Stottie

Is Spuds as good as it gets for Carroll? He's better than Chamahk (sp) and Drogba's playing and scoring less now. Balotelli, Tevez, and Adebayor are also hardly the epitome of stability. At Citeh he'd get Rooney money. I'm sure we wouldn't be able to replicate it, but they sold their best striker for 30mill and it has done them much harm. Just saying like. Like them though, a bidding war involving Citeh is the best way to go. It put seven or eight million on the price of Berbatov.

Lets see how sharp Owen is when he has to fly in to training again.

Enrique and Jonas were a big miss against Stevenage, so it'll be good to have them back. Tiote out is massive, but if its just him out of the back eight and their midfield is also a bit depleted, I doubt we'll lose heavily. If it's Perch or Barton on the left or Guthrie or some other nonsense, then I'll be far more worried. Some combo of half crocked Shola, McLoven, Best, and Ranger won't amount to much, but after beating them 5-1, it will take more than poor forward play to give them sufficient revenge. Its not uncommon for one to bounce in off someone's arse or get bundled in in a derby. That said, I think we'll win 2-1. In the spirit of the original chicken dance, one for one of our center halves, with Barton or Nolan getting the other.

Surely the problem is not the red card itself but the automatic three-game ban? Why is slightly mistiming a 50-50 or in Tiote's case jumping at a ball with a raised foot at a distance that is borderline safe from an opponent deemed "violent conduct"? An outright professional foul that denies a goal (the biggest way to change a game) is only a one game ban. All this both feet off the ground=out of control is nonsense. Is every goalkeeper out of control when they make a save? Tiote is getting the same punishment as Barton for his punch and Colo for that elbow. The incidents are worlds apart. For Tiote, the sending off itself and disciplinary points are sufficient punishment, no further ban should be needed. For Gerrard at the weekend, maybe make him sit out a game or two. Three is too many for me. For Barton's punch, a five game ban wouldn't be out of place.

Any glimmer of a hope we had has gone now. fwiw (very little), Gerrard's was a more dangerous tackle because it was much closer to a 50-50.

Hope so! Only caught a couple of minutes of pregame but enough to fill the sick bucket already. "Its the English superclassico" "The biggest rivalry in English football" ....

I doubt it will be rescinded, though it should be. He got the ball well before the other player arrived. Its just another step in the crappy middle-classification of the game that sees rules and interpretations made by people who've never kicked a football in their life, let alone attempted a tackle on a surface that is soft enough to allow sliding tackles. The classic Beardo goal against Brighton would probably be a sending off now. [rules according to Delia Smith]Foot off the ground, studs showing, ....[/rules according to Delia Smith].

Very poor but with our left side lineup and Smith in the middle, not all that surprising. Front two struggled too, as did Ranger when he came on. We've had a good team spirit of late, but there was little of that on show and we were completely outfought. Motm was the Scottish fella on the ESPN coverage who was adamant that the Tiote challenge wasn't a foul and that the new rules are a joke. Like many it seems, I'm more narked about any suspension there than the actual defeat. A ban for Tiote possibly means we can't get rid of Alan Smith....

I know the feeling. I was dreading Boselli breaking his duck against us. Or Andy Useless Johnson getting a flukey deflection and some twunt on MOTD praising him to the skies.

Looks like he has personality problems, but he was signed by Spuds when they were doing the DOF thing so potentially their manager hasn't particularly wanted or rated him from day one. Darren Bent also had personality problems, couldn't fit into the team etc. etc. according to the genius of Arry. Like Bent, Bentley was also saddled with a big price tag to justify. I think it was Bent's biggest problem. He looked very good in an average team at Blackburn, and an average team is what we are at the moment. He can cross, has a bit of a shot on him, and I guess could take set pieces when Joey is out or struggling as in the past few games. I know Chelsea do it with Drogba, but its a waste to have Carroll taking them or lining up as the decoy.

Good result for us and good to see WBA conceding so easily. But fkn hell, ManUre have some luck. Can't we have some?

Biased twat

Not so long since we were beating this c**ts regularly, so a hard one to take. With our starting eleven, keeping to 2-0 wasn't too bad, but they weren't on form and a point was there for the taking after the red mist descended. Assuming we could have created more than the square root of ferk all. First was a bit unlucky on Perch but the second was typical Taylor doing an impression of someone trying to defend valiantly while opening the door. More worrying though was the lack of ideas and terrible execution going forward. Ultimately the kind of game and performance that will make Carroll want away. I just hope its not to fecking Spurs.

Looked like it was us with ten men. Lennon will score one like that all season, so I thought it was a bit unlucky that we went behind, but we've been useless and created nothing.

That lineup has me at the least optimistic I've been in a long time. Smith and Perch ffs.

A guess, but 30 million less a million or two for possible personality problems should be the going rate. He's scored against Arsenal, Chelsea, Citeh, Liverpool (well), and was in position to miss a sitter against ManUre.

Lescott playing for them. Makes me hopeful.

Teams on tight budgets usually don't get better later in the season, so this won't help Blackpool. Could be a spanner in the works, though I hope others fail before them. Aye, I had to look our Fulham result up and then remembered that I had watched the whole game. It was that memorable.

And then Adidas will change the ball!

Us to bench to midtable in a lower league, beautiful!

Benny has a better record in the CL than Ferguson and great record against top Prem teams. He just couldn't do it consistently against the weaker Prem teams who ManYoo always defeat, if not completely maul. Torres scoring two against Chelsea is ultimately worth less than Rooney scoring two winners against Stoke and Blackburn.

So long as the gameplan is to stop the opposition playing, the worst team in Premiership history included.

Keeper has to be Kirkland or someone from Arsenal. In defence, Perch, Chimbonda (see the 7-1), Richard Dunne and the bloke from Wolves who's gone home. Warnock's legs have visibly gone too. In midfield, Smith, Stephen Ireland, and maybe Joe Cole given he's on 90k. Bebe's crossing in that one game was comedy gold, but I'm sure there are worse than him. Cattermole looks like a total liability, but he just about keeps getting away with it. Up front Boselli and ferk it, Beckford for all the ones he's missed. My impression from MOTD is that that Fletcher bloke at Wolves also misses lots of sitters.

Well said that man! I can't see him as a classy act. His teams are always surrounding the officials and its not called Fergie Time for nothing. He may have said the right things about SBR, but for us, "love it, just love it" came first.

He's a great, but I don't think the best ever as I'd rate Clough/Taylor and the Liverpool boot room above him. With the support at ManUre and the Prem era starting, it was much easier for him to keep the club at the top than it was for the others. The club's stature and financial power makes it much easier to sign players as he has done increasingly over the years. They don't bring many youth players through any more. It's unthinkable that a major club would give a manager as long as Fergie got to win the first one. 11th, 2nd, 11th, 13th is how he started.