Lush Vlad

His touch can be a bit awkward and clumsy at times. A bit Carroll'esque, almost. I'm not sure that will ever get a lot better. He seems to trip over the ball and get tangled up quite often. He actually shows some neat little touches and is good with his lay offs most of the time. It's just when he tries to dribble or trick his way past a defender, he looks really unsuited to it and it's not his game at all. But he is an absolute beast up top with his back to goal and he just generally attacks the ball with a lot of conviction. He really puts himself about and does well to hold it up when he's all alone. He was involved in all three goals. Challenged well for the first goal and was close to getting his head on it. Caused the poor header from Fellaini. Won the pen and then got up to score it. Was close to getting his head on it again, for Dummett's goal. He was challenging Smalling and holding him and the end result was the he same as the first goal, he forced a shit clearing header. You can't help but love his passion, either. He seems like a big kid out there. Has it's pros and cons, but you can see how much it means to him when he scores.

Same as the Liverpool and Spurs games, we need to build on this. Everyone said we needed to kick on after those games and that beating Villa was still the most important thing. We went and drew with Villa, then lost the next 3 league games, 1-0. On that performance and on chances created, against a team that doesn't concede many. I really hope it's a turning point. Should be a good feeling and a bit of a buzz in the squad. We've not been cut adrift with our poor run of form and we've just signed two players. I was really impressed, though. At 2-0 down, we could have folded like a cheap deck of cards. I thought we would have done, TBH. But if anything, for long spells, we were the better side and we didn't stop fighting. Bodes well. I just hope it won't lead to another string of results where we play well, but don't get the result. Last night was a bit like that. We could/should have won. I'm sure Man U fans will be saying the same, but we just as easily could have won. Especially when you factor in the blatant penalty and the fact Fellaini should have been off.

Guaranteed it's a freak game and it's like 5-3 or something. EDIT: 3-5.* Wouldn't surprise me. My football predictions/bets are always terrible TBH. Plus something has to change sooner or later. Just hope it's for the good. Not that we can finally start scoring, but instead of conceding 1, we now concede 5 You've been dire to watch and it seems like you have players half arsing it, or playing out of position. But you still have a ridiculous amount of quality in the team. You should be winning this easily.

0-0 or either team to squeak it 1-0. 0-0 at half time seems like a good shout, the way both teams have been playing.

Actually played really well against Arsenal and we definitely missed that bit of physicality that he brings. But he's always crocked, he still gets caught on the ball all the while and he's only suited to certain games. Not really a reliable player. He's the obvious candidate to be moved on. If we got Shelvey and Saivet in place of him. Then I'm not too arsed TBH. If we move Sissoko on. We might as well down tools now.

Had to make sure he didn't get his 10th yellow against Watford, so we stopped him playing. Can't have Wor Jack suspended for the big game against Man U.

This has got to win best football thread. Every time I open it

He was crap man. Could hit a decent long range pass, but then would stand there for five seconds admiring it. Had no common sense as a footballer, his movement off the ball was woeful which meant he never actually got the ball in a position to do anything with it. The fact he's had three clubs since us and done little at any of them speaks volumes. Guthrie wasn't crap like. Limited definitely, but not in any way crap. I don't believe in looking at player's or manager's abilities outside of when they were here anyway because it changes nothing. Guthrie had had very good seasons with us in 09/10 and 11/12 and nothing before or since really changes that. That Pardew's doing a good job at Palace. We should see if we can get him back as manager.

Hasn't someone a bit ITK on here said as much? That he bet someone he could make a profit out of a football club.

Pessimistic Nut.

I've not read anything since the weekend. But the last I read was that we were 'preparing to launch a bid'. We're not a fucking U-Boat or a missile silo. Stop preparing to launch and just fax over an offer. I swear, every article I read about us has shit like this. 'Bid imminent'. 'Readying an offer.' Fuck off.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2d11qog.jpg Didn't he used to be on here? What's the deal? He comes across as alright on twitter. He's sound enough in the 140 characters, online world.

I actually fancy us to beat Man U. Their slow, ball hogging approach and complete lack of goals. Might actually suit our style of play, if we set up like we did against Liverpool and Spurs. 0-3. Rooney hat trick West Ham and WBA are 'winnable' home games. But we've been f***ing those up for a number of years now.

I haven't seen the Watford highlights, where it sounded like we did create a lot. But I still don't think we're creating s*** loads, in general. Villa - we should have had been 2 up by the time they scored, but we weren't carving them apart. Went to s*** after Ayew scored and this is against the worst team in the league, at home. Everton - awful start to the game, dug in pretty well and made a scrap of it. I remember a couple of chances, one being the Mitrovic sitter. But not much else? WBA - Wijnaldum early on, Mitro should have had a pen and Dummett hit the bar from a corner. They had a lot more of the play and the better chances, if memory serves. Arsenal - Wijnaldum header was a half chance, ball falls to him due to a scuffed clearance and then he should have buried the 1 on 1. Mitro had that knee over the bar and then there were some other headers and bits and pieces. Not like we're missing 3-4 great chances a game. I think when you look at it from a neutral's POV. Bar the Arsenal game, I'm sure the opposition fans, will be saying similar to us. Other teams are creating just as much as us, if not more. Players like Mitrovic get one decent chance per game and if he misses, it's far more noticeable. I know it's hypothetical and he's not that good. But if he was playing for a team like Arsenal, he'd be getting on average, like 3-4 chances a game and chances to redeem himself if he missed early on. Maybe he'd still miss a load, who knows? I honestly think, we've become so used to s*** football. That creating a few chances per game, is seen as something positive. It's f***ing awful, like. We just don't create decent chances on a regular basis, or have anyone in our team, that can unlock a defence. We basically rely on Sissoko's power and pace to just steamroll through the opposition, then hope someone gets on the end of one of his cut backs. That's our gameplan? Even in the 5th placed season. We often created f*** all. We were just pretty solid and had spells of unbelievable form from Ba and Cisse. Plus we had the likes of Cabaye and HBA. Even Best chipped in with some decent goals to bag us some points. Our goal dif was still pretty low all year. Not sure where I'm going with this TBH?! Basically, unless they're s*** hot. I don't think signing a new striker is suddenly going to turn our form around. It goes much deeper than that. All that said, I wouldn't mind Remy. I just think the midfield is just as much, if not more of a problem and I don't have a great deal of confidence in the defence. We always seem to concede soft goals. So in summary, we're shit all over

2 decent players in this week, or we might as well call it a day. Actually decent players, though. Remy and Shelvey would be ideal, even if it is only a short term fix. I would imagine we'll sign this Saivet, carry on being shit, then maybe add 1-2 more right at the end of the window. As we'll panic after we're still in the bottom three. Even that is probably wishful thinking, mind. It's at a 9 now. Sign some players, I'd maybe drop it back down to a 7.

I wonder if when we're 15th in the Championship and still losing 1-0 every week. He'll still be going on about how we dominated the game and played really well. Change the record. You faux Dutch, beetroot faced cunt.

I would wager the same sort of fans that decide they're going to boo and give shit to Thauvin. Are the same sort of mongs, that rate Colback and love Dummett for 'getting stuck in' and giving away numerous corners, due to last ditch tackles. Geordie lads and all that. Lee Ryder heroes. TBH, there aren't many players thay don't deserve stick. So I find it odd that Thauvin has been singled out, fake injury or not. Footballers are tarts, this is hardly breaking news. Oh and I don't even rate Thauvin. But it's not like he has been much of a factor in our shitness, this season.

This. Rugby, Cricket and NFL are all much more stop start anyway. So I don't think it takes much away from the game. I just don't think it would work in football.

WHOOSH. WHOOSHES EVERYWHERE.

Ian. 9th January 2016

Even if he is fit. We still need a new striker and about 3 more players on top of that.

This for next season? He's been loaned back, hasn't he?

That Everton game, wow. I didn't see the goal properly, as there was a big fuck off post right in the way. I did crack my shins on the wooden seats though, hurt like fuck, but it was well worth the trip and long drive home, with an Everton fan....... That was the day I fell in love with HBA.

Don't remember this? Was it after the headbutt. As he got fined for that as well, if memory serves?

Our approach appear to be. Wait until the window is open, to pretend to get some deals done. It needs to be like the January window when we got Debuchy, Gouffran, Sissoko and I think Haidara? But with more quality/money spent this time.