Shearer9

Well done Villa. I know they're supposed to be in direct competition with us, but I love seeing Chelsea undone.

I'd like to see a really top class winger come in, someone who can has loads of pace and can play on both flanks, I think that could make a real difference to this team.

I don't buy this "poor team effort" stuff, it's not easy to break down a team with 9 or 10 men always behind the ball. If it were, Man Utd would have beaten the likes of Reading, Portsmouth, Man City and would have scored more than 1 against the mackems. I thought we had a really good game, the only bad part was our finishing, which can be improved.

They had everyone behind the ball for literally the entire 2nd half, even ManUtd has trouble breaking down teams that do that, despite having heaps of possession. I think it's a little harsh on the lads to say it was a poor 2nd half, I thought they did well. But chances in the first half have got to be finished.

Great find by Martins.

Tottenham blow 2 goal lead to mighty Fulham.

Bale scores for Spurs, what a prospect.

63% possession for us.

Unbelievably unlucky not to be ahead. Surely we'll go on to win this with the chances we've had.

Even if we'd spent a lot more money on the same players, it would have been a good window. I suppose it will be seen whether the failure to bring in a creative midfielder will hurt us.

Never, ever would have been good enough, could perhaps hack it at league one level, but I'm not sure. I never thought he looked like anything more than a kid just running around out there, which is what he was, but still. Basic defensive skills totally lacking. Edgar is the one if we want one of our younger defenders to come through. Could never understand why he was stuck behind Ramage and Huntington.

I honestly think it's pretty close between Rozenhal and Taylor, and while I agree that Taylor shouldn't be first name on the teamsheet at 21, Rozenhal hasn't been entirely solid. Until Faye's fit, I'd still go Taylor and Cacapa in the centre of defense.

Sky haven't shown it more than once, I find that strange considering how much Cisse's injury was shown. I suppose it's overshadowed the fact that Sunderland's losing to Luton 2-0.

Ashton's girlfriend is going into labor, and Dyer's been hacked down. It reminded me a lot of when Cisse broke his leg while playing for Liverpool, just smashed in the back of the calf, although it didn't look at clear a break as Cisse's. And he looks in a lot of pain. Too Bad...

Perhaps most problematic is the way that so many of our midfielders and forwards are just one dimentional: Butt:Very good at sitting back and covering defensively but offers nothing going forward, very bad when it comes to trying to thread through balls or shoot Smith:Plays the "hard man" role pretty well, puts in a good effort, gets stuck in but doesn't offer enough going forward creatively to be an attacking midfielder and doesn't have the defensive guile to be a defensive midfielder. N'Zogbia:Fantastic midfielder, but he's really a Left Winger, and he can beat his man and get to the byline to cross, but the left forward in a 433 needs to be getting into the box more and putting efforts on target, especially when the ball is on the right. Milner:Probably our hardest working midfielder, but can't really create a lot in the way of shots on goal, is entirely dependent on his ability to get to the byline and cross, and his crossing definatley needs work, especially since he's not a speedster. Emre:Good creatively and going forward, but I can only see him being successful in the AMC role, despite being a busy player Owen:Doesn't really get involved in the buildup play, can't really beat his man, at this point, I think he's almost purely a goal poacher. Martins:Very good at running at the defenders, OK passer, OK finishing despite huge power. I think he's a better all-round player than Owen, but there's only room for one of them in the team for me. Ameobi:Where to start? Slow, lacks control, poor finisher for a forward, just not a top level forward. 433 simply requires more versatility, and I don't think we've got it. The 3 midfielders need to be players capable of playing box to box, and I think we've only got Geremi and Barton who can do that, while the wing-forwards have to be forwards (especially when the build-up starts on the other side) and wingers when they've got the ball, and we've really got nobody who can do both. Owen and Martins fall into the former category, while the Zog, Milner, Duff, and Solano fall into the former one. Sure, a team can carry one or perhaps two players like this. I think you can even make a good argument that having a player like Butt in there can be helpful to the team, despite the offensive limitations of players like Butt, Makelele, Roy Keane, etc. But from the 6 players that make up the midfielders/forwards in any formation, you can't have so many players relying on a good team performance in order to function well, you have to have players that function well and consequently create good team performances. I suppose if I had to go 433, my first choice would be: Taylor-Cacapa-Rozenhal-Enrique ------Barton-Geremi-Emre -------Milner-Viduka-Zog Perhaps our 2 best attacking players (Owen, Martins) don't fit in a 433, that should be the end of debate. I'm not saying 433 is a bad system, I just don't think we currently have the players for it and it's not worth the effort to go into attempting to re-train players like Smith, Owen, Martins, etc to be 433 players when they're proven in a 442. If Sam wants to buy specifically for a 433 then that's fine, and should be the way forward if we're to play this system.

I think the key for this team to have success in a 4-3-3 is very simple: Get in 2 players who can play those wide front roles. I think Zog could potentially be crafted into a player who could play in the front 3, but when I look at all our players, I think we have 2 players that will ever do really well in the frontline of a 4-3-3: Viduka and N'Zogbia. We'd have to get another right-sided player to play top 6 football in a 4-3-3. I do think it will start to come together though, especially once injured players are back. I have faith in Sam, but with this group of players, we can only go so far in a 4-3-3. It is frustrating, because Martins is an unbelivably talented prospect, and I think his pace is one of the most dangerous things we have going for us offensively, but he won't develop properly and see a good goal return unless he's played in a 4-4-2. Not to mention the Owen situation. I think if we continue in a 4-3-3, we could see some unhappy comments out of Owen before the end of the season.

Well, there it is, after Man City's loss this weekend, only 5 Premiership teams are undefeated(Listed there in the poll in descending league position). I think Blackburn will almost certainly lose in the next 2 weeks, while Chelsea have a tougher next few games, culminating with Man Utd in 3 weeks, and Arsenal, Liverpool, and Newcastle seem to have a run of several innocuous fixtures. My guess is that Arsenal will get in a tight spot and slip up somewhere along the way, and we'll also face a tough game where we can't get goals, and that Liverpool will be the last team to lose in the league. I think we'll be the next to last to lose though. Fixtures can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/fixtures/default.stm or here: http://fantasy.premierleague.com/M/fixture.mc?event=5 Update:Edited to reflect Chelsea's loss this weekend.

Tottenham did well there, but honestly, there's no way Owen Hargreaves is worth anything close to £17m or whatever they paid for him. With the possible exception of Micah Richards, I don't think there's a more exciting defensive prospect in English football than Gareth Bale, I really wish we'd have splashed the cash to get one of those 2, it'd be almost impossible now.

I really appreciated his comments actually, dissapointed with only a draw, knows we have to do better defensively, wants to go out and find a right back by the sound of it. I'm hearing the right stuff from him atm.

For the effort we had, I think a draw was a fair result, although I think its reasonable to expect a win from this fixture. I really hope Enrique starts the next Prem game so that the Zog can go on the left with Milner on the right in a 442. I'm not ready to write off Smith yet, but get him out of the team until he offers something more than nothing going forward with occasional unchecked aggression going backward. He looks caught in some horrible limbo between midfield and forward.

He's average going forward at best, but he gets skinned so easily by average players. He's a poor defender, there's a reason Chelsea got Belletti and want Alves in.

"People have this idea, probably from Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, that England's always rainy, but it's nice and mild: you have flowers blossoming here as early as February. I can't knock the weather, but mind you I've never lived in Middlesbrough."

I think that one Ronaldinho goal did a lot to damage Seaman's reputation, and too many people remember him for that. Shame really.

Does "Take that you cunt!" not get a place in this?

Who would you rather we spend the £2m on then, just out of interest? Andy O'Brien. Proven at this level, good Premiership experience, Champions League experience and he's younger than Faye. Brilliant. The man who was hounded out of this club, one we were unbelievably lucky to get any money for, considering his performances. He's also hated already by Bolton fans, I'd rather take the defender they built a European squad with and the fans are desperate to hang onto instead of one who can't really get a game at Pompey.