Figures 1-0 Football

Bit harsh to hang SMC out to dry after 5 games. He inherited a team that had win 2 in about 20 games, had spent four years under Pardew with Gouf and Williamson. Spent six months with some form of special hospital escapee in charge with no tactical play, probably playing hop scotch during training and watching DVDs of Sunderland games from 1902 to get PASSHION. The difference in our team actually playing with tactics is evidenced, the players are playing poorly individually and as a team. SMC needs to install some confidence - that will only come with wins. The best way to judge a manager is when things are poor (like this). Saturday will be a turning point, sadly we have two tough games after this - 3-6 points out of the three games would be good and set us on our way for a very winnable run of 10 games.

It's just so frustrating that we get the ball and in front of our player is four easy passes to move forward or one daft pass that will come off once every one thousand. We'll take the daft one every single time. Either that or we'll turn around and pass backwards, then repeat until the daft pass is played.

Fully expect changes against Watford. Can see De Jong starting, maybe Perez too. Anita and Cisse to drop out.

Krul - didn't really have anything to do apart from pick the ball out of his goal Janmaat - probably our best player, but that doesn't say much Colo - few loose passes, neither here nor there Mbemba - steady, but nothing more Haidara - good at times, awful at others - looks much more confident going forward then he does defending Colback - worst player today, so many misplaced passes Anita - was okay, lost Payet for the first but he had to react to the ball Wijnaldum - didn't get into the game much, looked okay but nothing more Thauvin - didn't get into the game at all Sissoko - ineffective Cisse - absolutely dreadful, failed to hold the ball up once but then again I suppose its not an easy task when its just thumped at you Absolutely awful performance all round, the basics were not right - our attacking movement was similar to last season, slow and predictable. At one point I wasn't even sure if there were two teams playing football or just walking around kicking the ball. Shocking game, West Ham were set up to capitalise on mistakes and hold on - and that is exactly what they did. We wont win games if we don't score, but we'll do even worse if we don't get the basics right. So much flair and attacking talent, but absolutely nothing going forward. I was tempted to say that maybe the shit of last season had just carried forward, but the players that came in over the summer have no excuse for that. We looked like a team dead on their knees after a long hard season, not a team 5 matches in. The amount of times, SMC and Simpson were urging our lads forward only to see one or two stroll forward in a fashion that my grandma would have overtaken them and she's been dead three years. I don't necessarily think SMC is to blame with his tactics, I think he wants us to play on the front foot - but the players are just not good enough at the moment. I think a lot of it is down to confidence, but a win against Watford on Saturday will only be further damaged after getting walloped by Man City and Chelsea. A few wins and I have no doubt we'll come good, but I don't think we can let another 3 games pass.

Tony Pulis has so much class man.

Went so down in my estimations with his ridiculous twatty comments. Like a Raheem Sterling with less ability and a clean criminal record.

"He's not going anywhere. I came here and there was a lot of debate and talk about Papiss coming or going and whether he would be staying," said the former England manager. "I said to [managing director] Lee Charnley, if you look at his record it's fantastic. Eleven goals in 22 games was fantastic and, to be perfectly honest, he was the one who was missed when the team weren't winning those games. "He's a threat. He's a goalscorer. When you've got Papiss in the team you always have a chance of winning games, and I think that's what he did last season. "I think Newcastle have a better chance of winning with Papiss in the team. He played the first two games and not the last two, but we hope he comes back ready to prove a point." - SMC

"You've seen in his general play he's quite aggressive anyway," admitted McClaren. "We don't want to take that away but he needs to calm down. He needs to have the fire in the belly but the ice in the head. "He needs to control his emotions and he knows that, he will identify that himself. But he wants to score that first goal." - SMC

McManaman man, did a fucking summersault over the defender to try get a penalty. Absolutely no contact when he went down.

Shut the front door what a goal

Real good game this.

Mourinho ask all defenders to do it, to prevent penalties being given for handball if it hits his arm. I believe it all stemmed from a dodgy penalty given against them - handicapping themselves in protest ever since.

Oh look, Andre Marriner keeping his cards in his pocket.

Overall I'm probably fairly happy with SMC so far, he is worlds apart from Pardew imo. - Gouffran is nowhere near the starting 11 - Obertan started initially, but SMC had the bottle to drop him straight away when he realised he wasn't any good - Playing a more passing style of football, rather than watching teams pass it around us - Honest approach in his interviews, rather than sugar coating everything - Seems to be serious with the intent in the cups, strongest 11 we've probably seen in a cup in years (at home to League 2 opposition) Now the transfer window has closed, get Chelsea/Man City out of the way and we've got a real good run of fixtures ahead of us. Really intrigued to see where we sit at New Year.

I like Mourinho to be honest, he just doesn't give a shit what anybody says or thinks - probably why he's so successful. Have no doubt Chelsea will come good and probably win the league again, think they'll win easily today 3-1.

I don't think there has been a transfer as pissed up as this since Peter Odemwingie to QPR

Still cant believe Mike didn't get a call-up this time round.

Well that's my San Marino party postponed

Hoddle talks some shit like "That's a errr, well a errr well earned tackle". What does that even mean?!

Probably not when you look and see their goal is from their only shot in the entire game. Even after Lithuania were reduced to 10 they're still bossing it

Lithuania... currently 1-1 Lithuania's goalkeeper was sent off a minute before the goal, but it wasn't a penalty so can only assume a free kick outside the box (or maybe the keeper handled a pass back and they scored from the resulting free kick in the box). If they win, it'd be their first competitive victory. Their current sole win was a 1-0 friendly win against Lichtenstein.

San Marino have only gone and scored!

International football really is crap and boring England will beat crap teams like San Marino, Malta, Moldova and will struggle against average teams like Switzerland, Turkey, Austria but would get hammered by anyone decent. The difference between the three groups (crap, average and decent) is just too far imo. Plus England's qualification group is a bit like Chelsea being in a qualifying group with West Brom, Chesterfield, Dagenham and Hyde.

That's settled then. Because he might get a yellow card every other game - regardless of how many he may score, we need to sack him off. Sell him to Bristol Rovers for 20p because he's trouble.

It is over the course of 130 games, so a yellow card every other game/other two games - which is no different to someone like Matic. For a striker? How many goals did he get in that time? 70odd goals... and well playing as a lone striker (which he has a lot) will mean you'll pick up loads of cards. Battling against two centre backs, backing in etc. He does need to calm down, but he's hardly the villain of the year.