Shearer9

Darren Moore appears to have broken Stephen Pearson's arm or shoulder, sums Derby up really.

Getting overlooked a bit in all the hubub, but easily Shevchenko's best performance so far in English football. He was fantastic today, dunno why he came off.

As long as there's some kind of measurable progress as far as the league table is concerned, I'm happy to see Sam stay on. I think if a quality manager had come into Bolton situation they would have been able to take the progress Sam had made and turn it into consistent European campaigns. Add a few of the quality players that HTT's talking about and Bolton could be pulling a Man City right now, challenging the top 4. Instead, they hired Lee and began to dismantle the squad. Once Diouf and Anelka leave, there will be little left to indicate that Sam was in charge there. Amazing how quickly things can fall apart. There's no reason that Sam shouldn't get the chance to spend bigger in the window and in the summer. His hand was forced, he had to fill out the squad and get some depth in there or else we'd be playing academy kids by now due to injury problems. I find it inconceivable that Sam doesn't realize the aesthetic value of the football is shite right now and that we need quality flair players. People throw that around all the time, but I think it's stupid to suggest that he doesn't know that. Sam's been around, and everybody watches the likes of Arsenal and Man Utd every week, he knows flair players are what are needed to be successful.

4-3-3 GK: Given RB: Beye CB: Cacapa CB: Taylor LB: Enrique CM: Barton CM: Butt CM: Emre LF: N' Zogbia CF: Smith RF: Milner Subs: Harper, Roz, Viduka, Martins, Duff Milner and N'Zogbia can be intelligent enough to make the most of Smith's target man work, and the prospect of the Zog further up the pitch is really mouth watering. Sam should pick a defense here and try and stick with it through the Christmas period.

that's a BIG call - given we've had Souness, Gullit, Roeder in charge and I'm pretty sure I've seen countless games that were far far worse during those periods. Had Souness or Roeder been in charge today, we'd have conceded that early goal, slowly lost any kind of grip we had on the game, and in the end, lost any chance of a comeback going down to another late goal to make it 0-2. At least with Sam there's always fight in the team, and some semblance of an idea of how to get back into a game.

What has Pearce shown besides psychotic anger to indicate that he's the next great English coach? Also, I thought this had some funny bits in it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/7147960.stm "McClaren had so little authority over his players that they reportedly rugby-tackled him in training." I've never heard that one before, but it seems likely enough. Anyone know if it was confirmed?

Fergie saw him as a defensive midfielder because of his effort, workrate, and passion, 3 traits he shared with Roy Keane. Unfortunatley, Keane was able to channel that energy into increasing his techincal skill, positional sense, and passing. Smith is the better goal scorer, he's just had that knocked out of him. He'd also not been played for years as a striker before being asked to fill a midfield role.

Priorities: 1. Creative attacking midfielder 2. Target man striker. I think Crouch and Anelka are the best two options I've seen so far. Vastly different players, but both could play the top of a 4-5-1 and an attack could be built around them 3. Dynamic winger, preferably able to play on both flanks 4. Fullback I'm really torn between which should be number 1 in those top three, but I think a creative midfielder who has good vision and can pass is priority number 1. Pace would be an added asset, but we really lack this now. I even feel like Nobby could have done a job there this season, but that opportunity's gone. Would love to see us move for a Bale/Richards type at fullback, although nobody specific comes to mind.

Let's get a dedicated, younger RB who's a lot more dynamic and desperatley wants a spot in the XI rather than an overpaid, overrated, "solid" player who would probably be happy to sit and collect a big wage. I think Brown's solid, but is he really going to improve the defence that much? I'd rather see Edgar or Taylor played at RB in place of Beye than bringing in Brown. He offers very little going forward as well IMO, and I really think that Milner will be so much better if he can link up with a dynamic offensive fullback.

The problem with Smith and Martins as a partnership is that they aren't really a partnership. Considering the amount of time that Smith's played in midfield this year, I imagine they've had very little time together to work on their strike partnership. If they play together or Smith is played more regularly as a striker, I think we'll start to see some more understanding.

Bradfordians only 40 points off the lead Who are the buzzcocks?

If we're to play with a target man, especially in a 4-5-1, it should be Smith up there as the lone striker. He's the only one who can put in the effort necessary. Not saying we should overlook the position in January, but for right now, he's a better option than Viduka. He also didn't do much during the last 10 minutes when he moved back to midfield. Up front or nothing.

Given - 7 - Dealt well with several tricky balls Beye - 7 Decent enough defending and going forward Taylor - 8 - Great action man performance, love that aspect of him, took his goal well Rozenthal - 7 - Looked a bit uncomfortable, but stopped several important moves N'Zogbia - 6 - Didn't do a whole lot and looked kind of poor going forward Geremi - 7 - Did well enough, expected more of him going forward after that header Butt - 8 - Anchored the midfield well, also some surprisingly good passing Barton - 6 - Looked ok on the ball, just didn't do that much Milner - 9 - Excellent, absolutley outstanding when he tracked back. Turned Sagna in knots, did really well Smith - 9 - Only one to out-do Milner. Great target man performance. So much effort finally translated into a performance. Martins - 6 - Really thought he could have done better with the possession he had and some of the scoring chances Viduka - 5 - Really did hardly anything, and should have been able to get his shot off there at the end.

Where is all this stat attack coming from Chris?

Shouldn't be sacked unless we're in real danger of being relegated, or actually get relegated.

They were really selling out on a regular basis with Juninho?

I thought there was a good possibility for a save on that shot. I was dissapointed to see him rooted to the line, you should at least be making some kind of an effort towards the ball.

When in the post-match interview it was put to Steve Bruce that he must have made a few glaring errors in his time as a central defender, the new Wigan manager, referring to Titus Bramble's first-minute howler today, responded swiftly: "Never that bad."

Get Emre on NOW

This is one of the better halves, if not the best half, I've seen from Alan Smith. He's not been spectacular, but he's put himself about, gotten some touches, won a few headers, and fashioned a few scoring chances. Looks better than Viduka in that dynamic 4-5-1 target man role. Zoggy unfortunatley anonymus, but Martins is doing well IMO. And where is Barton?

Bruce already learning the hard way....

Even though hardly anybody else in my team did anything, the trio of Carson, Laursen, and Barry guaranteed me a 70 point gameweek. If only making David Bentley captain had come off that well...

To be fair, I don't think the bad signings and poor football were all down to him. I think he's young, dynamic, and in need of a new challenge, and England would provide it. I cringe though when I think of the inevitable flip-flop where he starts criticizing club managers and domestic leagues for not releasing their players.

Fabregas isn't injured, he's just suspended.

A lot of people seem really keen on Hughes, but I'm not sure he'd have come here. Unless something drastically changes, I can see him being the next Man Utd manager.