Logic

We signed him because a dinosaur didn't understand the rules about how many homegrown players the squad needed IIRC. The following is just a theory but I wouldn't be surprised if we'd kept him on our books because we wanted to support him through the tragedy with his son Luca and probably as he'd be an acceptable choice for being a 3rd keeper in the squad. Why he's playing games I don't think anyone can answer... (even if Mignolet has been sh*t).

IIRC he was clattered just outside their box. A Basel player made a rather reckless tackle on him and I think that might have been on his mind there. I haven't seen a replay of that tackle but it did look awful and I - in my completely objective and unbiased opinion of course - was f*cked off that he didn't get a freekick and that the player wasn't sent off.

Is it just me or did Brendan's answer about Stevie's contract situation sound like a scripted answer preparing the fans for Stevie leaving after this season? (I'm a pessimist by nature so I might have read too much into his answer... )

According to StatZone we made two tackles during that time. One successful and one failed. Stevie made no tackles all game and Skrtel made one failed attempt at a tackle. That's our defensive midfielder and central defender in a game we lost 3-1. WTF was going on?

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Agreed. The midfield needs to find a balance between being compact and leaving huge areas uncovered while the defence probably needs to push up more often to close the gap when the midfield starts to press. But it's quite sad to see just how easy Stevie is bypassed in this video. Admittedly it probably picks out the worst examples and we were playing the soon-to-be champions... I'd want to see a midfield of Lucas holding with Stevie and Can in front of him. Then Hendo can rotate with the "front" two and offer some mobility when needed. The second goal would have been easily prevented if Coutinho would just have fouled the man. As soon as he lost him he should have hacked him down and taken the yellow (sort of like Moreno did at the edge of the box in Bernabeu IIRC). There was a similar incident in the second half where Johnson tries not to foul the man that has just ran past him allowing him a free run at the rest of the defence. It's basic stuff like this that we need to start doing ASAP.

And as King Kenny pointed out Hodgson has never been our manager so why should anyone managing our club be compared to him? ;)/>

This shows the problems with his current role pretty well. http://vimeo.com/111345310

If he's getting up at that time he needs to hire more people and delegate tasks more.

The worry is that he isn't learning from his mistakes. Mistakes - that most can see without having a UEFA level coaching degree - are repeated in every game. It's like he's hoping that one day things will start to work out. But we see the same performances in each game. Last season we looked great because we had a certain "personality" as a team. We were in everyones faces from the first minute and used the turnovers (hope that's the correct term) as much as we could. What we should have done is build on that - which means buying for that system. Instead we went out and bought for a very patient 4231. And the only player who can play as the one is Lambert who isn't good enough. I'm losing faith...

F*ck. I seem to have forgot to say that's what I would choose. And I hate when people just put up a team without saying if it's "The Bib Theory Team" or a rumored team or just their own fantasy manager team. So again, f*ck.

Mignolet Manquillo - Skrtel - Kolo - Moreno Lucas Stevie - Can Sterling Balotelli - Borini Subs: Jones, Johnson, Lovren, Hendo, Coutinho, Lallana, Lambert

I'm trying to look at the bright side of things. Give me some time to answer that one.

Usually I don't want us to pay any attention further than the game at hand. But we've got Chelsea at the weekend - and the absolutely most important thing this year is to get back in the CL next year. And we have a very limited chance of winning this game. So lets go with a Pellegrini style 4222 while resting our best players: Mignolet Johnson - Kolo - Lovren - Moreno Markovic - Can - Lucas - Lallana Lambert - Borini Defeatist? Absolutely. Madness? Absolutely. Could be fun? Absolutely. Bring on the ridicule. :bleh:/>

The bad? Stop playing Balotelli as a lone forward. He needs to play as one of two strikers or not at all. Everyone sees this. Stop playing Sterling on the right wing. He likes to cut inside meaning he’ll always cut inside on his weaker foot. Everyone sees this. Stop playing 4231. We don’t have the forward or the attacking midfielders or the defensive midfielders (or even the defence) to play that. Everyone sees this. Stop playing Lovren. Play Kolo or Sakho (depending on fitness) instead. This is related to the 4231 thing but either play Stevie as a baby-sitting quarterback on the toes of the central defenders, as a Totti-esque lazy forward with two hard working forwards in-front/beside him or don’t play him at all. Mignolet isn’t good enough. Brad Jones isn’t either. Why is Brad Jones still our backup goalie? There are 7 people on the bench. There are two halfs of 45 minutes. When everyone in the ground can see that the set-up isn’t working (often after 10-15min) or that player X isn’t pulling his weight try to use one (or more) of those people on the bench. Even if it’s before the 60min mark. Even if it’s at half-time. Even if it’s after 20min. Allen. What’s the point of him other than as a squad player to use if we have injuries? Hendo - he isn’t an attacking midfielder. So please don’t play him as one. Especially not as one of the wide attacking midfielders. Please stop it. This is only a feeling of mine but I’m still going to add it to this list. Please focus on only the next game. Don’t rest people for future games. Example would be - Manquillo/Johnson. Johnson shouldn’t get a game unless Manquillo isn’t fit enough for the next game we play. If we want to rest people - rest them in the CL or the cups. Not the league. The good? We’ve switched to a hybrid man-marking and zonal marking system at corners. We’ll concede less as long as Mignolet stays on his line.

I want us to try this Mignolet Johnson - Skrtel - Lovren - Moreno Can Hendo - Stevie Sterling Lambert - Balotelli Sakho in for Lovren if he's fit. Can in a Makelele type role in front of them - win the ball give it to Hendo or Stevie ASAP. Lambert to play as a classic nr 9 trying to stay around the two centrebacks as much as possible and getting in the box with Balotelli allowed to roam around finding space. Sterling making runs behind as often as possible and using the space that opens because of Balotelli's movement. And Stevie plays 55-65 min at the highest intensity level he can give us - after which Coutinho comes in for him. Give the two forwards about 50-60min - The one who sucks more gets subbed with Sinclair coming on for Lambert or Lallana/Borini in for Balotelli. That leaves us with one sub to be used as required to change things around or to replace an injured player. IMO football is about finding the best balance in the XI. At the moment we don't have the team to play with one up front because that either means playing a 433 which we don't have the wide attackers for (only Sterling fits that role at the present moment) or a 4231 which means a number of players don't really fit what is required of them (Stevie, , Hendo, Mario/Lambert/Borini, and the list goes on).

If he wasn't physically shot don't you think Agger would have gone to a better club than Brøndby? Or was he simply so sh*t that his only way out was to a club in the Danish league?

It's weird alright! I'm not sure what is happening with the other smaller nations though as I haven't followed them that much. But having watched Iceland for about 25 years it oftened seemed like our best players weren't putting a shift in because they knew Iceland had no chance of qualifying so they often appeared to be saving themselves (probably not on purpose though) for their league games. Now when more nations have a chance to play it might make the smaller nations play at a higher level simply because the top players for those nations actually see a chance to progress through to the finals. But having said that - this Icelandic team that I will continue to spam this thread about is actually quite a good team. The key players are all approaching their peak as footballers and have all played together through the youth system. What's happening here is the result of the progress made in Icelandic football from grassroots level (educating coaches, improving the infrastructure, progressive long term planning etc) to the top. And to top it all off we got a good manager in who surprisingly makes an pretty old-school 4-4-2 tactic look great.

Smaller nations feel it's worth turning up now as there are more places up for grabs? (Except for Iceland that's simply very good at football at the moment and will top our group because of our ability )

Iceland win 2-0! F*ck yeah! Three games so far, of which two are against Turkey and the Netherlands, and Iceland has 9 points, 8 goals for and none against.

Don't worry - there'll be an epic second half collapse by us.

Iceland 2-0 up vs the Netherlands.

Iceland 1-0 up against the Netherlands after 10min.