Shak

Slippery edit.

You'd think so. But we'll need to win the Boro and Fulham games to have any real chance of finishing above Sunderland, not going to happen sadly Where are you expecting Sunderland to get points from? i'm expecting Sunderland to stay on 35 points meaning we need at least 5 to finish above them, given their superior goal difference. Not going to happen imo It would take a heavy loss in our 3rd game for us to win one, draw one and lose one and not overtake Sunderlands GD if they lose all 3 of their games they'll lose by 1 or 2 in each of their games and we'll lose 2-0 at Villa imo We'd be mathematically certain to stay up in that case, assuming we get 4 points from our other two games.

You'd think so. But we'll need to win the Boro and Fulham games to have any real chance of finishing above Sunderland, not going to happen sadly Where are you expecting Sunderland to get points from? i'm expecting Sunderland to stay on 35 points meaning we need at least 5 to finish above them, given their superior goal difference. Not going to happen imo If they lose their remaining three games and we take 4 points then we'll have a better goal difference than them most likely. Think they'll get a point in one of their away games though.

You're right that a centre forward in that role would give them an extra dimension, but isn't it a bit premature to say their style isn't effective? They're on course to win La Liga and are in the final of the Champions League. Should they beat Man Utd, you'd have to hold your hands up and say it is indeed effective. You could say this is their true test, but the same could be said of Man Utd. On paper, it's a great matchup, a clash of the titans. I just hope they don't show each other too much respect, as Man Utd and Chelsea did last May. I think it's too close to call, but I'm surprised why people have Man Utd down as such strong favourites. To be fair, they were incredibly lucky to get through last night. Didn't create one clear cut chance the entire game, as it was their goal came from a bit of brilliance from Iniesta that was a half-chance at best. For all their possession, Chelsea were so comfortable and Barca never looked like creating a chance. Was similiar against Man U last year as far as I recall, plenty of the ball but no penetration as you simply can't pass the ball through a side as good defensively as Man U or Chelsea when they set their stall out to defend. In La Liga it's fine because teams can't defend to anywhere near the quality a Chelsea can, but against the top English sides I think they'll struggle unless they adapt their game when they need to. Unfortunately when the game itself comes around I see no reason why Man U won't just set out their stall to defend and play Barca on the counter. It'll still be an intriguing fixture but anyone expecting an end-to-end thriller will be disappointed I'm afraid, unless Barca get in front then I see Man U playing it very cautiously.

Just heard the "compassionate grounds" things Man U have appealed to UEFA with.

Sending off and the Pique handball were the only decisions I actually thought he got wrong myself. So it evened out in the end. Got the Malouda one spot on, Alves fouled him outside the box and then it spilled in to the box where any further contact was only minor and really not something you can give a penalty for. Other two were never penalties, laughable the amount of hysteria over the incident at the end.

I don't know much about cars, but the one time I drove a Saab car I thought it was immense. Effortless power to them that I really liked.

Can't drive? Banned from driving? Green activist? Be brilliant if he was just incredibly stingy.

Hard to see Barca winning, unfortunately. Much as I love the Barca approach to the game in theory, against truly top class defensive units it just isn't effective. Against lesser sides their sheer ability on the ball shines through and they can carve teams open at will, but when faced with a quality defensive unit like Chelsea, or Man United in last years semi, there just isn't the room to play their way through. I hope they bring in a center forward of some sort in the summer, someone that gives them the option to be just that little bit more direct when they come up against really good defensive sides. Someone who plays well with his back to goal and can bring runners into the game and even provide some sort of threat in the air on crosses. It doesn't have to be some sort of Drogba-esque colossus either, so it's not like they'll need to change their game that radically. Adding Ribery, which has been rumoured, won't really make them any more effective in my opinion, though it'll certainly be fun to watch. Man U will just stick everyone bar Ronaldo behind the ball and defend all day, then do them on the counter attack. Only hope for this game is for Barca to score an early goal with a bit of magic from somewhere, if that happens it'll be an awesome game. 3-1 Man U.

Take it out on Hull Darren lad, there's a good man. I'd have just let him score tbh and not risked it, but obviously in the heat of battle that's hard to do so I'm talking shite of course.

Much as I dislike Nicky Butt and his continued presence in the team it's hardly the same thing like? Point is that Barton continues to do stupid shit like this time and time and time again. It's not an aberration for Barton, it's who he is. Shame, he could have been a top class footballer in my opinion.

What a retard, honestly.

Had a bizarre dream last night. Needed to win at Villa to stay up, went 1-0 down but fought back to equalise and then took the lead with a header from Beye with 5 minutes to go. Then in injury time Milner scored an absolute gem of a volley to send us down. Was devestated, then came on the forum to find that Jon was starting loads of threads about how great Milner was and how we deserved to be relegated for selling him. After having a huge slagging match with him I resolved to fly to London with intention of beating the shit out of him, but when I got there he was trained in kung-fu and was standing there like Neo in the Matrix, waiting for me to attack him. So I called him a fag and ran away. And that was it.

Terrified every time I hit F5 here.

No. I can still be won over by him, of course. If we somehow escape this mess we're in and then he gets his act together in the summer and starts running us in a competent fashion, then I'll support him again. Not that he will mind you, the man's clueless.

It'll be similiar to the Pompey game, we'll see plenty of effort but very little in the way of quality football. But, we'll create a couple of chances nonetheless, just need to take one this time.

Shak mate, with our clear lack of pace, I still can't believe we got shot of Charlie, especially considering his replacement(s). I can well believe it myself, we've just done absolutely everything wrong that we possibly could this year. We deserve to go down, we really do.

Harper, Beye, Bassong, Enrique and Jonas are players you could build a decent first team with. Martins I'd rather we just got rid of. He'll always be an enigma, you're just hoping he'll produce one of his moments of quality to make up for his panicked efforts in general play. We'd miss his pace I suppose, but we could offset that problem by buying someone else with pace. Everyone else can fuck off as far as I'm concerned.

Why on earth would you miss Barton? He's our only good mifielder. The only one that could actually make something happen and one of the very few in our squad that genuinely looks like he gives a shit. The only player that seems to give anyone else a kick up the arse when they deserve it aswell. He should be captain. I actually agree with the first paragraph.

Very much so, I think it was the manner of our defeat that has people bricking it. I didn't think we would come away with anyhting but hoped that we would make Liverpool grind a win out of us. From read I have read and heard it sounded like a training session. We actually did alright until their first goal, I thought. Heads dropped alarmingly after that, I agree, but we're just so shit at the moment that it's hard to expect much more.

Wahey! Get your eyes tested, Dave.

This changes absolutely nothing. The Sunderland game is far more important, as anyone expecting anything from the Liverpool game was absolutely deluded.

Boggles the mind that anyone could have such an incredible lack of basic intelligence, it really does.