Lotus

One thing i expected is that the team would go out on the pitch with a bit of fire in their bellies, especially in away games. I thought that SA got Bolton to dominate other teams physically because he didn't have the resources to but a team of skillful players. Looking at us so far though, apart from away to Bolton we haven't out muscled anybody and we haven't remotely utilised the talent in the squad either. I think his plans have been hurt by injuries to Emre, Barton, Owen and Viduka and also a lack of form from Milner and Geremi, that's a big hole to fill. However, whatever team we put out, we neither 'get stuck in' nor do we play some decent football. One thing i expected from Sam is that we wouldn't get turned over by tryers with limited talent but that's exactly what's happened. Watching West Ham with 10 players out injured run rampant against Derby seriously pissed me off. We've got some decent attacking players but they're not really threatening the opposition. I think of it like boxing, you can cover up and bob and weave all you like but if you can't show your opponent you can punch then the f**ker just won't respect you and will keep on coming forward. We don't punch our weight and i expected at least that tbh.

Didn't get the impression he cut it in a harder league tbh, gets a lot of time and space there. His freekicks will work anywhere in the world though!

Should have scored 9 though tbf....

oh dear. I remember you saying that this Kezman bloke would be an absolute sensation because he scored more goals than Craig Bellamy. You really do think its all about championship manager type statistics don't you ? I expect you would rather have Luque because he scored 3 or 4 I wanted Kezman back in 2005, it had feck all to do with Bellamy though. What's that got to with Smith's goalscoring record though? I don't play Football Manager either. Do you not find it slightly concerning that Smith simply doesn't provide a goal threat? At least with Bellamy he made chances for himself and then usually screwed it up in front of goal. His goalscoring record wouldn't be that problematic if he was some sort of creative genius, but he isn't. shows what crap criteria you use when making judgements, if you use a statistic and can't look at the footballer. As Smith has played up front for Manu, Leeds in the CL, and England, and you are "concerned" this is laughable. And your daft comments about Bellamy even more so. 5 years since we played in the Champions League and we still haven't finished as high in the league or replaced him adequately. "Screwed it up in front of goal" ......... screwed what up in front of goal ? what a load of bollocks, you like your myths don't you. What do you call a creative genius BTW, not someone who partnered Alan Shearer perfectly and prolonged his career by at least 2 years, obviously not. hoho. I was referring to Smith when I said he wasn't a creative genius. Bellamy offered far more, but as for his finishing, can you not remember how many times Bellamy missed simple chances? Just because Smith has played for some of the biggest teams doesn't mean anything when he hasn't been doing to business on the pitch for the past 3 years! no, I don't remember Craig Bellamy missing loads of simple chances. I've seen many people say this, but its complete bollocks. He actually scored about half his goals from close in and in one-on-one situations. Two goals against the mackems, a fair few in europe including Feyenoord and Valarenga, home to Everton, away to Palace, away to Leeds, home to West Brom.....and I've not even thought about it yet. BTW, most players miss simple chances, always have and always will. And as I said before, if you really are going to harp on about Smith for the last 3 years, you should start by looking at how many games he missed with a broken leg, and how many games he played in midfield for us as well as manure. Nobody is saying he is prolific, including me, he needs a prolific player next to him, he's a support striker, like Craig Bellamy, but you don't see this because you don't understand partnerships in football. Do you think very probable that an Owen-Smith partnership will very successful then?

Doubt he'll cost £1M because other teams will be willing to pay more.

You have said that he bought Smith to replace Dyer, if I'm not mistaken. I think - or hope - this isn't the case, as Smith is not a midfield player. I think he has been brought primarily to replace Ameobi in the long run. The worrying thing is that it would appear the club said that after buying Smith, there was no money to replace Solano and Dyer. We will never challenge the top 4 clubs with such a mentality. However, as i said, if this was Allardyces decision, then I would be worried by his poor judgement. Maybe none of the players he wanted were available. I can accept that. However, when we brought in those last minute players last year ie Sibierski and Rossi, I disagreed with people who labelled them "panic signings". I think the same thing was necessary, these things happen in football. A couple of short term signings and/or a loan signing should have been made while he waited, thats what football is about, building and improving. You can always get better players when they become available, and moving the replaced players on. Setting standards is one thing, but just one player with pace to play wide right, was an absolute necessity. Far better than nobody, or someone out of position, which is what he's been doing. Think he expected more from Milner and Geremi.

I hope he doesn't think this, if he does, he won't last long. Funnily enough i don't think the defence has been improved much either tbh. However, i hope we buy a RW in January if nothing else. to be quite honest, the whole sodding thing and recent performances have just pissed me off. Me too, right f**king moody after the optimism i had after SA'a appointment. But i look at Portsmouth and Blackburn who doing well and i realise Redknapp and Hughes have a had a couple of years to development a pretty decent team. Here's hoping.

You have said that he bought Smith to replace Dyer, if I'm not mistaken. I think - or hope - this isn't the case, as Smith is not a midfield player. I think he has been brought primarily to replace Ameobi in the long run. The worrying thing is that it would appear the club said that after buying Smith, there was no money to replace Solano and Dyer. We will never challenge the top 4 clubs with such a mentality. However, as i said, if this was Allardyces decision, then I would be worried by his poor judgement. Maybe none of the players he wanted were available.

I hope he doesn't think this, if he does, he won't last long. Funnily enough i don't think the defence has been improved much either tbh. However, i hope we buy a RW in January if nothing else.

Do you think that SA has decided he has the offensive players your talking of in Viduka, Smith, Emre and Barton? 3 out of 4 are his signings. I have an impression he thinks he has the players to hold the ball up and the midfielders to put in the quality passes while being able to get stuck in.

You can't blame him for 'not holding the ball up' today. He didn't have the ball. He had a crap game, because he did nothing and made no effort to do anything (ie, come deep, retrieve the ball, make runs into the box) - but in terms of holding up, he had nowt to hold up. We drifted in and out of long ball but i don't think a pass was ever once targeted at his head or feet with his back to goal. The long balls (usually from Enrique) were normally diagonal, to Milner or Barton or whoever. is the correct answer. We lack creativity and pace in midfield, the new defenders have not made much difference at all, just as I said. [.....waiting to be accused of point scoring ........ ]. Also, Taylor and Rozenhal are our 2 best centre backs, which I also said a while ago. Do you think we've bought good defenders this summer? As a matter of fact, generally, yes. Care to explain how they haven't made such a big difference ? Also - as Shepherd and Hall are entirely to blame for all our misfortunes over the past decade ie only qualifying regularly for europe more than everyone bar 4 teams, how come we are still only in mid table - and still need at least 2 new forwards with pace - now they have gone ? The problems are clearly across the pitch, we don't always offer much of a threat which is always going to be difficult. The opposition don't give you enough respect. However, we've conceded some goals this season (and, of course yesterday) that were due to poor defending. We gave them 3 goals, that's asking a lot for any attacking players to make up don't you think?

You can't blame him for 'not holding the ball up' today. He didn't have the ball. He had a crap game, because he did nothing and made no effort to do anything (ie, come deep, retrieve the ball, make runs into the box) - but in terms of holding up, he had nowt to hold up. We drifted in and out of long ball but i don't think a pass was ever once targeted at his head or feet with his back to goal. The long balls (usually from Enrique) were normally diagonal, to Milner or Barton or whoever. is the correct answer. We lack creativity and pace in midfield, the new defenders have not made much difference at all, just as I said. [.....waiting to be accused of point scoring ........ ]. Also, Taylor and Rozenhal are our 2 best centre backs, which I also said a while ago. Do you think we've bought good defenders this summer?

Quick question: Would those people who would like to see Allardyce replaced be happy with Redknapp coming in?

The teams decent performance under Roeder was due to the lift you normally get around a football club when the manager changes. We even had a decent run under Souness for the first 10 games or so. The team (inc. manager) should've been judged on what they achieved for a full season and the full transfer window. That is what SA has to improve upon. The 'better than 7th' thing is not being honest with the circumstances imo.

Think we should play Roz at the back, we'll need a bit of pace against this lot.

No mention of CM in the OP though....

Micah Richards?

........................Given Beye..........Roz.............Cacapa........Enrique Milner........Geremi...........Emre..........Zog ...................Smith..........Owen

Good post, it'll be wasted on here though. People need to realise football is much bigger than the first team and to transform this club it'll take more than one man to do everything, do people honestly think fat Sam will sort our youth system out so we can attract other clubs youngsters like the other big clubs do? When was the last time a young British lad left another clubs set up for ours? Johnnypd also makes a good post when he talks about Milne and how we would have been better off keeping him on and getting him to help run the other side of the club, we didn't though and sacked everyone, destroying all of Sir Bobby's good work and then had to go to the trouble of getting another manager in to build it up again, he didn't work out so they were all sacked and Roeder was expected to completely change the club, when he took charge the club had one scout on it's books, for a so called big club that's f****** shocking. Look at the jobs both Ramos and Allardyce have taken on this season and fat Sam has a lot more work ahead of him out of the two, Ramos will walk into Spurs and only have to worry about the first team squad, their youth team (that has been buying some top youngsters) scouts etc have all been taken care of by Comolli, Allardyce on the other hand will have to come here and transform the lot himself while trying to coach the first team squad and focus on picking up 3 points every week, it's too big of a job for one man and he won't get the 8 years he had at Bolton to get it right either. Very logical, probably why you haven't had any replies..... maybe BSA has plans to employ various people to take over those aspects of the job anyway.

That's not your PC, it's the piano. :-)

Really ? Can you answer something for me, and I'm sure quite a few people may also be interested [but may ignore the reply if it doesn't suit them]. Why did Sir John Hall - as major shareholder along with his son - allow, agree or maybe even choose - the appointment of Souness ? I would also like to say that you would have a lot to do to convince me that the Halls simply wouldn't have sold to anyone who offered the going rate ie your comment that "he was convinced by Ashley" ? Once SJH stepped away from being stand-in Chairman in 98(after the NOTW debacle), he stopped having any direct day-to-day involvement with the club ; I am not going to go into detail(it is very personal and I believe Sir John & his wife wish to draw a veil over the whole affair)as I wish to respect SJH's privacy, but I was given to understand that he DID wish to continue as Chairman AFTER the Wembley defeat with Dalglish - unfortunately, events prevented this from happening ; I will not enlarge any further on that matter... He then stepped away from direct involvement, with one exception - that was to 'encourage' the Board to get moving & appoint Bobby Robson just over a year later. He did NOT use his shareholding to do that. He had no involvement, so far as I am aware, in the appointment of Souness or Roeder.That was down to Shepherd & the other Board members. As for the sale of his holding, he had wanted out for a while, but he did NOT sell until he had had a long discussion with Mike Ashley - if he had only been interested in getting the dosh, he would have left all that to the Lawyers etc - he definitely was of the opinion that MA was genuine about wanting the club for reasons other than a fast buck. You are entitled to your opinion about whether he sold for the 'right' reasons or not - I cannot prove or disprove it either way, but you should currently be happy about the way Ashley & Mort are running the club as compared to the previous regime - are you I will be happy if Ashley backs the managers and shows the ambition that Sir John [and his son and Shepherd] showed, which I've stated many many times. This appears to fall on deaf ears, yours too, if the above post is anything to go by. I accept he stepped away from day to day involvement, this is fairly obvious, but I simply cannot believe that someone holding a mega million value in a business, left the single biggest and most important decision to someone else with a smaller shareholding. I'm sorry, but it simply doesn't wash. The part of your post I have highlighted I can accept, if true, which proves what myself and a few others ie Chez Given have been trying to tell quite a few others for a while now. But I still don't expect certain people to take such statements on board anyway. As you can see, I am praising Sir John for what I think he did excellently, so there is certainly no axe to grind or no agenda here, simply putting across the facts as I see them and applying common sense. And I also don't believe for a moment that he would not have sold to the hedge fund, or anyone else if they had paid the price required. I admire you for defending Sir John, but if I had such a big stake in a company like that, I wouldn't leave such decisions to other people. As for the one reply so far other than mine, as I said, macca888 has spouted rubbish for years. Is it possible that he left the decisions to protect his 'intersts' to Doug Hall? It might be hard to have any input (of value) on managerial appointments if you don't keep up with current affairs in football. This isn't an opinion of mine, just trying to understand Merlins comments on SJH's lack of involvement.

Can see a good case for starting Smith upfront tbh. Better in the air, more physical and defends well from the front, all needed in away games. Who he is paired with is another debate but at least you know what your getting with Owen.

Think Kompany from HSV would make a very good DM. I believe he is originally a CB but is so comfortable with the ball i think he could play DM. Big too. Him and Menez if i'm daydreaming.

Not sure it would be ideal to start both Owen and Viduka as i'm not sure either of them will last 90 minutes. Without Smith or Ameobi on the bench i think it would be sensible to start Martins and let Viduka/Owen play 45-60 mins before being subbed for the other one. Same goes for Emre/Barton. CB is more interesting, Berbatov isn't bad in the air which will put pressure on Cacapa and Roz, if we put Taylor/Faye in there instead of Roz we lose pace at the back and distribution. T or F might give away silly fouls as well. Milner/Geremi debate isn't so pressing imo. Their left side is likely to be Lee and LB who's right footed iirc and Bale atLW who isn't quick. Either of our 2 could be comfortable against them i reckon.

Is Viduka injured then?