Foxstone

Caught in two minds here... I am very disappointed with our attacking style (or rather lack of it), and I guess that really hit home and still lives with me after the Beer'Sheva match in which we did not trouble a limited side at all and went crashing out of Europe. On the flip side, I cannot see an obvious replacement should Puel go. I greatly admire Gary Rowett but I'm unsure if he can cut a big job such as ours with some pretty big egos to manage. So at the moment, I am just erring towards holding tight for the next 3 games or so to see if much required improvements follow. However, my own instincts tell me it won't.

Saint Robbie is pretty unique and I doubt he has any aliases. His posts tend to veer from misunderstanding to misunderstanding while believing he is right all along. Funny that as we are on this thread, I think he was once sent to Coventry by the mods which effectively meant that he could post but nobody on the forum could read what he was posting.

Oh yes I remember him. Capitals and morse code bullet style of posting as I recall. Is he still here?

I agree there is good happening and not everything is bad, but last night was a crushing disappointment both in terms of the result and the manner of our play that led to it. Twice I have watched us play Inter this season, the first out in Italy we absolutely rinsed a team of European pedigree such as theres and were desperately unlucky to lose 1-0. Our heads were rightly held high. At home, we also put in a great shift against them and the supporters were right behind the lads creating an atmosphere in the ground that willed them on.. Last night from what I could see there was no belief, no passion, no organisation and no bravery, and we went out to a decent but still limited team when we should have ****ed all over them from the off.. I think most of the fans around me were perhaps thinking what I was thinking, " are we going to get going in a minute, are we going to create a couple of chances to really life the crowd onto our side, are we going to work and press them as hard as they are working and pressing us?" Honestly it was such a crushing disappointment, and fans have every right to ask difficult questions as to what went wrong last night...

In his defence, he was the one player on the pitch last night who Beer'Sheva were worried about in terms of his pace.. What they did however was crowd him with 2 or sometimes 3 players closing him down and he found no options to help him... Bertrand being a main culprit.. He has the pace but he does not have a trick or two to add to that, therefore he ends up running down blind alleys or going backwards to keep possession... I hope the lad comes good, he was by no means the worst player on the pitch last night for us.

I like to think of myself being a reasonable, balanced poster on here but god that was poor last night ... There was no energy or control in the team which caused the crowd to become edgy and lacklustre too - The support was a million times less than it was against Inter but the team gave us nothing to get behind them on.. Well done Beer'Sheva though... A limited side that with our squad quality we should have comfortably seen off, but they pressed and defended brilliantly and really nullified whatever attacking game plan we had. Also that guy in their midfield who was twice the size of Wanyama ran the show for them, didn't move around very much but he always found their men in space and we did not get near him to nullify him. Their goal was a result of yet another mistake on our part, but he finished it beautifully. If only we could shoot like that! As for the team, nobody really performed anywhere near the required standard with perhaps the honourable exceptions of Virgil and Yoshi, and Cedric was a useful outlet when he did get forward. Forster's confidence is shot and he needs to buck up - He made the team and the crowd nervous by him being nervous.. I have never seen Bertrand play so badly, at least 3 crosses into the crowd when usually he is so reliable. Our midfield were outplayed by theirs and we never got enough players forward to create a threat. When we lost Charlie our only hope of a goal went off the pitch with him. Long ran hard all night but never got anywhere near threatening their goal. Very, very disappointed... Big changes in tactics and attitude are needed now.

He really has deserved that contract and I'm delighted to see another of our bright young talents come through so very well.. Claude clearly trusts our academy lads when RonKo clearly did not - I think Claude is the much more correct out of the 2 of them...

Bales debut was against Sheffield Wednesday I think which we won 3-0... He had a good debut but not as good as Sims did on Sunday.

He certainly did upset them. I walked round to the main entrance when Inter came to town a couple of weeks ago, and many Inter fans were hanging around waiting for their team bus to arrive. When it did, they cheered every other player off the coach but Icardi got absolutely rinsed...

Where Bertrand is brilliant is playing a pass and then running into space behind the opposing full back to either get it back and putting a dangerous cross into the centre of the box or having a go himself, or taking a defender away with him. Sam has yet to master that particular aspect to his game. However in saying that, he has been brilliant since responding to the call and Claude clearly likes and trusts him to give him so much game time. So far this season he has been our most promising find and he has a great future with us.

LOL... Just an empty M3/M25 for a change...

Electric atmosphere last night, and a game I will always remember for a whole host of reasons.. proud to have been there and getting back to Hertfordshire at 1 pm was well worth the drive. I was still buzzing when I got in... VVD was immense but I thought Yoshi had a superb game, he was calm and collected at all the right times. Cuco looks tired to me which I suppose is to be expected given his game time of late, McQueen gets better and better. I would like to see him give and then go behind the full back a few times like Bertrand does, but that will come. Romeu excellent, JWP excellent match too and Hojberg although having a few misplaced passes ran the midfield. Redmond was lively all match and Tadic kept his head up well despite his penalty miss. JRod looks like he is carrying some excess timber at the moment, but I'm sure it will come right with some more game time. A very strong Inter line up on paper but they weren't up to much really with only 2 shots (including the goal) I can recall. We outplayed them and that is something I thought I would ever write. Loved Claudes celebrations after we scored. That was fist pumping of the highest order. Well done lads, You delivered!

Kaderabak - Right Back at Hoffenheim Ntiep - Rennes Striker..

The bus will be parked and they will try and hit us on the break with Eder's pace... We must not concede the first goal under any circumstances...

I assume Brozovic will be suspended for this game? If so, he is a large gap for them to fill especially as Joao Mario is not in the squad. Likely start for Hojberg I would think, and Boufal is bound to get some game time too... I really hope we are up for this. A win should send us on our way towards the last 32.

Outed by Richard Chorley... Much merriment ensued...

Was that Help Me Rhonda? Chilled Remy and all that cobblers...

He was definitely genuine and a nice guy actually, but yes he rather got swept away in the avalanche of hype that was around then...

Niklas Sule at Hoffenheim perhaps, although I have heard that Bayern are interested in him so maybe wishful thinking... The Hoffenheim right back Kaderabak is half decent too..

It is such a great shame that the "Paul Allen Takeover Thread" did not survive the archives.... It was Golden indeed all the way from Michael Nank, Help Me Rhonda, Barry the Briefcase, St David and the rest of the cast of thousands... All those hours spent in the Summer of 2007 on that one thread waiting for the next gem !!

If anybody had told me only a couple of years ago (let alone 6 or 7 years ago), that we would go to the San Siro, Play Inter Milan, completely outplay them but lose to a single goal from the only shot they had on target, then I would have asked for something they were smoking ! Very proud of them and I am looking forward to being there at the home leg where we will hopefully repay them big time...

This loan at Blackburn could well be the making of the lad.. Chuffed to bits for him.

Could not agree more... If nothing else, it depicts the status we now have and the company we now justifiably keep. Inter as many said are in the doldrums right now, but so what... Its Inter Milan FFS... European Royalty. Also agree with FF... I hope Claude picks his first choice side and goes for it...

The lad played very well indeed, and I was delighted to see that. I'm sure he will start against Inter.

Outstanding player for us, and a real "leader" on the pitch too.. Invaluable to our squad.