greydos

Yeah but if Leicester can win the league then surely Swansea can ? If they stay up Swansea will have more chance of winning the PL than Portsmouth next year - gotta be in it to win it! Ultimately this is a question of likelihood: what's more likely, a Benitez team finishes above the crap I mentioned or the crap manages to scrape together sufficient points to finish above us? Time will tell As likely say as Leicester winning the league last season ? That was your point after all. This is a bit dumb. Just because something is unlikely, doesn't mean it can't happen at all. More often than not more likely events occur. Why are we debating this; are you seriously saying you think top 14 next year is likely beyond us? When we do comfortably finish top 14 I won't remind you of this conversation

Yeah but if Leicester can win the league then surely Swansea can ? If they stay up Swansea will have more chance of winning the PL than Portsmouth next year - gotta be in it to win it! Ultimately this is a question of likelihood: what's more likely, a Benitez team finishes above the crap I mentioned or the crap manages to scrape together sufficient points to finish above us? Time will tell

I'm not asking for anything; that is what I expect will happen. Rafa's a world class manager: players will want to come play for him and he'll be effective in making us better than the sum of our parts. It's no different to SBR's reign in that respect and I can imagine a similar trajectory for the team.. What's unrealistic about what I said? Next season, Rafa's NUFC finish above 3 relegated PL teams, and crap like Pulis' West Brom, Yank's Swansea and Whoever's Watford (throw in Howe's Bournemouth for a 13th place finish). That's not a stretch in my book

Pardew finished 5th once. I appreciate the PL now is a little stronger with all the top managers as compared with 5 years ago, but of course Rafa can get us top 8. If Ranieri can win the league last year with Leicester's squad, we can finish top 6 easily within 3 years. The question is can we finish top four? We'll be good enough in 3 years' time to be top 4, the problem will be that there'll be 7 teams good enough for top 4. Someone has to finish there and someone has to miss out. Why not us finishing there once or twice? Next year i'd expect top 14, year after top 8, year after to be one of the teams that's in the so-called top 7 league.

West Ham (or West Brom?) at home, 1-0 win, Mitrovic assisted by Shelvey through ball comes to mind as the exception that proves your rule.

But it wasn't common though. No other club had the sense to buy those 2 players. Carr does deserve credit for their signings

Townsend has the best left foot in Europe don't you know? No-brainer for Guardiola (says Keown) FYP

Townsend has the best left foot in Europe don't you know? No-brained for Guardiola (says Keown)

He will eventually work as one of the midfield 2 in a 4231. His legs would allow a slower 10 who doesn't chase around so much, like de Jong. He needs a destroying passer next to him though. There must be another Kante somewhere...

My thoughts: 1) Perez was sluggish, his first touch was awful for him and he didn't have enough strength to hold off defenders when being tackled from behind. Needs to work on finding space between the lines to receive the pass on the half turn if he's going to play as a 10. 2) Colback remains gash. No chance Rafa can improve him. Glad he's banned for 2 games. 3) Shelvey needs to play 10-15 yards further up the pitch. We don't need him dropping deep and playing Mbemba and Lascelles into midfield. We need Wijnaldum who can drop a shoulder and advance 5 yards to take the ball from the centre backs then feed Shelvey to play with Gini then advancing passed him. 4) Lascelles is better than I thought (although he was playing a Championship team, which by all accounts is his level). 5) I cannot believe De Jong held his own in a midfield 2, even if Sunderland were backing off at that stage. I think SDJ's touch and look to pass early are better utilised at no. 10 and he should play there ahead of Perez. If that happens, we need Townsend and Sissoko to offer the threat of a run in behind, like Dyer used to from midfield. 6) Townsend should've stayed on, although Wini's cross was class. 7) We're not dead yet!

Started with: ----------- Shelvey --------- Anita ----------- Perez ------------ Wijnaldum -------- Sissoko --------------------- Mitro -------------------- Turned into: Townsend ------- Shelvey ------- Gini -------- Sissoko ------------------- Mitro ---------- Perez --------------- Not sure what it was when SDJ came on. Cheers

Missed the game tonight. Can someone tell me what formation we played and whether we changed shape with the subs?

Even with 12 players we would still lose

Watched the extended highlights on Sky and he looked very promising to me. He has the ability to stalk an opponent, jogging towards them effortlessly before sprinting to make the tackle when they took a dodgy touch. He also showed he can drop a shoulder in tight areas, turn and give a forward pass turning defence into attack. There was a moment when he didn't appreciate a player was coming from behind him and so he was muscled off of the ball. I would be worried if he did realise the player was there and was actively shielding it but was a weakling, but fact was he was just taken by surprise - probably the added physicality of the premier league compared with ligue one. The good thing about his passing range is that if opposition teams try to stamp on Shelvey to stop us playing our game others can supply Gini and the others, retaining our threat. I'm genuinely excited by him

Shouldn't this thread title be "Jack Colback, 1 brain cell away from 1 brain cell"?

Colo played some nice passes on the floor into Cisse and Sissoko's feet. Dummet is terrible on the ball. Whereas a decent player passes the ball to another player, Dummett always passes the ball to an "area." He's the typical no talent kid stuck at fullback at school: you tell good players to try and pick out so-an-so up top, you tell a Dummett to "hit it up the channel." At least he looks like he thinks that when he gets the ball

I said their skill sets were similar, not the same. Both could sprint the full length of the pitch with and without the ball, quicker than most other CMs they'd come up against. Both were unsuited to intricate short passing, but could get by in a team that wasn't totally possession based and could play the odd decent low cross when in wider channels. Both are weak in the air. Both are ropey (or at least less than convincing) at finishing. Both have a great set of lungs on them. Neither can shoot from outside the box. Dyer could harry and press, but so could Sissoko if trained. Neither are great tacklers, but could be effective as the applied pressure in a midfield press allowing a colleague to make the tackle. Like Dyer, Sissoko could sprint from CM and beyond the last man like an on-the-shoulder striker if he was trained and instructed to. Anyway, even if you disagree that they are similar, surely the underlying point remains true that a proper manager would make Sissoko work as a CM. Far worse players have been effective as CMs in decent premier league teams.

A good manager would make Sissoko at a CM work. His skill set is not too disimilar to Keiran Dyer's and Sir Bobby (a proper manager) made that prosper, albeit next to Speedo a class DM. Good managers get Aaron Hughes looking a decent right back in the top half of the prem, or win champions leagues with Jerzy Dudek. They win the league with help from John O'Shea and Wes Brown. Both Sissoko and Wijnaldum would be highly effective CMs under decent managers (although not next to each other in a two). They should both start CM in a 433 with a decent DM between them - that should be our recruitment aim along with a solid scrappy stocky stab his own mum for the last Yorkshire pudding type CB.

How long til a newspaper runs with the headline "Klopp Kops Cop! Criminal defending sees Reds routed" or "Klopp's Kop Flop: Parky has another victim"

Colback should be our left back. He'd make a decent(ish) old school 1990s full back that can pass but not get further than 3 quarters of the way up the pitch and put in deep crosses when needed. Would help to free Thauvin a little from having to bust a gut after losing possession, as a counter-attack down his flank would be well defended (in terms of a body there, rather than the ability of the defender). It would also have the advantage of keeping a "Geordie" on the pitch and in theory better ball-playing ability in defence. Having played centre-mid for a few years Colback should be more calm and composed under pressure than Haidara and so passes on the floor rather than hopeful channel balls should follow. (I appreciate a lot of this post is optimistic as to Colback's abilities a but at least it gets him out of centre mid.)

I get the feeling Pardew would absolutely love to f*** his own face

Could it be? :: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/09/jurgen-klopp-premier-league-very-exciting

*sigh* Ugh. Are you saying that you want Kinnear? Because a few of us have discussed this and decided that that is definitely the only alternative. Good post. Ironic post?

I want Aaron Ramsey here. Fanciful i know. But perhaps Wilshere's development will see room for him at the gunners disappear. Here's to hoping...

I didn't see the game so can't say i've seen the pass you're talking about. But it sounds similar to the pass barton played to ameobi against wham before receiving it back and getting the assist for carroll. In my eyes JB's as good a passer as anyone we've got on our books