ElDiablo

Fuck no.

It's not fixed in stone that he has to stay in the middle, I just put him there to make it look more balanced. I'd hope he'd drift out wide on both flanks and cut in as that's his forte. He can be quite slippery too, pops up in strange positions sometimes which gives the opposition something different to think about, which we desperately need as there's no interchanging going on in the rest of the team.

Given Beye Coloccini Bassong Enrique Geremi Guthrie Zog Jonas Oba Owen Jonas in the free role allowed to wonder.

Can sense a Liverpool - Real Madrid tie coming on.

mackems.gif Please use this one.

Great header for their second.

Love that one, not too plain and not overdone.

I'm going, first trip to fratton park too but I've been to Portsmouth before and it's a shitheap.

Nile refused to be your friend on facebook?

This got boring a while ago.

Well, yeah. What a pointless statement.

That would leave us with Oba and Smith up front.

A lot will depend on whether we can keep Defoe quiet. It's winnable, but I am attending so will expect nothing.

Well we didn't come out firing in the 2nd, didn't bring Owen off and their goal wasn't unlikely!

Read an article before that had a different picture in from the same day I think, absolutely gut wrenching.

I thought that, but unless a midfielder goes beyond them Viduka/Owen isn't very penetrative so it's easy for teams to push up, their midfielders know they can join in attacks also as they don't need to worry about being punished by the opposite numbers as they are fucking garbage.

Fellaini's got an awesome jew-fro.

Absoluely agree. I;ve said it here loads of times, but we are absolutely light years off 4th at the moment. for most of the game today, we didn't look like a top ten team, let alone a top four one. Recently we've been thoroughly outplayed by Blackburn, Boro and some Slovakian no-marks. We're miles off it. I'm still enjoying it, though. Thing is Brummie, Arsenal have been exactly the same, and were lucky to beat Wigan at home. I don't see Arsenal improving this season so I can see you nicking it. Arsenal will pick up again, they always do.

Our best chance for a win will come next week imo, Portsmouth will attack us are not the tightest at the back. We've looked vulnerable at home and Wigan away is our bogey fixture.

One thing that's annoying me is him not doing any post match interviews it seems. He's all too keen to talk about the state of the club behind the scenes and transfers etc but won't give the one thing he should, an explanation to the fans. Hughton just gives stock answers, and gives it the 'we're confident of climbing the table' stuff.

Barton. When's he back btw?

Agreed mate. Can neither of you honestly see the danger of having a man like this in charge? We show up and play as well as we have under him all season, and Stoke meanwhile aren't at the races at all? We get 2-0 up at HT, at which point he proceeds to make a change that moves 3 players into positions that they simply aren't suited to? Why change so much when things are going well? Including moving your best player in the first half into CM, where he can't play at all and never has done. Either stick Cacapa in CM or move Colo there and slot Taylor in at CB. It's not that complicated, anybody with half a brain could see how ridiculous it was. He was wrong, only thing I can think of is not wanting to break up the CB pairing. A lot of people on here wanted Jonas in CM actually, hopefully at least that will get put to bed now.

Agreed mate.

We've been here before. We're going nowhere. Yep, short memories. We'll be fine. Really wish you'd fuck off with this condescending bullshit Diablo. Short memories of what? I remember last season perfectly. Dalglish and Gullit left within a few weeks of the respective new seasons. We were close-ish to relegation under Souness, but we were five points away from the drop-zone with a few months to go. Roeder, we were never really in danger - i never really understood this big sigh of relief when we won at Sheffield United. We were miles away from going down. Last season we were potentially going down - that's the closest we've been until now, but we had Kevin Keegan and pulled ourselves away. This season, we're a few points off bottom of the table at Christmas times, with a shitty run of fixtures in the New Year. With Joe Kinnear. We're perilously close to relegation, man. Why should I? Like I said if we hang on which was looking more and more likely and the time ran out would there be the same inquest into Kinnear's subs, his tactics? Course not. We concede a goal from A SET PIECE, and suddenly he's the fucking anti-christ. It gets to me more than anything I've ever read on here, kneekjerk doesn't do it anywhere near justice. We were in a worse position under Allardyce and say what you like, we could have easily gone down under KK imo. But we're not even at Christmas yet, picking up points (that should have been three points today, yes), scoring goals and looking reasonable tight at the back. What with the premiership table as it is now too it's pretty fucking obvious to me that we've been much deeper shit not even 8 months ago. Yet i'm reading this 'omg, we r so going down' which gets an airing every time a result doesn't go out way. We'll put in a Villa like performance soon and everything will be rosy again. Perilously close to relegation, good cunting grief. Sorry but I think your on another planet mate.. The way you talk about the game everything was going fine until we leaked a fluke goal and now Kinnear is being made a scapegoat. We invited pressure on to ourselves for the entire of the second half and to me it was always a matter of when the Stoke goals would come, not if. Contrary to the rosy picture your painting we looked more and more desperate and likely to concede as time ran out. This is not a case of everything going ok with an unlucky goal at the end, this is a case of a manager making 3 completely inept substitutions, each of them piling more and more pressure on the side, and being inevitably punished for it. I'm not saying he should be exempt from criticism, as he deserves quite a bit. My original point was under the circumstances we should be a little more grateful that we're at least in touch with teams above us and not adrift at the bottom which we would be now if noone had come in for Hughton. I understand the frustration of today but I think it's a testament to Kinnear in a way that we're at least in a position to fuck up losing a game, however bizarre that may sound. I think he gets caught in two minds whether to to defend what he's got or to try and kill the game off as we don't seem to try to do either and as a result look vulnerable. If we set up the last 15 mins like we did against Chelsea, although not pretty, we don't concede against Stoke's attack, no way. He just needs to be a bit more clear as to what he wants from the team. *Yes I'm, veering off the point.

What, we'll get a goal from absolutely nowhere after looking shite for 60 minutes and only being in the game due to the opposition missing an absolute sitter and Given making a great save? I actually agree, that's probably all we can hope for with Kinnear in charge. Clever.