Wes Tender

Well, it seems that several of us have commented on the cheat Smalling and his habitual pulling of players' shirts. This represents an offence which ought to be punished by a penalty if it seriously impedes a rival team's player from getting to the ball in the box. Perhaps because he is a player for the England National team and he plays for Man Utd, referees don't have the balls to punish this misbehaviour, especially at Old Trafford. In the same way that players were prevented from encroaching into the 10 yards marked out when a free kick is awarded by the simple expedient of the referee drawing a line on the turf with shaving foam, there have been three suggested simple solutions on this thread to the problem of players cheating by pulling rival players' shirts. All out-field players to wear mittens, which would prevent them grabbing a fist full of shirt. Velcroed shirts which would come apart when pulled. The only problem with that is that the shirt would need to pieced together again, which could cause delays. Players to wear skin-tight shirts. A simple solution that could presumably be applied by any clubs who wished to employ it. Maybe we ought to wear them next time we encounter Smalling or other known culprits and see how they fare. But is there an issue of comfort, that the players might not like playing with tighter shirts? If the FA don't feel inclined to act to prevent this form of cheating by instructing the referees to punish it, then perhaps they could investigate some of these other possible solutions.

That seems reasonable to me. It would not be as effective as a referee having the balls to award a penalty during the match, but it would otherwise be an effective retribution that would get the message across. Otherwise, make the players wear mittens and that way they won't be able to grab a handful of shirt.

Because it was us who carved out the chance. Had it been United, then it would have been shown.

It would be nice to think that having seen post-match video evidence of this form of cheating, that the FA would grow a pair and issue an edict to referees that it isn't acceptable and that in future more stringent action will be taken to stamp it out, with punishment meted out after the match if not seen during the match. I won't hold my breath though, especially when we are talking about the serial offender being an England defender playing for the biggest glory club at Old Trafford.

Please read the entire sentence and then by all means give your opinion on that. AD said that it was a phenomenal performance in that we limited them to one shot on goal in the entire match. Do you disagree?

Which is best? The one with the fewest refugees. Seriously though, agree with Kingsland that Kefalonia, Skopelos and neighbouring Skiathos are all nice. Lesbos too, but invaded with immigrants apparently.

First back to back wins at Old Trafford for us since 1969, was it? Something like that. We probably edged it overall and might have had a Long penalty, but Austin coming on as a late substitute and scoring on his debut is Roy of the Rovers stuff. Good thing that we faced them with Van Gaal in charge, although we may have hastened his departure. This really is the worst United team that I can remember. There is no guarantee that they can even finish in the top four, but now with the turnaround that we have produced the past three games, three clean sheets, nine points, I can dream of a top six finish if Austin can keep finding the net.

great stream on Saintsplayer. Showed the penalty shout for Long and both pundits thought it was a clear penalty. Not at Old Trafford though.

The bloke in the second link clearly does not possess any sense of humour, so would not be capable of recognising it in others. He is also gullible enough not to recognise the strong possibility that something might have been lost in the translation of Koeman's comments from Dutch to English and also that not everything reported in the English football press is unquestionably true and beyond reproach. I am content that a Dutch member of the forum says that Koeman was joking, although it would not suit some sections of the media to conclude that too, when they can run some sensationalist nonsense to destabilise us and fill some column inches instead.

No, that would have increased their ratings. It must have been the climate factor that counted against them.

Certainly Koeman has a big selection headache right now. It would appear that Van Gaal has fewer selection options of poorer quality than ours at the moment, despite their big squad of glory-seeker big names. I realise that my judgement might be clouded by rose-tinted glasses, but personally I would not swap our team (or manager) for theirs at the moment.

I do know where Davis is most effective and I have consistently championed his qualities. But as the suggestion that he be included was grouped together with the acceptance that Targett and J W-P had also made decent cases for their inclusion too, then obviously the formation would alter to accommodate the strengths (or weaknesses) that any of them would bring to the team.

Of course, a formation does have a degree of flexibility and can transform into a number of other formations depending on who has possession. Playing a three anywhere on the pitch doesn't necessarily infer that the players to the left or right are playing wide. Neither does it mean that Long cannot run into the box with the ball at his feet or to receive the ball in the box from from a cross such as that made by Targett recently. What it does offer, is the ability for him to track back to protect Cedric or to overlap with him. Since the success of the strategies of the past two matches, the introduction of Austin gives us almost an embarrassment of choice. Davis should play instead of either Victor or Romeu and both Targett and J W-P have made decent cases for their inclusion. Having them and Pelle on the bench means that we should be able to have a very high degree of flexibility to take account of match injuries, avoiding players being sent off, or strategic changes. We're very strong in midfield and up-front now and CB and to a lesser extent full back are probably the only areas where we are weaker.

Switch Tadic and Long and that is a very strong line-up.

Unless these are Yank journalists, then they are rumour-mongers. I agree with you that the number of these rumours is unusually high for our club, but I am reliably informed that none of the journos have an agenda to destabilise our club or players.

Your average fourth former could write something a bit more imaginative than that. Serious journalists would look at that schoolboy gibberish and either shudder or fall down laughing at the sheer infantile banality of it.

Here is a comparison between Alderweireld and Van Dijk taken from a Spurs blog site. OK, it only covers 14 matches for Alderweireld and 10 for Van Dijk, but in many areas Virgil has the better stats. When adjustments are made to compare them based on minutes played, V.V-D looks even better. Accepted that many more games have now been played, but bear in mind that these are the stats achieved by V-VD with no previous experience of the PL. Alderweireld vs Van Dijk (Premier League) Games Played: 14 vs 10 Minutes Played: 1,260 vs 900 Total Passes: 713 vs 476 Forward Passes: 72% vs 77% Pass Completion: 81% vs 84% Total Long Balls: 186 vs 67 Long Ball Accuracy: 47% vs 58% Unsuccessful Touches: 4 vs 3 Dispossessed: 2 vs 0 Short Pass Accuracy: 93% vs 88% Shots: 10 vs 9 Shot Accuracy: 86% vs 67% Goals: 2 vs 2 Interceptions: 24 vs 28 Blocks: 8 vs 6 Clearances: 111 vs 73 Tackles Won: 37% vs 67% Aerial Duels Won: 56% vs 74% Fouls Committed: 3 vs 7 Yellow cards: 0 vs 1 Opta Statistics obtained through Whoscored,com and Squawka.com Perhaps Method would care to provide the up to date stats to prove his case, but as it stands here, a Spurs site doesn't seem to show this vast superiority of Toby.

Is that you, Toby?

And if that monster top class defensive midfielder got injured, we would be deep in the sh*t wouldn't we, just as we were when Schneiderlin was out. By the way, let's have some names of players who would fit that brief, bearing in mind that they would have to be available and willing to come here. I'm ambivalent about whether Alderweireld is better than V. Van Dijk. I don't miss him particularly and V.V-D improves match by match, so that there isn't that much between them now IMO. As for the whole squad, adding Austin's fire-power up front tips the balance more in favour of our current squad and I would suggest that it would be capable of beating last season's squad now.

Shearer and Sinclair on MOTD 2 very complimentary at Southampton for managing to sign Austin for just £4 million.

I loved reading all the comments from fans, many from the glory teams, opining that it should have been their clubs who signed him, and asking how we managed to get him so cheaply. Also there was amazement at how we managed to get it over the line without it being highlighted in the press for weeks beforehand. I really love the way that we do our business behind closed doors. One in the eye for those journos with an agenda against us.

Although I share your opinion that Wanyama should not have started, it might well be that the thinking was that he was fresher than Clasie and Romeu to start the match and that we now had enough strength in midfield to provide some rotation after a mid-week match. Thankfully though, Steve Davis (and indeed Shane Long up front) are not only capable of playing two matches in three days, but able to do it to the same high degree of intensity which epitomises their competitive nature. I'm sure that Wanyama knows how badly he let his team mates down by his stupidity in getting sent off and losing us that Norwich match, and having learnt his lesson, wanted the chance to make amends as soon as possible. Had he been left out, he might have sulked, but he acquitted himself well without a booking and normal service has been resumed. He must now accept that during his absence, Romeu took his chance to shine and that if he wants to be picked in future matches, (aside from injuries in midfield), it will be because he has turned in the level of performance that means he cannot be excluded from automatic selection.

I was expecting the usual dire, drab, boring match that usually occurs when we play West Brom down here. I also questioned why J. W-P was playing when I heard the team announcement. I am very happy to have been proved wrong on both accounts. We really did need that early goal, as it forced WBA to come forward, but even then they didn't venture out very far. What it did do though, was give us a massive confidence boost and the belief that if we kept on pressing them, we might gain our rewards. It made a nice change to have a decent referee too and especially one that wasn't afraid to award us a penalty. I can't recall the last one that we had and a glance at that table that assesses the number of refereeing decisions that either benefit or penalise a team, has us down in the bottom two or three places of teams wrongly punished by incorrect decisions. J.W-P dispatched it confidently and all of a sudden, the lad was on for his hat trick. That is something that would have been more likely from a free kick or another penalty to be fair, but all of a sudden this week, we have carried a goal threat from several positions throughout the team. Chief among those providing the impetus has been Shane Long. His tireless closing down, running into space, tenacity in the tackle and chasing of lost causes has proven a thorn in Watford's and WBA's defences. Mane could and should have scored at least 3 or 4 goals in the last two matches, with the potential for netting 5 or 6 times had he taken the chances he had on a plate more often than not. The bedrock for the attack and the protection of the defence was provided by some superb midfield performances over the two matches, especially from Davis, but honourable mentions to Clasie, and Romeu against Watford and subsequently from Wanyama and J.WP today. When we lost against Palace playing a back three, there were dark mutterings about Koeman's lack of tactical nous, but these past two matches have seen it work like an inspired plan, partly maybe because Forster returning has given the defence a confidence boost and partly because having Bertrand covering Targett's back has shown us a side of him that we didn't know existed, although Koeman must have realised the potential from the training ground. Cedric acquitted himself well again on the other flank, but didn't have the forward movement or tracking back protection in front of him that was employed on our left flank. The play was unbalanced towards the left side of the pitch for much of the game, leaving acres of space on the right flank which could have been exploited better. But it wasn't down to us to make those adjustments tactically, as we were comfortably in the lead and having most of the play confined to half of the pitch width probably suited us more than it suited them. Once again, the defence was rock solid pretty well throughout the game, with Forster virtually a spectator. All three were solid, with V.V-D impressing more with each game with his calmness and great ability in the air. It was a shame that Ricky didn't get any match time, but that was some tribute that our fans gave him. He could be in no doubt about the affection that we have for him and his contribution towards our climb up the divisions and our re-establishment as PL side. The matches against United, Arsenal and West Ham look far less daunting prospects now than they did a week ago. United will be back to thinking that they have a difficult fixture ahead of them, whereas Arsenal will have too recent memories of their last match against us, wondering whether we are back to the battling ways that destroyed them.

I hope that by Davis you mean Kelvin rather than Steve