Tachikoma

Smith getting his top on NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ben Arfa scares them so much

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

This. Playing Smith is like giving our opponents a 12th man.

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

COME ON BARFA

This. And as crazy as it sounds, I'd have Best in the pecking order ahead of him for exactly that. He can hold onto a ball and has a decent touch and whilst he isn't the greatest in the final third, he's a hell of alot less frustrating than Shola. We simply can't afford to have a player that can't hold onto the ball, especially if we defending a lead away from home. Agreed. Shola is absolutely useless at holding up the ball, but as a second striker I don't think he'd be that bad. I'd still rather have him over Best on any day, because playing a striker who isn't able to score simply defeats the whole point of playing strikers. Besides, if we were defending a lead away from home you'd put a midfielder on, not a striker. What on earth are you talking about? He has absolutely nothing required of a second striker. I mean instead of playing him as a traditional target man, play him as a striker who feeds off a target man. Shola has improved a fair bit in terms of his positional sense over the years, and he isn't that bad with the ball at his feet. I'm not saying he'll become immense just by tweaking his position a bit, but I can see him being more effective.

This. And as crazy as it sounds, I'd have Best in the pecking order ahead of him for exactly that. He can hold onto a ball and has a decent touch and whilst he isn't the greatest in the final third, he's a hell of alot less frustrating than Shola. We simply can't afford to have a player that can't hold onto the ball, especially if we defending a lead away from home. Agreed. Shola is absolutely useless at holding up the ball, but as a second striker I don't think he'd be that bad. I'd still rather have him over Best on any day, because playing a striker who isn't able to score simply defeats the whole point of playing strikers. Besides, if we were defending a lead away from home you'd put a midfielder on, not a striker.

I disagree, he seems like a very poor football player. He's not strong, hes weak as shit, his crossing is abysmal. He himself is utter shit as a player. Look, he has three yellow cards in 3 matches and should've had 4 or 5 already. We got lucky with his bad tackle against Wolves. I'm sorry but the amount of stick he gets is deserved, however I hope he'll prove me wrong. You are either fishing for bites, or you're basing your impressions of him on match highlights. 4 to 5 yellow cards in 3 games Granted he got lucky in the Wolves game (first time I saw it I thought he got the ball) but you could also say he was unlucky to pick up a yellow in the Aston Villa match.

Besides being offside for no particular reason on the counter, Shola wasn't _that_ bad yesterday.

Aye. It is.

Carroll needs a right foot ~_~

Is that true? Fucking hell, interesting stat that. I don't actually place that much blame on Smith. Even if he is shit, he always gives 100%. It's the likes of Duff and Owen I'd like to inflict pain on. Like when he hides in the defence and doesn't track any runs? Just because he fancies a tackle or two doesn't mean he's really giving 100%. He did the exact opposite of that in the Aston Villa match and was 10x better than usual as a result.

I'm putting it down to Cheick's imminent arrival. Its amazing what competition can do for a player.

Jonas wasn't even trying to cross in the Aston Villa game, actually. The way I see it the only thing Rout was lacking was an understanding with Perch. Tried to do too much on his own.

Maybe I have a short memory but that was the best I've seen Smith play for us. He was like a completely different player from the one that played last week - I mean, Smith being mobile and offering himself for the ball, and not making silly lunging tackles?

Having said what I said earlier... the villatalk match thread

Fuck that, no need to be bitter anymore after that game.

This is so surreal. And I've managed to miss all of the goals.

Is Vuckic available for selection? Would like to see how he does in Nolan's spot.

Barton I wouldn't mind having there. He did track back as required, was relatively calm on the ball considering the circumstances and just did the basics reasonably well. Then again, that could have been Nolan and Smith making him look good.

The fact that Scholes had all the time he needed to pick his passes says it all. I'm not sure if Butt was any less mobile either.

What the hell is it that people see in Smith? Just because he made "a good block" doesn't mean fuck all if he should have been in a position to prevent the need for all that fuss. Even in the first 15 minutes, all those tackles and blocks he made were all made necessary only by his incompetence. If I could have strangled him through my TV I would have.

Colo put us in trouble with his passing a couple times, he either needs to work on his passing or just boot it more often. They'll do well if they had a more competent defensive midfielder than Smith in there. i.e. Gosling or Guthrie, or Hughton's mother.

What? You mean by being lucky not to give away a penalty and fuck all else? _I_ could have done better than that.