KaKa

Funny but I think Taylor might have better potential as a right back. He's a bit of a showmanshipsort and getting forward allows him to express this side of himself. At centre back it's way too dangerous.

Spot on. As long as Owen is in the team we will continue to struggle and it's as simple as that.

Emre is absolutely worthless ...

No Faye on the corner. Kenwyne Jones is a huge danger!

Is Harper retarded? Seriously? Such bad body language and effort with the kicks?! Why?

Taylor is such an awful defender.

Taylor has so many bad habits as a defender it is worrying ... We're going to have to have Rozehnal mark Jones. Taylor is bound to do something very silly.

Two promising players that should be brought along a lot slower in my opinion. They are playing way too many games right now and they really aren't quite good enough yet to be doing so. Their lack of experience and nous really costs them and us in so any games. Just not quite their yet. Imagine if we had Duff at his best and Wright-philips at his best on each wing just as an example. We would be twice the team we are right now. We need that level of experience and performance on the wings in my opinion.

I think they should both be brought through a bit slower and I agree they shouldn't be first team players at all for me. When Duff returns and Sam has decked him into shape he should start on the left ahead of Zoggy. We should get a decent experienced right winger to start ahead of Milner on the right. They should be brought along the way Nani at Man U is or the likes of Diaby and Theo at Arsenal. They definitely shouldn't be in the first team right now. They are just way too inconsisent and naive.

Hmmmm. Oops meant Smith there! Sorted now. Good spot.

This is going to be a tricky call for Sam this weekend and it should be interesting to see what he goes with. With Kenwyne Jones playing upfront for Sunderland we absolutely have to have Faye in defence to challenge Jones in the air, so Faye in my opinion is not an option to step into the defensive midfield slot. I would like to see Rozehnal in this role but I'm not sure if Sam would play him there in such an important gamw which is sure to have a fiery atmosphere, especially as he hasn't played this position for us yet. I think we might see a 4-3-3/4-5-1 to compensate for Butt's abscence. Geremi, Barton and Smith in midfield perhaps? Who do you think Sam will go for and who should he go for?

Newcastle and Tottenham have spent twice as much as Arsenal have over the last few years and look at what they have achieved. We should be emulating the likes of Arsenal and not Chelsea. Get a real manager with a vision and don't just throw money at the situation. I'm surprised so many people would be happy to have the club in the financial state Chelsea are currently in if it meant winning something.

Drogba would have dealt with those long balls quite handily actually ... Maybe we're after him.

Or even move Faye into midfield.

Please, please, please do not take offence to this, but you have completely lost your mind if you honestly think that.

In my opinion what City did this summer is a perfect example of how we ought to go about things as they didn't overspend on a single one of their new players. They did an excellent job of scouting and got top players without forking out £20 million for each of them. This is why their success has been much more legit. Most people didn't know a single one of the players they brought in. Imagine if they had brought in Robinho for £18 million rather than Petrov for £3.5 million, and Van der Vaart for £20 million rather than Elano for £8 million, along with the massive wages these guys would command. Even if they were in the exact same position as they are now, I'm not sure it would have been as enjoyable.

I have to say I'm with Dave on this one. I would rather we spent money a little more sensibly over a few seasons and aimed to win it or at least challenge in about three years. I would absolutely hate to do a Chelsea and be burdened with the huge salaries that come with buying a ton of the very best players all of who would be guaranteed to be coming here for the money alone. We ought to be a little more shrewd and go for the likes of Elano who wasn't quite recognised as being in the top tier of players yet, rather than chase players who are likely being eyed up by the likes of Madrid, Chelsea etc and therefore who would look to screw us over. For example, instead of spending a fortune on maybe a Ronaldhino who might be made available this summer. We ought to be looking at the likes of Diego at Bremen or Carvalho at Shakthar.

Awful decision. Yes they have slipped down the table but they haven't been getting hammered from what I recall. They've lost quite a few close games I think. They haven't looked that bad at all. No worse than Spurs for example :giggle: The loss of Heskey has essentially cost him his job as he was the only decent striker they had pretty much. Of all the decisions he made the worst had to be letting Henri Camara go to West Ham on loan?! What the hell was that about! Camara is far better than all the strikers they have right now.

Well it's a 4-5-1 when we defend. So the wide forwards play a roll defensively just like Diouf and Davies did at Bolton. Therefore the midfield is much tighter. We don't have the players then. Any two of Martins, Zoggy and Milner could do a serviceable job. Preferrably Martins and Zoggy though.

Well it's a 4-5-1 when we defend. So the wide forwards play a roll defensively just like Diouf and Davies did at Bolton. Therefore the midfield is much tighter.

I was thinking more from a defensive standpoint. I think we need to play the 4-3-3 until we settle down at the back. It's not like we are so much better attacking wise in the 4-4-2 anyway. Can't have your cake and eat it though. If we play a defensive 4-3-3 (if it's possible) that means Geremi, Butt and maybe Smith in midfield. Not good. Nah ... we could go with Butt, Barton and Geremi or indeed Butt, Barton and Emre. Nothing wrong with that at all I actually think it would make our overall passing play better when we attack.

I was thinking more from a defensive standpoint. I think we need to play the 4-3-3 until we settle down at the back. It's not like we are so much better attacking wise in the 4-4-2 anyway.

Time for the 4-3-3 to be given a go I think.

Damn ...

Well, that was kind of what we were expecting before the season even started, no? true, but they all seem to be really starting to hit their straps, whereas Newcastle are...... Portsmouth, Everton, and Blackburn all had squads leaps and bounds beyond ours last season. I think we're catching up pretty decently. As for City, they've had a lot of luck both on the transfer market and on the pitch. I don't really think they play better football than we do. City definitely play better football than we do at the moment. Definitely.