Lotus

*chuckle* of course, you do realise that now I've said all that, it'll be a 14 goal thriller, don't you? You reckon you'll score one then?

How easily does "HOOF IT UP TO SHOLA!" translate into Italian? ''Lo zoccolo fino a Shola'' apparently.

Except on Saturday it seems, unfortunately!

How are your bairns coming on? Clark, Bannan & Delfounso, etc......

HaHa!!! Of course. Sorry, i've even watched them with Given in goal this season. Apart from that glaring error, you reckon that's their likely line up?

What's Villa's likely line up? ........................Freidel...................... Hutton.....Dunne.....Collins....Warnock Albrighton..Petrov....Jenas.....N'Zogbia ...........Agbonlahor...Bent................... Is that about right? If so i think i would consider ....................Krul...................... Simmo..Saylor...Colo.....Santon Jonas..Cabaye.Tiote.Marveaux .................Obertan................. ...................Best....................... Obertan isn't showing much form but he's there to stretch them and drop into midfield if needed. Jonas helps Simmo out. Marveaux and Santon mean we can cross from the left or the right foot from that wing. Blah blah.

Although i like that i'm not sure about having 2 right footed players on the left side, both cutting in to play a ball.

He's got a few tricks that seem to work. Don't like him in combo with Shola, not sure he'll work well with Ba either. But, as has been said by many on here, 2 similar players upfront is helping us get at the oppostion. Especially as our crossing is non existent or from too deep.

Given what he said in the post match interview about now that the defending is working better he's planning to start concentrating on threatening the oppostion's goal, i'd be interested to see what the tactical plan is. I hope he doesn't just think putting HBA in there will be the cure to all ills.

Would think a right footed LB would be a good shout against a left footed RW.

The fact that we got a point is of no merit to us, like. They had Bothroyd upfront. Lucky us.

The timing of the substitutions is just as important as the personnel.

He missed the most obvious one tbh.

This is the thing that makes me less worried by the departure of Nolan and friends. We should definitely be aiming for the top 10, we are more than capable of doing that even without the second striker signing. LoL

QPR has a discernible and effective pattern of play. They also showed plenty of desire and spirit. We had neither.

Coloccini is covering all the space behind Raylor as well as his won position. Shit needs changing. 2nd half bring Santon on for Raylor, put Marveaux on the left, Jonas on the right, fuck Shola off and put Obertan up with Best. Ba to come on later if needed.

Raylor can't handle this. Needs replacing.

Agreed. I think defenders in the UK have such a fear of giving the ball away any where near their own half that if put under the slightest pressure they send it long. It's so predictable.

He's also said that he doesn't feel that judging Ashley harshly over non spending of the Carroll money is unjustified and premature. I think that is blatantly ridiculous.

I'm started to think he's a WUM tbh.

I would say both tecnically and physically, Martin much more looks like to Xavi. Martin can both defend and have some tecnical skills, which isn't the case of Cabaye... Come on, man. That's just wrong. Have you just ever seen Cabaye dribbling someone ? Just answer please... I don't know what image everyone else is getting from reading that..........

I agree. I suppose the purpose of it is show the Owner/Board what's on the fans minds. What they're upset about. Any business should pay attention to any concerns raised by it's customer base imo. Obviously it reads like something out of a complaints book. If the football improves then so will the tone of the questions imo.

On b) to be fair to MA his tenure has seen a significant improvement in the quality of players at the club. Wtf??? We were relegated! I mean, wtf??? The football's been onward and upward since he arrived?

Let's not forget that Raylor is not much cop either. Depending on training i's till be inclined to give Simpson the RB place. Probably be: Ubertan......Cab......Tiote.......Jonas .............Best...................Ba.......... as a front 6. Not very adventurous but Pardew will probs think it safe, see how the game goes and can bring Marveux on for either Uber/Jonas/Ba if things need changing. Think Vuckic may get some minutes if we're well in front (which i think unlikely).

Fair point, you're right to a degree. But even things that they're doing right, like restricting the amount they'll pay transfer fees, they can't actually come out and say because it will influence future deals. And things like the fact that Ashley would sell up to any decent buyer, they can't say because it will only cause more instability. Right or wrong, there are a lot of things that it would be very unwise to comment publicly about. Well, if the club make a point of saying that ALL the Carroll money will go back into the club and then 8 months later have a net transfer spend of about £500k i think there are some questions that are fair to ask. There's something strange about your defending of them on really quite minor points. I don't defend that promise about the Carroll money, I've always said they were wrong to promise it would all go on the team. This communication thing isn't a minor point, it's a discussion that's been going on for months over a number of threads. All I'm saying is that in principle I think it's pointless to criticise them for not answering things like these Chronicle questions... it's stupid to expect that they would, in other than very broad general terms. And FFS, can anyone not just respond to my arguments without adding on a little dig at the end? It's getting boring. The communication is only percieved as an issue because: a) Their actions contradict what little they do say, b) They've not run the 'football side' of things very successfully.