La Parka

This. Not even Giles Barnes would come to us ahead of West Ham! Head out the clouds lads

Sven is an international class manager and had a year to scout the players he brought in. Proves that it can be done though. s*** team + Good manager + flair players = Entertaining football But...there's no comparison mate. Not now there isn't but before Allardyce and Sven were appointed Newcastle and Man City were in a similar situation. They weren't in a similar situation at all, as Sven inherited a good spine of players that takes time to develop, he just needed to wisely add to these players. Dunne, Richards... ... A team in much better health as well, an owner who has thrown the cash around, a manager who had a year out to find his players and a youth system which created players like Onahua, Island, Etuhu, Johnson and others like Sturridge and that LB coming through.

1-1 Probably the kind of game the players will be up for tbh.

A state of the club caused by being too patient with managers who were clearly taking us in the wrong direction unfortunately... I'm not sure patience is the right word. The shit at the club was down to many other factors.. Sadly it looks like Sam is going the same way. But then, when Sam goes who will come in? People calling for Van Gaal and suchlike are in dreamland.. Expect Mike Newall...

Never seen him, or even heard of him. But the policy seems right for me...

Surely its not being arrogant to expect to beat Derby at home... or even at worst not concede a goal against them. I bet even Derby fans couldnt believe what was happening in that match On paper, perhaps not... but my guess is the "team that's bottom at Christmas..." statistics have motivated Derby a bit lately. They should have had a well-earned point against Liverpool the other day, too. They're on a mini purple-patch. But even then, that's irrelevant. It’s what being mid-table is all about. We get a few good results against teams about our standard or better (see Arsenal, Bolton, West Ham, Spurs, Everton) then it’s balanced out be losing to teams we would like a result against (see Derby… twice). Come the end of the season we’re going to be roughly where we deserve to be. Exactly. We will pick up results, continue to be inconsistant and finish 10th or so. Then we will have to look to build on it over the summer. I can't see us being consistant at all this season, and I think thats not a surprise considering the state of the club at the end of last season.

Exactly what I have been saying. People just need to accept we have fallen behind.

Even I am starting to worry for him.. I have backed him thus far, but I am starting to think Sam can't change. I hope, for his sake, he takes a look in the mirror, fucks off all this statistics bullshit and plays the way we need to so the opposition will have to nullify us. Sacking, more change is still a bad idea but Sam continues to shoot himself in the foot.

I Agree with Both of the above (in bold), TBH! The over expectation by our fans is frankly hillarious. We were/are no where near Villa, Blackburn, Everton or Pompy. We are not a top 8 team anymore. We are a mid table team. We need time to build on that. Those expecting anything above 8th this season were dreaming. The club was murdered by two appointments and sackings. Changing again is a bad idea, its hardly brought us on so far.. you cant say that on here. we are a top 1 side and we arent performing as such. sack the manager and the rest. good post though. LETS SACK THE MANORGER SO HE KAN SELL EVERYONEZZ AND SIGN MORE s*** BECAUSE ITS ALL WE CAN REALISTICALLY ATTRACT YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'm not aiming this at anyone but isn't it clear? Where has sacking and resigning a new team got us?

I seriously can't think of realistic candidates. Unless of course the money talks..

Swings and roundabouts tbh. Its bound to upset someones POV no matter what is said. I am on the "give him time" camp. YES we can critisise some woeful performances as of late *however* we are in a relatively good position IMO, taking into account the damage done by 2 terrible managers. In the Summer sam lost 12 players, mostly deadwood and tried his best to replace them. Some players were stop gaps but we have to be realistic. Who could we attract? I know most footballers would hop over to Everton, Blackburn, Pompey even W-Ham over us. We are a mid table side, what we need is a chance to rebuild with a look at bringing in a bit more talent. We are in mid table, yes some performances have been poor, but I am happy tbh. The main problem is that people still think we are an attractive European side with big expectations far and beyond the reaches of a crippled club.

I thought exactly the same until the last 2 games where we seem to have been out-thought, out-fought, out-played by, in my opinion, the 2 worst teams in the league. ( following on from really struggling, lucky wins against 2 of the other worst teams Fulham and Birmingham ). I really want Sam to succeed but it worries me greatly why the players just dont seem to be responding in any kind of positive way to his management and instructions. In these days of player power, I just cant see the day when things will turn around. Nail on head. I'm starting to think like you, but then I think where the policy of sacking has got us in the past. I can tolerate the shit results tbh. I never expected higher than 8th, something we are in contention for despite some shit results. I just think with time to get the personel he wants Sam can turn it round.

I Agree with Both of the above (in bold), TBH! The over expectation by our fans is frankly hillarious. We were/are no where near Villa, Blackburn, Everton or Pompy. We are not a top 8 team anymore. We are a mid table team. We need time to build on that. Those expecting anything above 8th this season were dreaming. The club was murdered by two appointments and sackings. Changing again is a bad idea, its hardly brought us on so far..

Nail on head.

Dropped with Butt by the sound of it.. Good. .cock said he had a slight ankle injury. I'd expect them to say that

Dropped with Butt by the sound of it.. Good.

No one.

Zigic didn't get a fair chance at Valencia imo, brilliant player and would work great in our system, Angulo is (well was) pretty decent and might be a usefull squad player, the others are not good enough..agreed. Agree he hasn't had a fair chance. He came on at the weekend and changed the game. Zigic would be great for us, but isn't heading towards the wrong side of 30? (I may be wrong)... Edit: I was: 27... I think most clubs would take Albelda tbh..

That's as may be, but I'd still call him up to the squad for the upcoming friendly next year, if he's so clearly willing. Especially as we are so average in the position at the moment...

Nail on head. Absolute joke he doesn't start in the 4-3-3. He is ideal to be the most attack minded of the three. In 4-4-2 I see the sense in leaving him out: He is a bit of a luxury in the middle, Sam prefers grafters who get stck in ahead of creativity.

I'd like to echo the points made by these two posters. Where has chopping and changing got us over the last few years? Nowhere. As long as he improves on last season this season (ie: top 12 or so) and then builds on that the season after I can't see the point in changing our manager. Sam's signings have perhaps been hit and miss but we have to remeber how much dead wood was left over from the Roeder and Souness days. Players who were overpriced, over injured and rubbish. We saw something like 11 players out over the summer with 9 or so coming in. The first window, as previously mentioned has been hit and miss, with some players being un replaced (Mainly Dire and Solano - Evident in our lack of Right sided players) however, when you look at the squad from say Fulham, 6 new signings were playing. Now I know we should be seeing them working as a team, there have been some good spells of play, Arsenal for one. I think, once Sam has another summer window he really can get the players he needs to play the formations he is comfortable with, and, at present, we look poor where players can't do what is asked of him. In my opinion he deserves time. He needs to get his squad together, get them playing his way. Changing again would be pointless. Another problem, not with Sam but the fans is the immense expectation. We are not a top 6 club, we are not even top 10. Yes we have good fans (sometimes) a nice stadium however are we really a more attractive proposition than Villa, Man City, Everton or even Blackburn? Attracting the right players is going to be hard, and, we will have to hope Sam can attract what he needs for his side to work, and, for that, he needs the chairmans backing.

He's hardly been shit this season. Not a bad keeper, much improved this season. Good reflexes, sometimes a bit too eager to get off his line and not so bad in the air. Robert Green is being largely ignored. Probably because he has been in an average West Ham side, but he has been one of the best in the league this season. He is a pretty good all round keeper, very few mistakes, solid and a good option IMO.

.....................Green..................... Sagna...Ferdinand...Galls.....Evra Ronaldo.Fabregas..Elano..Petrov ..............Torres..Anelka.............. Pour moi.

It was a well placed shot because Barnes had time to place it and Given was unsighted; the despairing slide by Barton showed how dangerous he felt the situation was. It does seem churlish to add this to a list of alleged gaffes and seems more like making the facts fit the argument. You didn't mention the x-ray vision. I thought these footballers were always told to keep there eye on the ball. I agree s**** like Butt & Rosie are not likely to protect a goalkeeper that much but there are a lot of shots from outside the box flying past Shay this season. Thing is, if they actually did their job, Shay would have very few longshots to save! (biased, as I am a keeper though ) Well thats a GIVEN But Derby only had two shots on target & scored twice. :-[ Both could have been stopped if Roz got his foot in. Especially the second..

We all know the player we really need is a big, strong striker. Dean Ashton. Please Mike!