Colos Short and Curlies

It's 4, in the pl anyway

Its not just set pieces, our crossing (unless it hits the heels of the first man) is always drifting lightly away from goal and always between the pelanty spot and the edge of the box. So easy to defend against and so difficult to get anything towards goal from. And yes thats deliberate

We've not played them down there for a few years, we only finally beat them down there in their relegation season. Before that we had an awful record at Southampton. Our previous victory down there was summik like 1979. But that was the Dell! 1 loss, 2 wins and a 2 draws at St Marys

We've not a bad record at St Mary's, plumping for a 1-1 draw, probably coming from behind

Lots of depressed folk on here atm, but lets have a thread for what you would change to improve our play/position. The only rules are that ashley is here to stay and we aint going to throw £50m at the squad in January. Oh, and if you reckon a change of manager is needed, you need to say who you would get. For me the obvious problem is the style of play, long ball without a target man is stupid, and it obviously negates the ability of our better players so that has to go - I don't care if its 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-3-3 (or a variant of) or 2-2-6, we just need dynamic passing and movement with Ben Arfa being banned from being in his own half. I'd look to replace Simpson in Jan, he's not the worst RB in the league, but he's not strong enough if I'm having Ben Arfa as an attacker and not helping out. The obvious solution is Debuchy but I'm sure somebody can come up with a better option. any other signings should look to put pressure on the CB and CM positions - somebody who can provide a goal threat please! I dont think we need more flair in Midfield, if we release the shackles on Ben Arfa and Cabaye we would be better off going for power and legs in the middle of the park. I'd also be having a look at Pardew's position, he deserves a chance to turn this around after over achieving last year, but if there are no signs of change by Christmas I'd get rid. As for a replacement, we need a coach, not a manager, and someone who would look to promote attacking football. Being realistic we're not going to get Pep so we may need to look at a young up and coming guy to give a chance to. As I'm a sap for a club hero I'm going to put out Nobby Solano. He may be very very very raw, but you got the feeling from the way he approached the game that he would make a decent coach/manager and why not give him a chance. Of course if Jose wanted a proper challenge I'd plump for him After typing this, my solutions (bar the Nobby curve ball) seem pretty obvious, you'd hope that a paid professional could spot the same

whoopie! A shot from inside the 6 yard box!

The main problem with us playing long ball, is that we are rubbish at it. No target man and no players buzzing around to pick up the pieces. Coupled with the number of times that opposition strikers pick up the second ball against us, the question needs to be asked if all of our players play within a 10 yard radius of the centre circle? Also an interesting bit in F365 today - we've not scored from a set piece this season, only had 4 shots from within the 6 yard box and have only socred onece from our last 270 corners!

Sounds like they did tbh: "Immediately following the Premier League fixture against West Ham United on Sunday the Club went through the normal communication channels to advise the Senegalese Federation that both Papiss and Demba Ba would not be available for the international friendly match between Niger and Senegal scheduled for Wednesday, 14th November 2012, due to injury." No idea what 'normal communication channels' are in this case but we're claiming we got in touch. I'm not convinced - weren't most people of the impression Cisse would be off on international duty? I don't know the facts either of course, but even if Senegal did have a grudge against us, they'd need something to work with in order to lodge this claim, some failure/incompetence in procedure. Not sure of the exact regulations tbh, I'd need to have a little dig for them. They've obviously got FIFA on their side though so there's not much we can do in all honesty. From a completely selfish point of view I hope he tells them to fuck off and retires from International football. And we've got Ashley who has an ego big enough to take on the whole of FIFA and International Football. I can see a legal case brewing

Sounds like they did tbh: "Immediately following the Premier League fixture against West Ham United on Sunday the Club went through the normal communication channels to advise the Senegalese Federation that both Papiss and Demba Ba would not be available for the international friendly match between Niger and Senegal scheduled for Wednesday, 14th November 2012, due to injury." No idea what 'normal communication channels' are in this case but we're claiming we got in touch. I'm not convinced - weren't most people of the impression Cisse would be off on international duty? I don't know the facts either of course, but even if Senegal did have a grudge against us, they'd need something to work with in order to lodge this claim, some failure/incompetence in procedure. This is FIFA we're dealing with here, remember. They probably just wrote down 'guilty' and 'not guilty' on two pieces of paper and picked one out of a hat. With 'English Team' written on the back of the guilty paper just to be safe

Positives? Tiote back and Jonas' injury may force a 3 of Tiote - Anita - Cabaye Santon seems to appear at RB more frequently so we may see Simpson replaced by Ferguson at full back No get out of jail card may prompt a change in thinking. Or maybe we'll just see Tiote and Cabaye flanked by Ben Arfa and Ferguson with 2 big men up front for the foreseeable

But you'd have thought that the recipient of the language alledged would go mad if a ref said it, On Mikel's booking he is pretty calm, and even seems to accept what the ref has said. Its likely to be someone mishearing something

Mikeeel! Monkheeeeey! Yup sounds identical. Luiz can't hear through all that hair anyway. Obi man, not Mikel!

So the Sun and Star running stories claiming he claimed Luiz and Ramieres hearing him call Mikel a Monkey, sounds plausible that he called him Obi and they misheard - Mikel certainly didnt look upset when he got booked

A big assumption, but I would guess that the incident where this 'happened' was when Mikel got a yellow, there was absolutely noting in Mikels reaction to Clatts comments to suggest anything inappropriate, never mind racially slanted. Any other club or any other time and I might give this more time out of my day, but I actually cant take a Chelsea complaint over racist or otherwise inappropriate language seriously atm.

Or Northern Rock offering 125% mortages to anyone who could sign their name

Today post 1990 seems to have been a lucky date for us

Krul Colo Tayls Tiote Cabaye Cisse Ba The spine is so important, lets the likes of Ben Arfa run wild

5th for me being optimistic, but there will be little between 4th and 8th. Our first 11 is as good as most, and many a team would like Marveaux, Perch and one of Anita, Jonas or Ba on the bench. I reckon most fans will think their reserves are crap, but ours stand up against most.

This is going to be SSN's 11:30 - 12:00 story isn't it? Rumours gathering pace, we'll deny it, Liverpool will deny it but the idiots on there will claim its happening. 12:01 Saturday am. Andy Carroll still a Liverpool player, no bids in final week of window received. 3pm Monday, Spurs sign Andy Carroll

That and how he manages to move Stevie G away from being the mainstay of the team.

A Tiote screamer

According to Wiki they are brother and sister

Still cant see the family reemblance with Pattison and his sister Vicky from Geordie Shore

Difference was we had more game changers than they did on the pitch. Cabaye was obviously not 100% fit and Cisse was quiet, but we still had Ba and Ben Arfa to come up with 2 pieces of magic. Bale was pretty quiet for them, Lennon ran a lot but offered little. Only Defoe looked like really causing us problems. If 2 of our 4 danger men can be quiet and we still beat a team who will be challenging for top 4, then it looks pretty good for the season ahead.

Dark haired bloke in suit... no malo. Brunette not bad, good taste too in eyeing up Pards.