durhamunigeordie

My main problem with him that more often than not wants to buy carrying the ball rather than having to run onto it. Lost count the number of times if he'd have made a run he would have had the beating of the full back.

Col back bottling out of another challenge.

Get Perez on for Mitrovic surely.

Sissoko is infuriating at times.

How did we manage to turn a counter attack into basically a free kick back to our keeper?

Col back isn't going to get that ban is he?! He's not making any challenges at all. Didn't when he came on at Chelsea either but can't really say I blame him in that situation.

Obviously we could do with picking something up tonight, but if Swansea lose at Arsenal that will at least mean that this couple of rounds has not been a complete disaster.

Will still very much be in our own hands with us having to face the other six sides around us, four of them at home. However, not sure whether us being in control of our own destiny is a good thing.

Desperately need to starting picking up a few points on the road though. While we have been head and shoulders above both West Ham and West Brom in our last two games, relying only on fixtures at SJP puts a lot of pressure on.

True. But I'm guessing his actions were some sort of repudiatory breach of his contract giving them grounds to essentially dismiss him there and then.

In an oversimplified way once they know about it they have to deal with it within a reasonable time. As an employer you can't punish (in this case suspend and then reinstate) the actions of an employee and then a year later sack them for it. Had they kept him suspended pending the outcome of criminal investigation it would have been different.

If he is found guilty of the offences he is pleading not guilty that would almost certainly have been another repudiatory breach and they could have sacked him there and then for that.

Anyway, am no expert so none of this for sure.

The weird thing is the sacking him when he pleaded guilty.  What he pleaded guilty to was what he admitted in the interviews that they knew about (which makes it a bit odd that he pleaded not guilty to start with, but hey).  Acting all surprised and sacking him then is a bit devious in terms of public image.

Not an employment lawyer but also perhaps grounds for unfair dismissal?

While he has breached his contract in a fundamental way, the fact that they knew but decided against that action until a year later might give him grounds.

Dummett at CB with Colback LB is an option I guess.

I know it was a reserve team game, but they went down to 10 early didn't they?

Whatever level you are playing at that completely changes a side's game plan and makes it very difficult if you are the lone front man. Particularly if, and I have no idea if this is try for Doumbia or not, your game relies on getting on the end of things like a Cisse type player rather than being able to conjure something up out of nothing like a Ba type player.

Add into that a lack of match fitness and it is hardly surprising his impact was minimal. Can't read much into it at all IMO. 

10% credit

Yea you're right sorry, had it in my head that 10% was the figure for between first available opportunity and trial.

Loses any potential credit (can be up to 1/3 off sentence if pleaded at the first available opportunity) for pleading guilty on the day.

He bullied Zouma and Cahill in the home game - it was almost like watching rucking going on as they were waiting for the ball to drop. Will indeed be interesting to see how he fares v Terry.

I completely understand the criticism of him being thick as pigshit and capable of the odd error, but some of the OTT stick he gets proper irks me. Aye he's injury prone, he's totally made of glass but when he's capable of good performances as we've seen at Man U and WBA yesterday and he's a capable stand-in for our defence atm. He gives absolutely everything when he's on the pitch, you see Coloccini turning away from shots but this utter clampet runs headfirst into them, he puts his body on the line constantly without a thought - which is probably another reason he's injured so often, given he probably does it in training too as he's fighting to play - he absolutely loves the club and you never see less than 100% from him every game. Personally I'm happy to see him back for a few weeks where we really need a fighter with some grit at the heart of defence alongside our spineless captain.

Completely agree. Don't think he comes across particularly well, but when we can get him on the pitch he is more often than not an asset. In any event, we don't really know what he is like as we don't know him/spend time with him on a day by day basis, and there doesn't appear to be anything malicious or nasty about him unlike a fair few other footballers who get hero worshipped by fans.

We would surely be mad to let him go now, whatever the offer. Could be a big player for us in the second half of the season and have a large influence on survival. Even on a financial basis keeping him and staying up has got to be more attractive than letting him go for a relatively low fee and risking the drop.

Apologies if already posted but have just read this interview with Harry Arter and thought it was worth sharing:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jan/29/harry-arter-bournemouth-interview-loss-daughter

Think he put to bed the myth that he can't cross today.

 

Not a world beater but an average to good Premier League winger.

Agree with this. He's decent and on occasions will have very good games. Never going to be a world beater, but in the current market £12 million is about right for someone who can hold their own in the PL.

Need him to stay fit until Chancel is back. Solid today.

Had a good game today. Looking forward to seeing him further forward in the future though. He did his job defensively today but he wasn't exactly tested very often.

So happy for him today. Hope he goes on a bit of a run and gets up to ten or so by the end if the season. His all-round play is very good - played a couple of cracking through balls in the first half.

Great today. His passing is great but sometimes needs to play the easy ball rather than trying to thread the needle every time. He's pretty good at it and its great to watch, but a couple of times a simple ball that he either missed or ignored would have been a better option.

Although of course if he got it right every time then he wouldn't be playing for us.

Mbabu back in the squad.

Probably not for long. Like the look of him but he's almost as much of a crock as Siem.

This confirmed anywhere? Couldn't see any mention of him.

Would be great if true.

Far from the finished article at this level, but has potential. Is big and uses his size to his advantage. Also looks to be a leader/communicator on the pitch. Think he has a long way to go before he can be regarded as a solid PL defender, and it may be that he never quite gets there, but got to be given some time and the opportunity to develop. Remember reading (pre-Xmas I think it was) that the coaching staff had been impressed by how quickly he had developed in his first couple of months. If he continues to progress at a similar rate for 18 months then who knows.

Or if we start like we did against West Ham we could blow them away. Just saying.

Expect:         

                Elliot

Janmaat Chancel Colo Dumment

            Saviet  Shelvey

Sissoko      Gini      Townsend

                Mitro