for_heaven's_Saint

It probably depends who you're playing against tbf. There may be times when teams play a high line and we struggle to get through that someone like Mayuka could come on and make the difference. At the moment though we don't need it. I do feel that we're benefitting from having slightly quicker fullbacks and Yoshida.

I still don't think Lallana is great at the defensive side of the game, he just isn't required to defend as much IMO. His attacking play has been sublime though.

At least now with Shaw, Clyne and to a lesser extent Yoshida we have a defence with a bit of pace.

We might be hitting form but they're on a sustained run of it. This will be much tougher than yesterday for sure. They're quite a similar team to us in terms of work rate and style. We must take our chances and we need Gaston on form again as he is the one player that they have noone anywhere near as good as.

The only way I think- get up the ticket office.

Neither, he's a United fan but obviously from down south as he said the first 3 times he saw them play was at the Dell and we won 6-3, 3-0 and 1-0.

Can't believe he can get away with writing that.

Rather Wigan won it then Reading tbf

Agreed, though it's not over yet...

No one will know any different.

I guess the real question is how do they compare to the other recent 'crops' of U18s?

Isn't it meant to be quite clear and dry tomorrow?

Ben Afa limps off...

Yup. His ban is just for domestic games so cue can play tonight but not Sunday.

Shame they don't desperately need a win on Thursday really.

True, but I wonder how many games he went to in those 7 years?

True, I guess it's telling that those 2 are still in the line up two leagues above.

Where was he when we were sh*t? Not a peep for the last 7 years then as soon as there's a chance for some publicity he's number one fan.

Due to our 'evolution not revolution' transfer policy, I think a lot of people still think of our team as being built by Pardew and taken to another level by Adkins. In fact, Adkins' ability to pick and attract the best players is often thought of as inferior to Pardew's. However, on closer inspection, it is perhaps surprising to look at our team and see who was signed by who. Looking at our match day squad from Saturday, i was certainly surprised to see how many were Adkins signings: 12 Gazzaniga Adkins 02 Clyne Adkins 03 Yoshida Adkins 06 Fonte Pardew 23 Shaw Academy 04 Schneiderlin Already here 10 Ramirez Adkins 18 Cork Adkins 20 Lallana Academy 42 Puncheon Pardew 07 Lambert Pardew 01 K Davis Already here 05 Hooiveld Adkins 13 Fox Adkins 08 S Davis Adkins 16 Ward-Prowse Academy 09 Rodriguez Adkins 24 Mayuka Adkins Nevertheless, arguably our two best attackers of the game were signed by Pardew... Whose signings do you feel have been the best over the last 4 years?

Danny Fox- Pompey Guly- Inter Milan

Ben Arfa is good.

Yup. Gazzanigga and Ramirez are leaving too. And all the subs.

I think the 4-2-3-1 formation we're playing (with the right players in the right positions) means that there is not quite as much reliance on Lallana and Puncheon to defend all of the time, because Cork and Schniederlin push across to help the fullbacks.

He's going to have his work cut out next week against Ben Arfa.

Lol.