madras

with current personnel yes. i was still disappointed with gouffran not getting in the box when playing wide of cisse and why I still think we'll get a remy/aubameyang type to play around cisse and with ben arfa. pre season I had hoped both ben arfa and marveaux would show more for getting in the box when off the ball but am now convinced neither has it in their natural game. i'm not at all sure how cisse would link up with a carroll type if we play carroll like rodgers did as he was quite mobile when here and had a fantastic cross on him from the left.

hope the ? is someone who's natural game involves getting in the box as that line up, for all it looks good, has similar problems to last seasons in cisse being isolated. I'm struggling to remember many if any occasions that ben arfa received or was in a position to receive the ball in the box, i don't put that down to tactics but it just not being in his game. This. Exactly why our 4-3-3 worked so well despite Ba not being a natural left winger - he always wanted to get into the box. it's also why we tried for de jong, remy and PEA imo.

similar pics of nolan when he was getting slated on here for being fat.

hope the ? is someone who's natural game involves getting in the box as that line up, for all it looks good, has similar problems to last seasons in cisse being isolated. I'm struggling to remember many if any occasions that ben arfa received or was in a position to receive the ball in the box, i don't put that down to tactics but it just not being in his game.

htt man, delete that and post something else as i'm dangerously close to having to agree with you.

the latter brought on by the former it reads to me.

haven't really been following, are many saying "get rid" or just that he had a poor season last season ?

everyone I know who has met him (including some who set out to have a go at him) have said he's a fantastic bloke to have a crack on with. he was a poor manager for us but the bellamy thing was poor little craigy's fault, he lied about a reason for missing training and was dropped (a bit like ferguson done with beckham) but bellamy wouldn't accept it, in his own words "he went behind my back infront of my face".

natural goalscoring ? aye but at present he's the one player we have who's natural inclination is to look to get on the end of something in the box, hence the attempts to buy de jong, remy, PEA.

how come, if he's a goal every other game striker and he starts missing relatively easy chances surely thats his fault. isn't the sign of a decent striker that if one decent chance comes their way per game they take it ?

the start of the championship season we were saying how the difference was that we were taking our chances and the oppo werent. we didn't defend well, just the oppo werent up to taking their chances.

Whatever the stats maybe he certainly wasn't playing in his preferred position until Ba left - which was really the point I was trying to get across. The service to him after that was poor at best hence why 'imo' he did brilliant to score the goals he did. the servive he got wasn't great but he did miss a good few chances that most premier league forwards would've put away. Which premier league forwards? shane long,steven fletcher, etc. cisses service wasn't great but the chances he got were often very good and imo other forwards would have made better from them. i want to keep him, i think last season was a one off for him (shows how much he's a confidence player) but i'm not going to lie about the chances he missed.

Whatever the stats maybe he certainly wasn't playing in his preferred position until Ba left - which was really the point I was trying to get across. The service to him after that was poor at best hence why 'imo' he did brilliant to score the goals he did. the servive he got wasn't great but he did miss a good few chances that most premier league forwards would've put away.

enrique looked good straingt away, very good defensively and a little shy going forward, can't understand why allardyce took so long to play him. colo looked decent on the ball but poor and soft defensively, took a decent chunk of the championship season for him to get the hang of it.

I honestly hear that about anyone with a bad reputation "Oh, I know he acts like a dickhead when everyone is looking but in real life he's a great bloke" You hear it, but it isn't really true, is it? It's just apologists making excuses. Most of the leagues known arseholes have at least as many scrapes off the pitch as on it. Whether it's fighting in nightclubs, f***ing around or just being a dick to people. Given how bad Suarez behaves on the field, you'd expect there to be at least a couple of off-field stories but there aren't any (at least that I'm aware of). Maybe he is just a coward? I doubt he would have the balls to go up to someone like Ivanovic when there isn't the ref, other players, tv etc.. and bite him. does it matter where he does it...he does it and that makes him a twat.

I honestly hear that about anyone with a bad reputation "Oh, I know he acts like a dickhead when everyone is looking but in real life he's a great bloke" You hear it, but it isn't really true, is it? It's just apologists making excuses. Most of the leagues known arseholes have at least as many scrapes off the pitch as on it. Whether it's fighting in nightclubs, f***ing around or just being a dick to people. Given how bad Suarez behaves on the field, you'd expect there to be at least a couple of off-field stories but there aren't any (at least that I'm aware of). Oi, thats your captain your talking about.

why not have a play off system where each team involved plays each other home and away, points could be awarded for winning games, and less points for drawing them, nothing for a defeat. the team with the most points is deemed the winner of these play offs. if teams have the same points, goal difference could be used to seperate them.

the only play off, save for one off occasions when teams finish dead level, should be between the third bottom team and the third top team from the division below.

Sweden and Belgium has to be in with a shout there. Belgian team at least on paper is pretty brilliant. I was thinking more historically, at least Malmo/Anderlecht/Gothenburg/Mouscron have some history in Europe. Currently I'd still argue the same. Not even sure the LOI is professional. a few clubs are but most players have day jobs as well as the football i'm pleased someone quoted that before he replaced mouscron with mechelen. thought i was losing it for a second.

my main, probably only, problem with him is that when he's not playing through the middle he doesn't really get into the box (the way he did for his goal v spurs) anywhere near enough, leaving cisse there on his own which has been our biggest problem this season (getting bodies in the box). unlike some i don't see it as purely tactical, more that we don't really have enough players for whiom it's their natural game, hence why sissoko was pushed further forward with little or no defensive responsibilities.

leicester away, 2-1 win thinking we needed to win to stay up.

Yep. anyone else think that then it would be as much up to the player ? if we offer for example 15mill, they offer 16mill but the player says he wants to come here and liverpool would blame the loss on dalglish ?

http://www.learningtoeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/The-Last-Supper.jpg

thats how i spend 90% of my working day.

bit predictable though isn't it and I thionk tiote's problem could be as much that he's been sussed out. with cabaye, sissoko, anita in a middle 3 we have 3 players who can tackle, see a pass and hopefully learn to play off each other making it a damn sight less obvious for the oppo as to who's going to pick the ball up and where. all three can pick the ball up off the defence and all three can play from recieve the ball from whoever has dropped.