James

He is a better defender than Vuckic though

Duff will have the freedom to roam, and hopefully get some chances on goal, and then slot into the left side when we are defending so we can stick Barton on Hunt.

Krul Taylor Taylor Coloccini Enrique Barton Smith Nolan Duff Ameobi Carroll

Well he got Leeds motivated and into the Champions League, and by all accounts had good starts both there and at Villa, and he's got the best out of quite a few youngsters. We will have to keep most the squad, but I think we proved yesterday that we have the most individual quality in this division, we just need a few tweaks to the team and the right mentality, and we'll walk this division purely because the players from last season who were slow and with shit technique suddenly have good technique and a burst of speed, and West Brom away was one of the most difficult games.

By the way, we had two chances on goal within about five touches of a Krul kick.

I'm not too sure he can even dribble, or whether he is just really good at following a moving football like a greyhound follows a rabbit. Perhaps that is the real reason they call him the Greyhound in Spain.

There was another training ground bust up.

It is because Jonas can't play on the right. Jonas only real talent is cutting inside on his right foot while dribbling, and he can only really do that on the left.

Was it cardiac arrest?

RIP

Hopefully all the Premier League managers were being dragged out shopping with their wives or something.

By the way, Shearer was spot-on when he said Krul was a very good kicker.

Given never had the aerial presence Krul has. Shay's strength was his shot stopping rather than his height. These are all good points. In fact, when they get used to Krul's abilities, the defence could push up a bit more and that would solve a lot of things that are wrong at the moment at this club. You reckon he will be able to afford a buyer for us if the defence push up? I meant on the pitch.

Given never had the aerial presence Krul has. Shay's strength was his shot stopping rather than his height. These are all good points. In fact, when they get used to Krul's abilities, the defence could push up a bit more and that would solve a lot of things that are wrong at the moment at this club.

Made it twice tbf, but faced a lot more pressure than Harper did. The irony is though was that the pressure seemed to come from his own team mates getting in the way. When Shearer gets the job, I want him to get involved as a player in the set pieces and just spend the whole time giving Krul a hard time, could really help him get that sorted in his game.

What we now have with Krul is an excellent keeper who is mentally prepared for the challenge, but just needs first team experience to help him become a better all round keeper. Van der Sar told Krul that he'd become a good goalkeeper by getting first team experience away from the glare of the PL. Well here he is. Time to give him that experience before we waste him and lose him to a better club for a fraction of the price we'd get in a few years.

He stopped us winning this game (or at least carving out more goalscoring chances). Not only did he lose possession by going to ground too early, but there were times he could have released the ball pretty early and we'd have a much better chance of carving out a chance, but instead he'd meander on the ball aimlessly, giving WBA the time to get behind the ball and shut us out. He needs the ball is faster than you coaching from the Goal film.

That's what some said about Dyer too, but I'd have Dyer back over this guy tbh. Dyer on form is 100 times better than Jonas. I'd reccommend trying to find lengthy (10 min or so) footage of our 3-1 win over Arsenal or our 4-3 win over Leeds, as they show you how good Dyer actually was at times.

If this is what we can expect for the rest of the season Smith should be captain.

Okay, these were my opinions on the players performances. Harper - 5 Can't remember him having to do much, and he did flap for the goal unfortunately. Bravely tried to make up for it, but its what you would expect a keeper to do. Ryan Taylor - 6 Was really poor, abysmal to be honest in the first half, both defensively and on the ball, and was to blame for the goal. However to be fair to him, although he still looked shaky at times he did put in a good defensive shift in the second half. Steven Taylor - 8 To be quite honest, I think he's showing signs of really maturing. Played a clever game, and won all his head-to-head battles without exposing the defence by getting drawn out of position. Possibly the best defender in this division, I'd certainly rather have him playing for us than against us. Coloccini - 2 A complete mess. Poor marking, and gets owned by a Championship level kid. I was worried everytime the ball went near him. Enrique - 7 Showed that good strength an composure he has and got forward well. Despite all the running on the counter-attack, and all the praise he got off the Beeb, I personally think Enrique got the better of this battle as all Brunt ever really managed to do was pull back and keep possession. Duff - 6 Apart from his chance, he didn't really get involved in the first half. Was a bit better in the second half when he looked for the ball more, and scored a good goal, but just didn't get the ball enough. Nolan - 5 Truly shocking for large periods of the game, he just isn't where he is supposed to be most the time, and missed a really good chance. He could do so much better (see the assist) if he kept in good shape. Smith - 9 and MOTM Carried out his role as a defensive midfielder superbly today, and he played a huge role in helping us control possession. Nothing to criticise today. Jonas - 3 We'd have won this game today if he wasn't on the pitch. His tight dribbling looks really good, and he won free kicks, but time and time again he completely took the momentum and impetus out of the team when we looked most dangerous. Going down for nothing when he looked like beating his man was bad enough, but time and time again we could have played a couple of quick passes and had a shot on goal, but he got his head down, slowed down and just meandered aimlessly on the ball. I have a feeling people are going to disagree with me on this one, but if all he can do is dribble really well and win freekicks (when he isn't giving the ball away by going to ground too easily), then he is no use to us. Ameobi - 6 Essentially he was feeding off scraps and playing like a pinball, but I wouldn't write him off yet, he has much more pace and physical presence at this level relative to the opposition, and teams wont want to play against him. we just need to get some chances to him and see if he can finish them now he is playing against worser players. Carroll - 7 Like Shola we didn't really get any clear cut chances to him, but he won a hell of a lot in the air, his flick-ons were good, and should be a good focal point of the team this season. I was also impressed by his tanacity, but perhaps he tried too hard and tired himself out. Krul - 8 Really top class saves. Had two flaps, but also made some good catches so I'll let him off. Shearer was raving about Krul's kicking, and I've heard similar from others so I gave it a look. Noted that he had a knack of finding his man, but also putting the ball in a place where the target can move forward from it. Two of our better attacks in the second half started from a Krul kick. Barton - 6 Got involved. Ranger - n/a Good harrying of defenders, and the knock back for Duff at the death was pretty good.

Bottom line is we drew 1-1 away against the team you'd expect to be our main title rivals this season, and outplayed them for large stretches of the game. A few things need sorting, but is primarily about getting in a manager and owner who are going to get the team doing this in more than one game. I think it is clear that what is very average technique for the Premier League is going to give us lots of time on the ball, lots of possession. We just need to sort out the final ball, tactically reassess how we attack, and work on our defence of set pieces. And we need to try and keep most of these players.

Surely the media would be all over that one?

thats as strong a line up as you'll find in this league tbf. It should, but mentality just isn't there. Seems like a few people are posting rumours that Barton had a huffy yesterday and hasn't travelled. If that is the case do we play Shola and sacrifice the system practiced in training, or do we play Geremi?

Legend