Ashley17

I'm clinging to the fact that Boro will have to come and play for a win, they need points as much as we do. Even then though, we're shite. The Boro game is fucking huge and what's worse is I expect Hull to beat Stoke 2 days before we play, so we'll be 6 points adrift.

Is Barton even allowed back in Liverpool yet?

I'd say Fulham will be quite harder if they're still pushing for Europe when we play them. Ironically if a team comes out to try and beat us we have more chance. Portsmouth came for a point and we don't have the creativity to break them down. Sad but true.

Just got back. I think we must be the only team in the history of relegation battles to barely see the ball from 80 minutes on in a home game we have to win, it was embarassing. We finally got the 4-3-3 we've been begging for and it was about as successful as you can expect when 2 of the midfield 3 are Butt and Smith. Neither of them had shit games but neither of them can create anything. If there is nobody to provide, then playing Owen in this deeper role is pointless. Having said that, playing him at all is seeming more and more pointless by the game. Even when he gets a chance he misses these days, and he's running out of excuses. Width was a huge problem tonight, once Duff was moved to left back he seemed reluctant to cross half way. When he was in midfield he was constantly in the centre. Not good. Guthrie came on and was decent, faded in the 2nd half though. Coloccini, Bassong and Butt saw so much of the ball but the movement in front of them was shoddy and most things fizzled out without incident. Carroll actually worked the channels when he came on, something Martins didn't do at all second half. Problem with this was there was ntohing to aim at. Urgh. Smith wasn't seen at all second half, I don't even recall him touching the ball. Jonas came on and ran about a bit...then stopped. Carroll had the ball on the left touchline looking for somebody to lay it off to, and Jonas just stood and watched, backed up by Duff 10 yards further back. Duff actually bollocked Jonas for it when the ball went dead but how fucking hard is it to move forward. The fans were pretty good, as good as you can expect with that performance. I thought it was disgusting that people left early but each to their own, if it's for transport reasons then I can understand it, but if it's just to beat the crowds those fans needs to have a serious look at themselves. The solution? I have no fucking idea. We played with 4-3-3 as hoped and we lacked width. So many 2 on 1's against our fullbacks, just not acceptable. 4-4-2 doesn't work because Michael Owen is no longer a threat in a 4-4-2. Viduka and Martins? I don't know, fortunately it's not my job to. The Liverpool game is a write off, then we have to win the 2 home games and go into the Villa game with a chance. Then anything can happen. But I can't see us winning any games anytime soon, they just don't seem to care. On a positive note, Greame Danby was good. The club got their money's worth from him tonight, what with his singing and then brief comedy routine....and then reading the teamsheet.....and then welcoming the players back for the 2nd half. Think it was good for the atmosphere though.

I'm about to head off for this, really fucking nervous now

Ashley Young is in Premier League team of the year on the left wing and he's been capped how many times by England during this season? Capello must be furious.

You my friend aren't playing with a full deck

.com alluding to Martins only being a sub due to him not having any injections, fuck that. Play him for as long as possible and rest him at Anfield, we aren't going to get anything at Liverpool but this is a must win. However, I'm not a doctor.

I made reference to this in the Spurs match thread, Owen is only useful if people who can cross are playing. How many of Owen's goals were set up by Geremi last year? A fair few I'd say, without knowing the exact figures.

Watching Chelsea/Everton....they keep going on about Alex tripping Baines. At the risk of looking like a twat, Alex hangs his leg out, makes contact with the ball and then the man. Is that classed as stonewall these days? It wasn't given btw, for those not watching.

46m and they're still pretty f***ing s*** The league table since signing Palacios et al seems to suggest otherwise..................... http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8383/picture2pxx.png That shows Nolan and Ryan Taylor have improved us, and thus is wrong.

I think if we go to Villa on the last day needing something to stay up we will get it, Villa aren't brilliant at home to begin with and they're already slipping into holiday mode - and they've been playing since July.

We've taken 4 points off them away, that's...something

http://www.planet-wissen.de/pics/IEPics/intro_uw_model_g.jpg Ramon Vega.

If you're going to play Owen you pretty much have to play Geremi. Geremi is slow but he can at least cross a ball every now and again.

If we'd had a penalty given against us for a handball like that I'd be livid. It was smashed at him from a yard away. He couldn't do much about it, but I thought it was the right decision from the ref in that case, he clearly (but inadvertantly) controlled it with his hand and wouldn't have scored without it. On the other hand, I thought Woodgate's challange on Oba was a clear pen. Yes, reminded me of the one he won against Birmingham at home under Allardyce.

If we'd had a penalty given against us for a handball like that I'd be livid. It was smashed at him from a yard away.

I think it was jonnypd in the match thread who pointed out that we're essentially one shit back pass from relegation Winning 3 home games is imperative, we're getting close to needing to emulate what Fulham did last season.

I've no doubt as soon as Enrique is fit we will ditch this 3 at the back shite, it's purely a stop gap so we don't have to put anyone out of position at full back. However we've had Duff, Bassong and Taylor there in the past 2 matches, so it's sort of backfired. Once Enrique is back, I expect 4-3-3. The only question is who the 3 in midfield are. The advantage with Geremi was his crosses in the box gave Owen something to arrive late onto, now he can arrive as late as he wants there's no service at all. Jonas can run all day but his crossing is poor, Butt is useless but almost guaranteed to start and then you've got Guthrie, Smith, Barton, Geremi himself, Nolan and Duff. I'd pick Barton once he's (match) fit but otherwise I'm really not sure.

Villa drawing, good. Nothing to play for on the last day hopefully.

Undecided about mackems/Hull. On the one hand, Hull have the hardest run in....so maybe them getting 3 points here isn't the end of the world as they might not get many more. The mackems however have games that are winnable, and this is their easiest fixture left - so losing it could well fuck them up. Howay draw/Hull!

Carroll, Lovenkrands and Owen in the 4-3-3 then?