yellow jumper

the circumstances aren't the same, but the apparent lack of faith is. wins in that atmosphere aren't a foregone conclusion. the longer the ambiguity continues the harder it becomes for him to get the results he'll need, the more the fans get used to the idea. it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy at that point.

this is already pretty much at crisis point in terms of media and supporters. at what point does it begin to effect the players and ultimately results? his job will become untenable. they need to come out and back him, and not just rhetorically. give him license to do his job properly.

a la martin jol? it's concievable they are weighing up possible replacements, fan opinion, a few more bad results. with each day they remain ambigious on the issue, the easier it becomes to sack him.

would hope to hear something from the players too, in the next few days.

benitez is twenty years younger than ferguson and more than ten years younger than wenger. in that sense it's a bit like comparing a player at the end of his career or one in his pomp with one just at the beginning. i'd also say that the reputation of benitez on the continent, particularly spain, is much better than it is here. simply because in this country the orthodoxy is that he's under-achieved in the premiership, although i believe that's a long way short of the truth. alongside mourinho, he's undoubtedly up there with the best managers of his generation. and i wouldn't swap him for anyone.

there's been more than enough discontent this season for them to get another impression. more than enough miserable-ists, whingers and those in the grip of a mid-life crisis, believing they could be doing a better job, to suggest there'd be not much more than a collective sigh of relief. f*** that. anything like that and i'll throw it in. the result and the performance yesterday undoubtedly helps, but anyone even considering 'the end' after marseilles, portsmouth, spurs, birmingham needed their head examining.

he has to justify his role to a bunch of clueless suits? brooking is the only man in the f.a. with any football knowledge, concern for the english game and england team, gravitas or sincerity. they should be answerable to him.

shearer's clueless, so he's a shoo-in. should be the other way around really. brooking, with a coach of his choice. coppell's another one who might do a decent job. got the brain, but not the balls unfortunately.

heard ince on the radio and thought he spoke really well about english football, and about the need for a change in culture. spoke intelligently about his experiences in italy. would also trust his judgment on hoddle, he probably isn't the ideal personality in media or man-management terms, but i think he's got most of the other skillsets. some of the guff harry's been coming out with is a joke. his teams play decent football, but most of what he said embodies the small island mentality that holds england back, strange since most of his players are from abroad. wrote off hiddink, wrote off croatia. i wonder if trevor brooking would be up for it. after not really believing it mattered, i actually think the right englishman could have a more profound effect then the cappellos and mourinhos of this world. actually want and look to create a coaching legacy, a style of play for now and the future etc. problem is there are so few decent english candidates.

which is why i was happy. but i don't think it should stop there. he needs to be able to spend big when he wants or needs to if we're to close the gap on united and chelsea.

i agree with your last statement. i was happy with the summer transfer business, but i also think that rafa needs to be able to buy 15-20 million players on a regular basis over several windows to bridge the gap. he's ambitious and impatient, and that's good.

yeah it's easy. it's also blindingly obvious in most cases where things aren't right. lampard-gerrard in any combination hasn't worked for five years. that isn't hindsight. it's also clear that england have problems keeping the ball, that kick and rush football doesn't work regularily, and that the midfield is the key area for them to look at. i've defended maclaren on here before, but he bottled it more than the players yesterday. as that article shows. agbonlahor/walcott/ashton were personal preferences, not really linked with his team selection yesterday. it was more a point about picking types of players for specific roles and combinations in the future. rather than just trying to shoehorn your big names into an XI.

the midfield is the key area of the pitch. yesterday, and for much of the last decade it has been an utter mess. there are options, but for whatever reason the managers won't use them. england don't have a pirlo or a xavi, they may not even have a gattuso or a mascherano - and that is how all the best sides are setting up centrally, a ball player with someone to break things up as a starting point - but in lampard, gerrard, hargreaves, carrick, barry they've got some decent options, if only they were prepared to let good players sit on the bench. a solid three in the middle of barry-hargreaves-gerrard for example, with an option of cole/rooney in the hole. crouch/ashton with owen/walcott/agbonlahor up front.

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letchkov and stoichkov were great. ireland-italy wasn't a great game of football, but it was good drama.

top to bottom, the coaching's s***e. they have no real idea how they want to play. there's absolutely no continuity in style or management. the media's a joke. the second tier of english internationals are mostly kick and rush footballers. we play too much football. the clubs rule the game. having said that i thought barry's recent performances were refreshing. he actually looked comfortable and relaxed on the ball, not afraid to go backwards in order to retain possession. playing with his head and not his heart. in ashton, crouch, rooney and owen. perhaps even walcott and heskey. england could have the makings of a decent quartet given their pretty scant resources. for me defoe, bent and johnson are of the aforementioned kick and rush variety. if england get to the euros and maclaren continues to make lampard and beckham sit on the bench i think he'll be showing signs of moving in the right direction, whether by accident or design.

sure. it's part of the problem with him for me though. he's an attacking midfielder who can't play in a 4-4-2 or out wide. he isn't really a ball carrier either. he's limited. he does one thing really, really well, but also gets regularly found out doing it at the top level. in open play alonso does the same things (although from deeper positions) and doesn't need baby-sitting. riquelme's better than anyone we have at set-pieces though.

where have i said foreigners won't make it in the premiership? riquelme is a very talented player, but he doesn't have an orthodox position, he's exceptionally slow, which is okay when you've got a bit of heart and physical presence. he doesn't. argentinean football is tough, but it's slow, slower than any of the european leagues. riqueleme looked good at villareal, a provincial club without pressure, and one that built it's system of play around him, but he was lost when he was just another player at barca.

where would you play him? behind torres? i think he'd get battered away from home, at least. there are load of better options than him for that position. he's practically autistic as well.

think it's still a little early to make definitive judgements on this team. they were the better side against us, and have played some great football this season. but i also thought that united out-played them, and that they showed frailties against fulham, sunderland and bolton at the emirates. last season they went away from home dominated most games and wound up losing or drawing too many of them. of the fixtures so far they've only had two really testing aways. wenger is a hypocrite, but i suppose most of the top managers are. i think when things start going against arsenal he can be pretty poisonous and that affects the way team behaves. a lot of the stuff that went on in the league cup final last season summed up the recent incarnations of arsenal, a brilliant, young side outplaying the champions, but ultimately getting carried away with some percieved injustice or other, losing their rag, and ultimately the game. if you want to win things (especially in that style) you have to accept that you're going to get kicked trying to do it. sometimes you feel arsenal are more concerned with the means than the ends.

garay gets attention because he scores double figures from centre back, takes free kicks and pens. not sure how good an actual defender he is, but he looks a decent athlete. looking at the table, santander are having a decent season, and have conceded fewest goals in the league.

think much of the media are scared of ferguson and that inevitably affects how they ask their questions and report certain united stories. credit to him for that. he manipulates them better than most. and uses any negative press there is to his advantage. get the sense rafa just ignores them. and thinks the players should too. that obviously annoys them because it doesn't produce copy.

gerrard's improved. he was awful early on, but he's fairly reliable these days. fowler had more options than most, seemed to suffer from wanting to take a different one every time he stepped up.