Shak

How grammatically shoddy. Exactly it though, hopefully things will improve once Barton gets back. But a playmaker to go alongside Barton and Butt/Geremi would have to be high on our list of priorities.

We desperately need Barton or Emre back and playing well, the current options in CM are horrible in terms of playing it a bit and penetrating teams. It's not Butt's natural game, or Geremi's for that matter. So without someone better going forward they have to try and do it, and disaster ensues. Whoever gets the nod for the DM spot once Barton gets back will start to look a lot better with someone more naturally attack minded beside them.

Sarcastic question, obviously, but looking at that second half it really didn't seem like we made any attempt to actively chase the game whatsoever. We were good first half, held our own and the game was going well I thought. Once they scored however the onus was on us to take more chances and push on a bit, and we were playing well enough to do it in my opinion. But no, we just stayed the same and let the game more or less die. City had no need to chase it so they were happy to sit back and let that be the case. We finally made a switch after 75 minutes, a good half hour after City had gone in front. By that time the game had descended into scrappiness and it never really had an effect. We've seen the midfield trio of Smith-Geremi- Butt is incapable of opening teams up on a few occasions, so why stick with it? Take a chance. Worst thing is that Viduka and Martins played quite well, so with some service they could have gotten a goal or two. Overall the performance was alright, and we're certainly moving in the right direction, but we really need a to start being a bit more aggressive when we go behind. It was the same against Derby, no risks. C'mon Sam, grow some balls.

Sometimes wonder what Big Sam is thinking Cacapa is injured

Switch to 4-4-2 pretty sharpish hopefully, we've been utterly incapable of chasing a game so far this season though.

Made a right mess of that. What the fuck was Rozenhal doing at the end, he just ran away from Mpenza for some reason.

Be interesting to see how actively we pursue the win if it stays 1-1 for much longer.

I'd leave it as is for now, be looking to bring on Emre for either Butt or Geremi soon enough though. Enrique on for Smith or Viduka then as well at some point.

Hopefully their goal will be a bit more incentive to get Enrique in there at LB soon enough, Zoggy tries hard but defensively he's too suspect.

Been watching the first half without looking at the thread, quite surprised so many people are so negative. City have been quite good, they're playing some very good stuff. Our defenders have had some hairy moments alright but they've hardly been dreadful in general, sometimes you just have to give credit to the other team. Going forward we've looked a lot more effective than previously in the 4-3-3, we desperately need someone with a bit more attacking talents in the middle though. Think this game could be well suited to Emre, it's quite open, hope he gets 30 minutes.

So he'll be back for England then?

What exactly has Pattison done to deserve that? Much rather have a striker on the bench, bad as he is, than Pattison. With Emre on the bench, can't see Pattison getting a game at all.

I love how Pattison keeps getting his place on the bench.

Just start Enrique FFS.

"World class defending" by Taylor according to the Arsenal commentator people.

Were people expecting us to coast this or something? Could do with getting into the game a bit more from the sound of things though.

Sell, get rid, he's useless!

Doubt they'd ever start all 4, personally.

Few times I've heard that rumour, first from David Edgar though. Would make sense for all concerned that move, as Man U would be able to use him sparingly, as tmonkey outlined above.

How can you read in the dark?

http://www.geocities.com/worldcinema/actors/images/depardieu.jpg Gerard Depardieu :lol:

Not a bad shout at all that.

Give over.

Quite pleased with that line-up tbh. Ideally Shola wouldn't be starting, but Viduka can't start tonight and on Saturday so fuck it.