madras

Holy shit. Holy exactly. It's like a religion to them, blind to everything that doesn't fit the dogma.

You know, had he waited a week or two he probably would've got the West Brom job....and Pardew, well. As funny as it is already it could've been better.

Punctured egos, in a stadium desolate Can Coleman make a team of them yet.

It wasn't a steward bar steward ?

Have to listen out for "He drives where he wants" chants this afternoon.

I'd be surprised if he wasn't in the next England get together but think Southgate will rely on big club players for the World cup

It does kind of make sense like....played in that position last season once or twice and was good there. Think I may have said once or twice that he should play there vin the league last season. Not going to try and brag cos I'm bloody sure I never said to play him there this season. oh wise madras You know it dude.

It does kind of make sense like....played in that position last season once or twice and was good there. Think I may have said once or twice that he should play there vin the league last season. Not going to try and brag cos I'm bloody sure I never said to play him there this season.

Can't underestimate how much our recent solidity is down to his dropping back into the midfield 2. Been superb since he went there makes you wonder why he hadn't been tried there for real earlier after looking Ok there on a couple of occasions last season.

Loved his shoulder touch on the first goal. Knew exactly where it was going and what he was doing. That wasn't just recting to it coming off him.

He plays well without needing to be spectacular, a little like Woodgate in that respect. The measure of him is what we are like without him.

Anyone else notice with the MotD coverage that the first Gayle chance on 4mins wasn't in the match footage but was in the match analysis and it was a bloody chance, Should have been 2 up in 4 mins and 4 up by half time.

What happened ? I mean did something happen ?

It's easy, the club will know how many are in the stadium, they'll also know the other figure. Let's call it "attendance figure" and ""turnstile figure". You'll also understand that for official purposes the league will want to have as high attendance figures as legally possible.

Thats pretty much it but I still think when Rafa went 2 up front for a while and Joselu was horrible (and his work rate wasn't all that) you try to figure a way that suits what you have. The Joselu thing baffles me as i think he's pretty similar to Mitro, lack of pace, holds it up OK, wins it in the air sometimes. Joselu not being mental and being able to carry out Rafa's instructions is pretty much why he was ahead of Mitro imo. Trusting a player is everything for Rafa, you can clearly see it, Mbemba another who he plainly doesn't trust. Also Rafa is utterly ruthless, while extremely unlikely I've no doubt if a player Rafa trusted more than Lacelles for instance. Rafa would drop him a second, while loyal to players he trusts, Rafa is a winner and has such a desire and drive to win things, you have to be ruthless to do that. What sort of trust though ? What trust does he have in Joselu or Manquillo or Perez (admittedly Perez to a lesser degree) ? Instructions of his game plan, if they can't follow that then he doesn't trust them. The players often talk of where they are meant to be when we don't have the ball, within our shape and structure. If players like Mitro and Mbemba especially fail to adhere to his tactics. Failing to do the side of the game that is just as important to Rafa as scoring goals, not necessarily defending but the team has to be disciplined in its shape for Rafa. Chuck things heard about Mitro not listening to Rafa in training, well you get the picture, you don't do what Rafa is asking you to do then you're history. I 'd wonder about what Joselu follows (that benefits NUFC) that Mitrovic doesn't compared to the trade off of what Mitrovic can give us in return. Within this I'll say again I think the players are shit scared of being dropped so wont brake tactics even when they know it's wrong, they'd rather lose than cross Rafa.

Thats pretty much it but I still think when Rafa went 2 up front for a while and Joselu was horrible (and his work rate wasn't all that) you try to figure a way that suits what you have. The Joselu thing baffles me as i think he's pretty similar to Mitro, lack of pace, holds it up OK, wins it in the air sometimes. Joselu not being mental and being able to carry out Rafa's instructions is pretty much why he was ahead of Mitro imo. Trusting a player is everything for Rafa, you can clearly see it, Mbemba another who he plainly doesn't trust. Also Rafa is utterly ruthless, while extremely unlikely I've no doubt if a player Rafa trusted more than Lacelles for instance. Rafa would drop him a second, while loyal to players he trusts, Rafa is a winner and has such a desire and drive to win things, you have to be ruthless to do that. What sort of trust though ? What trust does he have in Joselu or Manquillo or Perez (admittedly Perez to a lesser degree) ?

Thats pretty much it but I still think when Rafa went 2 up front for a while and Joselu was horrible (and his work rate wasn't all that) you try to figure a way that suits what you have.

Villa bringing more to the SOL than last season up here sums them up. Just over 1600 tonight they reckon. Got no idea how many they brought last season up here or the circumstances.

It's not just losing interest, Short (don't know about Lerner) hasn't lost interest but he wants to cut his losses and get out because he has failed in this venture. It's not losing interest it's niot being willing to throw more money after bad.

Same way Arsenal do on regular occasions. The leagues rules are now that attendances are not how many actually attended but every possible permutation to increase the reported attendance.

tbf that was us till a few weeks ago.

I can understand not playing him as a lone striker. I can understand not playing him in a two up front if you have someone better but given the way Joselu actually played you would expect the manager to maybe adapt his tactics to what he has.

It’s ok down here, just bloody cold. No chance it’s getting called off. I'm in L18 and seen about 1cm of snow on some grass in 3 days. Unless this storm Emma from down south kicks off, then it'll be a normal day in Liverpool. A full CM ? Call it off now!

The 4 Sunderland fans I know that go to games still will regardless, so for the RTGers, I want them to go down, then down again, administration to help this along and stopping just short of going out of existence. I'd settle for dropping to Gateshead level.

They weren't vocal at all yesterday and quite a lot of them disappeared well before the end. Yip. Sitting in the family section you hear the away fans quite well and as usual they were quite loud but no support to their team, it was all about Shearer and not one song after we took the lead.