goodrobotusses

He carries it without purpose, though, to the detriment of our attacking game. He might run quick for five seconds, but then he stops, waits, assesses (slowly), and lays it off backwards, by which point all the momentum the initial run gave the attack is gone. So frustrating. He's a classic English player – has all the basic elements of a footballer without the speed of thought or imagination of a good one.

Do think this is more a patch of bad form and not having Lucas alongside him. He's worth what we paid for him and should eventually become a very useful squad player. He has weaknesses – poor stamina, lack of awareness of what's outside of his immediate field of vision, possibly the worst balance/agility I've ever seen in a professional footballer – but he's got a good attitude and is capable of more than we've seen these past few games. Maybe he needs a second babysitter in central midfield (which limits how we can use him), and having only really experienced Ian Holloway's everyone-run-everywhere-all-the-time dumb but fun style of football he's a bit lacking in control/intelligence, but he's not a bad player by any stretch.

I'm more concerned about some of those prices – £6 for Adam??

Kenny wants a player in a certain position or of a certain type, Comolli provides a list based on the work of him and his team, Kenny picks. That's how Comolli suggests it is – says he's not allowed to sign a player Kenny doesn't want. Says if he isn't interested, the name gets put aside. Kenny did credit Comolli with the Suarez signing though – said it was pretty much all tied up before he was given the job.

That's what you took from tonight?

Even if Gerrard wasn't fit enough to start, Maxi and Bellamy should be ahead of him in the pecking order.

Good lord.

Read this today. Do think we've moved too much towards reliance on crossing. Without Suarez or Gerrard on the pitch (first half versus Newcastle) everything seems to end up being about getting it wide and crossing it in a Martin O'Neill fashion because we have no one willing/able to link between the lines. For a more naturally movement/passing-based team, I'd like to see something along the lines of: Reina Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique Lucas (when fit) Henderson Maxi Gerrard Bellamy/Kuyt Suarez

Granero's a decent player.

Another from the Le Havre academy. Lets hope his attitude is better than a lot of the others who have come through there.

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Strikers especially.

Cripes.

I'm pretty sure that when Jen Chang says "my sources" he means "Dutch-based football agent Carrie Baird and my own wishful thinking".

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It's lovely having four actual footballers (rather than simply defenders) in our backline. That early season issue of getting stuck in our own half against teams that press high up has faded away.

Yep. I was very critical of him early on but he's really beginning to kick on and he seems like a cracking lad too.

I like how he won 100% of his tackles in that video. With stats like that Comolli will surely be onto him.

Aye. There's keeping possession ticking over quickly in that position (like Lucas) and then there's THE BALL IS A BOMB.

Sticking another service striker in the team will give us many of the same issues we have with Carroll. We might finish a few more, yes, but we'll struggle to create as we'll essentially be a man light. It's a retroactive step; we need somebody who can score goals but also do more when we have possession of the ball.

Darren Bent, really?

Jesus f***ing wept.