Lotus

Was playing well yesterday until that epic f**k up. If Anita had played like that there's be plenty of wet knickers on here. However, he made a very bad decision with that foul.

Partnered MYM well today, covered for him, just looked alert and ready.

Bit of movement around him and he's a different player. Funnily enough, for the goal our movement was poor but a Stoke player broke the line to close Marveaux down and he just threaded the ball through the space that had opened up. Still if we were a team with some decent movement in it he'd come to the fore.

You bored of watching it now? This is what I forget in between games, how much I hate watching the games. Kind of hit home a bit today. There's no need for it to be this tedious. We're basically safe now IMO, so maybe that will see the shackles come off a bit. @CaulkinTheTimes Pardew (on safety etc): "I think we're done. We've got to get 40pts and we're 7 from that, but I expect this team to follow through." Well i nearly did the way we feckin played today.

We need to practice WITH the ball more.

Nah' you're just generally a bad judge of player. Or a WUM. Suspect the latter, actually.

Shame because apart from that he had a very good game. Was doing exactly what was needed. Glad the mistake didn't cost us and hopefully Pardew will have a word in his ear.

Never saw anyone say that tbh.

leave us really vulnerable to the counter attack Do it the SBR way, if one FB attacks, the other holds his position.

Will be a VERY diffrerent experience for him against Stoke. Would really have wanted Krul for this one, the way he comes to collect crosses. Don't know if Elliot has that in his game or if he's more of a stay on the line type keeper.

Given what he has available, i thought he set the team up pretty well tbh.

I can't imagine we could sell him to anyone, probs best idea is to loan him out for a season to any French team who would be willing/desperate.

I thought he looked like he was running through treacle last night and could easily understand why he hadn't played in the previous 2 games.

If we want to be more effective as an attacking threat in the home leg i'd leave Haidara at LB and play Santon at RB. Instruct them to get some crosses in.

Have we had a shot on goal? We look clueless in attack tbh. But pretty good at the back so far.

Obertan has been awful. Not overly impressed by Marveaux either.

Probably a couple of hairline fractures.

Surely someone is going to find this irresitable...

AC's actually standing

Not sure you can fake broken bones so i don't doubt he has them. The article also says he's expected back next week in Newcastle. The problem is he won't be available for selection for a while.

I'm curious what Manure tactical reshuffle you saw and what effect did you see it make on the game. I was also 'only watching it' and thought the first thing he should have done would be to take RVP off who wasn't having a day to remember, bring Rooney on immediatley for his running, energy and enthusiam (and of course skill) and push Welbeck further foward to see if he could pick up long diagonal balls. Real still had to score and maybe they'd leave spaces. It didn't happen though, in fact i didn't see much different about Manure, certainly didn't become more compact which i thought was odd. But still, what changes did you see? Genuinely curious. Because at the moment i'm wondering if you watched the game tbh.

Thought Marveaux's corners were alright tbh.

Cisse is good either ghosting into areas or getting early balls. Right now we're not really getting round the back of teams so he can ghost in and we're not playing the ball early enough. He's getting a little anxious and he's straying offside too often. I do think you can see a pattern emerging between him and Moussa though. We are starting to play it into Cisse's feet (with his back to goal) and he's laying it off to Moussa and then spinning into space while Moussa drives forward with the ball. I think with Gouf and HBA making anitipatory runs off that move will give us a good attacking outlet.

Pretty much my feelings on the subject too. Don't get me wrong i'd rather have Coloccini in the side, but there's a silver lining here. Don't think Colo would have fluffed his lines like MYM did for the Swansea goal.

Obviously i was thinking that Marv could have come on after 70 mins or so but i could also see that Debuchy was providing a genuine threat down the right and Jonas would've been more likely to notice that and cover for him than Marv would so then it came down to who would Marv replace? Maybe Tiote with Mous dropping back along side Cabaye, again may not have changed the game much. Gouf off and Marv on the left, not sure about that either. Take off a defender? Wouldn't have done that. Hard to really put the loss down to Pardew. They are a very decent team with a very good ethos and a good manager. Despite this we were well in the game and if we had won it, i don't think Swansea could have complained too much. As it was, MYM wasn't a very able deputy for Colo and once again, Santon didn't look all that handy at defending. Me and and everyone else were happy to see those 2 starting though i'm sure. So, today was just one of those days. We deserved a point at least, came away with nothing. Ouch. Now we should go and take at the frustration of that on Anzhi.