Sifu

Skirge's wacky formations make a (welcome) return

Not a bad choice for the England job like. Will certainly receive my backing if he is appointed England manager. Thought Redknapp was a certainty for the job and I would have just about stomached him as the face of the national team but with this latest development, all I'll say is, fuck him, haha

So today is going well...

Indeed. Santon to right back and a new left back coming in. An ideal solution but I wouldn't be averse to the idea of bringing in a quality RB (such as Debuchy) and letting Santon continue his development at LB.

The way I see it, avoid defeat at Chelsea and it's still very much on. I'm actually quite confident of a win against City at St. James'. Don't know why but it's my gut feeling.

Good luck, Curtis.

Only just seen the score, 6-1 to Chelsea with Torres scoring? Uh oh.

We always get absolutely f*** all at Reading too, and Southampton speaks for itself, I'm hoping Kieron Dyer and Stephen Carr buried that demon for good. Didn't want West Ham to come up but now you've said that, we usually beat them buggers. Hopefully that win we got in the Championship has destroyed our voodoo there for good too! Yet another game in the Championship I have absolutely no recollection of. It was 2-1 to us iirc with Nolan getting both goals.

We always get absolutely f*** all at Reading too, and Southampton speaks for itself, I'm hoping Kieron Dyer and Stephen Carr buried that demon for good. Didn't want West Ham to come up but now you've said that, we usually beat them buggers. Hopefully that win we got in the Championship has destroyed our voodoo there for good!

Fair play to the c*** for that goal/hat trick.

Totally agree on both counts. Whenever I've seen you this year, Tiote hasn't impressed me that much. His passing has often been mediocre and gives away a lot of fouls, many of them stupid. Has his qualities, like most do, but could be one to sacrifice if you had to sell someone. Might just be a harsh assessment on what I've seen? The fact that he's been in and out of the team this season (due to injuries/ACoN participation) hasn't helped. So he really hasn't had a consistent run of games this year.

Lawrenson and Hansen on tonight. No doubt they'll have a few digs at us.

Bah, just had a look at the running order, our game's on first.

We were on the back foot so I could see why Pardew decided to change it there and then. Wigan had so much more width than we did so I guess Pardew wanted to shut down the threat from the wings. Which is fair enough, but I can think of a better way of doing it than switching the LB to RB mid-game and pulling a midfielder into LB. They looked lost. There was a moment in the box between Santon and Simpson where they didn't know who was supposed to defending what To an extent aye but we had to do something, we were being battered. Considering Santon has played on the wing before in his career, I guess you could say that he was the logical choice to put there...

We were on the back foot so I could see why Pardew decided to change it there and then. Wigan had so much more width than we did so I guess Pardew wanted to shut down the threat from the wings.

An off day for everyone concerned (the players, the manager and staff) really. To Pardew's credit, he did try to change it around a bit when he decided to switch to a 3-4-3 and try to match Wigan in all areas of the pitch. But ultimately, we were outdone by a determined Wigan side who, in their traditonal March/April form, were great today so all credit to them (seriously, their football model of "being relegation candidates for most of the season and then turning into a nice footballing side in the last couple of months of the season" is very annoying!). Taking off Ben Arfa was an understandable decision btw. Just have to move on basically, we've got a massive game on Wednesday and it's up to Pardew to get the players focused and motivated for Wednesday - I'm sure Alan will do just that.

Mentioned this in the match thread but today really did remind me of the Derby game at Pride Park when we were in the Championship. As in, being on a high because of the week before, being able to field our best team available but yet, on the actual day/night of the game, nothing would happen for us.

We're still in the race for 4th. The Chelsea game is a massive one and could very well define where we finish this season. Lose that and we're out of the race tbh. But as long as people have belief and faith, we could, we just could get that 4th spot (I'm still not going to vote in this poll though, haha).

Are you willing to put a bet on that? I will be I hope your bet goes the same way as the Man U game at St. James'!

A draw would be a brilliant result like, would certainly take it if it's offered to us right now.

Are you willing to put a bet on that?

So, to summarise: Wigan were great (the best I've seen them play all season) and deserved their win if we're being brutally honest. Fair play to them. We, on the other hand, were shocking bar that great 15 minute spell we had in the second half (could have easily made it 4-2 if it weren't for the woodwork). Nothing went for us today - we weren't getting the decisions from the ref, we couldn't put our chances away and all our top players were well below par. It was not going to happen for us today, simply put. It's best to forget about it now though, the players have to move on and they now have to focus on/give their full attention to the game against Chelsea on Wednesday night. Massive, massive game.

It's just not going to happen today, is it?

What's gone on here? Some of the posts ffs :lol:

Speechless. Wigan, to their credit, have been brilliant. Absolutely shocking stuff from us.