cortese won't go down as a great chairman is simple, his own personal drive and defiance combined with inconsistency across the spectrum. The reason Cortese won't go down as a **** chairman is simple, his own personal drive for us to be the best was genuine.

I miss Nicola.

You can't.

I watched this, he was a ****ing nutter.

The logic is rather simple. The club is in a transitional period off the pitch and the team hasn't met the expectations publically stated in relation to the signings made. For us to make predictions or formative assessment of previous patterns makes minimal sense. We have no idea on the management structure, KL's level of inclusion and simply its a World Cup year, which changes the market massively. We will have a current plan a, its a given but there are too many factors for us to have any idea what may/may not happen this summer: Shaw/Lallana may excel at the WC (if selected), we then may receive huge offers from huge clubs. Dani Osvaldo's situation. Pochettino could leave. Liebherr may sell up. FFP regulations (which will be heavily influenced by the first two points).