Stottie

It was a big relief when they took Nasri off against us. Made no sense to me with Fabregas struggling. Tiote's maybe not quite there, but there are some overly attacking midfields in this thread that are crying out for a ball winner.

Thanks for posting it because if Wigan lose him and go back to Kirkland, I reckon they are down. With the Spammers and Wolves also looking dodgy, this season might be easier than I imagined.

Great article. We all know Ashley's footballing failings, so they don't need to be gone over again. Yet more evidence that FFS was a disaster and should not be welcomed back in any shape or form in place of the FCB. Bit of a shocker that it was Ashley that had to pay off Souness. The article says that our wage bill is still too high, which may or may not lend credence to any battlelines with Hughton regarding player departures. If our wage bill is still too high, who's got to go? Ideally it would be Smith but no-one will take him without us paying off a good part of the contract, so who gives us least value for money? Jonas? Colo? Nolan and Barton will be on good wedge but they're producing for the team. I think English football has basically gone through a bubble where all clubs have been living on the never never. This has been to the disadvantage of the well-supported teams, because the Portsmouths etc. have been able to offer wages that were completely unsustainable for them and everyone else. Now the debt is draining out of football, clubs with large fanbases and good matchday attendances should become relatively stronger again.

ManUre fans seem totally obsessed about him, so I hope he stays at Citeh.

Aye 10 in the league with no pens before Christmas. Well played son! Gan and get yersel a new Eminem CD or shag some slapper!

Basically they couldn't deal with Carroll (who can?) Absolutely blatant penalty level of holding of Carroll from that corner first half which could have made it 2-0 and given us something to praise Shola for. Liverpool are also lumbering at the back, but it took young Nile to expose it. In midfield, they can knock it about when unpressured, but need Johnson to come forward to get any kind of drive or penetration. I thought Torres was simply isolated earlier in the season and he did great when he got support against Chelsea, but now he looks genuinely off the pace. He missed a chance he would normally score in his sleep. Ngog was also anonymous. More than anything, I think this game and this season in general show we are reasonably good when close to full strength (even without HBA) but are very dependent at certain areas of the pitch where Smith, Perch, Guthrie etc. provide very poor backup.

Would be absolute madness to sell him. Our backups are useless and Liverpool themselves are proof that it is easy to bring in midfielders who contribute very little. We're having a roller coaster season, but how many of the poor results have been with midfielders missing? He's right to make them, but I fear his comments, and Nolan's, may mean that they're more likely to be on their way sooner than later.

I'm with Hindu, Pardew is complicit in the sacking of Hughton. Had he been a football person first, he would have told Ashley that Hughton was doing as well as could be expected without him putting more money in. So he starts on minus points, not a clean slate.

I'm seething about what has happened but its come as slightly less of a shock because of the warning. I also didn't waste any energy hoping for this to be a chance to get an improvement over Hughton in. Much appreciated Golfmag. What a mess. The self destruct button again.

Ferk me, five minutes ago they wanted someone with "more experience".

If we appoint him normally, it would be bad enough because he's a plank who arguably more full of himself than Allardyce. However, if he's also on the wage-cutting agenda mentioned, then what a disaster. We'll go down and stay down. If what Golfmag says is true, its time for some FCUM type action, it really is.

You must have been gutted to see all those missed chances and then that elbow and the afters. I thought there would have been a retrospective ban.

Shola looks crocked to me. Him starting was the major mistake today. With Barton and Nolan out, it was always going to be a struggle, but no need to be a player down from the start. If he wants to go two big men, he could have done so with Best.

Very poor. Shola looks crocked and CM pairing also makeshift. No replacement positive midfielder on bench. (Makeshift at CH too, but that's others' fault) Basically we need two creative players in January. Amazing thing is that we were still in the game until Guthrie fell over.

The commentators keep saying their first was offside. Of all the games to get sympathetic towards us!

Oh well, game over. Alan Smith ffs. Another match where we've made someone look good. Smith booked already! Double ffs!

A rare vertical ball from WBA and it goes straight to one of our players.

Powder puff challenge from Jonas, otherwise it would still be 0-0. Their best other chance was Sol dawdling. They're just knocking it square and getting nowhere (which admittedly beats route 1 with no-one running for the flick-on). We've got to create something now but I can't see from where. Guthrie and Shola have been terrible and the wide players have also been poor.

Wouldn't Citeh pull another "won't go to rivals" one with Johnson though?

.COM say Mulumbu is out, is that right? Did that Jara not get banned for the elbow then?

Well played lads. Especially the center halves and Routledge who came in and did brilliantly. We were always going to be up against it, but a shame we couldn't have done more with set pieces. That's what could have given us a win. Still, a great point all the same!

Hopefully we won't see Guthrie on the right again for a while.

Aye looks injured. But even when fit he pulls left too much. Carroll's left footed, so its Shola who should go right. It would give a near post/far post option. Him on top of Carroll shows up pretty clearly on the Guardian chalkboards too.

Don't Bolton have massive debts? If he's scoring and on a free, I doubt they could match the wages someone else would offer.

The ol' indiscipline cloud may have a silver lining. I hope they're both sufficiently fit. Working with Sol could be Taylor's last chance to improve and justify some of the hype when he was younger. He'll definitely get no change out of the big man if he shouts and points at him after effing up himself. They'll also have Tiote as cover. Whoever plays right midfield is going to have to cover Cashley. Its probably only Routledge that has a hope of keeping up with him.