Stottie

Getting back to yesterday's game but we were set up well. I thought Fabregas looked back to form and Chelsea were much better with Oscar last week against Arsenal, even before the sending off, but we handled them easily for the first 60 odd minutes. Once we tired, McClaren could have been a bit more proactive in trying to keep the ball at the other end, but I'll give him a pass given the shite we've had in the past four or five games. He has to build on this result though. I though Ayoze looked comfortable at #10 against Man U and it was a bad move not to keep him there against Arsenal and West Ham.

Yeah, I don't know why people keep saying this. In the two seasons McClaren was there, Derby were second top scorers at home (94 in 46 games) and fifth top scorers away (75 in 46 games) in the top four divisions. There is no way that happens with a "negative" manager. It was their goals against column and bad luck in the playoff loss to QPR that stopped them getting promoted. In 2013-14, they were top scorers in the division and managed only 6 less than we did when we won the Championship. Their promotion push last season was also marked by a defensive collapse in the second half of the season. Given our record last year, it might be more appropriate to question why a defensively hapless club hired a defensively suspect manager. Even McClaren's most famous moment, the wally with the brolly, was a 3-2 defeat. It wasn't the kind of 0-1 sit back and create nothing borefest we would later see from England under Capello.

Easily our MotM. Most of our play went through him first half, he scored one, and provided the other. That said, I think him slowing put more pressure on us in the last part of the game. I'm sure there would have been moans, but maybe SDJ for Perez should have been our first change to give us a fresh outlet and ease the pressure. 10km of half sprinting will take it out of anyone.

Making his debut out of position in a big pressure game, but did admirably. Well done! Watford sound like they have thrown together pretty much their entire team and have started all right, so sometimes risks on untested players do come off.

I didn't see any replays but if the fouls were fouls, they've cost us two points and nearly three. It's something to remember for anyone thinking we could use him deeper. Other than those, not too bad though.

Yep, we might have coped better when Ramires came on.

Until 1983(?) the away team shared half the gate receipts. It was viewed as football common sense and the rule was changed the behest of the biggest clubs like Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Everton. Ten years later the next step to elitism was the breakaway of the Premier League from the Football League, concentrating more money at the top. The Champions League also came along to guarantee all the top teams in each country a place in the top European competition regardless of whether they win their league. In the last year or two, the tv money in the Premiership has finally risen to the level where gate receipts don't matter that much, esp if you are outside London and have limited income from corporate boxes. It now means that having a good support like us and Sunderland is hardly an advantage. The chance that NUFC had to leverage its good support into success post 83 has gone now. People may dislike Chelsea and Man City but without them it would have been Man U vs. Arsenal every season for most of the past twenty years. An elite of four teams is better than one of two.

I'm not giving up on it just yet, but it's going to be a long season. The new players and McClaren himself have come into a shambles and it really shows. Most worrying is the general inability of anyone other than Janmaat to fashion a chance.

Ferk me that was shocking. SDJ on, let's see if it sticks up there.

Costa should be off for hands to the face. Credit to Kosicelny for not going down, but it's only ended in his fellow CB being wound up and sent off. They should really use video evidence on crap like this. The officials won't always have the best view and with all the backchat going on anyway, it wouldn't slow the game down. In defence of Mitro, he merely trod over a dropping ball. I don't think the lad has sharp enough reflexes to instantaneously realize that it was an opportunity to kick someone.

So the FA did nothing about that Gabriel elbow last week. It looked pretty dodgy to me.

It's becoming really tiresome now, Kaka. What? His finishing is poor. Needs to work on that becaus he's really good at getting into great positions. Good saves I thought, especially the second. Sterling hit it across Buffon as he was moving in the other direction both times. If he keeps doing that he'll score goals or create ones off rebounds. City as a whole weren't unlucky though because their goal was a foul and the Juve goals were superb.

I'm guessing this qualifies as the third match of Mitro's ban. I think we need any and every bit of momentum we can get at the moment. Its also a home tie with no travelling, so I'd play a full strength team with as positive a formation as McClaren dares.

I found some of the analysis about the West Ham game grating, especially the 50M spent and the "blah blah French players" bit seconds after bigging up Payet, but the "need to take more risks" bit was spot on.

Looks good to me!

It's not. He's playing two DM's. Pardew played Colback & Tiote together this time last year. Colback under Pardew wasn't a DM in the sense of Anita or Tiote. Look at the goals from the 3-2 against Everton, Pardew's last game.

I only saw the highlights and the analysis but the latter shows a chronic lack of activity in the final third. No "down to 10 men" or "away at Man U" excuse this time. The goals conceded were both sloppy, but not especially from the back four. Mark Noble did more in the first one than our entire midfield in the whole match. In spite of us conceding all those goals last year, they are now a bigger problem than our defence.

If he is to drop back into a deeper role, he'll have to be more aware than he was on West Ham's first goal. He lost the 50-50 and then switched off.

Pardew playing for 0-0 at home against an injury-ravaged opponent, a Cabaye floated set penis not even reaching the box, and a keeper coached by Pardew's mate spilling one to cost the game. Yep, reversion to the mean here we come.

Chelsea very poor. Even Hazard did next to nothing.

There's a fair chance this game could be peak Pardew. All "reversion to the mean" from here.

fwiw, I did look after his red card and according to transfermarkt he has 41 yellows, 1 two yellow=red, and 4 reds in 12,000 minutes. Because I don't know much about European football, the "choose a physical forward to get a par score" question led me to Diego Costa. 97 yellows, 4 two yellow=red, and 4 reds in 23,000 minutes (at a higher level, of course) In case you're wondering 68 goals for Mitro, 125 for Costa. 4 straight reds already at 20 is a concern, but he looks more clumsy and overeager than downright malicious.

Bit ridiculous to pick all the best players Lineker played with and comparing them to some of the shittest Rooney has had to. May as well say Rooney has had Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard whereas Lineker had Steve Hodge, Carlton Palmer and Andy Sinton. My point was more about the quality of creative players that Lineker played with versus Rooney. The main one for me would actually be Beardsley. Everyone who played alongside him scored goals. The other three were all regulars though and had what I remember were good games. There have been talented players alongside Rooney too, they were called the "golden generation" after all, but the lasting taste is they failed to gel and/or recreate their club form at international level. Rooney has often played in teams that ended up as less than the sum of their parts, Gerrard/Lampard being only one of many issues. At Man U Rooney has proved capable of playing in many different systems, so I don't think he's ever been the problem. Lennon has 20 odd caps in spite of struggling to start for his club. Downing has over thirty, so they haven't been bit part players.

Aye, didn't know that myself. So Rodgers shipped him out, I guess partly because of the rep Shelvey was getting for being too raw, when he was 21 (!) At Southampton, Lovren had some combination of Wanyama/Schneiderlin/Cork screening him. That's about as good as it gets in the league. Very good fullbacks too, so not so much need to fight fires down the sides either. With so many players being sold but the Southampton train still rolling along, the system within the club must also be very good. Joe Allen strikes me as a nothing player. No better than Anita in what at times has been a much better team. With Rodgers, you get the impression that there is some "most fans are too thick to appreciate this" over-intellectualizing and obstinate self-belief in his approach.

The big criticism of Rooney is that he's never done it at the World Cup finals or at the Euros, 2004 aside. I think he'd had done much better if he'd had Beardsley, Hoddle, Waddle, and John Barnes setting him up like Lineker did. There's a big drop from them to Downing, Crouch, Lennon, and all the others Rooney's had to play with.