Smirking_Saint

I find older drivers are infinately worse than women drivers TBH and then when the two are combined its almost catastrophic

Surprising how much your able to read into 3 games of highlights you have seen on MOTD

Read your posts

Never surprises me how many mongs stand behind the reporter to get their mugs on the TV, shallow really

You mean like City in which his response has effectively rebuked yours ? Well done sir

Having been called on international duty by a major footballing nation and so playing/training when Punch had his feet up Id say it was a fair thing. Plus, I take nothing from pre season, its just a match fitness exercise. Lets ignore Punch's 'family issues' which meant he had to move a massive 1hr30 up the road, if it was Gaston that had 'family issues' you would have been frothing at the mouth.

True, plus Im not sure he woukd have got the game time he wanted, plus this supposed family issues have muddied the water but all in all I think our lack of goals have highlighted his move more than if we were sticking it in the back of the net

Lallana, Ramirez, Davis, J Rod, JWP, Isgrove, Lambert, Osvaldo, Mayuka can all play in puncheons role ? And Lovren, Wanyama have both come in and played very well ? Nice to see the loss to Norwich has dragged you back out from under the bridge

Maybe, punch is ok but he isnt the player to take us to where we want to be I dont think. Good luck to him in London I say, had a great season for us last year but I dont know if he will this year. He needs to make a few little changes, you all know my thoughts, I am worried that we struggled to score against WBA and Sunderland who look like 2 of the worst teams this year.

Defensively we seem infinately stronger, but we now cant score goals...

He doesnt

When was that then ?

High pressing is always susceptable to long ball, Im assuming thats why JC has been replaced by VW as his added height and athleticism helps with that tactic (as its JC/VW who sits with the center backs in the attacking phase) We dealt with things ok today, but it was a difficult game as we missed the full backs going forward providing width and options. Again we defended ok, as we have done previously, our possession wasnt as good, one as VW had a poor game and two the options wide were not there. Our problem under MP will be turning pressure into goals.

First of all people, lets get a bit of perspective, we were not THAT bad and all in all this performance was not way out from the way we have been performing for a good 6 months now, Norwich set up well, are at home and are a decent side FWIW. There are a few points I noticed though. Wanyama, has actually been a decent player so far, very destructive, and IMO a better athlete than Cork, has had 2/3 good games but today he wasnt on it, he should have been swapped yes, but Cork is not infinately better, everyone is entitled to bad games. Full backs...... Kraken, I am one of the no wingers brigade, so are you I suspect seeing as I think you can actually see the wood for the trees. I entirely agree though, today our width was dire. MoPos system relys entirely on width from the full backs as we dont have any conventional wide men, today we had neither which restricted our attacking options. We played RL and PDO for one reason today, and thats the long ball as in reality without clyne or shaw we didnt have the options we usually have. Fluidity - didnt work today, we now see how Lambert does not work in this system, fan favourite I know, I love the bloke but lets be honest, he doesnt suit a high pressing dynamic line. Slso as much as people slag off J Rod it was obvious how much we missed his pace/industry today. He offers an out ball and a lot of pressure on the full backs. Overall - MoPo got it all wrong, norwich played well and we had an off day but still restricted them to scoring a speculative effort and a tight game. And I think this will be our season. Boruc is in my dream team for a reason, we wont let many in, but if we keep playing Rickie we wont score many. I understand Ill get slated for that, but you need to br brave at this level, and the way we play you need fluidity up front and attacking FBs So basically, dont panic yet, we will be ok.

Really ? The only reason I looked out was to ensure I ignored them

**** off

Not massively worried, knew it would be close, missing our two marrauding FBs will always cause us a problem considering we rely so so much from width those positions. I still think that MoPo needs to be brave and drop Rickie, I love the man, but unless he adapts his game or we change our tactics to suit he is just press ganged in. We are a good team, but we struggle to score goals, unfortunately, like the end of last year I think Ill be saying this a lot

Leys be honest, last couple of games Wanyama has been immense, the bedwetting in here is crazy

Hmmm, you mean Lambert didnt work in the hole ? Didnt see that one coming

Id take him all day long, Rickie will be gone next year IMO

I think he really is the new Drogba, he is better on the ball then Benteke but Benteke is the better player ATM. Although I think RL will turn into a top top player he looked a little out of place tonight, a bit headless chicken, that penalty was truelly aweful aswell !!

They have done incredibly well to buy what they have for effectively the cost of Bale. Added to the players already there in the form of Walker, Vertonghan and Sandro who are all excellent (and Ive slways rated Dembele) then they should easily finish 4th Id say unless Arsenal bring in some quality and quickly. FWIW I dont really get what the hell happened under Kenny, as although overpriced everyone of those players were bang on form when they signed, all had good seasons and Kenny effectively ruined them.

Ones tired trolling is enough TBH

You mean the second half that again we couldnt break down as despite our possession dominance we dont have the dynamism in and around the box ? Exactly as we did last season ? If he wants this system to work either Rickie needs to start moving a hell of a lot more or we drop him, simple as, we struggled to score last season towards the end and clearly have a problem with it again. Osvaldo will be accomodated, we play the system he played in at Espanyol, its made for him

Thats the one