Lush Vlad

He's not the most composed. But I don't think you can underestimate quite how high Leicester press. Vardy was up there ratting everyone out and it often meant we had to go back to Elliot. As they pressed so high up the pitch and didn't leave us with many options. Not that we have many options or show for the ball, anyway. Once Leicester started trying to sit back. We had a bit more success. It's also worth mentioning Lascelles tried to overplay at Everton 2-3 times and got caught out. Wasn't the pen and red card, because of overplaying? It looked to me like the back 5, were instructed to go direct.

I've always pointed out his flaws, s*** finishing, inconsistent first touch, inconsistent passing, brainless Fair enough. It just seems whenever I open this thread after one of his many crap games. I can guarantee you'll be in here, defending his honour. I don't even think you/we can use the argument about him being our only attacking threat, anymore. He has been that bad the last couple of months.

Yeah, I did read one in another thread. Apologies. I was shocked to see you were actually pointing out his flaws.

Does anyone know more about this get out clause? Is it an option for him to leave, or is it the club can cancel the contract? Or is it just, if we get relegated, he's gone? I can't see him managing us in the Championship. But it would be great if he stayed. He'd help us steady the ship and rebuild.

I actually think he did well, when dropped deeper. The game suited him by then, as Leicester had started to sit back, so he managed to get on the ball more in space. He's probably our best dribbler of the ball and he's pretty quick. Always seems to turn out of trouble, as well. He still doesn't get involved away from home, in the supposed no.10 role that he starts in. He ends up in no man's land, between Mitro and the midfield. I don't know what the answer is. I still feel we're not utilising him properly. But at the same time, he goes missing and it has to be down to him, as well.

same. In his defence. I thought he was going to be absolutely awful and he was only slightly below par. So he did better than I expected. You've got to look for the positives

Agreed. I think we would have got at least a point from Stoke. They were terrible that night. Bournemouth, who knows? But it's not just the two extra games we missed out on. It's the time with the squad. He would have been in the job 3 weeks by now, if we had appointed him after the Chelsea game. Instead, he's working like a loon, trying to figure out how to get us out of this mess, with not long between fixtures. Need to get a win Sunday and then hope he can work some magic during the international break.

Scarily accurate. The bit in bold pisses me off. Especially as Elliot's kicking is so brutal. He just lofts it up in the air or slices it wide, all the while. I'm still at a 7. We did better than I expected last night. But it was similar to the Stoke game. We should have got something from the game, yet we came away with a 1-0 loss. Worrying.

That shot from Albrighton He ran backwards for a good 30 yards. What an absolute shithouse, this bloke is. I lost count of the amount of headers, passes and clearances, that just went straight off the pitch. Lascelles looks a bit dodgy. But he's young and inexperienced at this level. Taylor is just flat out bad. These two as a pairing will see us down. Never thought I'd want to see Colo back. But him and/or Mbemba, need to get fit pretty quickly or we're

Looked a lot slower than usual and his touch was awful. Didn't try and take anyone on too often. The one time he did, he got one of our only decent crosses in. He should be starting. But if his hamstring is affecting him that badly. Then I'm not sure he should be on the pitch.

Sissoko was actually there first wasn't he? Mitrovic would have missed anyway almost definitely I do admire your staunch defence of Sissoko. You are allowed to point out when he's fucked up, you know? Ah Mitro probably would have missed. Sissoko did the right thing, in looking straight at him, running into him and then bringing him down, after he's had a touch. I thought he seemed to try harder than usual. But he was still shit. His final ball and crossing, was woeful yet again. He's an impressive physical specimen. Tall, strong, athletic, quick. Yet he doesn't appear to have a brain or a heart. He rarely wins headers and for someone of his build, he's weak as piss. He's alright when he's trying to steamroll through people, but when he doesn't have the ball, he doesn't want to know. He also has the footballing technique of a toddler. It's like when you see a young kid playing football and they just run off in a straight line, with the ball bouncing all over the place. I think he's been shit for months now. It doesn't seem like that long ago, that I was saying despite all of his flaws, he should be the first name on the team sheet. I don't think that now and would be happy to see him dropped. Problem is, we don't have anyone to take his place.

With how direct we played last night. If that is the gameplan away from home, then he has to start, unfortunately. I heard Carragher saying about Benitez wasn't afraid to go direct in certain games, when he was at Liverpool. Well, if we're going to do that. Then there is no point in playing Perez or Cisse up there. As the ball will come straight back on an even more regular basis. I'm not counting Doumbia. As it just seems similar to the Ferreyra signing. Doesn't seem like he is anywhere near match fit or in favour. I don't actually think he's weak or that he gets bullied. He held his own against two brick shithouse centre backs. But when he's facing goal, he's just not good enough. He is so clumsy and awkward, when trying to run with the ball or take a touch. Doesn't even look like a footballer. Shola had more grace. It's so annoying, that he can get his body in and be physical, with his back to goal. Yet he never seems interested in causing havoc in the box or launching himself at the ball. That said, when you have Sissoko and Perez as your wide men and you rarely get any decent crosses in. Then I'm not sure he's going to get many chances to do this.

Difficult to gauge. He's not been here long enough to see massive changes. Leicester weren't that great, I'm sure our gameplan played a part in that. They had two decent chances all game and scored one. Well, in fairness, the goal wasn't that much of a chance, just a great finish. It was also an away game and for the most part, we've been pathetic on the road. We rarely create fuck all and we've scored seven away goals, all season. So you can't expect it to change overnight. We've played well at home in comparison. So if Rafa gets a similar level of improvement from our home games, then we may be in with a shout of stopping up. I think we looked a bit more organised and with 1-2 players back, we might actually manage to get some points away from home. Steven Taylor stuck in reverse all game didn't help. So hopefully Mbemba/Colo, might actually help us out slightly. He's not great, but I'd play Lascelles over Taylor. For me, last night was all about trying to take the positives and not get hammered and ruin our confidence. We probably deserved a point and so long as we build on the performance, then it wasn't too bad. My biggest worries, are that we're running out of games and I just don't think we're ever going to score too many. So we're going to have to be keeping a lot of clean sheets, or conceding no more than a goal a game.

He did well against WBA's brutes. They had 4 centre backs playing and he pretty much dominated all of them. I wouldn't actually mind seeing a bit of pace, though. But at the same time, we need to make it stick up there, if we're going to sit deep.

Agreed. Rafa gives us a fighting chance and gives the fans a bit of hope. I was convinced we were down under McClaren and I didn't see where our next win was coming from.

7. Even if we lost tonight, it will remain at a 7. The big one is this weekend. Fail to win that and we're fucked!

Pretty much this. Arsenal bottle it every year. They get close, but always fall short, they never properly invest the huge amounts of money they have and until the last two FA Cup wins. They hadn't won fuck all in ages. I suppose if you see finishing top 4 and then getting dumped out of the CL, by the first decent side you play, as success. Then they should stick with him. I know plenty of Arsenal fans that have been wanting him gone for quite a while. Can't say I blame them.

I see Northampton-Cambridge, fucked someone else, as well. Had cash out at about £90 at one point, off £2.50. Of course I let it ride and Cambridge's late leveller, cost me £320.

As for McClaren. I hold no ill will towards him. As I'm in agreement that he seems like a decent guy. However, I think he is getting off lightly, as he wasn't here for long and he followed on from Pardew and Carver. If he had come in after Hughton and then stuck around for a while longer. We'd absolutely detest the bloke. IMO, he had a better team to work with, than Pardew and Carver did last season. So I don't buy that excuse. Going further back, Pardew had some really talented players and fucked it up, helped to get them sold, didn't play them etc. But last year, the team was brutal. We were in mid-table, playing the usual shite Pardew football and I think we would have finished there. Then Carver had other ideas When you look at some of the teams we were putting out. I think we were definitely worse. So I don't think McClaren can really have any excuses on that front. The way he set us up away from home was just completely unacceptable. As was the fact that in March, he still didn't know what his strongest team or set-up was.

Imagine if he took them up after all this and we went down. That's a horrible thought As for that piece from Hardy. Overloaded with wingers?! Aarons, who has been injured most the season and is still a kid. Townsend, who we just signed. Obertan? Does Sissoko count? I'd say we're overloaded with no.10's/attacking midfielders, personally. We seem to have a shit load of midfielders, in general.

What did he say about him? Bellamy is the exact kind of character, who you'd expect to clash with......... well anyone. But despite what you read about how detailed Benitez is and how his football is a bit boring. It seems a lot of his former players are speaking highly of him.

So I hope we were all right and we see changes in how we play. It did seem like the coaching staff, were doing very little coaching. I still have no idea what our style of play was? We didn't have any pattern to our play or regular traits. Well, apart from conceding shit goals and Jack Colback, passing it backwards. It could be too little too late, for us to see much of an upturn. But I would expect to see some changes. Even in such a short space of time.

Get the San Miguel and Paella in. It's time to celebrate.

Probably just some bloke walking past with his dog, noticed some cameras and stopped off to have a look.

I saw these the other day. They all changed their tune to "oh well. I'd rather have Sam, anyway. Benitez has never been in a relegation scrap." SAFC Maria is the deluded one. She is most certainly not little. Chubby bint.