pingwing

At least we didn't buy Zaha! 10m upfront wasted nicely there

Apparently he is going to try and get out of his contract as no team can afford the price Newcastle are asking... It's going to be a good one to watch unfold.

Schneiderlin has to be well over £10m, partly as he comes up as homegrown (thank's to us buying him in at the age of 18 ) so to the premier league teams squad registration he is gold! If Henderson got £20m mostly for being homegrown (and apparently good) it should set some sort of president that good homegrown (and young) talent should be at least 50% more, so £30m I value him at. Lambert £6m, can't pay more for him because of his age and lacking that turn in pace that most strikers "need" in the prem.... Punch 50p. Well £3m really, too inconsistent to be a big transfer. Cork should have been valued at £8-9m when he left Chelsea (not £650k) and now should be another £30m like Schneiderlin really. (and should be in the England squad like Morg should be in the France squad)

Not too much you can do when Fellani is dictating to the ref who is bad and how (despite elbowing people in the face) he isn't...

Their form indicates free fall, their tactics (constant crosses and threaten in the air from out wide or set pieces) is starting to be more and more found out this level (aka teams other than Chelsea are planning for it) and their team is more looking like it is made up of players who will only be there if they are in the prem. Relegation and going bust are possibilities because they are loosing/drawing to teams around them/us without a core of a team that want to be there...

He turns into a bit of a beast on FM (10 years into the future) ended up at Arsenal once. Clearly a good idea if we can chant something about Fonte to Fontb ohhhhhh.

Agreed It's nearly as annoying as LUUUUUUUKKKKKEEEE or SHTEEEVVVVEEEEE The manager has a perfectly good/unpronounceable name. Luke has plenty of better songs "He fought Luke Shaw and, Luke Shaw won" being the best. Steve is just isn't good enough and really doesn't need encouraging into the pitch.

Must be why he hasn't been in any of the pictures...

Meet the home grown squad criteria? (well trained in nation anyway)

Paul Lambert is an idiot and Villa wont get rid of him yet. Adkins can do a lot better than that sinking ship (massive wage disparity to ability in the squad hence why they are stuck playing so many terrible youth players). I would expect Adkins to take a break till the summer and see what proper teams turn up needing him.

Would rather sign up Tim Howard than Butland at the moment. LB and a RW are the only real players on the shopping list right now.

Someone needs to tell Fox to sort his hair out!

But no one is ever scared or intimidated by someone running at them when it is clear he can't even run with the ball...

It annoys me so much De Ridder is getting any sort of game time ahead of these two, he's a useless footballer and it's embarrassing to think he has been involved in so many tv games now...

He needs to work on his kicking, badly! Other than that clear no.1, goes for everything and gets more than enough behind his saves. Both him and Howard last night were key to the game being an exciting 0-0

So he's angry and a xenophobic on the radio... This modern radio invention has some running themes

Wouldn't be surprised if he's quite a bit away from match fitness to be honest, though Norway stopped playing league football about the time it gets just too cold for life and dark for 22 hours a day...

Seen bits of him and have generally been impressed, only thing I didn't like was him going on about his "work horse of a brother" when we walked into the pub after yesterdays game. Phil wasn't all that...

Next time that afro wearing c**t comes near you dive to the floor. Haha!

Davis wan't a bad substitution, more effective than Rodriguez or De Ridder *shudders* Just need to focus on getting one or two players so we don't have to let Punch have a rubbish game when he wants or force Rodriguez away from his preferred position up front. Also De ridder should never have been an option in the Premier league, that's just embarrassing (running bet with a mate is I'll pay him £100 if he scores)... De Ridder could have him over 20 yards...

Front 4 play with a lot more movement going forward so there is less emphasis on wing play (where we aren't great to be honest anyway, other than Guly's cross at Stoke very few chances or goals have come from out there). Worked with Guly, Lambert and Gaston as they could default into the right places properly, Punch is an one dimensional idiot though and ruined the whole thing by being in the middle far too much and taking 15 touches before a pass. Cover now comes from Morg/Cork in the middle, which is much more sensible considering only one has to cover a wing whilst the other sits in the middle for the midfielders. Just a tweak to the roles Adkins set up that most the players are talented enough to do, with the elephant in the room being Punch. Also highlights we need a couple of extra players given the lack of fitness to play that way for 90 mins and no one else being able to come on to do it.

Overall a good performance, not sure what MP has had to say yet (not really accessible like Adkins was) but from the first half he seemed to have a much better idea of how an attacking for in the formation should work, which really benefited Gaston, Lambert and most importantly Guly. First time in a while all 3 really seemed to have great ideas of where to be to create and nearly score. It was ruined by Punch forgetting where he should be and being bloody average. My thoughts on managerial style, new guy can get talented players to display what they have when Adkins had a nack of getting sensible performances out of average players (only rational way Punch can be in the form of his life till a new manager turns up and suddenly needs replacing again). Second half we showed we don't have the depth to play properly and cannot deal with a team who defend super deep and have some monster charging about the pitch everywhere. We need a couple of new players, well Punch challenger and Lallana back will be enough really. No idea why Fellani is allowed to play though, technically a great player, but he's a massive, dirty thug that should have been sent off for diving he went down so quickly. Frustrating that no-one tried to bait him and fall a lot around him as that seems to be the only answer. Finally Boruc just has to be no.1 now, really starting to get his eye back in for the game and I really like having a keeper that isn't beaten at the near post every time. That's nice. A final ask is to not really milk the Nigel Adkins thing, nice we did it today but that really should be it now. New bloke needs a chance and banging on about Adkins didn't really seem to give the team the lift they needed (it gave Everton that 10 min spell where we couldn't get out of our own box). Also Steve De Ridder is really really poor, why we bother with him and not Callum Chambers (or someone else out of the academy) is beyond me. Should be the only player in the league with a pass completion rate of less than 10% All in all happy with a point from the team in 5th! Just have a bit of work to do to get everyone taking chances, having the right depth in the squad and the right step forward now.

Can we have "He fought Luke Shaw and Luke Shaw won" The LUUUUUUUKKKKKEEEEEE is about a rubbish as it gets and the other song doesn't really get the point across...

Dare I say it, best midfield pairing in the league. No other pair have such interchangeability of roles between them that make them a cross between old school utility players and cover everywhere midfielders that cover each other. One goes forward, other is back, one drives into space, other is looking for him to pass, one is making the tackle, other is there to win it or pass. Cork wasn't his best this evening (doing the circles on the ball a bit too much) but as a pair I can't think of a better 2 to have.

Boruc overall motm (saved our bacon second half where Kelvin would have been easily beaten). But Guly in the vote because first half he looked deadly with Gaston and Lambert around him. No idea what MP told him to do but it really worked! Shaw and Yoshida were also excellent.