Shak

Good to see him getting forward a bit more today. Vastly more use to us in the final third than Butt.

Feared the worst there

He's got no end product man! HTT said so Wasn't he banging on about moving him to CM, play him as a the box-to-box midfield man at the start of the year?

Awesome finish.

Going well so far, we've looked the better side tbh. I'd bring on Duff for Martins though. Stick Duff at left-back, Bassong into center midfield, push Guthrie out on the right and play Jonas up front with Owen. Cunts won't know what hit them.

"Sorry Michael, but I was trying everything I could for 2 hours last night and I just couldn't see any way to fit a 3 pronged strikeforce into a 4-4-2. Stick to playing, son, leave managing to the big boys."

Agreed mate. Can neither of you honestly see the danger of having a man like this in charge? We show up and play as well as we have under him all season, and Stoke meanwhile aren't at the races at all? We get 2-0 up at HT, at which point he proceeds to make a change that moves 3 players into positions that they simply aren't suited to? Why change so much when things are going well? Including moving your best player in the first half into CM, where he can't play at all and never has done. Either stick Cacapa in CM or move Colo there and slot Taylor in at CB. It's not that complicated, anybody with half a brain could see how ridiculous it was.

Wanker, belongs where he is.

What, we'll get a goal from absolutely nowhere after looking shite for 60 minutes and only being in the game due to the opposition missing an absolute sitter and Given making a great save? I actually agree, that's probably all we can hope for with Kinnear in charge. Clever. It's quite true though. Not one game under Kinnear have we looked good going forward, actually playing good football and creating chances rather than just hoping for the best and trying to keep it tight at the back. Until today of course, and we all know Joe put a stop to that as soon as it could be addressed at half time.

What, we'll get a goal from absolutely nowhere after looking shite for 60 minutes and only being in the game due to the opposition missing an absolute sitter and Given making a great save? I actually agree, that's probably all we can hope for with Kinnear in charge.

Relegation prospects will be determined by whether the likes of Owen, Martins, Jonas, Barton and Viduka can stay fit. With players like that to pick from, I don't think even someone as incompetent as Kinnear could quite fuck it up. We'll be shite all year, but we'll just do enough to get through it and stay up. But lose more than 1 or 2 of that lot and all bets are off, and we really could be going down. The man is useless, truly useless, and has no business in any level of professional football management, nevermind managing an established Premier League club. I'd give an awful lot for us to be taken over by someone, anyone, and a real boss brought in. Fuck all those cunts for what happened on the first few days of September. Power hungry cunts who've ruined the great direction we were going in.

FYP

So we started out with a team of (listing players natural positions) GK RB -- CB -- CB -- LB RW -- CM -- CM -- LW CF -- CF We get one player injured and by games end we've got... GK CB -- CB -- CB -- LB RB -- CB -- RW -- LW CF --- CF Aye, Kinnear obviously has a fucking clue what he's doing.

Taylor would be disastrous against this lot at CB. Aye, cos it's obviously going great this way.

Well done Kinnear.

Just back in from town, sounds like we're playing very well. Anyone want to give me a gist of how the two goals came about? Whose impressed the most thus far?

"If I had wanted to give 100 per cent, I would have stayed at Real Madrid, sacrificed lots of things, done my very best and I probably would have succeeded. Instead, I’m here at Sampdoria and I love it.” Laughed out loud reading that.

State of that pass from Bendtner trying to play in Denilson. Andy Gray blamed it on Denilson's touch, obviously.

Brilliant finish from RVP, brilliant.

Mile offside.

What was he thinking? Can't see City equalising though, they've been shite.

I know it's not fashionable to say it anymore but KK did that imo - Viduka's class, Owen's finishing and Martins' pace, with each one compensating for the others flaws, made a lethal combination. I was going to say that "the" formation never got a proper airing against class opposition, then remembered the last home game of last season against Chelsea where we were unlucky to go into half-time level at 0-0 and then had to replace Viduka at half-time with Alan Smith, which subsequently saw us fall apart and lose all rhythm/shape. The negative of that formation was that it would only work with those three playing it (and particularly Viduka) as there is nobody else in the squad capable of playing those roles. Perhaps Jonas could do Oba's role to a degree, but there's nobody who could do what Owen or Viduka were doing in that formation. I actually think Duff would have made a decent back-up for Martins in that role. Played the best football of his career there for Ireland at the start of the decade, the role would suit him as it does Oba as he's allowed sort of be on the periphery of the game and just get involved here and there and be a threat where possible while the game largely goes through Owen and Viduka. Martins job is to provide the threat of pace in behind and consequently create more space for the others. Was a superb system, as Wullie said it perfectly used each of the players strengths to make up for each other's weaknesses.

Tooj will start fondling himself when he reads this.

You really think it's a good idea for a thread though? You think a Christmas Party means anything special to these lads, who earn thousands a week and can go to a flash party any time they like, to the point it'll have any effect on their performance whatsoever?