Mick

I've got the same feeling about our chances as I had when Allardyce took us to Derby and handed them the points.

Saggy face is going to be scratching his head when he takes a look at our team sheet.

I guess we're finding out why he was unemployed until recently.

Pardew is shit if that team is right.

He's training but he's been out for that long it will be a while yet.

He probably thought that we were going to be attacking and moved out because of that, I did.

Agreed, this game could have easily been played tomorrow.

Barton was ill and still played so that may be true regarding Guthrie.

er.. really?

Why is Guthrie not available?

Ah, the reverse Christmas tree formation.

Taylor has played leftback for us before. We'll just have to wait and see what happens, Ferguson on the left wouldn't be the worst idea.

Taylor on the left and Williamson in the middle is a change less.

That's 3 changes for 1 player.

I wonder if Krul felt under more pressure after being told the shirt was his to lose?

I think it's about time we brought in a specialist coach for out Wingers, even if it's only for 1 or 2 days a week and give them some 1 to 1 coaching.

Is Guthrie not in the squad which travelled to London earlier in the day? He was on the bench against Man City and will be more important now that Nolan has been banned.

You take it wrong.

I can't remember him ever trying to hide from the ball.

The main problem I have with Jonas is that he always seems to want one touch too many.

Did any of the Man City goals come down our right?

I'd rather keep Simpson at rightback, he's developing well.

Williamson knows how to defend better than Taylor, he's much better when it comes to holding a line. Defending isn't about having good individual defenders, it's about having a good defensive unit and we'll not have that with Taylor in the middle. I don't like having a go at Taylor because he cares for the club, that doesn't change the fact that we're better off without him in the centre of defence.

I'm not sure what to make of Taylor, he's nowhere near as bad as some make out while he's not the answer to our centreback needs. He's sometimes rash as he tends to follow play and we lose our shape at the back because of it but he's always about to make a last ditch tackle when we need it. I thought that he would move to rightback this season and I don't see that as being the case now as I'd like to see Simpson keep that position as I think he's got the potential to become a very good player for us. Taylor is a puzzle because I don't see us building a solid defence around him unless he can settle down and relax a bit more and lose the headless chicken approach that we see too often. He could probably defend well doing a man-to-man job on somebody, I’m not sure he’s up to zonal marking as he doesn’t have the self discipline.

I was agreeing with you.