The Prophet

Munich rolls it into day three. Athletico, Kiev and Kazan need to do the buisness tomorrow.

Seriously, I thought the Germany game was the end of his career but alas no he soldiers on. Average, one paced, one footed footballer, yet Capello and Mancini love him. Mind boggling.

Must say I agree with brummie. Both sides are unbeaten, both struggling to establish themselves as an attacking force, has bore draw written all over it.

How are your bairns coming on? Clark, Bannan & Delfounso, etc...... McLeish has been inexplicably playing Heskey as an attacking midfielder (no, seriously), but he's fortunately injured, which means Bannan will start on Saturday. I think Bannan is going to be a quality player. Delfouneso is the one I don't think will make it. Gary Gardner is the one I really, really want to see get his break as soon as possible, as he's the best of the lot.

Napoli played a class counter attacking game tonight, so much pace and guile going forward.

Oliver Holt man what a mororn. Apparently there's a lack of black managers in the game because of prejudice. He uses the example of Ince, people calling him lazy and a poor manager, those same people apparently think other black managers will be the same. NO, Paul Ince was a crap manger full stop. Stop mounting the moral high ground over nothing you silly little man.

Simply has to start on Saturday.

Lyon and Munich are both very good value tomorrow.

Horrendous? Really?

The three day bet roles into day two, nice one Porto.

His tackling and intercepting have still been top draw, however he's taking too long to distribute the ball and he's played himself into bother a few times.

Ryan Taylor and Shola should be no where near the team full stop, dreadful the pair of them. Pardew's tactics were the biggest problem last night though.

Now I have a bit more time i'll go into a bit more depth. The game plan was completely wrong. It became evident early on we were going to be overran in midfield. Cabaye was starved of the ball and Tiote struggled to cope with the players running at him. Subsequently the defence was completly exposed. I thought baring this in mind they did a good job, partiuclarly Taylor. Taarabt completely ran the show. Even before the game it's pretty evident he's there best player but we never got near him in 90 minutes. He completely dictated play. On top of that we had SWP completely rinsing Taylor on a regular basis. the pair of them won't have an easier game in their lives, it's beyond belief we did nothing to stifle them at any point during the game. On top of that when we got the ball it was either aimlessly punted upfield or the move broke down when the midfield attempted to find the forward. They were completely disjointed as an attacking force. A lot for Pardew to ponder.

Afraid to stick a foot in, afriad to take on his man, afraid to stick a ball into the box.

The problem is we're not getting any service to the forwards. Either Krul or Taylor aimlessly punt it forward or we give to the wide men, one of which wouldn't say boo to a goose and other who has inconsistent end product. We badly need a link between the midfield and strikers, hopefully Marveaux can provide a fresh option.

Agree with your last point, we look ridiculously disjointed going forward. First twenty minutes the mackems were all over us, following the hand ball inicdent we looked the better side for me.

I'd like to see: Krul Simpson Taylor Colo Santon Marveaux Cabaye Tiote Jonas Ba Best

I think that's a bit harsh. I'm not too happy about how we've played but we were the better side against Sunderland and Fulham, I'd also expect to be dominated by Arsenal. Don't get me wrong, we should be looking to take the intiative at home but there's no shame in being outplayed by a side that will most likely finish in the top four.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll109/adammc5/mick-mccarthy.gif

I would of been quite happy if he'd brought Guthrie on for Shola, an extra body in midfield to try and get a foothold on the game.

Ba's control and strength was excellent for me. Contributed more than Shola did in seventy minutes, not that Shola's an acceptable bench mark.

Thought he was much better tonight. Not great, but better.

There's positives: The defence looks solid Cabaye has made a relatively good start to the season Ba looks to be getting into some sort of form of sorts Best looks to be picking up where he left off last season It's not all doom and gloom but our play in the final third is disjointed to say the very least.

Some incredible short sightedness here. No one can complain at eight points and a top four position, but if we don't address the baltent issues in our attacking play the positive results will sharp come to an end.

Aye, completely overran by the three in the middle. Pardew got done tactically tonight.