TRon

Feel-good appointments might work in the short term, but as Keegan found out as England manager, you need more than that to sustain success. I doubt Shearer has anything close to the footballing knowledge of Allardyce and I don't think he would have been anything like as thorough behind the scenes as far as backroom staff and fitness regimes. Shearer always comes across as a plank on MoTD. At the moment that's all I have to judge him by so he should stick to doing that (very badly) IMO.

No thanks, I'd rather give Allardyce more time, even though he's doing an abysmal job so far. If Allardyce were sacked I'd want a real manager not a former hero to take charge.

Any coach has to be judged by what he gets out of the players at his disposal. Allardyce's problem is he is getting beaten and outplayed by teams far inferior in terms of quality available. If we were getting stuffed by Liverpool or Arsenal, fair enough. It's the fact that relegation cannon fodder are decking us on a regular basis which is going to indict him.

Well that's mostly how his team have played till this season. Arteta has made a big difference, but given 3 or 4 years who's to say Allardyce couldn't produce a similar team? He's never had any money tbf. I think Allardyce needs time btw. He's only had one transfer window and it's fair to say he had his work cut out then. I don't know whether Allardyce needs time or not, but I agree with HTT that I wouldn't be particularly impressed if we sacked him just to appoint Moyes or Hughes who haven't really proved anything more than Sam at this stage of their careers. Moyes has done ok but his team doesn't excite me like Sven's City do. Maybe with more cash that could happen but I just don't see it.

I don't recall him making any moves for him prior to City jumping in.

Well that's mostly how his team have played till this season. Arteta has made a big difference, but given 3 or 4 years who's to say Allardyce couldn't produce a similar team?

I don't know about respecting players or otherwise, but I wouldn't be inclined to give any of that shower a Xmas break next year. Planks like Barton just end up in jail cells with too much time on their hands.

I'm not interested in Moyes or Hughes as I don't see them doing anything Allardyce won't do. Both have produced hard working functional teams which are eventually going to be limited. There's no point in sacking Sam unless we have enough inside knowledge to produce a Wenger or Ramos type appointment. That takes real insight and patience so no hurry just yet for me.

To think City palmed us off with this reprobate and bought Elano as a replacement.

I said that yesterday. Those troglodytes playing in Derby's central defence must have loved the fact Oba was playing wide insteasd of testing their turn of pace. One of them is 35 FFS.

i don't think some of those players are good enough for the top 8. Only 2 defenders seem to be, for example. And one striker. The ONLY good thing about Fat Bastard being in charge is that Ashley/Mort didn't employ him, so will hopefully be more inclined to let him go. You don't get to be as rich as Ashley by continuing to let idiots like Allardyce manage your businesses. Come on Mike, you want to be "one of the fans" - so act on the feelings of the majority, and get rid of the useless manager you were lumbered with. And don't, under any circumstances, give him any more money. Is it really the feelings of the majority though? The poll 'To sack or not sack' on here seemed to suggest otherwise iirc. I think most would feel it's sensible to see the season out and have a look at things then. Personally I think he will be sacked at the end of the campaign, because he's not going to pick up enough results due to his myopic vision of how the game should be played. The football was shocking yesterday, the only tactic was to launch the ball long then try and scramble a goal from the melee. Against Derby.

Martins doesn't strike me as lazy, aprticularly. Not the most intelligent, but he works across the front line pretty well, pulls wide, and generally finds a few chances for himself (he certainly doesn't get provided any).

Barton has been back for nearly two months now, how long is he going to be afforded the luxury of being 'rusty'? I think what you see is what you get. At least he doesn't hide, which is a big plus in his favour.

Emre is the most creative midfielder at the club no question, but he puts in about 20% effort during 90 mins. Barton is what I thought he was before he arrived, a mediocre box to box player hyped way beyond his talent. But he'll cover twice the ground of Emre, who just walks about while the game passes him by.

With Martins and Smith you get more mobility so better football all round like against Arsenal. Viduka is technically superb, but he's like a planted tree as far as movement is concerned. Fine if there's lots of movement around him but there isn't.

No one expects champagne football from the off, but the points we are dropping to Premier league whipping boys aren't going to be made up against better teams. 9th is probably as high in the league we will be from here on to the end of the season.

Well Terry Mac is always scribbling notes for the subs before they go on. I didn't realise he could even write so maybe they aren't getting the credit they deserve?

Smith would be okay if the side wasn't populated with so many other grafters with no cutting edge. This might be why we end up fighting and tussling with crap teams a lot.

The thin The thing is, Derby were so bad you could almost see their shiteness unfolding with every clumsy boot and dogged run. it was like watching a souped up pub team. To think they'd only have 3 pts if it wasn't for us...

So that's why I said, drop him. The reason is because our defense collapses from the right first. Easy, just think, right midfield exposed, Smith and Barton are going to cover the right, and then left side exposed and Derby start attacking there. Sam's defense quality is largely depends on pressing. If this fails then our defense simply collapses and that's why I am singling out Martins. We cannot have anyone on the pitch that isn't fully committed to the pressing. Just three points and you will understand the importance of pressing 1. The pressing is excellent versus Arsenal, you can see the difference. 2. That's the true value of Sam, the reason why Bolton's defense was so good despit having many shit but committed players. 3. During SBR era we also play this kinda defense, did anyone realize this? well sure, i'd drop martins from right-wing as that's not his positon. wouldn't boot him out of the team tho, i'd put him up front. i think it's a bit tenuous to say the midfield shuffled from left to right (tho i get your point and im sure some of that did happen), milner seemed to stick out wide and i don't recall derby switching it every time they got the ball, but were pretty direct. It might be hindsight, but the two lunks in Derby's central defence might have fancied keeping track of Martins a bit less than having a fight with Smith.

Well, is it really a concidence that championship sides suddenly look much better when they play against us? Then we have to listen to tv commentators exclaiming how remarkable that Derby are doing so badly when they play as well as this! The truth is we keep resorting to percentage football against sides that just need to be spanked with good attacking football on the floor. Their two centre backs were probably the slowest and most stupid defenders in the top two divisions but we couldn't exploit that because we were too busy looking for route one which they enjoyed immensely bless 'em.

It doesn't matter what formation you use if you are going to play a game which suits your opponents and allows them more possession than they would get in a month against sides who can pass and move. For me we had too many players like Barton, Butt and Smith who just ended up getting in a tussle all afternoon. We sank to the level of the Derby troglodytes and it is just so frustrating to watch it happen over and over...

Finally someone calls it as it is!

It's not a case of being harsh, he just doesn't strike me as having the right temperament to make the most of what he's got. Bentley for example looks far more conident in himself.

I don't mind seeing individuals having bad games but to see Given keep hoofing the ball high to give away hard won posession is mindless. Our whole approach in these matches seems to be to get into a physical battle with sub-standard teams which then gives them a fighting shot. The few times we actually put our foot on the ball and did string a few passes together we looked far better players.