Hughesy

What worried me was the fact that no-one seemed to know what to do when we were chasing the game. They looked clueless.

There clearly isn't a hard and fast rule on backing off or closing down. It entirely depends on the situation. However, I do think Colo has a tendency to be a bit indecisive in this regard. Think it was Bale today who was running at goal and Colo was our only defender near him. Colo just backed off until Bale got to the penalty area....

We did it quite a few times today actually. Coloccini especially kept backing off.

Basically - Pardew 100% right in everything he has said about Ranger.

Played well today. Agree that he could have done better with the goals, but the shots were both hit well.

Missed Jose so much today. Don't think Perch crossed into their half today and when he did it was only to cut back and pass it inside. Meant Jonas was completely isolated and we had no threat down the left. Routledge was absolutely abysmal today. His touch is awful and I can't work out why he keeps on coming to get the ball with his back to goal. He can't hold the ball up because he is so weak and his touch isn't good enough to lay it off first time. He needs to play to his strengths i.e. get the ball facing the full back and run at him. Generally our team needs to learn to attack with more pace. We need to encourage our wingers and central midfielders to either shift the ball quickly or, if they can't do that, head for space when they see it. We are so ponderous with the ball at times, it's embarrassing.

What great lads they seem.

I can't remember him ever trying to hide from the ball. Take it you haven't been at any games this season then! If you've been at the games this season, you haven't been watching all that closely.

With hindsight - West Ham one is a bit harsh. Still think he should have done better on it though. To be honest - this is all getting a bit ridiculous. Quite simply I don't think Krul has played that well for us and I think at the moment Harper would be better. I think Krul will become a very good goalie, but at the moment I would favour Harper's experience over Krul's youth. It's my opinion (shared by a few others), it isn't a kneejerk reaction and really isn't that unreasonable a suggestion.

Quite a few of Krul's kicks have led to chances for other teams in previous games. I've commented on it before. Hart's miskicks didn't. Hart was trying to drill low planing kicks out to wingers in space for a counter attack. Krul passed the ball to Tevez just outside our area. Completely and utterly different situations. As for specific Krul mistakes - off the top of my head (without having had the chance to look at them again) Ithink he's been sloppy on the following goals: Arsenal og in League Cup West Ham goal West Brom 2nd goal Sunderland goal Chelsea League Cup 1st Man City yesterday That is obviously not mentioning errors he has made that could have lead to goals.

You think Harper's kicking is good? I'm pretty sure he got slagged off for it time and time again in the past. I think Hart put about three balls directly out of play yesterday better get Given back in the team. Then Hart again once Given makes a mistake. Don't think Hart's kicking led to a goal did it? I've already said my view that Krul should be dropped is based on more than the hideous error yesterday. So no - you shouldn't drop a player after one mistake. Be interested to see where anyone has said that.

How can it be a pointless argument? Krul made a huge rick that led to us going 1-0 down within 2 minutes. That has quite a direct effect on the result.

I agree with this. If Krul's mistakes become more frequent, he needs to be dropped, because they are now beginning to cost us points. What points have they cost us? Because the second goal against Man City wasn't his fault nor was Nolan's miss or Carroll's miss or the third goal. It's typical of the collective bi-polar disorder of this forum that anytime and player does well he's the best around and as soon as he makes a mistake he's totally rubbish. There's never any middle ground. Nobody is saying he's 'totally rubbish'. You can't deny the mistake had an impact on the game though. Did it cost us points? Yes

I think Krul is a good keeper for his age. But, I don't actually think he has been anything other than ok since he came into the team, with a tendency to be a bit rash and careless at time. As well as having below average kicking. At the moment, I think Harper is a more consistent keeper and should come back in the team. So I've been looking at the bigger picture perfectly well thanks.

Good news.

Not really that fussed about the experience Krul gets. It's about points for us and survival this season. Still not quite sure how this experience line is being used for Krul's mistake. If Krul doesn't already know that he should have smashed the ball out of the box by now, he's never going to learn.

Really didn't think he as that bad yesterday. I do agree that Jonas' crossing, but seriously you'd think from the sounds of people on here that crossing is an exact science. Crossing has a hugely high unsuccessful completion rate. Would be interested to see what our team's stats are for cross completion. Still think his ability to run at players, win free kicks and generally unsettle defenders is underrated. Really is not a priority to replace.

If guesswork wasn't allowed, 95% of this forum would be completely redundant.

Agreed.

Carroll and Tevez shopping together in Manchester?? According to Express...http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/219359/Andy-Carroll-fuels-City-links? Bit of an odd story..

Most of the foreign players in Italy in early to mid nineties - seemed so exotic and just better. Boban, Savicevic, Weah for Ac Milan. Batistuta and Rui Costa at Fiorentina. Boksic at Lazio. Fonseca and Balbo at Roma.

Krul's kicking is not good.

Yeah it might be a shit squad, but it's a squad that is scarcely deep enough to cope at the moment - without selling off 7 members of it. You're advocating selling off 3 strikers and leaving us with Carroll, Ranger (hardly proven), Lovenkrands (doesn't look cut out for it at all) and this mystery new striker who may or may not adapt. One injury to Carroll and things aren't looking good. Our defence would consist of Simpson, Saylor, Colo, Williamson, Kadar and Enrique. You genuinely think we could cope with that for the rest of the season?? Imagine how we'd have coped if Colo and Williamson had got their bans with that defence in the squad. We'd have had 4 defenders for 3 games. That is not a sensible plan. Sell off the crap in the summer when we have survived and are able to bring in some decent replacements.

Need to replace players who don't play? Harper - Forster Perch - Have a point Smith - Can't get a game Xisco - Never plays Best - Never plays Ameobi - New striker Campbell - 4th choice Kadar steps up (people were saying they wanted Kadar played ahead of Taylor a couple of weeks ago) We need cover for Tiote and Simpson, Smith and Perch are not good enough, I see no point in keeping them. Now is the time to offload the fringe players, Pardew can make changes and its not an admission of players not being good enough, he's a new manager and just wants to raise funds. You never know Ashley might supplement him with a few million if he lowers the wage bill by getting rid of the deadwood, knowing he'll have it back by the summer in saved wages. It's called having a squad. Not all players in squads play on an even semi regular basis. Selling all those players, however crap you might think they are, and buying one striker is just utter madness.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11677_6605977,00.html a joke surely??