TRon

I am just praying that the crowd will raise the roof off St James and any player with a pulse will respond.

That's what struck me in the first half. I don't know if it was the players hiding behind the new formation excuse, but we were completely out run in midfield. Our movement is usually bad going forward, but yesterday we weren't even bothering to close their players down. So much for the "fighting spirit" and 100% commitment of Butt and Nolan. The two central midfielders were just pulled so far out of their positions which is why it looked like that. I didn't watch the match with tactical glasses on, but I'd be willing to guess that they had to come to the wings to cover for our wide players and try to cover those gaps left everywhere due to players poor positioning. When the formation isn't tight enough and tactical discpline is lacking you have central midfielders everywhere trying to do everything for everyone. The fact that both of them are more or less "slow" just made that look double worse. I thought the players were under instructions to stand-off and not to get tight on their players. Might have been because of threat of Lennon, but it was kinda backfiring as there was no real aggression. The central midfielders didn't pull wide, Jonas covered the left and Michael Owen did his best to get down the right, but that side was mostly just left vacant. Nolan and Butt lumbered around the central areas mostly just chasing shadows.

A bigger priority should always be don't buy anyone who isn't better than what you have got. It's not much of an ask with Nicky Butt in the team but by God we managed to buy someone worse in the transfer window. Outstanding.

I think Ploppy Utd would be more accurate, because some of these players are playing like poo

That's what struck me in the first half. I don't know if it was the players hiding behind the new formation excuse, but we were completely out run in midfield. Our movement is usually bad going forward, but yesterday we weren't even bothering to close their players down. So much for the "fighting spirit" and 100% commitment of Butt and Nolan.

Ludicrous thread. He's nowt special but it's not his fault the midfield is shit.

This is the problem. At least we had our best players fit and available when we beat the drop last season. This time round they are all still recovering from injuries and the big game is 8 days away.

Right. Our ability to string two passes together depends on it.

Pointless even saying it mate, its never happening. If Barton is back for next week then one of the two will have to go, so that improves our chances by 50% at least.

If we do go down (which I'm still not convinced we will) I'd be making Krul/Forster first choice next season. I didn't think it was Harper to blame for that goal but I don't rate him that highly anyway. I would love to see Krul/Forster step up to the stage.

We have only one chance and it's to play the footballers and drop the dead donkeys (Butt and/or Nolan). Martins, Viduka and Barton must start against Portsmouth.

I apologise now for giving you stick over your Nolan bashing, I wanted to give him a chance but you were spot on. I can remember him doing ONE thing today and that was a standard shot 90% of this forum could have done. Cheers mate. I would much rather have been proven wrong though. SBR might not be what he was but he knows a footballer when he sees one, and he didn't rate either Nolan or Taylor.

Smith's passing was miles ahead of anyone else that played in the centre of midfield today, I'd hate to see Butt attempting some of the cross field balls that Smith did with ease. Been saying for ages that Smith should start ahead of Butt. Not that Smith's great but at least he's not half dead.

I thought we looked better after Martins and Viduka came on but that's because they are footballers and thus the football improved. If it was a braying contest, Nolan, Butt and Ryan would have won the game hands down.

On the plus side, Nolan has so little ability, he makes Michael Owen look like Kaka in comparison. I don't think Owen's football ability gets enough credit. Ok he's lost his pace but at least he can control a ball and pass it without falling over.

We needed to replace Butt in the transfer window, instead we ended up signing his twin, Nolan. We have been well and truly "Kinneared"

There's a glimmer of hope in that we actually looked like a team once Viduka and Martins came on in place of Carroll and lardarse Nolan.

It's a tough call between him and Nolan. But then Nolan is just a shit footballer so he might be having a good game by his standards.

I agree.

This. I would prefer to be playing at the same time as everyone else ideally, but at the end of the day we have to just focus on our next game and make sure we do the business, if we do it makes no difference when anyone plays or doesn't play. i would prefer that aswell......aint gonna happen though. the results will have an affect when we play later. saturdays results will have little bearing...sunderlands win drops hull in the s*** as does stokes over blackburn. the position for us today hasn't changed a great deal.....however next weekend ? Exactly why we need to just look at getting a result one game at a time. The situation is going to change every week over the next month, all we can control is our own performance so best just to focus on that, everything else is out of our hands anyway. easy to say.......impossible to do. next monday if results go our way the previous weekned, the team will be a bit more upbeat the fans will be less desperate and probably more supportive. it can work fpr and against.......i wish all games kicked off at the same time. so do I, but they don't. I just want the players to do their job and be brave. After that, if it doesn't work out then at least there will be no regrets.

This. I would prefer to be playing at the same time as everyone else ideally, but at the end of the day we have to just focus on our next game and make sure we do the business, if we do it makes no difference when anyone plays or doesn't play. i would prefer that aswell......aint gonna happen though. the results will have an affect when we play later. saturdays results will have little bearing...sunderlands win drops hull in the shit as does stokes over blackburn. the position for us today hasn't changed a great deal.....however next weekend ? Exactly why we need to just look at getting a result one game at a time. The situation is going to change every week over the next month, all we can control is our own performance so best just to focus on that, everything else is out of our hands anyway.

This. I would prefer to be playing at the same time as everyone else ideally, but at the end of the day we have to just focus on our next game and make sure we do the business, if we do it makes no difference when anyone plays or doesn't play.

We need to win at least two of the three games at home against boro, Fulham and Portsmouth. Not an easy task in any of those games IMO. It's going to be white knuckle time to the last game of the season by the looks of it.

A loss won't be the end of the world, but it will probably feel like it. I think we'll get a point, we look to have some fight still in us.

I would absolutely love it if we sent him down, which is pretty likely if we survive. I wonder if the big-headed cunt would accept any responsibility for that. Me too. Something which has wound me up no end since he was sacked has been this idea that if we hadn't got rid we wouldn't have been in relegation trouble last year. He was the reason we were in trouble to begin with.