Away Toon

As long as Baines is fit, Cole shouldn't play for England again. He's never done a cross like that in his entire career.

Anybody think that HBA is as dangerous or as good as Townsend?

At school played with Gary Rowell who you could tell was going to be very good and a professional when he was around 12-13. The best player we had was Neil Richardson who signed school boy terms with the mackems but who never played due to injuries.

West Brom look a good team and seem to play nice attacking football.

Spurs imploding earlier than normal.

That will teach me, only his second goal in 68 appearances.

Is Wilshere actually any good? I know he's meant to be the great white English hope, but he seems very one paced, doesn't score goals, Ramsey looks a much better player.

Well we still can't defend.

We know that Ashley was stupid enough to give Pardew an Eight year contract, and the general consensus is that they were also stupid enough to not include any get out clauses for the club, otherwise Pardew would have been long gone by now I'm sure. Having to pay Pardew for the rest of his contract if he's sacked, obviously adds up to a lot of money and Ashley doesn't want to pay it, despite the fact that keeping Pardew as manager is hurting us badly. Equally there is no way Pardew will resign as presumably he'd lose out on the 6 years or whatever he has left on his contract. So we have a stand off with JFK brought in to try and break the status quo one way or the other. In the meanwhile we continue to stagnate and go nowhere.

He was certainly an amazing player.

Of the three (Edgar, Ramage, Huntington), Huntington looked to me as if he had the most to his game but apparently not. We don't have a very good record for bringing in young players and improving them recently (since maybe Gazza and Waddle), hopefully Dummett, Bigi and Sammy don't go the same way as many of the others.

I just checked he's still at Burnley seems to be playing regularly and they are currently top of the table. I think he always thought of himself as a CH though we played him at RB most of the time.

David Edgar what happened to him? He looked good when he broke into the first team and scored against MU if I remember correctly.

The 352 or 532 as it often becomes if you end up defending too deep, looks good on paper, but unless you have a fantastic coach and the right players to do it, tends not to work. Martinez did it at Wigan but I don't think he has tried it at Everton yet, Rodgers has done it a couple of times at Liverpool this season but mainly because of injuries. MYM and Colo could certainly play in it, but we don't have a third defender who could comfortably unless Debuchy could. Because Santon cuts in all the time I don't see how he could be effective as a left wingback as someone pointed out already. I'm pretty sure it's all a mute point with Pardew in place anyhow, its far too exotic, foreign and complicated for him.

Well I wasn't the first one to post about Forster last night or the first one to regret he doesn't play for us. He certainly wanted to play for his home town club and was very disappointed when he left. I didn't say Reina was a particularly good goalkeeper, he's very erratic at best, but on the ground his passing from the back always looked very assured and accurate. Valdes at Barca is the same, mind you he'd probably get shot if he hoofed it long. Krul's distribution is criticised by a lot of people on here so mine is certainly not the minority view.

I said Krul was pants, or if you prefer just not very good at the moment. I appreciate playing behind the defence we have had for the last 50 or so games is not going to be beneficial for him and he looks short of confidence. I don't think he commands the box particularly well, and in general less and less goalkeepers do, most are reluctant to leave the line. What I meant about him being a poor footballer is that he always looks uncomfortable with the ball at his feet, and under pressure his clearances are often poor. Reina always looked the best on the ground to me, two footed and never apparently under pressure. Forster looked very two footed tonight clearing well of either foot. Anyhow it's good to have discussions that's what the forums for isn't it?

Well rather than stating your opinion, you should try explaining the reasoning behind it and that goes for Sewelly and the others who claim they agree with him but without giving any reasons. If you think Krul is better than Forster say so and explain why. IMO he's not, and at the moment he's definitely not. He's a very flawed keeper especially on crosses (though not as bad as Given), and his kicking is invariably poor, that's my opinion, if you disagree than fire away, but don't just say that's a woeful post, that's bullshit.

Aye. Fuck you as well

yes I'm afraid that's true, and it makes you a dinosaur.

That's your opinion, whereas your reply proves you to be the think wanker that you no doubt are.

It's also undeniable that Krul is not playing well and hasn't been for a while, the defence in front of him is diabolical but he's not helping at the moment.

It's all a matter of opinion, I think Forster is the better keeper, he's English, he's a Geordie, why would anybody not want him at the club? Krul on the top of his game makes some great saves (as does Forster) but his distribution and footballing ability are rank. probably the worst in the Premier League and there has been no improvement there at all. Every time he goes to kick the ball he's a liability. He doesn't command the box, is crap on crosses and he looked like he wasn't interested in tangling with Lukaku on the third goal last night. So he's either still worried about his shoulder, or he's chicken, take your pick.

Hindsight etc etc, but Forster is looking a better goalkeeper than Krul these days, reflex saves at least as good and much more commanding in the box and good distribution with both feet on the ground. Plus he's a local lad. Stupid he's the one who got let go. We could have got good money for Krul at the time, not any more, he's pants.

Looking better with Willo on which means something but fuck knows what

Gouffrans lack of quality is not helping, he was unlucky when he hit the post though he should have scored and he just wasted another opportunity. He's not a bad player he's just not that good.