tajjuk

We might get lucky and Suarez will pick up his fifth yellow and get banned. To be honest he;s done a couple of tackles in the last two games that could have been reds. Without Suarez I think we would have a good chance of getting something out of the Liverpool game.

Just bought the away one and they didn't have anything with short sleeves smaller than XXL so maybe they are skewing the figures with the white away one which seems to be very popular.

Just on those results they beat Utd at Old Trafford which is a way better result than losing at home to them. They were also a lot better than us against Arsenal, we were woeful, whereas spurs were unlucky, if Adebayor hadn't have been an idiot the result would have been different. They were giving Arsenal a good game with 10 men and should have got back to 4-3 if Bale had squared it to defoe. They have a way better team than us, but they aren't great defensively. However with Bale and Lennon storming own the wings they will trouble anyone. Our fixture list is what gives us hope, apart from losing to Wigan at home, we have doen ok. Everyone was down on our team about losing away to West Brom yet Chelsea just got done over there and West Brom are 4th. - We have played 12 games. - 9 of these games have been against the current top 10. - 7 of our losses have been against the current top 8. - 5 of the games against the top 8 have been away. - If you take away the points earned by the top 10 against us they would still be the top 10. - Our current record against the top 8 is played 7, lost 7, for 8, against 23. - Against teams below 8th it's played 5, won 2, drawn 2, lost 1, for 10, against 7.

Pretty much this. Great performance Saturday, great performance against Man Utd, not much at all in the other 8 games. If we some more consistency out of him then he'll prove the doubters (including myself) wrong but at the moment the jury is still out.

Whoscored.com rated him as our best player on Saturday - http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/615031/Live, despite only having a 67% pass success rate. 5 key passes, 3 shots, 3 on target, 1 goal, even 1 succesful dribble. 5 aerial duels won. The point above is apt, he doesn't always bust a gut to get into the box for whatever reason, and if he isn't going to do that he needs to stop difting out wide. Several time son saturday he linked play well, got the ball to another player in the final third but pretty much stayed where he was, when really we need him in the box because any half chances and he'll probably score. Not being that mobile he needs to stay centrally and be in the box as much as possible.

Sorry, meant Swansea.

Boruc back in for me, he wouldn't have lost his place had it not been for the incident in the spurs game. This has now been sorted, he's either been punished or not, and after Gazza costing us points against Fulham and then looking calamity against QPR. Last thing we want after it looks like the defence is finally getting to grips with the league is a liability behind them. Boruc is our best keeper anyway.

This for me, looked better than he has done recently but there were still some odd occasions were he did nothing when he should have been more 'at it'. Lallana drilled a ball right across the 6 yard box after being played in by Ramirez and we had 3 players doing f-all rather than attacking it for a simple tap in, Lambert was one of them. At another point shaw corssed to the back post and Lambert let it go out for a goal kick for some reason. He was also out of the box on a few occasions when he should have been in it. I don't think he has been 100% in recent weeks and looks like he isn't quite match fit/sharp but I imagine the goal will boost his confidence and the set up with Ramirez playing off him seems to suit him a lot.

Like you say though it would only be one or two, maximum three and it adds competition to the squad. We could realistically be mid table by January if we keep playing like we did against QPR. No games will be easy (Norwich and Reading have both improved) but none of those teams bar maybe Liverpool are signifigantly better than us. Newcastle are 12th and a win on Sunday and we would only be 3 pts away from them.

For 6 months short term it would be a brilliant signing, he was excellent at the start of the season for Spurs still producing would class saves. I can only presume he lost his place because Lloris made a fuss and Spurs spent a lot of money on him.

Lots of positives for this game:- - We've just won and they have lost. - We're at home. - They are in poor form, one win in seven. - Two key players in Cabaye and Colocini out. - They are playing on Thursday we aren't. Same team bar Boruc coming in for Gazza. Hopefully a win, the elusive clean sheet and out of the relegation zone (with Wigan and Reading drawing and Arsenal thrashing Villa)

Anyoen know if Collocini and Cabaye will still be out for Newcastle against us next week? If they are I think we have a good chance. Norwich at home will be tough though, they have improved a lot over the last few weeks and looked very solid against Utd. We may have more chance against Newcastle than Norwich because Newcastle will attack us more and that might expose their weeker defence.

I think very harsh on Ramirez, he was an option to pass to pretty mcuh everywhere. At the start of the game he was maybe trying to do a little too much but once he got in and around Lallana/Lambert their link up play and one touch passing was excellent. Don't forget the first goal from the corner essentially resulted from Ramirez's very intelligent pass in the box, a lot of other players in that situation would have just smashed it, instead he calmy rolled it back to a free player, who's scuffed shot eventually led to the goal. Remember he's not going to be that fit, he's had what 3 games since coming back from 6 weeks out and travelled all the way to poland and back midweek (which Cork didn't). Yeh he doesn't do much defensively but if he's playing just behind Lambert in that 4-4-1-1 formation we don't need him to do much defensively, just let him roam about and do his stuff. He looks far more a team player than Tarrabt does and he's only played 6 games for us. Have to say the back four was excellent, particularly Yoshida, some crucial interceptions and some intelligent defending. Cork was quality, Puncheon was the best I have seen him and Lambert looked closer to his dominant self than he has been in recent weeks, the goal will massively lift his confidence. The negatives:- - The goal conceded was sloppy, second half switch off? no one closed the cross down, Lallana let Hoillet go free (he stopped running for some reason when he was with him) and well poor decision from Gazza. - We are over working it at times, need to have a few more shots. - Gazza, simply needs to go. He looks nervous, his handling is poor and he is making the wrong decisions. Boruc needs to come in. Whilst I agree that maybe the younger fitter, agile Gazza potentially might pull of some wonder saves moe than Boruc, that's pointless if you f*ck up the basics. the best keepers to the simple things well, make good decisions and make few errors. I think the experience of Boruc is a better option and we might actually get that elusive clean sheet. I also think some more positives come from other results over the weekend, look how Villa got hammered at City, look at Chelsea getting beaten at West Brom, maybe puts our performances in perspective a bit. Also Newcastle look very average and are missing key players, next week at home is very winnable.

The quotes in the above article from him says he had 'talks' with several clubs including Utd. Whilst 'talks' isn't him ebing offered a contract it would at least indicate he had an opportunity to sign for Man Utd but decided not to take it further as he wanted more first team football.

Yoshida is Japan's captain, was highly rated and was attracting good reviews for his Olympics performances. Hardly 'unknown foreigner' though. neither is Boruc, was rated as one of the top 5 keepers in the world a few years ago and he was Fiorentina's number one for two years. Frey was sold to Genoa because he couldn;t get his spot back as Boruc was better than him. Jay Rod is was one of the most hihgly rated propects in the Championship, he was trailed by a host of clubs. He was also an England U21 International. Steven Davis was Northern Ireland and Rangers captain and has played for several premiership clubs, you are right he is not 'great'. However there no 'great' players playing in the premier league. He is also hardly unknown. Clyne turned Man Utd in January, he was the best fullback in the championship for several years despite his young age and is an England U21 international. You can criticise our signings for not covering the right areas, but to criticise the quality and calling them 'unknowns' for a newly promoted team is just stupid. Well maybe you should take it up with Clyne seeing as you are calling him a liar. Theres your opinion and then there are the facts, I wonder which one is "utter rubbish"? I agree not youngsters, or at least not 18/19 year olds, but decent players who aren't getting that many games at the big clubs. Like my example of Javi Garcia at City, several at City that we might be able to get if they want some first team football like Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell, Matija Nastasić.

All those games are realistically winnable and that's what the team should be thinking. QPR are attrocious from what I have seen of them, they are as bad as us at the back, have little cohesion and are devoid of any attacking threat unless it comes from an individual. Keep Tarrabt quiet (maybe wind him up) and get close to Granero and we can beat them. Newcastle aren't as good as people think they are, they aren't great defensively and are quite direct in their attacking play, however with Ba, Cisse and Ben arfa they will punish any mistakes we make. If we are up for the battle, cut out the errors we can beat them. Norwich have improved recently and are a fairly solid team, but again they don't have a lot of quality or pace that can hurt us. Liverpool are in transition and whilst keep good possesion they are looking a bit suspect defensively and rely heavily on Suarez, if we can keep him out of the game we can keep Liverpool from scoring and we might nick it. Reading again are no better than us, if we play well I think we have more quality going forward to beat them. However more of the stupid errors from the defense and we will probably hand points to all these teams even if they play poorly.

Lol because it made you completely wrong? At the very least Man Utd were interested in him and he signed for us. Those are also direct quotes from him, so if the Newspaper made that up they could be sued. Don't let reality stand in the way of you being right though This. Players will sign, we'll get a better quality if we are not adrift though. At worst though we will still be able to get loans in, everyone wants to play in the premiership so I'm sure quite a few players would be grateful of the opportunity if it puts them in the shop window. In fact the ideal type of signing would be a good player who's down the pecking order at a big club. Someone like Javi Garcia for example who hasn't played much for City all season, get them in on a short term loan with an a deal to sign them if we stay up.

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/917673-arsenal-open-to-january-offers-for-midfielder-emmanuel-frimpong#ixzz2C37kaRsl

One centre back, one left back (and sell fox) and a proper defensive holding midfielder with some pace and power along the Mulumbu, Diakite lines.

Yeh, a Pompey thread has come up in the team guide and apparently they only start with £8.5 million debt , no charge on the stadium and get taken over very easily usually by a mega rich tycoon. Think the Pompey reasearcher has been very generous.

A must iwn for both teams, I think QPR are actually worst than us, we have been making stupid errors but have played well in quite a few games. They have made stupid errors and have played awfully at times. Watched them against Reading last week and they just looked generally all round bad. Loosing manager will surely get sacked?

"Very uncomfortable that we chose a loan in the first place and are spending next year's incoming funds" We only know it's secured against next years funds, doesn't mean they are being used to pay it back. "on arrival in the Premier league not living within our means." Again what are you basing this on? It particularly depends on the above and we won;t know until we get the accounts, however if get what £40 odd million of premiership TV money this year and that has all been allocated to transfers funds, and it is expected that Ticket sale, commercial, sponshorship etc. covers the other outgoings of the club including wages then we are living within our means. it;s only if expenditure outdo's what we are bringing in. We also don;t know what financial backing (if any) the family/trust is giving us. I have seen it suggested by someone on here that we get a fixed sum contributed to the club each year, maybe that accounted for the initial player transfers (jay rod, clyne etc.) in up front cash, and then some of the TV money was allocated to furhter purchases. Obviously we don't get this in one lump sum, Bologna wanted the Ramirez money up front, we don't have all of it hence the loan, which we then pay back over the year when each prem TV money installment comes in.

As usual 2+2 = 50.

This really. Good business men aren't 'nice', Saints aren't a 'family' and there should be little room for sentiment. I'm not at all bothered if he's 'not a nice human being.' as long as the club are moving in the right direction which we have, yeh we're undergoing a blip but to be fair to Cortese, the 'hate club' on here have been saying he was going to sack NA weeks ago yet he's still here. I'm sure they will flip this round somehow to to reflect badly on him. So? Loads of people don't like their bosses, I'm sure sacked employees are going to give a really balanced view of NC There's literally no evidence that NC is the evil tyrant people make him out to be. Who cares if the media don;t like him? Fergie didn't speak to the BBC for 4 years, I doubt any Man Utd supporters care.

I'm not sure having 16% possession and letting the opponents have 25 shots is a good model to follow either with out defence. - http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/274125/report Looking at those match stats makes me think maybe football manger has been realistic all these years after all!