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How many times did Smith touch the ball in the second half? How many times could the wanker have shot and instead tried to dribble around the whole Derby defence? He was useless today. When played up front, he actually offers us something but when played in midfield, he's a liability - something which his partner in crime Barton also is. Allardyce needs to stop with this ridiculous Smith-bumming and fucking play him in the right position or not play him at all. I also thought Milner looked quite good on the right, looked better than he did on the left - so, for me, that puts paid to that 'Milner's more effective on the left' shite that Sam was on about in the interview.

I disagree mate. We never actually got the ball down and passed it. How many chances did we create from open play? None? One maybe? Two nice Viduka strikes doesn't hide the fact that both the goals were from random long balls which dropped nicely for us. It's vintage Sam percentage football and it isn't good enough. Derby passed the ball way more than we did and dominated midfield. Barton looked lost in the second half, and the changes, which were actually decent, came way way way too late. Why wasn't Emre sent on earlier? Why wasn't Zoggy pushed up further? Duff looked alright, if that's any consolation. He seemed to regain a bit of pace and now offers up an extra option, but his presence on the pitch makes it even more unlikely that Zoggy will be played left-wing.

FT in this one as well. Barely watched the second half but from what I saw Inter were dominating and Kaka had disappeared from the game.

FT.

Is Sam watching Zoggy? I hope the fat fuck realizes that he's our best attacker and seriously needs to play him further up.

Smith has no confidence whatsoever in his shooting abilities. Fucking ridiculous.

Yeah, the fact that he hasn't noticed that before now is quite frankly Unbelievable! isn't it mate? I'll stop now. Andy, I have actually been laughing at the millions of jokes you've made in this thread.. if that makes you feel any better.

Fucking motherfucker. Viduka again. 2-2. Now get the ball and fucking score another you stupid cunts.

Kaka's amazing If there ever was a one man team who were actually half-decent, Milan are it.

Cruz 1-1.

1-1 Viduka!! Fucking get in, there's no effing way we're not winning this game.

Inter 0 - 1 Milan. Pirlo fantastic free-kick. Inter nearly get an immediate response, Jimenez hitting the bar. Good game this. This flicking channel lark is annoying me though.

Stupid Pienaar. That's cost them a point, a point that I think they really deserved. Everton are a good team as evidenced today, pushed Manyoo to the limit, defended really well and would have been worth the point. Sigh. Now the fuckers are only a point off of Arsenal now.

I think he's quite overrated. He's never played in a team like us, and probably won't ever if he stays in Arsenal. We should take note of the recent phenomenon of supposedly 'good' players coming from better clubs to play for us and then becoming the definition of suckitude when they're here. The style of play is different, the skills that these players possess are different and they've been taught to play a different style of football. This is why we should be really careful when buying 'established' players like Wes Brown, Diarra etc. The evidence is there, just look at Parker, Butt, Emre, Luque (maybe?) and Duff. They're all examples of players that we, and most people, thought were good but they've all underachieved here and thus, it's a lesson that Allardyce has to heed. The way teams like Arsenal, Chelsea and Manyoo play is very different from the way we play. They dominate possession and then play the ball in the other team's half. They're rarely put under significant pressure and rarely is it a lengthened spell. That's why Butt has underachieved here imo. At Manyoo, he only had to put in a few tackles to break up play and could rely on his anticipation, but here, we're put under pressure way more often so he has to run, harry and hustle and that's why he seems to be less effective than he was when he was at Manyoo. Obviously there are other factors but we've got to be more wary of buying players recklessly from these teams.

He's only 19 or 20, isn't he Jonny? Give him time. His movement (as least what I saw in the Valencia game last weekend) is already on a level that's significantly better than most other footballers.

Cahill, the dickhead, makes it 1-1.

Last week's 'Super Sunday' was shite. Tonight, today, this is the real SUPER Sunday. The Milan derby starts the same time our game starts, I'm gonna have to flick channels on this one cos it's gonna be a cracking game. After winning the World Club championship, I can see Milan being a bit tired and in need of a rest but Inter won't, they've got goals in abundance and this could be a very one-sided game. Then, 2 hours after our game finishes i.e. when the Chelsea match ends, the Barca - Real match begins. Ronaldinho on the bench, I hope young Bojan gets a game as well as the Mexican prodigy Dos Santos. I fancy Real to nick this one, and it'll be the end of Rijkaard as well if it does happen. Let's hope this Sunday is actually a 'Super' one.

I always thought a good barometer of whether a player is actually any good is to see what his own fans think of him... and every Liverpool fan I know thinks that he's shite.

Now all my 'homies' from London will be all 'QPR is safe bruv, allow Newcastle'... gay.

Diego will rock the league, he's the man. I have doubts about Arshavin and how good he really is. We don't need some hybrid grafter/creator, we really need some geniune creativity and I'm very unsure whether he'll be able to deliver it. He's looked decent at times but even playing for Russia against minnows he never looked special to me. We really need some poncey arrogant up-his-own-arse wanker - those players are always the most creative It's time we went for some genuine class and since we have the funds, we're better off getting some young stud instead of paying £6m-ish for someone who'll we have to replace in a few years.

Kalou is a good player That's not my point. He hasn't been nor is looking like he'll ever be worth the money they spent on him (think it was rumoured to be £8m+).

Tbf, his position and style of play means it's very unlikely that he'll take the game by the scruff of the neck and dominate it. He's the type of player to drift in and out of the game. Your best bet is hoping he comes through and does something magical which no one else could do, though that's something which he's done a bit but not nearly enough in the so-called 'big' games.

His step-overs pissed me off today. Just fucking run to the byline and deliver in a hard-hit cross ffs. Fancying about, giving the defenders time to adjust and mark his teammates and then giving even more time for their midfielders to come back and then rob the ball off of him. What a tit. Good cross for the Rooney miss though

He's never been a goalscorer even when used up-front at Leeds so don't see why that will change. With Owen up-front I think he can get away with it, a la Heskey, but with Martins, neither are natural goalscorers. I know Martins has 7 but he's not a like Owen in that when you get one chance fall to you in the box, you're confident he'll score it. I think he chipped in with a decent number of goals when he was a young player at Leeds and given decent service. He can do that again. It's about creativity in the team and his own confidence in front of goal. It doesn't happen overnight. blueyes.gif Smith can be a very useful player to us because of the attributes that he possesses(a bit of pace, aggression, passion, some holding up ability, a 'defending from the front' attitude amongst a few other useful things). Though he's never going to be a star, he can certainly help other players like Zoggy, Emre and Owen shine. He just needs to be more consistent and needs some help from Allardyce as well.

For me, I've only focused on the times he's played up front. Just look at yesterday, he did not even take one shot (iirc)!! That's pitiful from a so-called front man. He needs to get into dangerous positions. Again, not once did he do that yesterday. And I'm not judging him on this one game, it's been many games now that he's not been able to get into goalscoring positions and on the rarest of occasions that he does, he's very very reluctant to actually pull the trigger. He's not got the confidence in his shooting abilities atm and that's a very big problem. Just look at Viduka yesterday, was on for only 10 mins and got into a very dangerous position (the freekick that Roz hit back across goal). Smith doesn't pose enough of a goal threat which is probably why defenders have been able to focus more on Martins and our wingers (notice the double team of Milner/Zog on the left). This combined with the fact that we don't have anyone who can strike the ball outside the penalty area means it's becoming quite easy to defend against us. Just look at the last 8 goals we've scored. 2 from pens, 2 own goals, 2 from set pieces and only two from open play. One of the open play ones was actually our central defender hanging around in the opposition's penalty area and the other was a fluke cross from Milner. That just shows how we've been struggling for goals lately and why I think Smith should be able to do better. And he can as well, he's shown it for Leeds in the past. Just needs to find his goalscoring form and become consistent. Not too much to ask for though, is it?