Itchen_block4

Seriously DP, how hard can it be to cockblock yourself?

Saw the therapy thread and thought there might genuinely be a gap in the market for a TMS problem page for those nagging little issues that don't merit their own thread, but deserve to be shared. Bird troubles with rule 1s and graphic details very much welcome. No facaecous "and how does that make you feel"'s here, just a place to share our experiences, share our advice and hopefully make the world easier for all of us. Here's a slice to get us started. Bit of a boring one, apologies: Got a girl's number at the students union last week. Tried texting her, but b!tches being b!tches, no reply so left hanging none the wiser. Eventually thought "**** it" and called her to put her on the spot. B!tch not interested, fair enough, they aren't all interested and this week I can go fishing for more poontang with a clean conscience. Only met her once and being turned down wasn't hard to take, but what ****ed me off was b!tch not getting back to me and leaving me hanging. I swear they do this deliberately. Next time I won't waste time in calling her, so I know where we stand. Can't give her the satisfaction. Nothing too deep please. If I have to look into the deepest,darkest crevices of your souls, I'll have to start charging! Enjoy By the way, anyone making **** up about threesomes after 30 pints will be shot.

I actually did get an A* in A-level psychology. Not that it gives me credentials to therapise you bunch of basket cases, but feel free to fire away if you're sufficiently convinced.

I still maintain my point though. Morgan, Davis and JWP wouldn't have given Scholes the tme of day had they been running on fresh legs. Our players are fit, but someone who has been busting a gut for 70 minutes isn't going to match up with someone who is fresh on. The ony way round it is to plan for it. In my book, that means making some sacrifices to the starting 11 so we can finish the game strongly.

I'd guess because Steven Davis hasn't really inspired of late. The kid is good enough to play and has shown he can handle the pressure.

Would that lot on your bench turn arounda 2-0 defecit or win us a level match at one of the toughest grounds in the league? Of course they wouldn't. This is a 90 minute game and we'd only see the best of that front 4 for about 65. If they brought Scholes, Giggs and Nani off the bench, they'd just cut us up late on like they did last time and the time before that.The long game is worth getting used to, because it's capable of winning these games that we really have no right to win.

Van Persie is a fantastic player. He'd molest any of our centre halves if we give him the opportunity. Their midfield is their weak point and if we win that, we give ourself a chance.

Not much to lose here. -------------------Boruc Clyne-----Yoshida-----Hooiveld-----Shaw ---------------Cork-----JWP ------------------Morgan Puncheon----------------------------Guly -----------------Rodriguez Play the long game here like we did against Chelsea. Go all out from the start and Fergie will just throw on the old guard to win the match late on, like they did at St Mary's. Play them at their own game by throwing on Lambert and Gaston later on when they can't deal with them. We haven't got much to lose anyway and if we can see out the first half, it gives us a real opportunity to actually win. Raised a few eyebrows against Chelsea, but it did the trick.

Go to form and fitness, whoever that brings up. None of them are entitled to a place.

Lambert's monetary value isn't huge anyway, so I doubt we'd be that worried about the money. Going back to Le Tiss, he kept us up year on year, but he also held us back by becoming too big and marginalising everyone else. The teams immediately after Le Tiss retired were some of the best for years and it was poor management/lack of investment that let that go. We have other players who are all capable. I sometimes get the feeling that our team is Lambert plus 10 others and I don't think that is healthy for the equilibrium of the team. After a bit of time getting used to life without Lambert, I do think we could really catch fire with a team of players roughly equal in the influence stakes. You're right in sayig that we should let Lambert go at the end of the season. It's one of those tough decisions between sentiment and progress that football is full of. It takes balls to make those decisions, but good managers make them. SAF has made loads of them in his time at Man U and got most of them right. I'm guessing that now, he just wants to win the league, so he can retire on a high and leave the poor sod in charge next with the thankless task of purging all the old farts.

Cortese knows **** all about football and isn't the one making those kinds of decisions. Cortese brought in Reed and made him a director, effectively on the same level as him, to be his football brain, as chairmen don't have a great reputation for doing things properly when they try to get involved in structuring a football club. As for Lambert, Pochettino knnws a bit about tactics and will move things around to get him in while he's still here. All this talk of Lambert going elsewhere, I think may have had more to do with Adkins than some people might like to think. Lambert isn't that quick, but that's not really an issue since the average centre half is hardly Usain Bolt. He's just a real team player, which is great in a 442, but a lone striker needs to be selfish to leave the play behind and look for gaps. It's frustrating when Lambert comes short and there's no one ahead of him. Adkins clearly recognised this, but as some smart arse will point out, he's too influential to leave out and Adkins recognised that too. It wasn't Le Tiss retiring that sent us down in 2005. In some ways it made us a better team, it'a no coincidence that Strachan's 02/03 team was one of our best.

Despite being 2 goals down against Chelsea, we played pretty well in the first half. We worked extremey hard, passed well and Steven Davis wasted a great chance. Both goals came from us not clearing the ball properly. We could count ourselves unlucky to be 2-0 down, because we really did play like a team. We couldn't afford or attract the sort of player who does what Lambert does and frequently gets in behind players, so decisions have to be made somewhere along the line. For less than really silly money, you need to compromise. Unless of course one of our kids turns out to be an absolute beast, which we've got no guarantee of.

Typo, meant to say 3 at the back. The idea is to commit two defenders into the middle in possession so we can have bodies in the middle and weight up front. ****ing difficult to do though and you get shafted down the flanks if you get it wrong, hence why not many teams do it. Lambert is a good player, but hasn't fitted our style since we decided that a 4231 was a good idea for not getting mashed up in the middle of the park. Because he's a good player, Adkins has been frantically been moving players around just to fit him in. It's easy to forget that some of these systems didn't work that well or employed certain players in unfamiliar or unsuitable roles. I'll make it absolutely clear that I don't blame Adkins for this, it was his job after all. It doesn't take a genius to realise that he doesn't really fit. It's a shame as he's a talented, popular and influential player. ~We may have tried to move him on in the summer, but it didn't happen and freezing out a player like Lambert is too much to ask of the manager given his undoubted talent.

Apparenty he's a believer in 4 at the back. There isn't time before the Everton game to put that in and doing it this season woud be a huge risk. His football philoosophy is broadly similar to Adkns', ie playing out from the back, high tempo passing game, but prepared to be pragmatic, so I wouldn't be surprised to see minimal changes in the short term. Nigel Adkins was doing a good job and we don't want major changes to tactics and formations at this stage. I wasn't particuarly optimistic about this game anyway, so not the ideal game to judge Pochettino.Eveton are a strong side who are where the are for a reason and let's not kid ourselves that a draw would be less than a good result.

Why though? Solves the Guly/Ramirez issue and the 442/4231 issue and gives us a powerhouse to bring on to change the game. Not the worst plan by a long chalk.