Atticus Finch

A bit of perspective Hobbs - played fine. Not directly responsible for any of the goals and gives Sami a rest ahead of the next 2 games. Don't see a problem Subs - Gerrard came off and was iced. Torres was getting treatment for 2/3 mins before coming off. Don't see a problem - he would have been hammered if they had been more seriously injured as a result of staying on. Ref - at least two pens on Torres. Never saw a replay of the Sissoko one. Their penalty outside the box. All marginal decisions went Readings way. This totally altered the balance of the game. If we had gone ahead (as we could easily have done with the correct decisions) it is a different game. Two shots off the woodwork - Gerrard and Crouch. Sissoko - was not as bad as everyone makes out. His passing was no worse than Masch's. Was not great for the first twenty but grew into the game and was not our worst player. Riise - passing was as hoofed as ever. Also question him on the 3rd goal - he seemed to give up chasing Harper. Had his screamer for the Youtube generation though. Our system and starting XI - horrendous. No creativity in the middle of the field. No width. Zero balance in the midfield. This is where Rafa does need to answer questions. We could still have won despite it though

No matter how poor we have played, not halped by the system, the ref has gifted them something to hang on to. I don't understand why everyone else is overlooking this.

Gerrard being iced. Torres was getting treatment before coming off. You can understand why they were taken off from that point of view. As many others said our starting line-up was flawed. However a different ref and the game is totally different. They don't get their penalty, we get one of ours and we are ahead in the game and forcing them to chase it.

Poor tactics. Players have played poorly. Ref's had a shocker. HOWEVER this will still only be our first loss. Let's not go overboard

Crouch and Voronin not doing much. Gerrard not involved enough. The passing of Riise, Momo and Masch is not good enough

I know it is early yet, but we need Kewell or Babel on to give us some threat out wide.

Kevin Nolan

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To me, Reina, Torres and Gerrard are the top 3 most important

I also think Xabi's absence has affected Momo. To my mind Sissoko and Alonso complement each other very well as a pair - more so than any other combination you put either in.

Difficult one but on balance, yes. The young Fowler was a genius goalscorer and I would be surprised if Torres scored in those quantities, but for me Torres' all round play plus extra pace and strength would mean he shades it.

What is the aim? To get G+H out, or to ensure that if staying they do things the right way? I've read before that people have been able to email the owners (pretty sure it was Hicks) directly via one of their businesses. Would a campaign of well thought out, reasoned emails - as opposed to "f*** off you yank c***s" - be a good starting point? An avalanche of several thousand individual emails would be very hard to ignore.

What is our away record in the league again? I don't see it as an issue of mentality, more a reflection on the players currently unavailable. Alonso, Pennant, Torres, Voronin would all make a difference to our attacking play. The way Blackburn are set up is not helping (nor should it, before anyone says) - 11 men in their own half when we have the ball. It might seem a srange thing to say but we might be better off trying to get them to come onto us more, to allow more space when we attack.

On the Crouch v Kuyt point I'd just like to add that due to Crouch's lesser mobility it encourages a longer ball up to him, which Samba would eat up. I think more movement and more interchanging is the way to go personally

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How long until the existence of a release clause is known?

As well as Tony's attitude, neither developed physically and I think that held them back. FSP is tiny and TLT is not strong enough for a physical league - he can be knocked off the ball too easily. The physical development is always a gamble when you sign players so young.

Joint 6th! All downhill from here

I'm surprised there is no sign of kewell. Riise at least offers a goal threat from midfield which many were decrying the lack of

My Dad has never been that interested in football - he keeps an eye out for the Chelsea score as his dad was a dentist to some of their players in the Greaves era. My Mum's side of the family was from Yorkshire and followed Leeds (but were more into their rugby league - as a kid my Mum and Grandpa used to collect the Hull KR takings from the ground on matchdays as he worked for the bank). I always loved football and was never without a ball at my feet, but didn't really support anyone until I was 6 (1983) - all the other kids were declaring allegiances and I had to make a decision. It was then I saw King Kenny play...

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After the problems when we first tried to sign him, I suspect Rafa had to hype him up to ensure he got his work permit - getting his name in the papers and attention to the way he was playing in Spain in order to argue the exceptional talent category.