Ash

I'm glad that I'm not the only one.

He's cool as fuck. We must have the coolest two fullbacks in the history of football! Without doubt. Throw in Bassong too, pretty impressive to be honest.

I think you'll find that Alan Shearer will not be approaching the game in that manner at all. He'll not worry about Chelsea's game, and will be determined to make them worry about ours. I wouldn't be surprised if we're a goal up within the first few minutes. Oh aye, of course, I didn't mean my post to come out like I wanted us to be negative. I know we're going to be taking the game to Chelsea and rightly so, but at the same time, we have to ensure that we track back and don't get lazy.

He's cool as fuck.

It's a risk, but as you say the potential benefits far outweigh the potential costs. I feel the same. If we're on the end of a hammering, it would have been worse if Shearer wasn't here. Plus it's not like we're playing a shit team either, we're playing Chelsea and I think Shearer will use it as a motivational tool to inspire the lads for the rest of the season. That goes for whatever the result is to be fair.

With the run-in that Stoke have, I can see them both being well clear along with Pompey. Stoke mainly because of their home games but they also have some very winnable away games too and Pompey because they generally have a decent chance of picking up points throughout their run-in. The win against Everton last time out was massive for them plus the team seem to be playing some decent football again.

If Jonas plays (pretty certain he will) then he's going to have to get up and down the flanks like he never has before. Chelsea's midfield is so good; we're really going to have a tough job containing them. Jonas and the other winger are going to have to break their balls for the cause tomorrow if we're to have any chance because the defence and central midfield are going to need as much support as possible. Essien and Lampard up against Butt and Nolan is such a horrible thought.

HAS to be repeated tomorrow. Made every hair on my body stand to attention watching that again, remember it sounding just as magic on TV at the time too.

Tell Joey. First contribution to the club that would be. Butt and Ameobi can have a piece of the action too. I'll tip off the cops.

Surely Shearer will talk to Martins about this and instruct him to attack more, plus offer more to his team-mates? Don't agree with the bottom paragraph either. In the right formation with the right players around him, he'd be brilliant.

Out injured tomorrow, apparently. Really? Came through on my phone earlier via the Sky Sports web feed. Just spotted this too:

Out injured tomorrow, apparently.

That thought ran through my head but it just seemed odd. Lennon thrives with space to run into, so why wouldn't that be utilised? By hogging the touchline and keeping touch-tight to his marker, he couldn't get into the game meaning anything that happened down the right didn't pay off.

My mate and I at the game both said we thought he'd look good on TV and a few people have said he did. Everytime Johnson got the ball, Lennon never ran in to space, he was always on top of the player marking him for some reason. He hardly ever came off his touchline and offered nothing going forward unless he had plenty of room in front of him (the superb cross-field ball from Rooney being one example). His positioning was also awful, particularly when there was an attack through the middle, he didn't have a clue where to go. I don't mind Lennon, he's a danger but can become a headless chicken at times and his end product isn't the best. Due to where I was sat on Wednesday, I got to see a lot of his movement off the ball and he just looked scared. Whether that was scared of making an error or just scared to take the ball himself, I'm not sure. When Beckham came on there was a huge difference, he went looking for the ball and offered Johnson more options, both when looking to get forward or defending.

Lennon was horrific, hurry back Theo! Hope Ashley Cole plays like that against us on Saturday - if Jonas is on the right wing, it could be very interesting indeed.

FYP.

4-3-3 Shearer © Martins - Owen

Fucking hell, this is unreal! SHEARER, SHEARER, SHEARER!

Woeful decision(s) will go against us, nailed on. He's been a right cunt to us all season.

It's better than nothing I suppose, at least it seems he's accepting he won't be able to manage us any longer. Now get a fucking proper manager in to replace him and do it now!

Blue Team is looking something like this (v. vague) GK: NSG RB: Greg LB: The Prophet CB: Rich (hopefully) CB: ? (maybe Cp40) RM: t'Dave LM: Robbo_11 CM: Disco_Des CM: Stupeedo FW: Wullie FW: Ash I'll play centre back if cp40 doesn't want to, I don't mind playing there to be honest.

Had to sell my ticket for Saturday due to SKY being wankers and fucking up what would have been a cracking weekend. Will be there on Wednesday though, looking forward to it. As Neil said, win this and we're pretty much in SA next year.

Gerrard is English, so the English media suckle his arse. Hardly a conspiracy. Essien is definitely one of the best players in the world. Can do everything, though could score more, and has the intelligence and attitude Gerrard lacks. Surely anyone would love to have him in their team. When he replicates his Liverpool form for England, I'd glady have him in the England team every game without doubt. However, is that ever going to happen? It hasn't so far in 70 caps. I hope he proves me wrong one day because if he does replicate his Liverpool form, we might actually get somewhere in South Africa next year. For me, Gerrard is a world-class player but only in terms of league football because he doesn't perform on the International stage. Messi is streets ahead in regards to the original question by the way.

Hughton is refusing to rule Bassong and Taylor out of this one. That means they're both out for the season, then.