tajjuk

Won the league two times in a row, into my 4th season now attempting a challenging 4-6-0 formation like Spain. Jay Rod was top scorer last 3 seasons, Lambert went to QPR after season 2, still have Clyne, Cork, Shaw, JWP, Jay Rod, Lallana, Gaston, Morgan from the original squad. Oh and I bought the OX back from Arsenal!

Not good enough, not really that good for championship level, considerably worse than what we already have. Also by reports, like Sharp isn't really doing that well at a decent championship club. Silly suggestion IMO.

I think it is, did anyone see early in the first half when Gaston cut in from the right and then laid the ball to the edge of the box but Lambert, Jay rod and Lallana had all run in, he (Gaston) smashed his arms down in annoyance. Remember we have quite a few new faces in the first team this year compared to last (Ramirez, Clyne, Yoshida, Mayuka, Davis, Boruc) some who came in very late, add in the young lads being involved more, and previous regular members like Hammond, Harding not being there, a few international breaks and the injuries the squad doesn't look very together to me. I also think up until maybe this week I got the feeling the squad thinks they weren't relegation fodder (maybe overconfidence from two years of constant winning?), and they are only now starting to realise they are all in a battle so some time away for the whole squad to do some self reflection will be good for them.

No chaplow, just no. No to Cork at Centre Back as well. The back four is showing signs of improvement, they need to be left as is until we can strengthen. Once cork is fit then he's our best option at holding mid at the moment, he's far better defensively than Davis and Morgan. We need a midfield 3 with cork sitting, Schneiderlin as the ball getter and Ramirez as the playmaker. Then in January we need a proper defensive midfielder with some power and presence, like WBA have in Mulumbu, West Ham have in Diame, Newcastle have in Tiote etc.. I think this should be the main priority over even a left back. (but we should get one of those as well)

It's a good idea, gets the team together more, change of scenery etc. My main worry for this game is that Swansea will just sit back and soak up the pressure and just destroy us on the counter attack so I think we need a midfield with that in mind.

We won't know until the accounts come out but I would say the most reasonable and obvious explanation for it is paying for Ramirez up front and then paying the loan back with Premiership TV money over the rest of this season. If it's something else then maybe it's worrying but there is nothing to indicate that we should be thinking the worst. Pompey fans are going to seize on every bit of negativity around our club because frankly that's all they have. They will soon be at best rock bottom of Division 3, they have no owner, no manager, no players who have any attachment to the club, a crumbling down stadium the club doesn't even own, no academy. In short no hope. I would think there are BSP South clubs with better long term prospects. Hating us is all they have got at the moment.

Seriously Lallana? purely stupid comment, no one has worked harder than him in recent games. He's consistently been our best player this season. Cue absurd suggestions in this thread about Chaplow getting a game and playing a centre back in midfield. Need to play the 4-3-3, Lambert up front, Mayuka/Lallana wide, Gaston behind. Would like to see Cork in but doubt he is fit, so it would most likely be Davis and Morgan. Same back four plus Gazza unless they finish this investigation into Boruc and get him back in.

Good to hear although I expect he will need to 3 out of the next 4 games starting this Saturday. Time for everyone to rally round and get a massive home support behind the team and the manager as they clearly need a lift.

Les Reeds position is possibly under threat if Adkins goes and if NC goes down the route of a more experienced manager as they will want more control including transfers.

Yes, note about 20 minutes in when Gastron cut inside in our own half and for some reason decided to take on two players, Davis and Schneiderlin were already 10 yards ahead of him, the whole team floods forward leaving usually one full back and the centre backs. There is a reason Morgan has won a high number of interceptions in the opposition half. We need a sitting, disciplined, defensive minded centre mid. Can Cork do it?

TBH he doesn't look fit to me, no where near as sharp or mobile as he was at the start of the season. If he's had a chest infection that's probably understandable.

It's confidence, I thought we started brightly, knocked the ball around fairly well and were the better team for first 30 mins or so without playing that well. Gaston clearly was a bit rusty and I'm not sure he looked comfortable playing wide but again could have been the sharpness. The back four looked ok, Yoshida was covering well they were winning headers and their battles. We gave the ball away a few times and West Brom counter attacked well but it looked like we were dealing with it. Then the goal happened, with a blatant (cheating) handball in the build up and then a deflection to boot. After that they lost all confidence. What was also clear is that we need a Mulumbu type player, both our central midfielders are too attacking, they both go forward at the same time leaving the defence exposed, they are also too small. Need to let Morgan (who probably had his worst game of the season last night) keep doing what he has been doing (closing people down, working hard, making interceptions high up the pitch) and get someone in next to him with a bit of strength and power who will just concentrate on defending.

It all depends on November and December. We have home games against:- Swansea Newcastle Norwich Reading Sunderland As well as away games against WBA QPR Liverpool Fulham Stoke We should be winning those home games and should be able to get 6-9 points in those away games. Less than 20 pts from next 10 and I think he will be sacked, with the new manager coming in for the new year and the window.

Can't see him being any worse than Fox, however reeves has come on left back twice now, so that might be telling.

Sort of, we need to play 3 in the middle definitely but I don't think playing in the hole is the problem, we were 4-4-2 first half and all over the place. The 4-1-2-2-1 is the way to go, (or 4-3-3 simplified) as shown by the second half performance, Jay Rod can play left if needed and do ok, but more likely Lallana will go there once Ramirez is back. Personally would like to see Cork told to sit in front of the back four and cover, give Morgan the freedom to do what he's been doing, closing down, intercepting and breaking forward. get Ramirez next to him as the creator, Mayuka and Lallana wide supporting Lambert. Jay Rod can then come on if Rickie is tired/ineffective/we need a different option. (Although I think we will get a lot more out of Lambert with Mayuka near him than Puncheon). Let Clyne continue to bomb on down the right and whoever is left back (which shouldn't be Fox, give one of the young lads a go, can't be worse) has a more disciplined role, that way even if we attack we will have both centre backs, the left back and Cork to defend.

Thought he was spot on, no real pressing first half, too easy for spurs to waltz through and the second goal was quite comical but more unfourtunate because Fonte slipped.

He needs games, so it's worth it in the long run. He's a top quality keeper but you have to remember he's played 2 games since what May, whilst everyone else in the team has had a full pre-season, friendlies and more matches. He already looked better than West Ham and neither goal was his fault, nor could he have done anything more, Bale's header was pretty much perfect and he closed Defoe down well but it scuffed through.

He's our Micah Richards, good going forward, has good defensive attributes (can tackle/mark etc.) but is let down by poor decision making and in particular poor positioning. He'll get better though and I'm positive that he gets far less protection from Puncheon than Fox gets from Lallana.

I think it was always up to 6 weeks, 6 weeks was the worst case, if he's already been back training with the first team I think that's a good sign. It's also an impact injury, a bad one yes, but not something you can make worse really, not like a muscle tear or ligament damage so once he's got full movement and no pain he should be fine to go. Hopefully he'll get a run out in an U21/Reserve game soon. I have only watched a few highlights but one in particular that stood out was where Kyle Walker broke down the right and squared to Defoe who blasted over, Lallana was running flat out to track Walker and almost blocked the cross but just got done for pace. What was alarming was the space that Walker had to run into, Fox was pretty much standing next to Yoshida. They highlighted this on MOTD2 as it happened several occasions, Lennon drifted inside and Fox just drifted with him (without actually getting near him) and left a massive gap for Walker. Lallana tracked the runs every time but in a foot race with walker and that much space to run into he's going to loose every time, there shouldn't have been the space to pass into, Fox should have said to Morgan or Davis that Lennon was drifting into their area of the pitch and held his position. If they doubled up on Fox at left back you might have a case against Lallana, but when Fox (as usual) goes walkies that's not Lallana's fault. They key to a flat back four is good shape, you don't leave massive gaps by going in field (if you are a fullback) or out wide (if you are a centre back). You only man mark your man if he's in your zone.

Stupid fans IMO, neither goal was his fault, Defoe scuffed his shot anyway and Boruc probably would have saved it if he hadn't. They should be getting behind the team not barracking our own players 40 minutes into a game. He shouldn't have thrown the bottle but by the sounds of it, the throw wasn't at the fans so there is no issue. He is still by far our best keeper.

No, just no.

i do hope that was tongue in cheek. Doesn't track back often enough, sometimes not at all, not much pace, always comes inside and has a tendancy to run into people when trying to dribble round them. A squad player at best and would like to see Mayuka given a run instead of Puncheon, as he's both footed and a lot quicker.

Spurs team that played last night: 25 Lloris 05 Vertonghen 16 Naughton Booked 28 Walker 33 Caulker 06 Huddlestone 07 Lennon 22 Sigurdsson (Dempsey - 75' ) 30 Sandro (Livermore - 84' ) 31 Townsend (Falque - 46' ) 18 Defoe 5 or 6 First teamers in there so that's good, not so good about Bale and Dembele though.

Boruc, he just needs matches to improve. He's also got a strong personality which I think will influence the defenders, he might scare them into playing better. Asking a 20 year old who has only really played lower league football to marshall a terrible defence I think is asking too much. I also think quality wise Borux is best, he was one of the best keepers in Serie A last year and he will earn us some points.

Surely NC and NA have as much to play here, Reed is the facilitator yes, but he doesn't have final say NA says "I think we need another centre back in the building". So LR goes to find centre backs as viable options. Say he first comes back with 5 players, A,B,C,D,E. NA might say that A & C aren't good enough or he doesn't rate them, we might make bids for B,D & E. The clubs of B&E might come back saying they want £X million, which then NC says we can't afford or is too high a starting value to even start negotiations with that club. We are then left with player D, who NC manages to agree a deal with the club at a decent fee but player D decides to stall or has his head turned by another club. Like I said I don't know how club's go about their business and how ours does. It would seem that when if comes to transfer purchases it involves a committee of NA, NC, LR who decide what targets to pursue, however I presume LR and his scouting team come up with the names after NA identifies areas that need strengthening, which the three of them then discuss, choose targets and then NC then takes forward actual bidding and contract bit. I'm presuming a combination of all 3 of them 'make' a transfer happen. Presumably at some points they are all also doing some things on their own, so Les Reed will be finding young players with potential, NA might have identified a few direct targets of his own, who the scouting staff then go look at, and Cortese might be picking up potentially good deals financially that previously might have seen to have been out of reach or unrealistic. I think Ramirez might be in this category, I doubt Les Reed was involved here, I have a feeling Cortese heard something about Bologna needing to sell and that Ramirez might be interested, told NA about it who would probably never have thought about potentially signing a player like Ramirez so would have gone for it.