Cronky

Oba has a lot to learn, but he is learning. His performances have improved, and he looks to have a good, hard-working attitude. It's too early to judge him.

Individual statistics can never tell the full story. It's the impact that a player makes on the team's performance as a whole which counts. And there's no evidence that Parker's presence is a boost to the team, however good he looks as an individual. He's got the potential to do better, but has become too conservative. Any player's pass completion stats would look better if they only passed the ball sideways or backwards. (I exaggerate to make the point)

A Parker / Reo-Coker swap is a risk, but one that I'd take. Reo-Coker has the potential to be a much better player, and Parker seems to be stagnating.

My hunch about the situation is this. There's a few people interested and the Halls have set a high price, seeing if someone is going to bite. So far, no-one has. What the Halls hope is that someone will put in an offer and then start off an auction. They're businessmen, and I think that's how a businessman would play it. It's like cat and mouse. Unlike the Halls, Shepherd I reckon is very keen to hang on, and doesn't want to sell to a group like Polygon or Belgravia, who would run it as a business and not operate like a sugardaddy. He's said himself that the offer that he would consider is an Abramovich-style one. Trouble is, that kind of offer is rare. The current wave of takeovers - of Man U, Villa, West Ham, Liverpool - have been on a business basis. Of course, Shepherd himself is running the club as a business, and not putting in his own money. That's fair enough, but he shouldn't try to pretend that what he's offering the club is in any way exceptional. I think there are others out there who could make a better fist of it than him.

It sounds like they think the price might come down - ie that no-one else is going to bid at the price which is currently being demanded.

I don't actually think we've got all that much money to spend, over and above what might be raised by the sale of Luque. On top of that, there seems to be a lot of clubs chasing a small number of available players. My expectations of the Transfer Window are low. We may get some Sibierski-like stop gap signings to tide us over till the end of the season, but I'll be surprised if there's more.

According to Shearer's autobiog, he always had natural physical strength, and at Southampton his main focus was working on technique. Incidentally, he left Southampton for a British record transfer fee. He'd made a very good reputation for himself.

Realistically, if you're going to get into the top part of the Premiership, you need something more than a player who's 'just' a target man. Crouch has got a good all round game, and would be a good choice. Having said that, Liverpool won't let him go. Beattie has less to offer, and wouldn't be a good choice. It alarms me when I see him linked as a possible second option to Crouch. At the very top level, you can't build a strategy around a striker whose only real strength is that he wins headers. We'd be better off carrying on as we are.

Last time I saw him, Edgar looked like a frightened rabbit. I wasn't expecting today's performance at all. Well done to the lad, and to Roeder and Pearson who are getting the most out of a makeshift defence.

Given 7 - usual solid performance. Solano 7 - always positive in possession, and got in some good challenges. On the debit side, he was regularly caught out of position. Huntington 6 - made a few errors on the ball, but ready to take responsibility and did well, considering his inexperience. Taylor 7 - a solid game. Looks much more decisive than before. Edgar 7 - Did remarkably well, and looks a good prospect. Milner 8 - Faded a bit in the second half, but worked very hard. That goal was the highlight of the season so far. The sort that really lifts you off your chair. His decision-making is improving all the time. Emre 5 - Looked weak in possession and gave the ball away too much. Parker 6 - The usual frustrating mixture. Got in some good tackles, but didn't show enough initiative on the ball. Dyer 8 - He wasted some good situations, but worked very hard, and time and again he got us going forward. Martins 6 - Battled hard, but was up against strong defenders and not much went his way. Sibierski 6 - Looked slow and not very strong at holding the ball up, but kept going and now and then he created some good things for us. Credit to Ferguson for a fair summary of the game - they had more chances but we showed great spirit and a draw was fair. I had the impression that Man U were too complacent. After they went ahead, they assumed the game was won and took their foot off the gas.

Martins' penalty definitely wasn't a chip. He attempted to side foot it, only gave it far more power than he could really control. A bit weird. It didn't help that there was a gap of two minutes between the decision and the eventual kick. Plenty of time to get nervous or lose concentration.

We had a couple of great chances at a crucial time, with the penalty and the header where Taylor and Martins got in each other's way. If either had gone in, it could have been different, so let's not be slitting our wrists. Goals change games. The defence is weak and inexperienced when it comes to set pieces, nothing new there and not Roeder's fault in the circumstances. I'd prefer to see Parker pushed wide right, Emre in the centre, and Milner on the left. Not ideal, but a better use of resources than what we have. I'd agree that Emre looks very unhappy out wide. And talking of Emre, why has asking a ref to send a player off become the most heinous of crimes? It's wrong, but players are pressuring refs all the time for penalties and other decisions. I think everyone needs to calm down on this issue.

The plan on Davies seemed to be to double up, with one in front and one behind to stop the flick-on. Trouble was neither Edgar nor Taylor got anywhere near him. Taylor was about a yard away. I know Davies is very difficult to stop in that situation because he's got a back the size of a garage door, but he wasn't even put under pressure. Hopefully both will learn from the experience, though if Bramble had been involved there'd be a five page thread devoted to opinions about how shit he is. And incidentally, are you the real Keith Kettleborough?

Always wondered how they'd do if Terry got injured for anything but a short spell, The test has now come. Silly comments by Mourinho. The only message that gives to Man U is that he's rattled.

Both were at fault for the goal. Pav should have given a call. In the absence of a call, Ramage should have taken charge of the situation. He was the man in possession.

Going by the Sky-lights - The last thing you need behind an inexperienced back four is a nervous keeper. Pav, lovely guy, but you were shocking today. Diouf is a shit. Trying to get Huntington sent off like that, rolling around in agony. I like the look of Huntington more in more, the way he looked those bully-boys in the eye afterwards. We were beaten (as usual) by the most street-wise team in the league, no surprise. Just dust ourselves off and get stuck in again.

He looks like a good all-round striker, but I haven't spotted anything exceptional about him. At the end of the season, we'll (hopefully) have Martins, Owen, Shola and Dyer to choose from, so in order to improve that range of options we need to look elsewhere.

I don't fancy this one. Bolton are strong in the air from crosses and set pieces and we're not. Defensively, they're very streetwise. What we have going for us is that, for once in this fixture, we'll be going in an underdogs. Still think we'll lose though.

The back four is playing so much better as a unit since Pearson arrived. The line that they've kept when playing for offside has been impeccable. Taylor has grown up and lost that hesitation. He's making his own decisions, including ones where he charges forward very effectively. His decision-making still needs to improve, but he's now imposing himself on the game, rather being dictated to. Ramage reads the game brilliantly, but I'm still not convinced that he's strong enough in the air. We still look weak defending crosses and set pieces, and that may get found out against Bolton. Huntington I'd agree looks to have the potential to be the best of the three. He's got a good professional mentality already - either the ball or the man gets past me, but not both.

Going by the Sky-lights programme, I thought Jol got it right. The difference between the sides was spirit and determination. We looked like we wanted it that bit more. The players are trusting each other a lot more, running into positions to receive the ball rather than holding back. They're also showing the nerve to work short passes to keep possession rather than hoofing it.

Linesman didn't raise his flag niether It was that T*** Foy again wasn`t it. What a pathetic excuse for a Ref. I'm not too sure. If you look, after the striker goes past him, Konchesky's left leg flicks up a little to take the striker's back leg. Can't be 100% sure, but it doesn't look like a natural follow-through. Afterwards, Konchesky looks more intent on saying that it wasn't a goal-scoring position rather than saying it wasn't a foul. His team-mates were a lot more angry than him. Barton's was a crazy challenge. You can't jump at an opponent like that and hope to get away with it. It's the sort of incident that's holding his career back. As for the Heskey goal, on a moral level it should stand because he wasn't ahead of the defender. But I don't know whether the rule book covers situations where a player leaves the pitch like that. Any refs out there?

Letting Bramble go for 500T would be a stupid decision that is well down to Freddie's usual standard. He's a far more useful player than most fans give him credit for. I do get the feeling that if it was left to Roeder, he'd get a new contract and rightly too.

A free role just behind the striker. His stamina is phenomenal and he's best in a position where he can do as much work as possible.

Only seen Sunderland once this season, but I was impressed. Keane has got a group of very ordinary players playing decent football. He's one to watch, I reckon.

I thought that, but then, would SBR be taken in by it? Would he want Shep to get the cache? It puzzled me a bit as well, but Sir Bob isn't one to bear a grudge. I think Freddie's quite clever at pinning the blame on others, and I'd defy anyone to read the events in Sir Bob's biog, and not conclude that Freddie was keen to get rid of him.