honourablegeorge

Don;'t follow you - Is this explained on a thread someplace? Sorry, just something that's puzzled & annoyed me for ages.

I thought Bellamy was fantastic his last few seasons, Saturday was the same, but in a rd shirt. Great to watch. Hopefully he can put all that rubbish behind him and get his head down. Pace up front made a huge difference to us.

Dudek, Agger, Riise, Alonso, Crouch, Fowler, Pennant, Bellamy, Kuyt, Carragher, Paletta, Luis Garcia, Guthrie, Peltier, Darby, Martin, Anderson, Roque. Surprised to see Alonso on the plane, to be honest.

Every arrticle I read quotes this "£80M Debt" thing - where has that come from? did Mihir Bose or someone jus tmake it up? We're not actually in that amount of debt, are we?

Agree with Leo on one point - we always bring through these small lads. We need giants. look at Tom Huddlestone, Micah Richards - whatever talent kids have nowadays, if they're to step up, they really need the physicality to back it up (the odd exceptions are the very, very pacy ones...) I think it's shocking that Rafa has no control over the Academy.

I'm happy to ignore it. There were fewer changes last season, for the most part.

I think the difference, in all seriousness, was that we had players who just got on with it. Gerrard played right, because he was all we had, and he got on with it. There was no faffing about, no changing the team, no real options. So everyone got on with it, and did their jobs. Now, there's rotation, changes, competition, and probably a lot of variation in tactics when preparing for games - that, and all the new heads, i think it's thrown us.

Pity we haven't beaten them to Henrik Larsson.

Oil be amazed if this comes true.

Maybe in the minority, but I always had huge respect for Danny Murphy. He copped huge criticism, but he always improved and worked on his game, always contributed, always hungry, made the best of th eability he had. Pennant's almost the exact opposite - the skill, touch, pace are all there, but he won't use them. I seriously doubt the crowd turning on him will motivate him in a good way.

How does playing three central midfielders solve the "one fit central midfielder" problem?

Heh. At least Nunez gave it a f***in' go.

Hyppia in the holding role will probably me more of a five man defence than it will a four man midfield, really. That said the prospect of Big Sami taking the ball and going on a storming run through the centre deffo has a nice ring to it.

It's possible that his lack of mibility is a reason he's being considered - Rafa may well just want him to sit in front of the back four, keep in simple, don't go forward. I'm curious to see Agger though, I think he's cope. He's so composed, I don;t think it'd bother him in the slightest.

I don;t think we'll win it, but man, listening to Sky over the weekend, you'd think we hadn't won a f***in' game all season - they're on about how WEST HAM might get fourth spot, since we're so far off the pace. Arsenal, naturally, are guaranteed third. Santa Claus, if you're listening, I just want an hour in that studio with a baseball bat.

The majority of Defoe's goals, and his sole decent season, were in the Championship. I suspect his Premiership ratio is rather poorer. And, he's a c*** of Ashley Cole/Rio Ferdinand proportions. And he's RUBBISH.

Saw Alves on Sky last night, ripping up the right wing and whipping in crosses. I reckon Rafa had the right idea in the summer. I hope he arrives, however late.

Cue dozens of us googling for that Baros pic....

I dunno what the word is for what we're missing in the league - but it's that thing that makes you draw a breath when the likes of Rooney or Ronaldo get the ball - the "Oh s***, what's he going to do?" feeling. We simply don't have that unpredictability, pace, excitement, whatever. That's what costs us. Our two wingers last night - you never REALLY thought they were going to tear someone apart. We don't get teams backpedalling, panicking, etc. Maybe that's the word - panic. We need to start casuing a bit of it.

I've been very critical of Pennant, but I thought he started to show signs last night. Typical of our luck, now he's inured.

I'm always wary of writing Hypia off - he's been written off in the past, and come back and had fantastic seasons. I'm all for Neill coming in, but very wary of being without Sami. I'd like to have him here while Agger beds in for a season. Be a sad day when he does leave, though.

As long as it involves him going home defeated.

Can't paste, I'm afraid - and it won't work in firefox, and you have to register to actrually read it...erm....hang on

Phil Thompson's written an article on the back page of this paper about how good the Dubai bid would be for the club. How well informed is he, I wonder? http://www.emiratestodayonline.com/

Jazus, everyone's miserable on here. We got a point away from home, and a clean sheet. We stopped the defensive rot, we can build on it. We've been f***in' brilliant at home in our last few games.