mulletsaint

I'd forgotten that Milner was playing.

Adam not even warming up. We need a goal, oh I know bring on a defender.

Looks like an under the weather Sturridge is the more likely option.

Judging by his performance I'm surprised you needed to ask the question. I was impressed by his City performance but I thought yesterday he upped his game even more. Very impressed. Think consistency will be the key this season but if he's playing well I see no reason to drop the lad.

Good results for both age groups against Villa. Not that I'm 100% on this but a Villa supporting mate keeps telling me how well they do each season at that level.

I understand that but if he's a starter one of our other better players will then be playing second fiddle. I'd rather keep the dressing room happy and stick with those who've shown they can play at this level and hopefully will only get better.

But who would start in ADP's position? Not sure he'd come here to play second fiddle would he?

Dunno about insane but pretty flawed. For me Lambert and Lallana both looked tired (lambo more so) but I thought Puncheon could have gone the distance. However tired he was though we have no one else that can hold the ball up like Lambert which when you're under the cosh is vital, so I'd have kept him on until the last possible moment. I'd have put Lee on for Lallana because he wouldn't have given them a moments peace and left Punch on. Anyway, whatever I feel about his decisions I honestly wouldn't have anyone else in charge of this club. I think in Adkins we have a real gem and while he will make mistakes he'll definitely learn from them. He should be given this season no matter what happens and into the next too. I honestly think that at some point our Nige will be managing a much bigger club and we'll do well to keep hold of him for as long as we can.

Doing my best to ignore all the crap, I'm not sure this is a good idea. Yeah I know his experience could help but how the feck are we going to fit him into the side? To my mind once we have everyone available we'd probably have to play a 4-2-3-1. It's either that or risk going back to square pegs in round holes to accommodate all our best players or leave some of them out. Davis Clyne - Yoshida - Hooiveld - Fox Schneiderlin - JWP/Davis Puncheon - Ramirez - Lallana Lambert This still means JWP could miss out, so could Cork, Lee, JRod and Mayuka. It's good to have the strength in depth but how much depth do we need in those positions? Personally of the frees that I'm aware of the only one I'd take would be Gordon.

Spot on. Unfortunately this is a problem right through English football. At grass roots kids are pilloried for trying to play out from the back because it leads to mistakes. Then you have the England manager coming out this week and dissing those who point out our problems retaining possession. I think this is rather blinkered. We played some great passing football last year in the Championship and many of those players are still central to our plans. Yes we'll lose players but I dare say we'll bring in others who fit the style. There are plenty of proper footballers at that level too. Kinda naive I think. If we go down I think we'll struggle to keep hold of Lallana, lambert, Morgan, Puncheon, JWP, Lee, Mayuka and Yoshida to name but a few. JWP, Lallana and Lambert may stay if they're happy and the former has time on his side so may not be in a rush to move on but it'll be tricky keeping them. If lambert continues to score at this level he'll want at least another season at the highest level before retiring. Lallana will have given us enough and is too good for the championship. Puncheon won't want to drop back down and the others are all internationals or have international ambitions that won't be served by dropping back down.

Well said. A word of caution though. We will have to build a new team should we get relegated. No way most of our midfield and forwards will still be here if we do.

You mean like those goal scoring substitutions he made against City? Come on grow a set.

Exactly. Yep Adkins dropped a bollock but as I said he's learning too. We start getting on the team and manager's back this early after these opening fixtures and we'll deserve the inevitable car crash our season will become.

All the players you mention were superb and punch was probably my MOM. JWP was outstanding in my opinion and his was an improved performance over that of the City game which is saying something.

TBH it's mainly a case of people being initially gutted at a last minute turnaround against ManU and as you say you didnt see the match. On the whole we were superb and for much of the second half we were bossing things. Two bad passes by Davis, a slip by Clyne and a really bad decision by Jos for the pen. Yes mistakes were made and none more so than Adkins' subs but we need to remember that virtually all of our squad and management have never played at this level. The main thing is to learn from these mistakes and I know Adkins at least will do so. If we're still making these mistakes at Christmas we'll need to worry. To run the two top teams in the country this close is not to be understated and for me this performance was even better than the City one and I hope this is a good sign moving forward. We aren't going to face that level of quality every week but we need to maintain our overall high level of performance.

The others are used to each other. One of them's only just been signed and the other's playing in a slightly unorthodox position.

Yeah there were a few individual mistakes but none of the players are to blame. Adkins really did lose us the game. Still I'd rather he tries to effect games than sit on his arse. Unfortunately lambert was our out ball when under pressure and no one else could hold it up. Punch was superb and wasn't tiring at all I think this was the biggest mistake. Proud of the lads tho. Thought fox was OK after a rather shonky first half. Hard to pick out a MOM for us tho. The mid and forwards were immense. BTW those having a pop at Fonte do realise that it was Jos that gave the pen away?

Didn't deserve that. Tbh tho bad substitutions by Adkins.

Great performance so far. Pity about the slip or we might still be 1-0 up.

4-3-3 according to Sky. Good to see Lee on the bench as well

Good to see Lee on the Bench

Just come up on the ticker during the Liverpool v arse game

Davis Clyne Fonte Hooiveld Fox JWP Schniederlin Davis Puncheon Lambert Lallana

Davis Clyne Fonte Hooiveld Fox JWP Schniederlin Davis Puncheon Lambert Lallana

Oops, Thompson of course.