épieur

part of the problem right there, Andy. Won't be missed.

This vid explains a lot. Notice how when he draws up the 4-3-3 the striker is miles away from anyone else. Torres should have seen it coming. His comments about the 'anchorman' also explains why we didn't play with 'wide players' in Cole and Meireless with Gerrard in central midfield. He wanted them to tuck and protect Poulsen/Lucas whenever Gerrard went forward. feck me.

Looking at the Guardian article, it wouldn't surprise me if Francis has been waiting patiently for an opportunity to sack the pair.

The irony.

"35 years ago, it would have been unthinkable to have a female lino. I don't understand why we should change things when it works just as well without them now as it did 35 years ago, when I first started my brilliant managerial career and had my praises sung for the groundbreaking work I did at Malmo. Never could win away there either, but the difference is that back then we couldn't blame it on the linesman being a lineswoman. And what kind of precedent does that set today?"

He's struggled and I am all for letting him have the rest of the season to prove himself as a starter. The reality is though, with the wages he is on, his place shouldn't be in question over the form of the likes of Kuyt and Maxi. He should be proving himself patently good enough to start ahead of them and he hasn't so far. If he hasn't established himself as a sure starter at the end of the season, I think we should be looking to offload. Doesn't make sense to pay that much money to a squad player.

...

They should go for Charlie Webster. Well worth an image google.

Indeed, where is the manager in all this? We need someone to put our feet back on the ground, assure us that there are plenty of games left in the league to lose and that Fulham are an astonishing side, led to the UEFA Cup final last season where everyone was singing the praises of their manager team, and there would be no shame in losing to them at Anfield. Especially not with this set of players that Rafa left behind. And Cole, who was signed by Purslow.

you'll do what? Have at you, I'm not scared. There's a chance I might not be serious on this too. I'm terrible in a fight and would probably run away real quick.

I don't see Abu Dhabi quibbling over a few millions quid. Face it we got the shortshifted once again with these yanks.

lesser masterstroke? There are limits to how brilliant one can be in signing a backup keeper, but I think he called it right in getting a keeper who has been a regular in this league and knows what it's like. I'd feel more secure with a keeper like that on the bench than some promising youngster who has never played a real first team game.

yeah! they been here for months now. Months! How many have they signed? zilch! zilch, i tell ya!

It's not a mantra. I am saying there is no point going for young keepers so long as we have Reina with plenty of years left in him.

That's my point! Reina is still young for a keeper at 28. There's a six year waiting list at least to make the step up to first choice for any promising young talents out there. We don't need them and they should go elsewhere. There have been plenty of hopefuls at Man united to take over from VDS and he's outlived most of them already despite being ancient.

In fairness, with all the talk that's been about him and the way some footballers blabber on, I think Konchesky has done well to just keep quiet and try to do his job the best he can.

SELL! SELL!

Totally forgot that. Well, it makes it easier to argue the 'don't go for young keepers' line, since Carson wasn't even an exception, but a shining example of how Reina will kill off all hope for any aspiring young keepers we may have.

Kuyt is mobile enough. And he didn't look out of place for Holland or when we were playing well under Rafa. I just don't think Kuyt is in any way a problem for this style of play, it brings the best out of him and whatever contributions Kuyt has made over the years, his best performances have come in such a setup. If his time is over, which it may well be, it will be because he is finished. Not because our style of play has become 'too evolved' for him. Playing an evolved high tempo passing game was ironically enough the only thing Kuyt was ever really good at.

Except when we need to actually use him. Then we went and got someone else in. He didn't though. He was always going to be second choice to Reina and I defy you to find anyone who seriously thought he could better him. Reina was only 23 when Carson signed. He was never going to be happy warming our bench. He was dirt cheap though and could make us a profit, so we swooped.

Yes he is. In fact, this is exactly the the style of play that suits Kuyt. He only really comes into his own when he has a lot of options around him high up the pitch and is correspondingly useless the less of this he enjoys. His time may be up, but it won't be because of Kenny's style making him obsolete.

"Dalglish glimpses good old days thanks to Hodgson's homework" - they'll never stop praising him to the skies will they?

I really don't want Benzema. Whoever we sign has to be a good foil for Torres if he wants to be more than backup. Benezema is a foil for no one except himself. Suarez would make sense as he can play behind Torres, on the wing and even instead of him.

I think it's a bad idea to just have a youngster as backup. Reliability is a major factor for a keeper and when you put your backup between the posts, you need to rest assured he knows what he has to do and won't be bothered by nerves because he is new to the occassion, league, etc. In fact, I think signing a keeper with premiership experience was altogether shrewd by Hodgson. We tried the 'young keeper as backup' under Houllier and when the time came for us having to rely on Luzi, Houllier decided we were better off loaning Paul Jones for the two games we needed him and he was right in making that call. The young backup keeper only really makes sense if that keeper is really talented. But considering Reina's age, there's no real need for us to be looking for young talented keepers. We snapped up Carson because he was dirt cheap, but he was never going to make it here.