louistoon

Rafa certainly sounds as if he is a lot more relaxed with his players these days than he was at Liverpool. I'm not sure if thats completely true he is still insisting on improving and saying we must improve despite sitting top of the league, which sounds a lot like what liverpool fans were saying (and is great by the way).

It's the quarter finals like. Everyone in the competition at this stage should be thinking about winning it. Most of the CL clubs have historically not released their big guns until the semis. Scalping one in the Quarters is what we will need to do if we want to win, we can't hide forever. Just had a look and Arsenal and the manchester clubs are actually the only teams still in this which are still in Europe, which is a bit annoying. ... Oh and Southampton didn't think to check them

I loved that to be honest shows how much he wanted to score. We need players with that passion

madras still is. Rafa's getting it all wrong He did in the opening games, the middle 2 were far too deep and I'd still say we'd have scored even more with Gayle, Perez or Diame off a target man. We have the biggest and best squad in this division and I don't buy the idea that teams will come here viewing it as their cup final and find play better than normal, rather they'll already be beaten in their minds like we have been so many times at Old Trafford, Highbury, anfield etc. I do agree with this to be honest but at the end of the day we're still getting the results we need to. I don't believe the above stat is a complete coincidence (obviously the red helped today) with mitro there bothering defenders it creates more space for others than Gayle on his own does.

I might be wrong but isn't that 2 mitrovic starts and two 6-0 wins? He started cheltnam as well but was taken off after 38 minutes

Anyone seen this? http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/10631735/cisse39s-bizarre-finish pure Papiss that. fucks it up so badly he scores it.

Before that there was a draw against Brum and the beat Villa, both also good for us. The worse Villa's start to the season the better because they have the players/finance to shoot up the table if they get their act together.

If the ManU Chelsea game ends in a draw then Liverpool will be the only team in the top half to have won this weekend. Wonder when the last time that happened.

I'd still like us to sign Alan Judge. The team can still be improved so I don't see why we wouldn't sign someone if the right player came available

The best thing about some of his recent goals is that he's finally getting in behind defenders, which he was not managing to do during the first 6-8 games. That's where we will get the most out of him

Yep only realised half way through when I went to check the score

£10 on Real Madrid -2, Draw or Spurs, Athletico Mad and Arsenal for £34 £5 on Real Mad -5, Spurs, Arsenal -1, Athetico to win to nil, Bayern -1, Napoli for £350 £5 on Real Mad -5, Spurs, Arsenal, Bayern for £84 £5 on Napoli, Sevilla, Draw/Spurs, Real -3, Arsenal -1, Bayern -1, Athletico to win to nil for £120 £10 on Toon, Birmingham, Plymouth for £55 Went a bit mad with the CL fixtures Plymouth seem good odds tonight. First in league 2, unbeaten in 10 away to Newport County who are bottom. odds were evens on bet365, dont know if the bookies know something I don't like but those seem like crazy odds.

My issue with Dummett on this forum is he is one of those players who will get slated even when he plays well. Dummett does have good games and he has an excellent cross on him (which he has shown in multiple games both in the prem and championship). He also has his limitations and games where he plays badly but I think it creates a very bad atmosphere when players are continually hated on even when they put in performances. i dont know to what extent fan's opinions of players filter onto the pitch but I think one of the main issues with Dummett is that sometimes he will just rush in and get completely skinned, potentially because the lad is trying too hard, potentially due to some of the abuse he receives (Colback may also be suffering a little in this regard)

I don't think we need one to go up but I think the Gayle - Diame combination is definitely our weak point. With the amount of chances our midfield have been creating if we had a top class striker up there we'd be killing teams. However while the issue in the first few games was that we were not creating much from open play, now I think the issue is more to do with creating chances but not finishing, which is a step up at least. To play as a striker in this formation I think you need to be a very well rounded player, and I'm not sure Gayle will have that when we get to the prem (although he does seem to be improving in the role) as I see him as the sort of player who needs to play alongside a more physical CF

Awesome. Missed that I was too busy watching Gayle getting beaten to a pulp by Mitro

After transfers a grand total of 4 points this week. decided to sell half the wankers as they're not doing owt only one player over 2 points

Diame was far from terrible yesterday but we were playing Rotheram, and even against them you still got the feeling he's too lethargic to play in that position.

What's he done now? Absolutely nothing, he was very effective when he came on, should have started, him and Gayle up front and we would have won by a few. Effective, he did nothing of note and give it away a few times. I guess its just a case of whether the glass is half-full or half-empty. I saw him, as the lone outfield player, successfully maintain possession through clever use of the ball several times. I focused on that and you apparently focused on the times he couldn't do that through being surrounded or vastly outnumbered. But your attitude is so very different to what it was a year or two ago, I can't be the only one who sees that. You appear so cynical and negative in many of your posts and I don't know what has happened to you to change you so much. Having one of the biggest wum's on the board jump in agreeing with you doesn't actually enhance your case. (Well that's a f***ed up quote, sigh) Sorry but I'm sick of the hype mitro gets for the little output he delivers. Shola at the same age was a better player and prospect imo. I'm sick of the stick Mitro get for doing absolutly nothing wrong, in limited outings, because of people's pre-defined opinions. He's a £13m striker. I expect far more from a target man. His knockdowns were responsible for our 3rd and 4th goals against Norwich In his only start we won 6-0 I'd like him to be better too like but you can think that he would be a useful addition to our first XI and still think he has his limitations.

Rafa

f***ing s***, put us under pressure, had no end product. I think one of the reasons why he went off was so Rafa can show him that his position in the team is under threat. From Mitrovic?

if Norwich are our main rivals for promotion then we should have no trouble. Their defending and keeping were absolutely terrible if any of our players put in a shift like that we'd crucify them. How many times did a straight ball over the top send them into mode

He's better than most on here think. Still prone to the odd mistake but all our defenders are so i think its unfair to single out him

He just gives our attack a focal point. Play Gayle off him till Jan and then buy a proper attacking midfielder/ number 10 so we have more options with our formation.

We've played everyone but Brentford in the top 6 and only played one team (Derby who probably shouldn't be there) in the bottom 7. Now's our chance to go on a run, better not screw it up

This is exactly why we need Mitrovic on the pitch