BG

Always nice to see Colin taking a beating. 5 down at Fulham.

Ground share dead, a new stadium will not be the Hicks stadium, Bascombe now at The Torygraph.

Agreed. I'd put Henderson on for him and tell him to stay wide.

Bit of a mystery to me why Dirk keeps drifting inside when we should be stretching the game to tak advantage of the extra man. Not one of his better days today.

We're letting them drag us into a fight here. We need to work the ball more patiently and move them around more.

Had a weird nightmare last night (am taking lariam as malaria prevention which gives you f***ed up dreams). It was May 1940, a new government had just been formed and I turned on the radio to hear: "I have nothing to offer but years of experience of success, which, I think, any fair observer would probably have to agree, could be described as startling, at Halmstad, Oddevold, Orebro and Viking." By June 1940 I was hearing: "Of course I cannot promise that we shall not flag or fail - no-one who's seen as much as I have in my long career would be so rash as to make so bold a statement as that. I will say though, that we will, as people would expect of us, try our hardest to go on to the end. Despite what wise people in the game acknowledge to be our inferior resources and manpower, we shall try to fight in France, we shall, though I have inherited a navy well past its glory days, fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air once the RAF have got used to the formation which has worked so we for me everywhere I've been over the past 36 years, we shall try our very best to defend our island, though I acknowldge that some people will say the cost is too high. If and when our navy has failed me I will fall back on something I learnt many years ago at Oddevold and marshall our defence on the beach as best as possible, we shall, though the situation would, in truth, be desperate by then, keep trying to fight on the landing grounds, and, if it becomes necessary and we have no other option, we'll fight in the fields and in the streets and in the hills; I would never be so naive as to say we shall never surrender but I am, and I sure this will be recognised by most people, bringing all my considerable experience to bear, to avoid such an unfortunate turn of events."

Another very, very good hattrick from Messi last night.

Barca are playing an interesting formation/side tonight against Athletico. 3-4-3 with a back 3 of Abidal, Busquets and Mascherano - Puyol and Pique both on the bench. Edit: as pointed out I had it as 3-4-4 which is indeed an interesting formation.

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Burton is really going some. Up there with the biggest pricks in football journalism, a field not exactly short of that sort.

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Latest proof: Wenger saying he doesn't need a defensive coach as he's completed 32 years as a coach. Does he not realise RFH has done 35?

Someone was saying the other day he didn't like playing in pain. Seems a bit harsh that given what we now know.

Yes of course, totally agree. I suppose that I just find the it's all the refs' fault/there's a conspiracy/there's corruption line goes a bit far on here at times and obscures legitimate conversation about shortcomings in the team, the tactics, individuals etc. (And yes I do think we've had some tough decisions recently.)

I agree but that could be a summary of quite a bit of the Liverpool forum over the last few months after every loss or draw.

The two things that concern me with him at are: 1. Not only is he not scoring but he's not even missing chances. At present he doesn't really look much like scoring regularly. 2. When we play him we have to play totally differently to how we play when he doesn't play. Given that we paid amongst the bigger fees ever for him those two things are quite concerning. Hoping he turns it round but not altogether confident.

Just read Jonathan Wilson's book on tactics (pretty good) and this description by Charlton is somewhat ironic. In fact Taylor was basically a pragmatist - he played very directly at Watford because that was what worked. However he recognised that once the opponents got good enough his tactics - hitting it long and pressing like mad - wouldn't work as teams would be good enough to play through them. Taylor seems to have thought his England team were good enough to do that - given the players he had at his disposal then that was probably optimistic. That said it's just one game. That's one big difference between Taylor and RFH. The former was prepared to have his mind changed and adapt to what he had - the latter is more of the 'it worked Neuchatel, it'll work here' school.

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It's a joke but I bet he'll be mentioned by some of his journo fans as a contender and he'll obviously talk himself up. (Be great for Swipe...)

Think the FA have boxed themselves into a corner by basically letting it be known that the next manager will be English. Problem is the candidates are all poor. Pearce has done nothing of note in the game, Redknapp's star is waning and he has legal issues while RFH is RFH.

I see Richard Williams in The Guardian is suggesting RFH or Redknapp as next England Manager. Really think one of them could get it and Redknapp's legal issues may mean that RFH could really get it. Much amusement will ensue for those who aren't too bothered about England - Roy's prehistoric tactics and rambling brought to a wider audience.

Yeah, sorry I should have made clear in my post I got that but it also reminded me of RFH's failed (thank f***) pursuit of Carlton which would have turned last Summer into a double Cole disaster.