lnb203

0-0 away at Liverpool is a great result. Madness to suggest otherwise. I'd prefer it to a 2-2 (although not in entertainment terms, obviously), as I'm more happy with our new found defensive solidity than I am concerned about lack of goals from open play. We have created enough chances, hit the post enough times, denied by enough good saves to suggest we will start putting a few away soon enough. Perhaps not scoring bucketloads, but you don't need to score bucketloads if you keep a clean sheet most games.

No luck recently with either Hola or Smart DNS. Looks like this gravy train has crashed. Gutted, it was a top service, much more comprehensive than crap like SKY and BT etc. On Saturday I will therefore be watching Soton on some jerky, highly pixelated, ad filled dodgy stream, while my pals who live in Hong Kong and USA (etc) will be watching in glorious HD. Bit of a joke that in order to gain access to all the English premiership matches one needs to emigrate from England.

Your mate would have thought 12.5m a steal had he watched VW against WBA.

I'd be very surprised if the players didn't pop in here every now and again. Human nature. You need a lot of self belief to make it as a footballer and I doubt too many of their egos are bruised by anonymous internet comments. Firstly, it is nowhere near as bad as the bile the receive in person at matches. Secondly, a lot of internet criticism will come across as laughably uninformed to them (see flip flopping opinions on players' ability, based on a game by game basis). Thirdly, they will have a lot more faith in the opinions of the manager and coaches than those of Joe Punter on tinternet.

My assessment is as such: WBA - Excellent Sunderland - Good Norwich - Poor WHU - Shocker first half, decent second Bit of a mixed bag in all, though I have seen enough to suggest he has the makings of a top class player. Obviously he has added stability and muscle defensively, and I think his technique is under rated on this forum. He turns into space well, and looks good when stepping forward on the attack (although he seems hesitant to do). My biggest criticism would be that he is occasionally slow to release which negatively affects our fluidity and tempo although I feel this is probably related to him coming to terms with the premier league, and will improve in time. His passing against Norwich and WHU was disappointing, but I think some on here are forgetting the WBA and Sunderland matches where he barely gave the ball away at all. My initial impressions of him were of a hugely class midfield player who bossed the midfield, made space for himself and retained the ball with ease. The passing criticism seems rather kneejerk to make - let's remember that a bad game doesn't make a bad player. In fact, according to 'whoscored.com', his pass completion is 83.7%. This is better all of our starting back 4, SRL, Osvaldo, Lallana, JR, Ramirez, and basically everyone else in our team except MS and JWP (who both have pass completion of circa 85%). I have a strong feeling he will go on to become a key player for us, especially as he is just 22 and will improve.