pingwing

Not quite, I just felt Jos was trying the same thing time and time again and being drawn on the same foul over and over. A few mins of varying it up and showing Carroll being poor on the floor could have really changed the flow of the game as they were targeting Jos for drawing fouls generally.

I'd take 17th, we are a lot better than QPR, we should beat Reading comfortably and we hammered Villa who are looking really like a champ team thanks to Paul Lambert. Any higher and the likes of Stoke, Norwich, Sunderland (dare I mention Newcastle and Liverpool) and we can party to celebrate a good first season in the prem. Would be nice to be a better team but survival is the name of the game this year and we should be able to do it. Getting above our station too early on will be bad for the team especially for a potential second season where it could just fall apart a bit.

Not a bad way to look at the last few months, overall a good start with plenty of positives to look at and build on. December we have to score 6 points from and target a couple of draws, we cannot hope to stay up if we don't beat a championship side of Reading and a dreadful Sunderland. We should be able to take a point from Stoke and Fulham, leaving only Liverpool as the pressure free game (but would be amazing to take any points from at all). Not actually a bad month of fixtures considering we have a two week break between Reading and Sunderland to give us that extra edge going into the christmas period.

He caused Jos a lot of problems in that Jos couldn't deal with not challenging him in the air when he was going to fall like a sack of **** at every jump. Wish Jos was better and could have just not jumped once or twice to show up Carrolls terrible diving.

On topic, Holt was pathetic, there is a very good reason he's not going to get called up for England, he's stupidly one dimensional. Hopefully last night ended the lazy comparison of Lambert and Holt once and for all. Off topic I thought Pilkington was gash. Fell over a lot and crossed like I do on fifa, lots going out for goal kicks. Second half he improved by trying to dribble a bit but that didn't do much different and only looked ok when we stood off him from the half way line to about 4 yards from the box. After that he offered very very little.

What if we lost on sunday and won today?? Would everyone be going "fair results season starts here"? Arrogance is why we felt we should have won, when Norwich are unbeaten in 7 now including wins against Arsenal and United! They are by far the best kick and rush team in this league, the Stoke of east Anglia. Newcastle are a mess in comparison, another kick and rush team with no players to do it. Then again we should have won because we had enough chances, but what can you do against 6 at the back? Just hope Liverpool try and play like they have done all year, got a much better chance of beating them if they are quite open and forward pressing.

Mark Bunn, was the difference between us scoring one and scoring 10. But actually Shaw, though just before he came off he scythed down some idiot in the box and was lucky the linesman on our side was so utterly cack that he couldn't actually see the biggest penalty of the year...

Gazza's kicking generally has been amazing, was integral in picking apart both QPR and Newcastle. No idea what we are going to do though, Boruc seems to have insulted everyone and can't be bothered, Kelvin annoyed me in L1 by being beaten in the same place week in week (and 14 in 4 games is shocking by any standard) out so we are sort of stuck with Gazza, who has been our only keeper to keep a clean sheet. A point would be amazing, not expecting anything though. Just keen to see a good performance and Suarez sent off for being a ****. Amazed to see whats going to happen with our fitness levels though, several players should have been rested or given only 60 mins tonight...

Just home from a long drive and what a frustratingly odd game. Norwich showed how to play the 6-2-2 kick and rush stay up tactic properly after Swansea, QPR and Newcastle failed at it so miserably. We should have been out of sight by half time, so many chances, all stopped at the last min by them having 6 in the box with Bunn at all times. Wasn't sure what happened for their goal (other side of the ground) but everyone going Gazza mistake is even making me starting to doubt what to do there. Mate said loan him to the champ and get Friedel/Robinson in, which after a poo and a bit of thought, I am fully for. Not one of our keepers seem good enough so getting someone in that is seems sensible. I think we have to abandon Boruc as a "we thought we could fix his mad personality" is just too much for us (someone else can do that), Kelvin has just had it and Gazza doesn't look ready. Everyone else looked ok overall though generally knackered. No idea what Adkins has planned for saturday as my limited armchair knowledge of football would have been target 3 points tonight with a 100% fit team and give one or two key players a slight break last sunday for the next two. Instead I fear he's going to run them into the ground "because they should be fit enough for it", no idea why we didn't make any subs when at 60 mins NOTHING was going to happen. Frustrating how he can get everything so right against Newcastle and not see that Punch was exhausted today at 60 mins, Gaston they marked out the game and Shaw was going to break. 2 points dropped BUT if this result and the Newcastle result were switched around I would have felt a lot better about it. Weird seeing as Newcastle are broken and Norwich are unbeaten in 7, including wins against Arsenal and United. So really after a bit of a confusing rant we should have won, Adkins had the cards to win and chose to come away with a safe point, gambling we can get an amazing result on saturday. If we walk away with 3 against Liverpool that would be amazing (and we would be a point behind them), more likely we will get nothing and a question or two has to be asked of Adkins, mainly what has Myuka done to offend him? Why was he not an option?

Even Barcalona and Real Madrid sell players when the right money comes along. We are in a great position to hang on to our kids not because of finances but because we can give them starting places in Premier League football. No other team in the prem has their first choice LB of Danny Fox and no second choice. Same for the midfield we only have 2 senior central midfielders that can defend and at least 2 who can attack, injuries and suspensions create first team opportunities there so long as the kids are good enough. It's exciting in a sense because we have bought real quality over the summer instead of quantity on the basis we can give the youth a chance. If we don't stay up then yeah it wont work as well but we should stay up which means more premier league places for more kids. United loose their youngsters because the kids of 15-20 years ago are still playing and Fergie has no confidence/wont give the new ones a chance. Completely different to us for now and I think we have a good opportunity to turn around to most premier league teams demand 20-30 million and probably have the player reject them because of lack of first team opportunities.

Why give Jos more time? He directly cost us points on more than one occasion (though quite a few players have) by making the same errors over and over. No composure in high pressure moments has given away penalties against United and City, madness gave 2 goals to Fulham, was dreadful against Andy sodding Carroll the worlds laziest forward and just failed miserably in those 25 mins against Arsenal. Though Yoshida hasn't been perfect (a make shift LB/RB he really isn't) he has really got something going with Fonte as the type of CB we need, one who can made good decisions and good tackles.

^^ Yes! Everyone is slowly starting to get into Gazza! Think we've done something right getting a better priced up and coming keeper that wont be hampered (ruined) by England expectations. Oh fair enough, was just one mistake that cost us 2 points.

No that was Leeds and Tranmere.

"He’s popular with the players in the dressing room" what ever next... Also ignores the chance Accrington had late on that went just the other side of the post that Forecast was nowhere near!

I'd take her to a game, then point out why Gallas is ****. Cracking pair on her too

Has the best partnership with Cork, both have a great understanding of when to go forward and when to stay back which is good to watch.

Cork being back is key, he is the Messiah, everything has gotten better with one amazing midfield tackler. Exactly the player Chelsea need.... The back 4 being settled and having time to gel is helping a lot. Also sticking with 1 keeper is starting to help! Gazza having help with his mistakes to keep his place is much more productive than saying NOT GOOD ENOUGH GO AWAY TILL YOU'RE BETTER and then chucking that nutter back in or Kelvin. Playing worse teams is helping too, 3 of the best in the first 4 games is cruel but now we look a lot better taking points off most the teams around us (Wigan being the exception). Bit of momentum from playing better football is going to be key playing some of the next few bigger teams (Liverpool and Arsenal again) as we should be in a better mood for taking on the rest of the teams around us. Chelsea away being moved to ages away is a big help too. Takes the pressure off the Christmas period a bit with an essential rest that no other team in the league will have between now and February.

Dear god predicetd a 2-0 by both Lawro and a Croatian tennis star... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20486485

A threat to prostitutes in the local area...

No, it's still zonal but we are a lot better at paying attention to the zones of who's running into them. The zonal thing is starting to be pushed across the pitch a bit too, you can see where everyone has zones they are responsible for both attacking and defending. It's just taken a few extra games of a stable line up for it to start working properly.

Hammond will go, though after talking to a Brighton fan he's not been all that good (apparently we broke him but I blame Colchester) De Ridder has to go, L1 or the champ. Seaborne on loan and cannot expect to come back. Chaplow hasn't played in the prem this year, JWP has, says a lot about Chaplow and will be sold at some point. Dickson and Forte should have gone last summer, even before then.... Will not be on the books by next summer. Sharp is a bit odd, probably will go sadly but at the end of the year depending on where we are (similar to Sam Baldock's short spell at West Ham who's now sold to Bristol City) Lee needs to get back his fitness and probably wont be out the door. Guly is cover for now. 18 months will probably be the end of his Saints career but for now he is essential cover. Barnard quietly shuffled out the door at some point soon too. Butters is probably winding up for coaching qualifications.

Just checking but has everyone noticed that most teams in the prem seem to try and abuse the "pace and mistakes" game plan (QPR and Newcastle especially) where by trying to ping the ball about and running a lot creates cheap chances that someone strong and quick (Ba/Cisse for example) can smash home. Our solution has been to completely kill any pace out of the game, so Gazza takes a long time on goal kicks, we do the simpsons "half back to CB, HOLDS IT" thing then frustrate the hell out of other teams till we score. Pace does help and most of our players can put in a good sprint, but it is just a tiny factor in the overall game plan, which (when it works and we don't gift mistakes out) is great to watch.

Was amused by his solution to chase the game was to bring on Sammy Ameobie. Forcing 4-4-2 on Newcastle when they don't have the players seemed silly, then to break it and do 5-0-5 to chase the game was a master stroke. Some times I almost miss Pards...

It's been moderated a bit, sort of the complete opposite to what Rodgers has done with Liverpool. He's so annoyed at Downing being useless going forward and Enrique being so complacent at the back he's swapped them over, which is just comical and a bit demoralising for some of the players. For us Punch/Lallana have just been given a bit more offensive work on the wings and expect Clyne/Shaw to overlap less, mainly so we keep our defensive shape more. Clyne still can provide the overlap but when he knows Fonte to his left hasn't got a striker stuck to him (when Ba "was playing it cool and dropping into Shaw" aka being rubbish). Shaw gets basically the same rules but it seems other teams are going "17 year old at the back SIT ON HIM" which was a master stroke from Pards yesterday....

We also had the assistant wasting more time getting ready to sub Punch for Myuka, he was all stripped off and ready to come on at the 88th min then Adkins changed his mind just before the ref allowed the sub to happen. Gazza's routines always make me laugh with the big bending down to tie his shoes. It's good there is a big applause for Shaw too, been a good lad so far with his Prem outings (after the stevenage let down)