Mole_Toonfan

It's not a respected position tbh, a lot of managers don't even consider it important. It is very important in this day and age but there you go..... there are exceptions to the rule like with Dani Alves, Barca paid something like 35m euros i think but this is clearly the exception. Hopefully we get him.

Aye we should have rejected 35m and stayed a mid-table team

Ok then ignoring that we could get Debuchy and Douglas and sort out the defence and get a good 3rd choice for that price. What ever way you look at it's idiotic. If it was anyone other than Carroll, you would agree with me but because he's the "returning son" all logic is thrown out the window. Paying 16m for Carroll now is more stupid considering the form he is in than Liverpool paying 35m when he was in good form. Atleast he was a dangerous striker then, now he's crap.

Who gives a shit what profit we are making on him..... just leave there to rot if we are going to pay 16m for him.... You can get a vastly superior player in Remy for that amount of money or you can get two very good defenders and a decent 3rd choice for that money. Just ignore the nostalgia and romanticism for a moment think this through..... 16m for Andy Carroll, ignore any profit's on the 35m deal or how it would make Liverpool look who gives a flying f*ck about that seriously. Andy Carroll who has a career record of 45 goals in 160 games and you want us to spend 16m on him? ffs.

Yeah because we should spend more on Carroll than we spent Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa..... don't be so f*cking stupid. 16m is a heck of money, for that price we could get Remy or we could use that 16m to get Douglas and Debuchy and spend 6 or so million left on a very good 3rd choice. There's a reason people are bothered about the price, it's because he's not even close to being worth that amount and we could buy 3 quality players for that amount.

The only way we will go for M'Vila is if Cabaye or Tiote leave, probably just letting our interest known if the worst comes to the worst.

Yes but not for 16m.

Quite frankly i'll be more than a bit miffed considering the money involved, i'd be f*cking outraged.

So apparently we have sounded out the availability of M'Vila, Douglas supposedly wants to join ( Times) and supposedly going to up our offer for Debuchy and that's without mentioning the constant Carroll stories and Remy story. As well as the Tiote and Cabaye BS Going to be a crazy week.

Why? If we sign Douglas and he proves to be a better player then I don't see what would be wrong with that. I think Taylor has come on a lot the last couple of years but he does seem to pick up more than his fair share of injuries, we need another central defender and signing players that push starters down the pecking order is surely how you become successful? Did never understand that mentality, i think some people are still thinking like we are in mid-table. We are better than that now and need more than two quality CB's, personally we need a RB and a striker more but i won't be complaining of Douglas comes in either. Any quality addition is welcome. Honestly though as important as any new signing is trying to get the likes of Cabaye and Ben Arfa closer to goal for success this season.

My stance has changed i'm not really bothered either way, but i won't be complaining if he comes in.

Striker and RB tbh.

F*cking media always making me dream Remy would just be the dogs bollocks, but it wont happen Not even going to bother listening to that Talksport shit btw

The hope is killing me, please get this done ffs

Doubt it, Kolarov lb, Zabaleta rb, Kolo and Kompany cb. i would think. I think it is tbh, the signs are there..... Milner is playing and he only usually plays these days if it's a change of system. Also when they last used 3-5-2 he played Milner on the right of midfield and Zabaleta as one of the CB's. I think it is 3-5-2 and sky seem to think so too, wait and see i suppose.

Simpson aside we don't need to strengthen the first team, the argument always was we lack depth and the first team was mint if we could improve on Simpson. We have strengthened the squad in midfield but the rest is either the same or got worse. We needed to get a RB, CB and Forward tbh, but oh well it's not like we are desperate it's the same team that finished 5th with some key members having their first full season, key members coming back from long term injury and the likes of Anita coming in. Hoping we get Debuchy in but even if we don't then it's still a very good side than can be competitive.

Can't see us selling Tiote for less than 20m tbh.

Liverpool fans reckon Gerrard will play on the right

Stat: we only scored once from a corner last season and it was Cabaye's. The short corners with HBA seems to work better imo. Near post Ba header against Wolves? in any case HBA hasn't taken many corners but most of them seem to hit the 6 yard box so i'd like to see him take more corners.

said it in a few places already this morning, i don't think we struggled defensively yesterday it's in a creative sense where we struggled.

Personally i don't think we missed him as much as people are saying, we looked good defensively for me yesterday i can't remember Chelsea creating much apart from the Torres goal and the penalty. It's in the creative side of the game where we struggled, don't get me wrong though i hope he's fit for the next game.

About Cabaye's corners i personally have never liked him on corners, free kicks sure but corners i'd rather HBA take them.

He's not been that bad defensively, personally in both games he's looked decent i haven't seen the wide players in question really get the better of him. He's improving, he will come good. Personally i thought the whole back 4 played well yesterday, how much did Chelsea really create? Torres wondergoal and penalty aside? The problem yesterday for me was creating chances for them to worry about but defensively we played well.

All I can say to that is thank f*** you weren't around on here when we were managed by the likes of Souness and Fat Sam. If you call this constant bitching about his tactics trust and support I dread to think how you would hold up with a genuinely tactically clueless manager. It's just frustrating because of the football we played at the end of last season. It seems i'm coming across a lot definitely than what i'm trying to portray...... Fat Sam and Souness was different as i had lower expectations and it almost got to the stage where i just accepted what ever they did. I'm not really bitching, just showing concern about the long term success of what 4-4-2 can bring us. I said i support Pardew and i do but that doesn't mean i have to agree with every little thing he does, i believe in what he's trying to do but there's obviously a difference of opinion of what system is best for us. Or am i not allowed to express an opinion? does this show a lack of faith in the manager? There's more to this club than just systems and i believe in everything Pardew is doing from top to bottom i just feel we are using the wrong system. I don't see no reason to bottle this up inside of me, i personally feel he's using the wrong system for the players we have but this doesn't mean i don't support him. Fair comment. Think the classic and most dangerous 442 normally involves proper wingers and we don't really have any of sufficent quality. In the 442 system they become the link to the attack. When the mf sits deep (as you might when away at Chelsea) there is a disconnect between the MF and the strikers. Cisse and Ba also make similar runs and take up similar zones which compounds the problem (Ba used to drop off a lot more). It's no surprise then that our most dangerous and cogent phases of play happenned when Hatem wandered into the middle and linked up the moves or when Santon became a faux winger. It's no good going on about ManU as they've always had world class wingers in recent history and also one striker rotates into midfield (normally Rooney). So it's not a FLAT 442. Last year it was apparent that Pards liked 442 cause of the extra protection it gave to the fullbacks. It was also apparent that Ba and Cisse fed very efficently off the chances they had in games. They both had red hot spells. They will have good spells again, but we need to create more credible chances for them this year as they are a known quantity now and sides have re-adjusted on how to deal with them. There is a much bigger microscope on us this year and teams we play will be better prepared. However Pardew has done the majority of million things a manager has to think about right. We have come a long way if losing to the CL winners is a dissapointment. Think about that. i have thought about this a lot since last night and while i do prefer 4-3-3 i can see ways where 4-4-2 works if Cabaye and Ben Arfa have more creative freedom and Ba and Cisse have a better understanding of when to drop deep and when to run in behind. Those are the issues currently for me, i have faith that Pards can find a way of getting the best out of those players going forward no matter the system.