Figures 1-0 Football

He looks a right cunt too, the sort of bloke who would put his own hair in his dinner at a restaurant so that he could kick off/get a free meal.

He kicked it to the middle of nowhere 4-5 times in the match when he had time and space. Aye, he did that a few times. I think he panics when he cant see a pass, so just whacks it forward. Don't think it's down to a lack of quality or how comfortable he is, just put it down to nerves personally. Think he has potential to be a good defender for us, would rather have him and Mbemba in for the rest of the season but we all know Colo will be straight back in.

Imagine if Pardew finished a game against Sunderland with a back four of; Anita - Mbemba - Lascelles - Sissoko We'd have lost 12-0.

Another signing made by the board for the manager, he'll be nothing but a utility player in the absence of Anita.

Said it all along, relegation would do nothing and now it seems that MA has proven me right. The only way Ashley will sell us if when/if someone comes in with a daft offer for us. So all of those fans wishing relegation on us to rid us of Ashley can continue to do so with no realistic outcome

Aye. Noticed that straight away. Him being up front helps Mitro as he'll distract defenders at the very least. Absolutely, at the moment Mitro is hampered by the fact that every match both centre backs attack him for 90 minutes. Cisse being up there with him would confuse/distract them and open up space for Mitro. I think the two could work well together, they'd be our funniest looking strike pairing ever though That is on the basis that Cisse plays up front and not "behind" Mitro or on the wing as we all know that means Cisse will be nowhere near Mitro.

These are an absolutely shit team like, their manager is pretty clueless at times too. With Rafa having the full squad for nearly two weeks to prepare for this, we've got to get a win here otherwise we probably are doomed.

Incredible that the bloke who Mitro beat up yesterday has been charged with pitch invasion and handed a banning order. Yet every year at Sunderland their supporters are allowed to walk on the pitch, have a run around, celebrate and abuse our players with absolutely no sanctions.

Robert Madley (idiot who sent Colo off in the mackem away game this season) had yet another horrific display at Chelsea v West Ham I heard on the radio today. How on Earth he is still allowed to referee is unbelievable, referees are literally untouchable - every fixture he gets he fucks up somehow. Incredible.

Getting more and more convinced as each day passes that he's going to relegate them.

My tickets arrived for this on Saturday, now I've got two weeks of them staring at me and making me feel like we'll lose.

Think he has shown enough in his cameo appearances to play. Thought that he looked very composed after we scored and he dropped deeper, broke up play really well in the middle and played some neat passes.

Was it Antonio for West Ham (winger/striker) who had a stint at RB for them which worked quite well? Defended ok and was also a major plus for them going forward down that side with two natural attacking players. With our injuries/suspensions, I'd be half tempted to keep Sissoko at LB until a natural LB is fit/available. Would also free up for us to play quite a few attacking players and really take the game to Norwich. Also thought it was interesting that Rafa chose Anita rather than fistipumps to replace Janmaat. Clearly doesn't rate him, which isn't a bad thing. Makes me laugh that it has taken Rafa less than two weeks to spot the deficiencies in our squad that previous managers have just attempted to ignore and paper over the cracks.

If Man City carry on playing with their flip flops on, that game in hand looks like a great opportuntity for 3 points.

Mine was not pretty reading 16th - Swansea - 37 points 17th - Sunderland - 35 points 18th - Norwich - 34 points 19th - Newcastle - 34 points

Aye, but it's usually followed by a soft pass back to them. Which runs did he fail to spot then? Maybe I missed them. Get away man, he has been absolutely pathetic for about three months now. There has been numerous times where he's lost the ball in ridiculous circumstances when he could play a pass to a team mate. He barely attempts to take people on anymore, or pass, or do anything. Seems to stand in the middle of the pitch and watch the game go by him. You didn't answer the question. If you don't want him making soft passes then you should be able to pinpoint alternative forward passes he could have made instead. I think you misread what I wrote, I said soft passes back to them meaning the opposition player he had just beaten with ease (see the post I quoted). I have no issues with Wijnaldum playing soft passes to his team mates, in the past three months all I have seen is a player wander around aimlessly losing/giving the ball away. First few months of the season he was insanely good at times, since December I think we could have played without him and had better results.

Ignoring the fact that the Lukaku comparison was absolutely ridiculous... 2014/2015 (when Lukaku was 21, the same age as Mitro as apparently this is important) - 36 league appearances, 10 goals. Mitro now only needs 4 more this season and then he'll be THE BEST STRIKER EVER!

Aye, but it's usually followed by a soft pass back to them. Which runs did he fail to spot then? Maybe I missed them. Get away man, he has been absolutely pathetic for about three months now. There has been numerous times where he's lost the ball in ridiculous circumstances when he could play a pass to a team mate. He barely attempts to take people on anymore, or pass, or do anything. Seems to stand in the middle of the pitch and watch the game go by him.

The referees are far too protected imo, the assessor at todays game must SURELY have seen a terrible performance - yet he'll still get a game to ref next week. The only time they get taken off ref'ing duties is when a big club gets a decision against them and the media run with it. That little scrote who ruined the away game against the mackems (Madley) has horrific performances week in, week out but is still given top games to referee.

Was he injured today or was bingo on? Seemed strange that Riviere was on the bench and he wasn't.

He's starting to look like a cross between Shola and Sammy at times Sammy's pace mixed with Shola's strength and inabilities.

I was more bothered at the end by the fact that Atkinson only added four minutes on and during those four minutes the ball was in play for about 20 seconds.

Offers us a threat moving forwards, which nobody else seems to do at times.

The save from van Aarnholt looked good from where I was, but it was at the other end of the ground so will be interested to watch it again on MOTD. To blame him for the goal is harsh he made an initial good save from an unmarked Borini, our centre back (Mbemba?) then headed it up in the air rather than away/behind, Defoe entirely unmarked then had the time to wait for it to come down and slot it home. He was unsighted with our defence in front of him. If he could have saved it, our defence could/should have blocked it. I may completely retract all of that after seeing it again on MOTD, but that is what it looked like to me. Thought he commanded his area better today, came a long way for some crosses and went through everybody to get them. His shot stopping is superb, if he improved a few things he'd be a real neat goalkeeper.

The only hope I have of us staying up is because we have this man in charge. If we'd still had McClaren, we'd have lost 3-0 today. His subs often confuse me, but he proves me wrong every time. He bought on three subs today (one enforced) that all had a positive effect on the result.