CaliMag

This should be played whenever we play the makums from now on.

QPR are a bit hungrier than the makems at the moment. However I am thinking it will be a draw.

Thanks B-More.

We're fucked.

I agree, all together looks like you're ready to invade poland wearing those.

That is a great way of putting it.

Sissoko is exactly what we needed and we signed 4 more players than I expected that have fit in perfectly. 3 now.

He's awful man. If by "awful" you mean better than 90% of the keepers in the Championship and better than half of the Premiership keepers then okay "awful" then. Otherwise I'd say "awful" or "slow as fuck" or "past it" were hyperbole. As I have posted multiple of times: we have been spoiled keeper position. Most of our fans have no idea what it means to have a poor keeper or even an average keeper because we haven't had one in over a decade. Harper would do well in the Championship or Premiership next year. And I wish him luck with his next club. The abuse on here is shameful.

Elliot has never impressed me. The number of anti-Harper posts and use of hyperbole is embarassing.

Most likely.. 1. Clarkey 2. Nobby 3. [darkhorse] Ketsy

Still a 6 which I have voted for the past few months. I expected us to lose the last three so no change there. I am waiting to see if we suddenly gain an understanding among the midfielders we have, if we sign anyone and how well they fit in.

I think both of Sunderlands wins in the last 15 games came against 10 men. (?)

Still in a relegation battle because 1. we won't get any more points until January and 2. I feel that Wigan would have at least a draw had they played with 11.

6 for the same reasons mentioned above. At this point it is merely a question of how bad the other teams in the relegation battle are.

Ironically I though Steve CLark had also lost his mind. Lukaku was their biggest threat and I would have said Graham Dorrans and Zoltan Gera did well also... so why take them off?

I wrote similar above, but I don't think he is playing favorites I think he is just messing around with formations and has a vision that isn't working. Also I thought the formation we ended with should have been the one we started with. if he's not playing faves why was ameobi wide right and why did jonas drop to full back ? Jonas did well at LB and I thought him working with Gabby was one of the few bright spots of the last 15 minutes of the game. Why was Shola on the RW? Good question, I am willing to accept that Pardew had some plan it just didn't work.

I wrote similar above, but I don't think he is playing favorites I think he is just messing around with formations and has a vision that isn't working. Also I thought the formation we ended with should have been the one we started with.

I am a fan of Pardew but this season has been puzzling - I am not annoyed or angry just mystified. He is clearly trying new things and tweaking our formation every week - this is not entirely a bad thiing, but it isn't good either. I see that there is a lot of criticism about the players in this thread but I think we have a pretty good set of players right now and it's down to Pardew how inconsistant and poor most of them have been this season. Shola had a crap game today and it was entirely Pardew's fault for putting him out on the wing and trying something different well beyond his capabilities. Simpson had a poor game and was at fault for the goal but he had it all to do on the right as Shola did little to help him as an outlet and instead spent most of the time on a quiet stroll with WBA's LB. HBA was inconsistant today and this was because he was constantly adating to changes clearly made by Pardew. Play left wing, now start cutting inside more, now play on the right... meanwhile the rest of the team also has to adjust. As I mentioned in the match thread the changes he made in subs and formation were better but caused all sorts of chaos and it took time for the team to adapt. During that time they were running into eachother and trying to anticipate everyone's new roles but getting it wrong half the time and giving away possession. It was a mess. I would say the players coped well to what was clearly a confusing day at the office thanks to the boss.

I have not had a proper look around the site this evening, but I was totally bewildered and confused by what Pardew was trying to accomplish with our formation and I imagine this has already been done to death but here is my take: We were playing a 4-5-1 with HBA and Shola (WTF) playing on the extreme wings in the first half. Okay with HBA on the left finally we saw a couple of good crosses with his left foot... but what was Shola expected to do? He is not a winger and he left Simpson with everything to do on the right which is a foolish gamble. In the start of the second half I believe we all caught a glimpse of what that formation was supposed to do and that was have Shola knock the ball into the middle of the pitch for onrushing Ba or a midfielder... but why? And how about that midfield? We had Perch and Jonas playing DCM and yet Cabaye was behind them 90% of the time in the first half. I think we had a better formation out in the latter stages of the second half (jonas did well when slotted back to fullback) but the subs and the radical formation change totally unsettled our players and had them literally running into each other when attempting to maintain possession. I did not like whatever that was that Pardew had the players attempting in the first half and hopefully we will never see that type of formation and set of tactics again (especially at home FFS). We got lucky.

I also agree with Wullie, but think Neesy and Mick are big softies. It wasn't that cold (I say pissed and warm in bed).

Really looking forward to this. This will be my first game in ages.

Players can be easily booked if they're clearly wasting time. The clock is stopped for various reasons in Rugby and it works just fine there. It will quickly become apparent if there are issues with ball boys, and it could be dealt with very easily (in the same way they dealt with Stoke giving their ball boys team-specific instructions). The "opening doors to x" argument is nonsense and holds back the game. Theoretically players can be booked for dissent (as mentioned), but do they? No. Refs have limited power as it is. Rugby isn't football - differnet ruling bodies, enforcement culture, etc. The only real action I have seen against SToke (like pitch size) were made by UEFA and FIFA with the FA rolling over like the subserviant bitch that it is. If there are to be real changes I would start with enforcing the rules that already exist.

I think it is a terrible idea. Opens the doors to Time Outs - because essentially that is what you would have everytime the ball went out of play. The Manager could just pull a player aside with a clipboard and headset as soon as the ball was out of play. It would be American Football mk II. I doubt carding the players would help. The ball boys could be given instruction (like at the Brittania with hand towels) to waste time to give the manager more face time with the players. I see all sorts of abuse with this type of system that would essentially add an endless amount of time to the game and kill the very nature of football.

Probably Giggs, but I am *very* jealous of the Star Trek (the Original Series) lettering that Maritimo has on thier kits.

At DisneyLAND it's everynight.