Mick

No we didn't miss him, we missed Barton.

Edit. Nice edit.

He was caught in possession because he had nobody moving and creating the space he was looking for.

I thought he should have stayed on.

I thought Tiote played well again while running the centre on his own. Our lack of movement when we had the ball was terrible and is something we need to work on.

Guthrie was tried on the wing too many times last season and it didn't work so why try it again this season? How many times to we need to keep trying failed players in certain positions? As for Shola, playing him today is proof as to why he shouldn't have started. Might as well have not read my post. We were successful playing a certain way and putting Guthrie on the wing allowed us to continue playing that way. You have to look at it in context. It's easy to say that Ameobi is s*** when you can pretend that we have clear-cut alternatives. I did read your post and you said that you can understand playing Guthrie on the wing, I can't understand that as he's not good enough to play in that position and it's been proven almost every time he plays on the wing. We do have clear cut alternatives to Ameobi, they are not as good as him when he's on top of his game, like when we played Sunderland. They are better than him when he plays the way he has since that game.

Guthrie has a record of 1 assist every 3 games for us last season and most of them came from the centre of midfield, Routledge had a record of 1 assist every 2 games while playing on the wing. This season Guthrie doesn't have an assist Routledge does. Routledge had a goal every 5 games last season, Guthrie scored a goal every 9 games.

I agree, our weakness today was mainly down to Guthrie not turning up, the alternative was Smith.

Guthrie was tried on the wing too many times last season and it didn't work so why try it again this season? How many times to we need to keep trying failed players in certain positions? As for Shola, playing him today is proof as to why he shouldn't have started.

I don't base my opinion on results alone, playing Guthrie on the right wing when he clearly can't play in that position does my head in, that comment has nothing to do with today. Leaving Shola on for so long last weekend was crazy, as was actually starting him today after last weeks non-event. Also, I'm not blaming him for todays result where he had limited resources although Shola shouldn't have been in the starting 11.

I was told a month ago that he was well into his recovery.

I think we should have too much for them and if we have Barton and Tiote in the middle then we're more than a match for them in the area that should control the way that the game is played. I just hope that we go with two proper wingers to get at the fullbacks and don't give them space in front of Simpson, I'll go for a 1-2 score-line in our favour.

The quality of football at the last world cup was bordering on sleep inducing. Can England guarantee a safe World Cup? I would say that we'd be on a par with USA in being safer than most of the other bidding nations. As for Qatar not having a 7/7 in the last 20 years, does that have any bearing on what will happen in the future? Do you not think that it might just be a target for terrorism if the world is in the same state as it is now? As for a safe Russia, that will never be guaranteed, they have too many enemies from within the former USSR, I’m sure one or two Chechens have marked a few dates on calendars already. 7/7 doesn't even come close to what has happened in Russia when a theatre and school were attacked and almost 500 were killed by terrorists.

Not hosting since 1966 should bear some importance if the two countries have similar backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses. I only mentioned that date as its 44 years since we’ve hosted so we should have more of a claim to hosting than Spain who hosted 16 years later. Obviously, Russia have never hosted so 1966 isn’t relevant in that case. How can Russia guarantee a safe World Cup? How can Qatar for that matter considering where it is in the world? No nation can guarantee an entertaining World Cup, the last one is proof of that if proof is needed.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/5453/seppblatterfifapres.jpg

Spain hosted in 1982, we last hosted in 1966 so they might not moan as loudly as we are. It looks like the Americans and Australians are having a good moan and they have every right to moan considering who won in the same group. What have Qatar done to host a World Cup? You can't dismiss the history of countries that have been competing for years as if that was worthless. Without the game being played historically we wouldn't have a future, we'll have a footballing future without Qatar.

What inaccurate stuff?

Agreed, I hate watching Stroller but I'd put money on him out-scoring Best.

What you've said could be true, it could be true about ony of our players, I haven't seen anything in Best to make me think it'll happen and he's done nothing to deserve getting a game ahead of anybody else.

I think you need the glasses.

Hughton is the first manager we've had that I haven't been able to make my mind up about for more than a two or three games at a time. Sometimes I think he'll become a good manager and other times I'm not too sure about him.

I remember Best being in on goal twice and he had the perfect ball played to him in that position and he didn't even make contact with the ball. The player behind him put the ball in the net on both occasions, just like any of us would have done in Best’s position.