Lotus

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.

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 thought he looked a little better when he moved into the centre. Shame he was playing the same time as Barkley because the difference in talent and physique was a very, very wide gulf!

my problem with this is we "bid" around the 10m euro mark at the start of the window for 2 strikers, then when that all fell apart none, NONE of our other options were worth paying a similar amount of money for?' the "bids" themselves denote the club realise it was a priority (to the fans) position to sign a player in, so they bid early and go public after that, with 8 months of research behind them, you're telling me seriously they couldn't find and sign a striker for around 10m euros that's really what you think you need help man Your post doesn't seem to have anything to do with the post that you are quoting. Feel free to explain what you don't understand about the sentence "They need to get a lot better at playing their own game, however." i was replying to this as all evidence points to the opposite of what you're saying basically EDIT: what i would say though, in their defence, is that if they could have found another good striker who was cheap or free then they'd have had no hesitation in signing him it's clear to me, as it should now be to everyone, that we will not be spending money over and above what we recoup in fees from sales (unless it's a HBA type signing who is clearly worth more than the fee paid) was it coincidence maiga went on "strike"? personally i don't think so, the only thing preventing his cut price arrival was the reluctance of his club to cave in 2 misconduct allegations in one window, frankly i'm amazed it's so few - it'll become par for the course imo...it's well known ashley likes to throw the rule book away in his business dealings, why would this be different? Well, fine. You carry on believing that we're making player bids for PR reasons alone, and I'll carry on thinking you're two fries short of a Happy Meal. people have already pointed out numerous examples of why you're wrong mate, read the writing, or answer my questions in that last post I put strict limits on the time I spend conversing with people who believe insane things. sorry but what's insane? i'd go as far as to say you're deluded about the way the club is ran tbh we're allegedly tapping players up, exploiting contractual loopholes (fair enough like) and disputes between players and clubs in the name of getting people in free or cheap...yeah i'm bonkers there's no answer to the striker "bids" as we're not party to inside info but for you to claim your opinion of things is any more worthy than mine, or the other people here and elsewhere who believe we're being led up the garden path every window, is again a bit deluded the gameiro and gervihno bids might have been real, maybe they thought they'd get one of those two players by bidding quickly and low, i accept that might have been their goal to spend money and virtually guarantee increased sell-on value...however in the harsh reality of the world transfer market that strategy was pretty insane wouldn't you say? just to reiterate, as you appear to have let it slip your mind; we needed another striker in january and we sold carroll for 35m, we went into the summer needing 2 top class strikers and we got one free transfer, who looks like he might be decent, but as yet has done very little in our shirt i'm batshit insane yeah I think perhaps OM's long battle with Leazes has made him just as dogmatic and inflexible in the face of contrary evidence that he is beginning to resemble his former nemesis. Like Dr Manhattan having a sulk on Mars tbh.

Just to clarify think he is a good eredivisie player Will get murdered in the premiership #tooslowandimmobile Cissokho has all of the necessary attributes to be a success! Execpt Cissokho would cost a little bit more and that's more important than who would actually be of benefit to the football team.

Well it quite clearly does appear to have a fairly large bearing on things, otherwise we'd be bidding for Scott Barron, not Aly Cissokho. I think you see the point you're just pretending you don't. If we could get a better player for a mil or 2 more i believe we'll go for the cheaper option. They'll get away with what they can.

It's a shame that football doesn't appear to be a factor when we're looking at players as opposed to price.

He has the genuine pace to beat a FB without needing to cut inside. Wouldn't be surprised to see him on the RW or at least the right side of a front 3.