TRon

It was one of his better performances today I thought. He's not a great player but tbf he was up against Cole and he kept him pretty busy for 90mins.

Sums up everything I thought about him previously and rubber stamped today. For a relatively young player he seems to have the lungs of a pensioner. Dominated and bullied by the Chelsea midfield.

Really looking forward to seeing Guthrie in the centre today. I reckon he goes missing in action in a lot of games but I would love to see him take this game by the scruff of the neck and prove me wrong. With Tiote alongside him he'll never have a better chance.

It wouldn't, though. That's what I'm saying. It really wouldn't. It's surprisingly inexpensive to be prepared contra not being prepared. Basically just adding a task to already exisiting jobs and maintaining a decent enough stock of grinders would see the cost of maintaining said grinders be less expensive than the cost of hell breaking loose every time it snows more than five centimetres. But that's the point, we don't normally get more than 5cm of snow. This our worst November for snow/bad weather since 1993, why be constantly prepared for something that happens once every 20 years? Inexpensive or not, it's pointless spending. Because anyone with any idea of the weather in this country would be aware that the coldest period would most likely be during winter.

Just hope the game isn't called off. Would be just our luck to miss out on playing the weakest Chelsea team for years.

Would have been even sweeter if we hadn't handed the fat bastard the points when Blackburn were up here.

I don't know what's worse, the kneejerk nature of this thread or the writing off of an 18 year old after a handful of first team runouts. If you and the rest of the "knee jerk thread" brigade actually read the OP you might have noticed that all I suggested was that Vukic be brought into the squad on match days. If he's so precious he can't even be sat on the bench when we've got half our midfield out with injuries and semi-cripples like Smith wandering round dazed on the pitch then what does that say about him? For what it's worth mate, I agree with you to an extent. I'd much rather have Vuckic playing than Smih for example who is going to offer nothing now nor in the future. He should definitely be on the bench ahead of some of the dross backup journeyman we have. I just think it's quite typical that threads of this nature turn up after a defeat, where we're building up anybody or anything as the solution to our problems. May have just been bad timing or misunderstanding on my behalf though. Fair do's. I don't think this is a case of knee jerk though as the problem of playing two slow central midfielders next to each other has been an ongoing thorn in the side for many here. Most of us are just desperate to get anyone who isn't half dead into that area so we can compete. Hopefully with Tiote being back it'll be a non-issue in a weeks time. FWIW, I still believe that Vukic is worth a place on the bench. He's a strong runner with an eye for goal. Could easily nick a point for us as a sub if used wisely.

I don't know what's worse, the kneejerk nature of this thread or the writing off of an 18 year old after a handful of first team runouts. If you and the rest of the "knee jerk thread" brigade actually read the OP you might have noticed that all I suggested was that Vukic be brought into the squad on match days. If he's so precious he can't even be sat on the bench when we've got half our midfield out with injuries and semi-cripples like Smith wandering round dazed on the pitch then what does that say about him?

It's not about if he's any worse than Smith - as Smith plays in a completely different position to him. The thought of watching Smith and Nolan operating in the same midfield again has horrified everyone so much they are clutching at straws. Seeing the Nicky Butt thread being bumped today didn't help either.

Can't even think of any youngsters appearing on the horizon that will suddenly have a breakout season that can play on the right. Not saying that's the answer, but it'd be great if it was an option. Ryan Taylor is an option if we are desperate. He'd probably lose the ball under the slightest pressure from the opposition though. He would be if he wasn't out for 3 months. Routledge it is then. Another one who seems over-awed playing for a big club.

Can't even think of any youngsters appearing on the horizon that will suddenly have a breakout season that can play on the right. Not saying that's the answer, but it'd be great if it was an option. Ryan Taylor is an option if we are desperate. He'd probably lose the ball under the slightest pressure from the opposition though.

I keep reading that Guthrie can't be blamed because he's being played out of position, but fucking hell so was Barton. Guthrie shows no appetite for the role out wide and for that I consider him a gutless wanker. If Dirk Kuyt - a forward - can roll his sleeves up and give it a go why can't Guthrie?

i still think martin jol would have a go. Not with no money. Fulham are hardly loaded. But they are willing to pay what it takes to get a good manager. Ashley got turned down by David O'Leary who was on the dole.

A bit harsh after one bad game, especially since we were 3-1 down in this one in any case.

I suppose as a mod there comes a point where you can't just sit twiddling your thumbs when members start getting into foul mouthed slanging matches. On the football side of it, I still think our good results counter-balance the bad ones at this stage. We'd like to have done better but you can't just gloss over the fact Hughton has had little money to spend and as a result we will obviously find it hard to find cover when we lose players like Ben Arfa, Barton and Tiote. they have, hence where we are in the table with the points we have. however i'd feel more comfortable if we'd got points in games where we thought we would as opposed to shock aways. which do you think is the more likely, we turn round our home form or the away games start going the way expected ? I think our wins will come from the teams who can't cope with our front men tbh. I said before the Sunderland game I thought they'd have a hard time against Carroll and Ameobi, and on the other hand I thought Blackburn would cope easily due to their big CB's. On the defensive side, I don't think we'll always give teams a two goal start like we did today. Once you are chasing the game it changes the whole dynamic.

and defensivly competent throughout their team on the day. Our defenders had a lot more to cope with because Bolton usually had 4-5 men in the box when they attacked. We play with Carroll up front and the rest usually 10 yards further back, probably to cover for our lack of pace to get back if we get caught too far forward.

I suppose as a mod there comes a point where you can't just sit twiddling your thumbs when members start getting into foul mouthed slanging matches. On the football side of it, I still think our good results counter-balance the bad ones at this stage. We'd like to have done better but you can't just gloss over the fact Hughton has had little money to spend and as a result we will obviously find it hard to find cover when we lose players like Ben Arfa, Barton and Tiote.

Bolton are similar to us in that they have two big forwards who are a real handful for defenders. Where they were far better than us is that they had midfielders with far more urgency and mobility to support those strikers.

I'm not one to disappoint mate. But, can anyone see this squad being good enough to stay up? Definitely. We'll only win points with Tiote and Barton in the midfield though, so we are in for a rough couple of games until they're back.

He's already been blooded but in a slightly more gruesome sense.

5-1 the unwashed didnt drop anyone and look at them now You haven't seen enough of Smith and Nolan in central midfield together to have decided maybe it isn't such a good idea?

5-1

Guthrie has a heart the size of a walnut. Been saying this for ages and he's done nowt to prove me wrong. Barton has had bad games as well as good ones but he never hides.

I thought he looked good against Arsenal, wasn't his fault Smith and Guthrie got over run in the centre (sound familiar?)

I think Campbell is better than both.