CaliMag

Nolan & Butt in the middle + 4-5-1 = 2-0 loss to Ipswich.

Bad luck Ketsy. I hope he gets another job soon and does well. Seems a bit harsh W5 D1. I remember SBR managing Barca got a headline in the local paper along the lines of "Barca beat Espanyol 5-0, but play no football." Probably a bit like that.

I can't help but feel that many of us are spoiled rotten in terms of 'keepers. Harper is not as good as someone like Van Der Saar, but he's not far off and he is certainly better than the majority of 'keepers in the Premiership (probably all but 5). It would be absolute folly to think we could do better in terms of signing someone better even if we were still in the Premiership. Fair play to criticise his mistakes (few as they are in comparison to other 'keepers - especially in this league), but he is excellent and I am very glad he is here.

Live streamed on ESPN 360 for those of you in North America.

We are playing well at the moment. Looks like Leicester getting tired... they spent it all first half IMO.

The ref and linesmen are really helping the crowd get behind the team here... Nothing like righteous indignation and the common enemy to unite us.

Leicester are playing really well - probably the best team we've played yet. This is the type of tenacity I was expecting from every game in the CCC. I am interested to see if they can keep the intensity up through the second half.

Yep... pretty much.

Excellent set of results in the Championship for us today. I could not really have asked for better.

Oh right, yeah

Geremi - our former captain - hasn't played in a dog's age. I am thinking... well okay, hoping... that he will surprise us.

I'd add Harper and Krul to that list. It's not so much that they are underrated as that most Premiership keepers are not very good. I forgot Steven Taylor Hes gan to Everton man... where you been?

I'd add Harper and Krul to that list. It's not so much that they are underrated as that most Premiership keepers are not very good.

Carragher is 31 and will soon become a liability. City will keep spending until they win stuff - I am afraid they aren't going anywhere but up.

Your avatar and sig was obsessed with replacing older players with younger ones (ready or not) and we can debate the nuances of replacing Solano with Ambrose too early, but in principle he is right. Liverpool peaked last year and they are becoming an older team. The backbone of that team is Gerrard 29 (and peaked as I said in the Liverpool or Arsenal thread) and Carragher is 31. They have no replacements for them. The two players that did well today are some of thier youngest at 25 (Johnson and Torres). Even Kuyt is 29.

I read a stat on Soccernet that I thought was very interesting: Against Villa, Liverpool lost for the first time in a game where Torres has scored. Before today it read: Won 23 drawn 5 A significant first. Torres and Gerrard make Liverpool win. I would argue that although Gerrard is world-class he is not as good as he was two to three seasons ago. He's peaked. They have a thin squad and they are not spending money like they used to. So dropping down to 5th or 6th I think is possible. Arsenal are now playing a bunch of youngsters that they bought 2 to 4 years ago. Have any of them peaked? Probably not. I can see players like Bendtner, Song-Billong, Fab, Vermaelen and Denilson all getting much much better. I can't see them leaving the top 4 - and I can't see them doing something stupid, like sacking Wenger for not winning anything this year.

Smug bump.

I've never understood this mentality. Sure, there's the consolation of "being able to focus on the league", but by no means can I see it being particularly better if you were knocked out. A premiership team in the 3rd round (if you get through) could for example give you a test to see what sort of level you're at. And besides, a decent cup run will only raise spirits surely. I would agree however to playing some of the younger lads. Normally I would agree with you, these are extenuating circumstances. We have a very small squad (that will probably get smaller) and we have over 40 games ahead of us. If we have a good cup run we'll just have that many more games with more opportunities for injuries and exhaustion (especially for our older players that fade badly when played more than a week in a row - Butt and Geremi). If we had a manager and were bringing in as many players as are leaving then I would be all for winning in all matches... but we don't.

Play the reserve/academy team. We have bigger fish to fry and the sooner we are out of this compo the better. I also don't like the idea of Huddersfield out to prove a point and injuring our players after the last game.

I am thinking we are going to lose this game pretty badly. Players not used to this many games, away from home (London no less) overconfidence, settling in of bad habits from the second have of the Wednesday game, no new players, no off field issues settled, organized and hungry opponents. 3-0 to Palace with Colocini taking a nap second half and one of our midfielders getting sent off.

Sol Campbell won us the 99 FA Cup Semi at Old Trafforf so it wouldn't be the first time he has helped us out. I'd love to have him, S Taylor and Carrol all in the opposition box during corners

So we have Ambrose with a brace, Chopra, Caldwell with an OG... any other former toon players scoring today?

It was Rob Lee. I just tried looking it up on youtube and couldn't find it. I'll take your word for it though. Obviously Lee was pretty good in the air as well, just not on the same level as Speed, Duncan, or Alan IMO. I can't believe that season was 10 years ago.

The only game I got to see live last year was the Blackburn game (commute is a bitch... etc.) and I paid special attention to Xisco because I knew the least about him. He ran and impressed me with his effort, but he seemed aimless and needed direction... which he wasn't getting from Owen who did his usual disgruntled thing or Duff who worked hard that game but tried to do it on his own. Well now we are in the CCC and we don't have time to practice tactics, formation or work on a "plan." We just have to work with what's there and I think Xisco is lacking - which I understand is completely (and unfairly) biased by that Blackburn game (and his limited ther appearances), but I am guessing Houghton, Shearer and Kinnear have all agreed with me to some extent from what they saw in training. Mobility without direction was Martins' biggest weakness and we couldn't fix him... so how are we going to fix Xisco?

Well Merlin to be honest I am just looking at promotion - The Premiership seems a long way off. If we can train Jonas and or Enrique to play on the wings and cross early enough with Carroll knocking it down for an onrushing striker (hopefully someone who can hit the ball hard) maybe we could fool enough of the managers long wnough to get us into a leading position in the table to get promoted. Carroll does win eevrything in the air. He's big and has a leap, we should expliot that. Since this is the CCC and there is no time for elaborate tactics or training we should just get him to specialise IMO. I agree that he seems a better prospect that Shola. But then maybe Shola is peaking right now (right age for that) and will actually work for us at this level (but somehow didn't for Stoke). Shola got his first hat trick - good for him. Shearer's first hattrick was at the age of 18... against Arsenal... in his first game as a starter. Shola will never be great, but I hope he is adequate. I am not familiar enough with the CCC to know if we could overpower most defenses with a Large & Large like we did against Reading, but I am willing to give it a try... seeing as we don't have a choice. For the record I do not think Xisco will come good for us nor do I think we will actually be playing real football (You know... that fancy passing thing you mentioned) this season since it will be based on playing the players we have fit and I would suspect that by November we'll have 4-5 players playing out of position. So I say count on the knock down, play two big lads up front, get Smith and Barton to beat the sh!te of the opposition and lets just play dirty, nasty, ugly tacking long ball and hope for the best.