TRon

Seeing as all Butt was expected to do yesterday was offer some defensive cover on the left hand side, if he couldn't even do that than what is the point of his existence?

Chris Hughton: Bollocks. It's only a reminder that we have some very limited football players at this club and even at this level they can find themselves out-classed if not out-clogged.

I've got a feeling we're not a good footballing side whichever tactics or players we use. We have certain players who are "effective" at this level and we're top of the table so fuck it.

Yet they were clearly the better footballing side yesterday by all accounts.

With the players we have available this is almost the best XI we can put out. Not only that but I like it because it has width and balance. Two wide players out wide, both with different qualities, and balance in the middle with Smith holding and Guthrie pushing on. I'd replace Lovenkrands with Nolan though. You have to play your form players and Nolan has shown an eye for goal and getting into scoring positions which none of our other players have done. People talk about resting players but you don't see the top Premier League teams doing it very often. You don't see Man Utd resting Rooney or Liverpool resting Torres for a routine game against Fulham. You play your in-form goalscorers, always. We have an international break coming up, it would be madness to rest Nolan now when he's about to get a two-week rest. If Nolan plays it should be in midfield only. We don't want to go with only one striker at home imo. I'd have him up top alongside Harewood. He's shown an eye for goal this season and is getting into good positions. We need goals and barring Ameobi our other strikers do not look very dangerous. Carroll and Ranger have done alright but they've been a bit one-dimensional. I also believe Smith and Guthrie will be our best centre-mid partnership as it provides a good balance and I'd like to see them given a run together. Seeing as Nolan can't play out wide and shouldn't be dropped, that just leaves up front, where we happen to be lacking goals from the strikers. Put him up there I say, and we should have a more balanced midfield. Now we have the pace, power and directness of Harewood, Nolan lack of gas will be less of an issue. It's a tricky one. Nolan has been one of our most effective and least effective players this season. While his goals are winning points, his overall lack of movement is one of the reasons why we are often out-played by teams even in this division. We have a bit of a dilemma going forward as to which direction we take from here. The likes of Nolan and Ryan Taylor have been the most productive players for us this season, but they are also part of the reason we look so shit at times. Maybe we just need to suck it up and accept we are this division's most effective cloggers and leave it at that.

With the players we have available this is almost the best XI we can put out. Not only that but I like it because it has width and balance. Two wide players out wide, both with different qualities, and balance in the middle with Smith holding and Guthrie pushing on. I'd replace Lovenkrands with Nolan though. You have to play your form players and Nolan has shown an eye for goal and getting into scoring positions which none of our other players have done. People talk about resting players but you don't see the top Premier League teams doing it very often. You don't see Man Utd resting Rooney or Liverpool resting Torres for a routine game against Fulham. You play your in-form goalscorers, always. We have an international break coming up, it would be madness to rest Nolan now when he's about to get a two-week rest. If Nolan plays it should be in midfield only. We don't want to go with only one striker at home imo.

I think that just puts into perspective how shit our midfield is in reality. We have dropped a division and we are still getting out-played by some teams. On the plus side we are picking up results regardless, so i suppose we are the equivalent of Stoke in this league.

What makes me laugh is that he keeps coming out after the games and saying we didn't keep the ball as well as we would have liked. Ummm...well who's fault is that Chris? Keegan's side passed the ball on the deck because they were instructed to. If we are lumping the ball long when we aren't supposed to then it doesn't say much for the coaching standards.

Hughton (or Hughesy for short!) is basically a coach so he still finds it difficult to leave Butt out of the starting line up. At least he took him off early though, let's be thankful for small mercies.

Tbh, I thought that about Ipswich up until the point where we scored. We just battered them into submission with three quick goals, up to that point we were struggling to get much possession. nah. ipswich was even but we looked more like scoring...till we scored. QPR are a differtent kettle of pilchards. Ipswich couldn't handle our front lads, their defence was shit, but their midfield still looked better than ours till we scored imo. QPR are obviously a better team but once Jonas came on we seemed to come into the game a lot more. I wasn't there though so I could be wrong.

Depends on how we line up for me. There's a certain combo of midfielders who just don't have the attributes to produce good football and we had that tonight. It might be different on Saturday with Jonas back.

Tbh, I thought that about Ipswich up until the point where we scored. We just battered them into submission with three quick goals, up to that point we were struggling to get much possession.

it worked because Nolan was on fire. Despite Ipswich's woeful defence the two strikers didn't really trouble and Butt was his usual woeful self. The starting line-up tonight was horribly wrong and in truth they battered us for the first 20 minutes The result against Ipswich did hide a few sins though. We haven't actually played very good football for a lot of the season but we have defended well and picked up the points. The midfield is still shite as it was last season which is why we end up playing long ball crap. At least Hughes is recognising that Butt is a liability now and subbing him early. Hopefully that means he will not be starting on Saturday.

At least man u won't be paying him 100k a week while he's on the treatment table. The arse-licking little turd is probably cleaning boots as part of his contract to be a Man U player.

I can't stand it when I see these type of players all played in the same midfield. Nolan's goals won us the last match though, so we have to put up with being dominated possession wise in the hope of end product I suppose.

He's not getting a chance because he hasn't earned one yet. Ranger's been far more effective and worked much harder when given a first team shirt.

Yup. Sounds like avoiding defeat would be some sort of accomplishment from the game. Didn't deserve much more after picking a defensive line up. Not sure it was the line-up, sounded like we just didn't play for 30 minutes. I know we won against Ipswich but I just don't think there's any need to pick both Smith and Butt at home. We sounded a lot better after the subs.

Yup. Sounds like avoiding defeat would be some sort of accomplishment from the game. Didn't deserve much more after picking a defensive line up.

The mackems won a lot of games in the last 5mins when they won this division. Would be massive if we could steal a few wins late on.

We are much better since the subs.

Jonas has teed up two chances in the last 5 minutes since you said that

good shout johnny.

Still 20 mins to win this...

Can't say we don't deserve it. Bad enough to lose a goal, but if you miss a penalty as well then you're asking for it.

3-1 win. Harewood to miss two glorious chances.