suewhistle

Ridiculous! Sideways, surely?

Not sure about the summer off thing. All the good players are off at international tournaments, er.. like Irish internationals Manning and Bazunu. Um..

Obviously the writer is on our side because he's taking the piss out of the idea..

As for the 'boro game, where do you start?! Haven't read much of this thread as it would probably depress me even more, but leaving aside the coach for a moment, when are the players going to take some responsibility. Our defence is static, never anticipates, is always in a line deep in our area and not near the attackers, marking is dire, unfair to pick individuals but Manning can't stop a cross, jogs back when caught out, Wood is as ponderous as an elephant without the intelligence, JS ball watches.. I haven't even mentioned the goalkeeper! Further out our movement and passing has degenerated, we never get to the second ball, decision making largely appalling and slow, shots scuffed or skyed, far too much turning back into the middle congested area when we have the ball in space on the wings, and so on, and so on... Only bright point is that Stewart is no longer two weeks away.. except to his next injury.

Interesting article I read today, in The Guardian I think, about if somebody is just a coach then the manager/football directors should be taking questions from the press and not just sacrifice the coaches on that altar. I believe this happens in Germany. At Manchester United Jason Wilcox only raised his jhead after they'd won 3 in a row, some while ago..

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..