épieur

I appreciate the vote of confidence, but you shouldn't judge me purely based on what I post on the internet.

Not every appointment has to be longterm. Right now, the next 3-4 years are critical, because the previous 3 years have completely eroded our foundation for footballing success. What we need is someone who can improve on that and stabilise this improvement, with as much certainty as possible. Dein fits that criteria. the 2-4 years he'll have in the seat should give us ample time to find the longterm replacement we're looking for. And frankly, I'd be a lot more confident about our ability to identify that man two years from now, with FSG having learned the ropes, having seen how the job is meant to be done with someone like Dein and having him part of the process of identifying a successor.

Part of me is starting to worry that NESV aren\t sacking him because they are learning their footballing values from him.

I think Lucas did have a better season than stevie last year. He is not this season though, despite his further improvement. Stevie is just that much better a player.

nothing wrong with what he says here.

f*** off, purslow.

It's pictures like this that makes me believe Roy Hodgson is hired as the star of a secret reality show and we're the butt of the joke. It's the Joe Schmoe Show on a grand scale.

Harsh on Cole that he should be getting flak for backing the manager. As much as we all want him sacked, it is what all the players should be doing irrespective of who is in charge. It's not their business to do otherwise.

You, sir, are a genius.

a wooden doll, animated by vodoo, then cursed with a growing nose whenever he lied. Eventually became a real boy.

pltbt

I know these things are said in casual jest, but with the filters of anonymity and limited nuances of expression the internet provides, these things comes across as being in really bad taste. I'm sure Roy and those close to him are sensible enough to stay away from these places, but I'd hate to be a friend of his and come across casual statements like this on the internet.

petty to say the least.

He doesn't have to be despised by the media and his peers. He just has to not really care either way. Hodgson lives for being 'feted'. Its why he took this job.

How can you not love the man?

Houllier was pally with him as well. Didn't bother me though, cause he knew what to dish out when the talk of the rivalry came about, always put the fans first and never sucked up to the horrible old hag the way our incumbent horrible old hag does.

Even if he were less a captain than he should be, which is itself debatable, the armband is by no means of such significance or importance that such a deficiency could ever constitute anything approaching a 'bigger' problem for the club. It's a trivial 'problem' at best, certainly so long as he remains our best player.

yup. He's held Drogba in check and that's good enough for me. He's not hyypia, but he's better than his height suggests (not that he's short).

Obviously thinking to score some cheap points with the fans by imitating Rafa's transfer policy. Now we need more young centrebacks as well. You can never have too many central midfielders and young centrebacks.

treat him better so he doesn't want to leave? He should have been among the first 11 last season and was inexplicably reduced to benchwarmer after a stormer the previous season. Who wouldn't be disheartened by that.

If anything, Kuyt has footballing intelligence to my mind. He's like the anti-babel in that regard - a player who has read the footballing manual front to back and even flipped to the back to study the footnotes. When he beats a man, it's usually by way of a deft drop of the shoulder or similar. That's don't require great skill, but are clever enough to feint opponents. He obviously knows where to run on the pitch, his off the ball movement in general being absolutely top notch. A great outlet in the final thirds. The problem is his lack of natural or intuitive grasp of the game. Sometimes, the game simply goes too fast for him to make the right decisions and he doesn't have the vision in play to translate his understanding into proper creative expression at a particularly high level. That combined with his limited pace and technique makes him a rather limited player. He needs to be in the rightsided forward position to be of real use and have players around him who can make use of his willingness to run for the ball and who will run off the ball into the spaces he can pass into. He has little use when receiving the ball deeper in the on the pitch as he can't carry the ball forward to create anything himself from there and is not a gifted enough passer to create much from such positions either. He's an odd one. Deserving of all the praise he gets when the team plays well. Deserving of the criticism he gets when it doesn't. I don't think he was being 'carried' per se by better players before. But he needs those kind of players around him to be utilised properly because he is a fundamentally limited player.

That's simply not true. He's been doing just that this season and has managed to be our best player in this role nevertheless. Before his injury, Gerrard was the our only outfield player whom I'd lavish the compliment 'consistent' to any degree on this season. Not earth-shattering performances but certainly good enough to exonerate him from this kind of analysis.

I don't think that's true. Sammy visibly tried to play more pass and move attacking football with Bolton than Allardyce and consequently failed disasstrously.