Lighthouse

We're 19 games in with 6 points. We need 6 points from our remaining 19 games to get above Derby. So the second half of the season would have to be worse to not break that record. So how would finishing below Derby prove that we should have made the switch sooner?

Right now I'd take BWP.

You don't think Chelsea will take into account the fact that he's been gone two weeks, we've had four games since then and maybe make a phonecall to Ivan?

A serious half time talk needed to turn that around and I’d bring off either Armstrong or Dibling for Les. Getting overrun through the middle, if Palace remember how to shoot we’ll be in trouble.

Christ, they’ve been all over us since we scored. As we feared, getting swamped in midfield.

Somewhat dubious that but it’s been coming, on the balance of play.

Bednarek starting to push his luck, booking can’t be long now.

We can’t see you sneaking out!

Oh yes, Dibling!

Like it or not, he’s our joint top league scorer, with two. I don’t like it either but there’re precious few goal in the rest of our team.

Like others, I’m surprised to see Les dropped, perhaps he has some sort of fitness issue. I’m guessing we’ll see Aribo and MF sitting deeper than usual although that wouldn’t exactly be playing to their strengths. If we’re going direct, I’d imagine they’ll have more of a defensive, covering role to play.

Why not? What was so incredible about Saints squad last season, which won’t be applicable next season and wasn’t under Burley or Redknapp? We’ll likely have Archer and BBD instead of Adams, they should do a decent job. THB and KWP will likely leave but we’ve still gained Wood, Edwards and Taylor and that’s before we’ve signed any more players. I’d say with a half decent fullback and central midfielder, next season’s squad will be better than last, so promotion should be pretty much guaranteed.

Has that actually been confirmed by someone at the club? I’m not saying it isn’t true, I’ve just no idea where it’s come from. Personally I’d use the fact that we’ve looked better (I’m not saying good) in a few second halves (Brighton, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Liverpool in the cup) to suggest we haven’t had a fitness issue this season.

Nah, I liked Steve.

Hoddle and Strachan took over underperforming teams and got them performing again. I don’t feel like this squad or any of the players in it are underperforming. This is as good as any of them have been in their career. They’re just sh*t. Im sorry, I can’t find a way to link this opinion to my ‘hero’, it’s kind of a stand alone thing.

You know what, I fully agree with that first sentence, those four are definitely what I would call ‘average’ PL players. Oh what I wouldn’t give for a team full of them now. I’m trying to make the point that the squad back then was much better because the squad back then was much better. The team Strachan took over was largely the one which had finished 15th and then 10th the preceding two seasons. We’re watching the one which finished fourth in the Championship, plus a handful of players from Swansea and Sheff Utd. Incidentally, is there a statute of limitations on Russell bloody Martin? I’m absolutely bored senseless of every single discussion point being brought back to him.

‘Aren’t that great’ included Beattie, Oakley, Lundekvam, Anders, Pahars, Bridge, Dodd and Marsden. They’d all walk into our side now, in fact I think WGS would only have Ramsdale, THB and Fernandes.

Eventually people are going to have to accept that Suga is a limited player who makes a lot of quite bad mistakes. You’re going to start to get diminishing returns on the whole, “yeah but the guy who was sacked before Christmas…” argument.

Because we are far too reliant on an 18 year old to provide our only genuine creative talent. Livramento also started to look jaded around this time in his first season, Newcastle have been much more sensible in managing his minutes. Hopefully Dibling doesn’t go the way of him, Lavia and all the other young talents asked to do too much too young, like Michael Owen and Lee Holmes.

For me it’s not Christmas without Home Alone, Wallace and Gromit and Die Hard. Then it’s a smorgasbord from Jurassic Park, Guns of Navarone, Italian Job, Zulu, The Great Escape, at least one cheesy Moore Bond film and Escape to Victory.

Which is all we’re realistically hoping for; that this season will be forgotten rather than remembered by the rest of the English footballing community.

Thick and fast Xmas schedule. It’ll be interesting to see how much IJ deviates from todays team. I’d be include to go for Manning on the left and Suga on the bench personally. If we’re trailing with nothing to lose, the latter can put a decent cross in but if we’re trying to keep it tight at the back, the bloke is a Tommy Cooper tribute act. Hopefully Archer is well enough to replace the useless Armstrong too.

Well the first half looked decent although being honest West Ham looked a bit out of sorts and, understandably, weren’t really sure how we’d set up. Clearly they had a very good half time talk because second half they had us figured out. TP something of an enigma, a few very good touches but some very poor finishes too. My fear is that if teams figure out how to mark him out of the game, there’s not much else to worry about. Fernandes will get into the box and have chances but his finishing was well off today, that first half header especially. I’m going to be optimistic and say that Ivan will have learned a lot about his squad today and hopefully we have some fresh ideas for Palace.

They were on the front foot long before that.