suewhistle

The line up is to make the fans happy: they all like a good moan. To be honest any line up would serve that purpose.. Personally I'm not sure, but I can see that there is a rationale behind it (if we forget Bazunu and Stephens). It's been an intensive period, some of the players were looking a bit tired in the last game (eg Jander), the subs played well and Archer needs to maintain some momentum. Plus there is motivation for all the players, and those benched are available but have been given a little jolt that they need to improve a bit. I do apologise if some of you think that is too optimistic a view, and you may well turn out to be right, but I can't quite manage the level of universal pessimism some of you maintain.

Substitute Man City with Spurs, and scream! One for the older ones..

Bless, the younger generation do have attention span difficulties..

It was freezing briskly walking over the Itchen bridge just now. Let's hope the cold makes the team keep moving too.. I suppose I should add, not just across the back..

I'm not happy that Bazunu and Statue Jack are playing but I can see some rationale for Scienza being on the bench. We all know he's targeted by every defender going so perhaps today Robinson can get the full back booked and unlike against Oxford we can then put pressure on them with a fresh, and not battered and bruised, Scienza. Either way, PingPong has it right with their depiction of the lawks-a-mercy brigade. Disagree by all means but overly dramatic attacks of the vapours could probaly be toned down a bit.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment both with regards to Oriol and the collie, I can't help thinking there must be a more humane way to do it.. Definitely Bragg first, I'd agree..

Did he talk about actually using that physicality and marking people?

Oh, absolutely, but once you make a mistake you bust a gut to recover and he was just ambling.

Sod the stats, just look at Cov's goal at the weekend; static central defence marking no one and Manning trotting slowly back in no man's land in some surprise that the winger was behind him unchallenged for the cross. As for Edozie, isn't he (still) injured?

Traumatised? Like us fans..

If I recall well, the Cov supporters were very graceful about it. We were just all thankful not to have been taken over by SISA. In the end we got SR..

The story I heard was that Rupert asked the scouts/goal keeping coach (?) about him and they immediately replied 'He's crap'. So RL asks 'how do you know?'. 'It's my business to know'. And as we know, Rupert ignored any such advice.. You do wonder if that still happens?

I've only read a few posts and they seem to chime in with what I saw, but points in no particular order of merit: - passing it around at the back.. it's ok to try and draw players out to make space behind but not all the time please and do it well when we do. We just invite mental pressure on our players and add uneccesary risk. - Ryan Fraser. Someone point out to him that there other directions he is allowed to pass in. I really don't want to shout at the telly so often. - Second halves. Why so bad? - Subs. Experience can be good but what we lack is energy. Bragg was OK, but can we other some other exuberant young player with energy and effort? Not Aribo. - Penalties. Both my friend and myself called it that he was going to miss. Poor body language, predictable and telegraphed. Try someone else please.

Morse! You'll have his Russian friends after you.. I was chatting the other day with someone who'd just got back from Florida; London prices, he said and we chatted about the appalling wages and the associated tipping culture. It's years since I've been (had a great time) but have absolutely no desire to return at the moment, especially not for the WC. I'm hoping Infantino gets the South Park treatment: another one with a brown nose..

How about late career Claus Lundekvam, particularly in the Portsmouth game?