Ronaldo

His pace is fine. It's his agility that's shit the bed.

Which region does, though? The fact Rooney's considered the most technically refined English player of his generation speaks volumes.

As much as I don't want us to sack Hughton at this moment in time, you can't deny he has the nasty habit of repeating blatant mistakes.

Tiote's alongside them, too. Forgot him.

Barton and Coloccini are our most important players alongside Carroll, it was inevitable that we'd badly miss them.

The best player i've ever seen wear the shirt and probably the best i'll ever see. A top class person, too.

Course I do, he's well past his best and to some extent it's sad to see. Still think he's easily good enough for us, though. At least for this season.

Bollocks. Hadaway and s**** man, he was embarrassing at times. It was like watching Mike Tyson against Lennox Lewis, this once great performer, too old, too heavy, too slow, being outwitted by a technically inferior opponent. I remember before the game Sky were showing some clips of him in action for Spurs, Arsenal and England and even Pompey and he was a beast, an immense central defender. Today he was shockingly poor though and on that performance alone you would have to say he doesn't have many games left in him at any level. Colo and Williamson can't return quick enough. His shaky performance set the tone for a shaky back four today. Enrique is usually clam personified but Sol's nervy display had Enrique in a panic throughout. It says a lot when Taylor is having to tell Sol to basically calm the f*** down. That's a terrible analogy. Lewis was always technically superior to Tyson, and Tyson would be the first to tell you that. Perhaps but if you watched the fight and were aware of just how good Tyson was, you'd understand where I'm coming from. Tyson in his prime would have dealt with Lewis just like Sol would have dealt with their forwards in his prime, i.e. not being beat for pace, strength etc. Not going to turn it into a boxing arguement, but it's still a poor analogy. Tyson lost to every genuinely good fighter he ever came across. Lewis just happened to be the best, the last and the most brutal. Now if you mentioned Tyson's loss to Danny Williams, or Kevin McBride......

Bollocks. Hadaway and s**** man, he was embarrassing at times. It was like watching Mike Tyson against Lennox Lewis, this once great performer, too old, too heavy, too slow, being outwitted by a technically inferior opponent. I remember before the game Sky were showing some clips of him in action for Spurs, Arsenal and England and even Pompey and he was a beast, an immense central defender. Today he was shockingly poor though and on that performance alone you would have to say he doesn't have many games left in him at any level. Colo and Williamson can't return quick enough. His shaky performance set the tone for a shaky back four today. Enrique is usually clam personified but Sol's nervy display had Enrique in a panic throughout. It says a lot when Taylor is having to tell Sol to basically calm the f*** down. That's a terrible analogy. Lewis was always technically superior to Tyson, and Tyson would be the first to tell you that.

The papers say he wants £60K.

I'd honestly have played Vuckic ahead of Guthrie. There was always going to be a significant isolation in effect with Tiote and Guthrie in CM. Both sit very deep.

Coloccini was starting for Argentina when Taylor was on the bench behind Bramble, Boumsong and Moore. There's no comparison to be made.

I still think Campbell could be our best bet to partner Colo. We'll see.

Think this "facade" is something people like you have made up tbh. Would certainly have him starting fwiw. Better than Williamson and Campbell without a doubt. Beyond this forum where everyone has jumped on a Taylor hate bandwagon I don't there's many fans who hate him tbh. People don't dislike him because he's a "local hero" but because when he does play he gives his all and is an average Premier League defender. Average is good for us currently. And you don't pay average players fantastic wages.

Yeah.... I just wanted to know why ronaldo now thinks that they're crap considering that, during our relegation season, he was calling for Guthrie to be included in the side for his set pieces. That's all. As i've said about a million times, we could afford luxury players last season. The PL is no place for midifelders who can't run or compete physically. On the night when we beat boro 3-1 you were boasting about how you've always told everyone that Guthrie delivers quality set pieces, blah blah, etc. But now.... you think they're s***. Explain. Simple question. Why are you using plural? His set-pieces were far better in his first season. He's not shit, i've never once refused to acknowledge his footballing ability, but he's incapable of doing a job at this level because of his physical condition. And this isn't kneejerk, i've been saying since the summer that Guthrie would have to improve physically to be able to compete. It hasn't happened, and he's actually looking even slower than before.

See the pre-match thread.

People have been wating 6 years for him to improve with fitness/experience.

If you'd have asked me and fair few people on here who our worst two performers would be 5 minutes before the game, we'd have predicted the right outcome. And that applies to about 6 or 7 games so far. The team selection has been absolutely baffling on far too many occasions.

Think this "facade" is something people like you have made up tbh. Would certainly have him starting fwiw. Better than Williamson and Campbell without a doubt. You'd have Shola starting, your opinion is about as valid a mine on Martini Bianco after 5 bottles of it.

Can see this being an unwatchable draw. A loss and it's curtains, or thereabouts.

Getting a dog's abuse on TalkSport. It seems that folk are starting to see past the local hero facade.

He seems afraid to lose. That stance could be related to his contract situation, but it's certainly not an excuse for it. Of the 3 promoted teams, we're by far the most cautious. It speaks volumes, considering we finished 11 points clear of one and 32 points clear of the other.

He looks the same as he always does. But if that's the case, he shouldn't be anywhere near the squad.

Yeah, Simpson was as poor as Shola.

Yeah.... I just wanted to know why ronaldo now thinks that they're crap considering that, during our relegation season, he was calling for Guthrie to be included in the side for his set pieces. That's all. As i've said about a million times, we could afford luxury players last season. The PL is no place for midifelders who can't run or compete physically.