leffe186

Relatively low population, possibly the age of the population, islands have more than one small team in their own league, good players play in England (Le Saux, Le Tissier)? Newport (IOW) are usually fairly strong and are still in the FA Vase this year, but there are several teams on the Isle of Wight. The better teams play on the mainland in various non-league divisions, and there is an Island League for the rest.

Think I read somewhere it's now seven draws and seven losses. Nice, because a fair few RAWKers were putting last night's game in the category of "lesser side that we tend to stumble against." In fact (a) they have only been beating the "lesser" sides this year (b) West Brom are now above them.

What the f***ing f***? I was a bit unkind. This was the rest of his post: Crying because they sat back and looked to hit Liverpool on the break. The conniving b******s.

Too much glorious RAWK to post here, so I'll leave it at this:

The really frustrating part is when you finish fourth and the team behind the team behind you spawn their way to the CL. And then spends 80 million during the summer. On all the players you wanted to buy.

A week on Thursday

Where is Neil when you need him?

RAWK will be all about the injustice of loan players.

Even better, get someone technically-minded to do the same to RAWK.

Well maybe, although pretty much everyone else in the top eight (let's say that includes you, and the top seven right now) has a team of full internationals. Nobody ever fields a full-strength line-up every week. Something always goes wrong. I think that failure to finish in the top eight next season would be, well, failure for you. Unless someone screws up massively (Rafa, Mancini) then the top three should be predictable. Thus you have 4th (fantastic), 5th (excellent), 6th, (good), 7th (probably par - you'd expect at least one of the eight to have a s**** season), 8th (disappointing). You'll have a chance to test yourself against Liverpool and Arsenal at home in a few weeks, which will give you a better idea of where you stand. Again, I see you challenging for CL, and think that failure to do that for at least some of the season will be disappointing. There really isn't much to choose between the chasing five, and this summer's transfer action will be crucial in differentiating us. I understand what you're saying. Things never go smoothly but I'd like to think that we can achieve a lot with this squad. Your assessment is pretty much bang on. Top 8 should be the bare minimum but 6th should be the goal every season for us. The AvB project seems to be working so we'll see if he can keep that going at yours. Yeah. Ours is probably roughly: Above fourth (fantastic), fourth (excellent), fifth (good) etc. Point is, as long as we're challenging for fourth then you can't really criticize the players and manager all that much. All it would take would be a couple of injuries and, say, Arsenal going on a run, and it might be over. As long as AVB has us improving on the pitch, the kids are developing and part of the squad, and Levy has us improving on the pitch, then missing out on the CL isn't a tragedy.

...pretty much everyone else in the top eight (let's say that includes you, and the top seven right now)... I'm sorry, did I say that? I meant the top six right now, plus yourselves, and maybe, just maybe, Liverpool. Hehehe.

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Jose Enrique, Lucas, Gerrard, Henderson, Downing, Shelvey, Suarez. Subs: Jones, Coutinho, Allen, Borini, Sterling, Skrtel, Wisdom. West Brom: Foster, Reid, McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell, Yacob, Mulumbu, Dorrans, Morrison, Brunt, Long. Subs: Myhill, Rosenberg, Lukaku, Jones, Tamas, Fortune, Thomas. That Liverpool team really isn't that great, but then neither is West Brom's. Fully expect a home win.

No, we all think he should have been dropped a while ago. His basic technique is just not that great, and his reading of the game doesn't seem to be quite there. The consensus is that he still needs to learn a lot. That said, he still has time. I saw him in New York for pre-season a couple of years back and watched him closely, and was really, really impressed with his play at CB. He seemed to have a real feel for defending, which is why the last couple of years have been so disappointing. That said, he's all right really. Just not as good as you'd like if you want to be in the top four every year. He's a fairly typical new English player - not enough of a footballing brain. We would have liked to see Naughton given at least a chance, but he's had to cover LB. And he's not necessarily the answer either. Adam Smith is on loan to Millwall, and was terrific for England U21s the other day. I think he's the best option next year, but again, he needs to develop his defensive game. If Kaboul had been fit, I suspect we'd have seen a lot of him at RB. He's arguably our best CB, but Kaboul/Vertonghen/Caulker/BAE is a pretty shit-hot back four IMO.

That would be the ideal situation. Everything seems very quiet on the Douglas front and with him being a free I can definitely see us still hovering around that one. Especially if what Unbelievable has said about his agents etc is true. Then hopefully Streete, Mbabu or Satka can push on as Satka seems to be highly rated. Although as Streete is a bit older he'd be the most likely one to feature. I just can't see any of the kids being in that position so quickly. Look at Caulker - he had a successful season in League One, then one in the Championship, then one in the Premier League before coming into our squad. And he was England's centre-back throughout that time. You have Inman at Crewe (League One), and Good at Bradford (League Two), plus a couple of guys in Scotland. I'd guess that the plan for Inman and Good would be to give them time in the Championship next year. It would be great to say that one of Satka etc would be ready to step up, but I think it's wildly unlikely, and definitely not something to count on.

Nothing untoward I think, he's just easing him back into things after an awkward injury. I guess the main problem is that we don't have proper cover at LB, so we can't afford BAE to break down before the run-in. Fryers is one for a year or two's time, Vertonghen needs to be playing CB and Naughton is quite obviously a RB out of position. If Rose has genuinely improved (and isn't simply a one-eyed man in the land of the blind) then I'd have loved for him to be rotating there next year...but it just doesn't look like it's going to happen. We just got away with having no centre-forward for half a game, and no left back for most of a game, which I'm pretty chuffed about. As for 2 CBs if Colo leaves - well you might just get away with it if you're not in Europe. I just think you need at least four. Can't see any of the kids being one of those four, and so that leaves Taylor, MYM, and Williamson. Even with one in, you can expect Taylor to get injured and a couple of suspensions for all of them, so you're back to the question - is Williamson good enough to play 10-15 games for you next season? We have five centre-backs, but if Kaboul had been expected to be fit it wouldn't have surprised me for us to have released Gallas or sold Dawson (as was rumoured to be happening). Effectively, we have had four this season. In the league alone, Vertonghen has played 22 games, Gallas 18, Dawson 15, and Caulker 14. You can probably take a handful of games off Vertonghen because he was at LB, but even so, they will all play at least 20 league games this season.

Your midfield seems fine. I mean, losing Cabaye to injury would probably be the biggest blow of all, but you have some decent quality cover. Keeper and cover are prob good enough. Simpson leaving will presumably be alleviated by Raylor returning. I think all you need is a forward and one CB, two if Colo leaves, to put you in that group of eight that probably should be at least challenging for top four. There should be enough money available to cover that. The main issue then is investment in kids, importing people like Inman and Good, since there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of quality coming through. The other teams in that group of eight all have several youngsters on the verge or on loan at Prem/Championship teams (I don't know if this is the case at Everton tbh, although they are usually strong there). You've clearly started to invest there too, and this is where your French policy may bear even more fruit.

What makes you say so? most think with 2-3 quality editions we can finish top 6 and on paper i don't see a reason to disagree. We definitely shouldn't be below top 8 on paper, no way in hell the likes of West Brom and Swansea are better. We finished 5th last season and since then we have added Sissoko, Mbiwa, Debuchy, Gouffran, Anita and a few more fringe players. This season has been awful for many different reasons but we still have quality players in most positions. People are saying CL places a lot. I'm not so sure. Defensively, 3 out of our 4 defenders have questions over their ability to defend well in this division. It might take another year for them to adapt. The other defender is Saylor, so we need another CB to replace Colo who will also need time to adapt. Up front I don't know where the goals will come from if Cisse has another quiet season. Last year between him, Ba, Best and Shola they got 36 league goals. He and Ba alone got 30, another 4 from Best. We are also more reliant on a good injury record and form than everyone in the top 8 except the L'pool teams. Spurs have done well without Adebayor and Defoe as well as Sandro for large parts of the season. Without Cisse, Gouff, Tiote we would lose to any first choice Spurs side imo. Colo & Cisse have been poor all season and we need them or their equivalent to be on form 90% of the time to challenge top 6. I think we can push the CL places with 2 or 3 quality additions in forward areas and a replacement for Colo should he leave. Not saying we can actually finish in the top 4, but challenge for it. My mantra is if Everton can be up and around the top 4 the majority of this season then with some more forward depth then why can't we? One big question is - how much money will be available for "quality additions"? You've spent a lot this January. I know you got fantastic value for money, but there are still a lot of wages to pay. Completely making this up off the top of my head, but I'd expect Colo leaving to free up some money. There will be more money from the TV deal, plus more money from fans energized by the fact that you've actually spent something. How you fare in the next few months will make a massive impact on how you are viewed by players.

I think this is incredibly important. More games generally mean more injuries (look at Ben Arfa), and you definitely benefited from no Europe (and not many other cup games either ) when getting fifth. Only three teams can comfortably compete on so many fronts simultaneously (Manchester and Chelsea), while Spurs are getting there and Arsenal are slipping back a little. I think that next year there will be eight teams who are really not that far from each other, and the rest. At that point, squad depth, other competitions and injuries, and the managers, are the factors that differentiate us. Less than eighth would be a poor season for you. I'd say anything from 6-8 would be par, and you should probably look at taking advantage of no EL to at least look like challenging for fourth.

It's been so long since the last round that I've forgotten the rules. Are there any "homegrown" stipulations regarding the matchday team, or can you just pick anyone from the squad?

Come on Newport (IOW).

Time to lock the relegationometer. I haven't watched it again yet, but on first viewing it looked like a good game between two clubs on the same level. Neither of us played particularly well but both of us were ok, and I thought the result was fair in the end. We suffered a lot for missing a centre-forward in the first half, you suffered a lot for missing Gouffran in the second. There's not a chance in hell of you getting relegated, and thank Christ our games are out of the way, because (a) you are going to fuck a lot of clubs up - I'm looking at Arsenal and Liverpool here (b) In a couple of weeks I will be able to post in here without being told to fuck off. Probably. At this rate, next season will be an almighty punch-up at the top. You need to start playing MYM now, though.

Well, watch the replay. I'm off .

Perch's tackle, on the other hand, was terrible. Genuine tackle with the right foot, Bale too quick, then he just kicks him with the other.

Don't normally come on here for these games, but had to say, it was an innocuous injury. Walker kicked the ball, Gouffran tried to get out of the way, and Walker caught him accidentally on the follow-through. Sad, unfortunate, but that's that.

Well, that's a great bench. Problem is, half of it should be on the pitch. I noticed Vertonghen not starting lately what's up with that He started last week. AVB just seems to like rotating the central defenders for some reason. We've tried to work out a pattern, but there doesn't seem to be one.