Gallowgate Toon

I know a lad who works at the academy - bit of a gobshite, admittedly - who's adamant that HBA is now intensely disliked by the English pros and has been since the end of last season where he was criticised for not looking after himself while out injured. It all came to a head for him at Goodison where Pardew and said few players apparently questioned his attitude and application, in the dressing room. As I say, the lad's normally a gobshite but I thought it was an interesting story.

DEMBAAAAA

Aye. Things weren't going his way so he reverted to type.

I don't think top 4 is within this squad's reach, to be honest. I think 6th would be the best we could achieve as we're a little too light in terms of depth and I think our defence aren't really good enough unless they're really well protected by the midfield. Still, we should be playing better football than we are and with much more consistency. I do think we'd always struggle against more defensive opposition due to a lack of creativity but to nowhere near the same level as we've seen under Pardew.

For all they're an incredibly exciting team to watch, I don't think they're the best footballing side in the division, overall. They're absolutely immense on the counter, better than anyone else, but City are pretty excellent at that too and I think are superior at breaking defensive opposition down. I do hope they win the division though.

There were some very decent performances in the first half of the season, there was a point where we looked like we might be going somewhere and a bit of a philosophy was starting to emerge. Then it unravelled and showed it was all built on confidence rather than a consistent plan, it all went to crap, as a result.

Villa away. Chelsea home. West Ham away. Hull away. Man Utd away. Stoke home. Thats what I'd say were our good wins this season. Palace away was very good, IIRC.

I still think Chelsea will win this, can see them rocking up to Anfield and doing them. It's the sort of game that's Mourinho's speciality.

Scary that Aguero's minutes per goal record is even better than Suarez's. Less shots per game too.

MYM was doing well with Williamson before Colo came back, IIRC. Some were certainly disappointed he was immediately dropped when Colo returned from injury.

So much energy up top with Shola.

Don't care. Pardew's going nowhere, the game will be rubbish with little quality on show and it's absolutely pointless in terms of the league (apart from possible mini champions, of course!).

This is called scraping the barrel, definitely. The bloke's run out of ideas, doesn't know how to get the team to function so does something radical in a desperate attempt, instead. I can forgive them saying that this season is over if they were actually showing signs of putting something together for next the next campaign.

That team is utterly disgusting. Gosling Ameobi Gouffran in a midfield 3 Dummett as a wing back is very odd too considering he appears to have the least attacking ability of the 3 LBs on our books. Absolutely reeks of desperation, that selection.

3-1 Stoke. Tight first half where we play OK, concede on the stroke of half time, collapse and concede 2 within 15 minutes of the second half but grab a Dan Gosling consolation shinner in the 89th.

I don't mind the lad not starting but Pardew should at least try and bed him in with 30 minutes a match.

Can't have Dortmund going through instead of Real, man. Worked out fine last year. I watched the final on my phone while drinking and playing darts. Can't have that f***ing all-German rubbish again. Too much fan involvement and sensible ownership ey? Rotten state of affairs. Don't forget that horrible football they play too.

Caulker, Fer and Redmond would all be excellent signings for us. Especially the former and latter as they'd actually provide something that we've needed for ages.

He sounds truly inspiring. He was Llambias' understudy, IIRC, which means he should be an improvement on JFK, at least.

Glad to see him doing well out there. It'll be interesting to see what happens with him over the Summer. He'd probably get in our current central midfield

I think Gerrard has scored as many as Remy now

Our refs are so bad, man.

Yep. I think the players would do a lot better if they were playing for enjoyment if nothing else. How do you enjoy camping in your own half behind the ball with rarely more one man allowed anywhere near the opposition penalty area? This. I mean, if you aren't planning for next season and have nothing left to play for, surely creating a relaxed atmosphere where players can express themselves and entertain the paying fans would be the logical choice.

Impressive tally of goals for Gerrard.

Cracking stuff from Everton. Martinez has done far better than I ever thought he would.