The Prophet

Guthrie's been one of our better players.

Some are overreacting like.

A bit of daft to make today more entertaining: Derby Cardiff Brighton Southampton Chesterfield Pays around £300.

Nolan currently statistically the third best player in the world according to Gillette Soccer Saturday..

Commentators such a cunt like: 'FERDINAND' 'Don't write them off' '2-0 is a dangerous lead' 'One goal changes everything' 'MECHEDAAAAA!' Christ.

Neil will be all over this like a cheap suit. Edit: Beat me too it by a second.

Nah Rio, Adam reakons in 'Boro this is how you babysit...

Just looking at the stats. They haven't won away from home for 15 months but they've only lost three games this season.

Schwarzer Kelly Hangeland Hughes Briggs Davies Murphy Ethuhu Duff Dempsey Dembele

Keep forgetting we even have him.

Fair point but do we have any other option? Lovenkrands has disappeared in every game he's played this season and Ranger is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. I'd give Ranger another shot personally. Can't knock his enthusiasm and work rate but from what I've seen her offers very little in and around the box.

Fair point but do we have any other option? Lovenkrands has disappeared in every game he's played this season and Ranger is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

I'd probably go: --------------------Krul---------------------- Simpson------Willy-------Colo-------Jose Routledge----Guthrie-----Tiote----Jonas -------------Nolan---------Carroll----------

Difficult decision to make up top of Shola is injured. Ranger and Lovenkrands don't really fill me with confidence.

The Stoke/Blackburn games were disappointing from both a offensive and defensive point of view however you have to bear in mind we're a newly promoted, relatively limited squad, the more we strengthen the squad the more we're able to deal with tactics. Hughton clearly knew we'd have a problem breaking sides down who park the bus and that's why he's brought in Ben Arfa and we've been pretty unlucky to lose him so early on so you have to look to the rest of the squad. The problem in both games was we were too heavily reliant on our left hand side which made us predictable. This happened against Stoke because of the poor delivery of Routledge and Nolan being marked out of the game which left Carroll, our biggest threat, isolated. It happened against Blackburn because Barton kept drifting inside which played into their hands, Nolan was market out the game, Shola/ Ranger were poor and once again because of this Carroll was left to fight a losing battle. That's a 4-4-1-1 and a 4-4-2 which have failed to effectively break down a compact defensive unit. What other options are there though? Guthrie? Vuckic? Ryan Taylor? There isn't a lot of choice and that's part and parcel of being new to the division. We knew at the beginning of the season Ben Arfa was going to massive in unlocking defences, we've lacked that kind of options for years but now he's injured we're light in options. Initially I thought a striker and right back would be needed in January but while we still need a striker I'd be looking to bring in a quality right winger. It would provide a lot more balance and as a consequence the side would be far more threatening. A quality delivery from both flanks would make us a different proposition and while Barton has provided that to an extent we need someone who will hug the touch line and attack the left back. All four goals were pretty poor from a defensive perspective. Against Stoke two set plays and an individual error and a long ball against Blackburn. Against Stoke it was more understandable when you're under the cosh from such a direct side you will make mistakes and that's what their whole philosophy is about, we lost our concentration twice and we were punished. Yesterday it was more disappointing because its not like they had us under constant pressure. The first Tiote just seemed to lose it in his feet and the second was a rare error in judgement from both centre backs. There isn't too much you can do about that except hope they don't do it again.

Aye you know it's going to be one of those nights when your player goes and thumps an oppsing player.

Aye tis what I though. He tried to take it out of defence and lost in his feet, seemed to rattle him for the rest of the gmae though. Nothing wrong with putting your foot through it from time to time.

4 in the league, 1 v Chelsea in cup Got to love people saying Jonas MOTM, he would be next to useless without Jose doing two jobs down that flank. All in all too many poor performances against a team with a gameplan of anti football, whether it was tiredness, over confidence or just a woeful day at the office(happening too many times at home) we just didnt deserve anything last night. We simply must win on Saturday as the run of games til the new year is looking tough. We don't have the creativity to break sides down, simple as that. The player we brought in to pick through defences is sitting on the treatment table while our top goal scorer from midfield was marked out of the game. We had no width on the right because Barton kept drifiting inside and attempting the diagonal so Jonas and Jose were left to try and pick our Carroll for the entire game because Shola/Ranger posed little to no threat. It makes us very predictable. The most annoying thing is we've scored against both Stoke and Blackburn and let too sloppy goals in at the back. All four were basic defensive errors, not picking up men, dwelling on the ball, not dealing with a straight ball down the middle. As soon as we meet a side who rough us up at the back a bit we seem to lose our concentration.

He made one error really. He got done by the same long ball Colo failed to deal with, the pair of them need to take responsibility. I thought he was pretty decent in the air last which is where the main threat came from. He was limited on the ball but then we known that for a while.

Hindsight-tastic. Wouldn't of touched him based on what I saw of him in the Championship.

Based on what? Boumsong would of liked twice the defender playing behind Arsenal's midfield.

Doesn't really answer the question does it?

Why exactly does Williamson deserve to be dropped?

The goal was an absolute balls up from both Williamson and Colo, they both had a chance to deal with it and failed.

Eh? But that's the point I'm making. If we hadn't of made two massive errors we would of probably won the game, but we did and as a consequence we lost. Our defence essentially cost us the game. Same as our defeats have cost us climbing the league.