Tiresias

I guess the idea is to defend against Baines but I think the best way of doing that is keeping attacking there rather than defending against him. Marveaux should be ok at that.

I know we're third but that's taking 'giving them a chance' a bit far. ;D face it though this is Krul's normal positioning goal Krul Simpson Saylor Colo Raylor Etc

To be honest it's silly, but I don't like how easily players are bought from smaller clubs these days, so I dunno if there's something a bit noble about it.

I agree with the Everton one that with more men in midfield they can get some joy against us, Wigan did a similar thing against us that nearly paid off, and they have worse players arguably. Need to be prepared for this and hope Pardew has learned from the Wigan game. We can play a good counter game but we can't afford to let them press too high and keep possession, Saha is a better finisher than anyone at Wigan.

It'd be worth it for their fans still claiming their squad's better on paper on last day of season

yeah I was quite irritated at that, not been tested is just 'not played manchester clubs yet' as if that's the test of a squad's character. Not even from their 2 sunderland fan regulars either, (though actually I find Glendenning pretty funny actually...and Jonathan Wilson is a massive tactics nerd that appeals to me...) Anyway it's pretty s*** podcast for Newcastle but I tend to enjoy their stuff on european footy and mocking John Terry.

Trouble with international defending is that defending is defendant on understanding between two CBs that develops over time, which is impossible basically at international level so could appreciate that Capello could stick with a partnership. The problem is that partnership is Terry + anyone else at random atm. Terry should be dropped from team on present form, and a dreadfull world cup etc etc. Steven Taylor for England? Maybe, but a lot is to do with how well synced him and Colo are at present, our lines have been great for catching people offside. He is also guilty of occaisional blunders, and the England team doesn't need any more blunders. Having said that I'd be all for giving him a go, just wouldn't be surprised if isn't given a run of games, and as such never looks solid and hits his confidence.

God I hope he keeps predicting we lose, it's like a good luck charm now

I dunno Obertan losing posession exposed Simpson, though do think he was much better at Stoke so still sad about his injury. No need to panic overly about Marveaux exposing Simpson any worse than before to be honest. I don't want Marveaux asked to hold up play like Jonas, he won't be as good as that (like Jonas not as good as going forward, I hope from Marveaux anyway).

If a really big club came in for him I think we'd struggle to keep him, but suspect we should be able to hold on to him against anything below that considering our positive league position etc, and he does have family settled here. Older players tend to be more realistic about moves etc and if they are going to move are more honest about it. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Yeah think it may have to be Ben Arfa or Ba rather than together, or stick Ben Arfa out wide, I agree inferior position, and I've argued against it but not a terrible idea really.

Can understand the confusion, Mackem's don't think there's much more to the game than fouling

Tbh I thought Vaughn would be a great signing for them. Brucie seems to have the ability to coax the worst out of his players. Wouldn't swap for either Tiote or Cabaye anyway. Maybe for Gosling.

Surprised how few calls for sunderland, not really entirely out of the question start they've had Wigan need to go down. They've had plenty of chances to establish themselves, they have tried to play good football at times but somehow never hit on and made any ground. They're boring, and they're a bit of a bogey team for us on top of that . Blackburn seem a model of incompetent ownership, and are never the prettiest club to watch. Kean deserves some credit for breaking Junior Hoilett into the team who was a fringe player under Allardyce. Otherwise though he's been terrible. I do have some sympathy for their fans though, we all know what it's like to have an owner seemingly trying to screw the team over. Maybe they'll eventually do something right (hopefully not by poaching pardew )

He's possibly had to have the nail removed, I've had that and it was maybe bit less than a month but certainly all bandaged up for a while. That said still a month seems a bit much It's also a bit sad considering this covers the manchester games where I expect we'd be hoping to score on fast breakaways out of defence, which is surely his speciality.

Eeep bad timing after actually showing that he is good after all. Oh well, we have the cover there.

Lovely, excited about him

Do you have as many CDs?

Want Vucknic and Abeid to get their first team chances, and Guthrie now looks earned a shot too...starting to think we should copy barcalona and just field all our midfielders at once and see what happens

I was dead against sticking him on wing, but have rather come round to it, at least till he gets his shit together a bit better.

To be fair they seem a lot more generous than RTG...that said that's not hard

Stoke's medical team aren't without credit, they have a good line in buying injury prone players on the cheap and keeping them injury free (see Johnathan Woodgate atm). I am slightly suspicious though that's because these injury prone players don't then have to play against stoke in the league

Pardew spoke early on about changing Taylor's body shape to increase his mobility, i.e. less upper body bulk. He has looked a far better player since so credit to Pardew, not to mention playing alongside Colo must be any central defenders dream. It took a lot of bottle to face the Stoke machine with a recently broken nose and burst facial blood vessel. Well done Stevie boy. Didn't know this, remember someone talking about how a lot of players bulk up a lot in premier league and it can ruin them. Someone said Heskey in his early years looked like a quick agile winger, then he bulked up massively...and became Heskey...Similaly Agbonlahor has apparently had a lot of managers telling him not to bulk up and remain nimble, but he keeps trying anyway. Less sure about defenders who I'd want to be able to not be muscled off the ball, but you don't need to be so muscly i suppose to compete against Silva and this new breed of small attacking players.

Maybe they'd rather give players further from the first team a run about?

Because it upsets the usual media narrative of the 'onest 'arrys 'otspur swashbucking their way into the top 4 despite them not being as rich. How dare we ruin that party despite having cheaper and frencher players! They build up the 'top top' teams so much they can't really explain when a written off team does so well apart from to patronise them and wait for old order to restore itself, once the 'luck' runs out. Because if a team that doesn't have the stars does well what have all the ridiculous ticket prices, television subscription prices have been for?