Unbelievable

Sunderland should go for him..

Like asking a mackem how he rates Santon tbh

Falcao!

Centre back has been a position where we are light in terms of numbers and quality for well over a season now. If the opportunity presents itself to bring in one of the best centre backs in the Eredivisie for the past few seasons for a relatively modest fee I really fail to see why so many people are complaining. Is this really about the possibility of Steven Taylor losing his guaranteed first team place at the hands of a potentially better and more reliable centre back? The same Steven Taylor who has flattered to deceive for most of his time here until he was paired with Colo (who manages to make Williamson a more than capable Premiership defender) and has averaged under 20 games a season for the past three years?

I'm still baffled why so many people keep insisting we played 4-4-2 last Saturday. There was loads of movement from the likes of Ben Arfa (freedom to roam all over the pitch) and Ba (dropping into midfield, running the channels), and Jonas played much more centrally than a wide midfielder in a 4-4-2 would.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_U6RiIWR0FJg/Sv0rBQtlsPI/AAAAAAAAADQ/7qNdLbXHC00/s400/hp_cry_medres.jpg

Hope it stays that way. Could do with Arsenal dropping more points.

My strikers (Papiss and Holt) haven't exactly repaid my faith in them so far..

Greene

Keegan IIRC

Yeah, what's going on there? First home game back in the Premiership, you'd imagine it'd be packed. There's even more empty seats than you normally see at Sunderland.

Fat Sam: "First half performance very very good, and we were very comfortable." Wat?

Fat Sam

All I can say to that is thank fuck you weren't around on here when we were managed by the likes of Souness and Fat Sam. If you call this constant bitching about his tactics trust and support I dread to think how you would hold up with a genuinely tactically clueless manager.

It's like last season never happened.

Aye, about as silly as suggesting 4-4-2 doesn't allow movement or running into space. Ours doesn't( not every 4-4-2), i have seen us use it enough times using 4-4-2 and see the lack of movement and chance creating and just overall passing options to suggest this. Again, we didn't even play a traditional 4-4-2. Or did you fail to spot Ben Arfa roaming all over the pitch, Jonas sitting deep alongside Anita and Ba dropping into the midfield regularly? In fact, it was more like 4-3-1-2 with Ben Arfa roaming and Ba dropping deep. You can talk about getting the best out of Cabaye, Ba and Cisse in other systems all day long, but considering Cabaye had trouble lifting corners 3 feet of the ground and Cisse looks like a pale shade of his normal self it's fair to say our rustiness was more down to match fitness issues than anything tactical.

Which 4-4-2 doesn't allow because of how simplistic it is and all about rigid movements and lack of midfield options and doesn't allow the movement you describe. Ben Arfa had the freedom to roam all over the pitch today. Also, Jonas was way more central than your average left midfield player in a 4-4-2. And then there was Ba, who dropped so deep to be involved in the build up play he sometimes popped up deeper than our midfield. This might not suit your simplistic 4-4-2 vs 4-3-3 argument, but it's true nevertheless. We lost today because we gave away a stupid penalty at a time when we were fairly confortable defending deep and trying to hit them on the break. Then they scored a wonder goal on the brink of half time and it was game over. Do you really think another system would have prevented these incidents to happen?

We didn't even play a classic 4-4-2 today, but don't let the facts get in the way of a good old moaning session..

Yep

Ba should have scored..

Delivery!

Better delivery straight away..

Raylor on for Simpson

HBA

Cabaye's corners