mrfahaji

I don't think Defoe did. He made his debut in 2000 for West Ham, and doesn't look like he featured in our home game against them. He may not have played, but we have a possible contender from our current squad - Stuart Taylor! Alex Manninger, John Terry, Paul Robinson (GK), Shay Given, Wes Brown, Joe Cole are other ones. Not sure if any of them will still be playing next season though! Edit: Just seen the post before has also come with a few of these.

Aren't attendance figures the number of tickets sold rather than numbers through the turnstiles? I don't know if it's always been this way, but explains why Arsenal 'sell out' every game with a 60k attendance figure even though there are clearly lots of empty seats.

Presumably the infringement is given for 'first contact' though? So even if he caught the ball outside and carried it into the box, it would be a free kick rather than a penalty?

Yeah he wasn't given offside, but probably should have been (though it was tight).

Really? So if someone hits one straight into the keeper's arms from 35 yards that's an attempt, but if someone hits the post from 6 yards it's not? Agree with the general sentiment though, even Rodriguez's chance seem to fall to him by accident, and he was offside.

Agree with all this. The bit in bold is a particularly pertinent question, and one factor in why I'm no longer sold on Puel being the right man. While we played better than in other recent games, the actual style and strategy seems largely unchanged. We are not creating many good chances, and although maybe Bertrand would have made a difference, or if Austin had been on etc, ultimately we have played with a number of different combinations of forward players lately and nothing has made a siginficant difference, it's always the same problem.

There's more than meets the eye to the Austin situation. He definitely has more than a few minutes in him. Someone posted a while ago about him being a bad influence (LeG?) and it being related to his injury. It's true but not in the way the original post suggested.

Unfortunately this is key. In the modern game, particularly under the system we play, most full backs look pretty good. Pied looks defensively decent and has the energy to get up and back. But so does Cedric, Bertrand, Targett, McQueen, even Martina! What matters is whether they have that extra yard of pace, or extra ability to anticipate the game so that they can get in behind, and/or whether they can deliver a quality ball into the box. Otherwise they are just a run of the mill full back who runs up and down. Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing Pied off, he has had a couple of encouraging performances and may need a bit more time to establish himself, but what I have set out above is really what you need for a top level full back for our system.

I don't really mind your posts, not sure whether to take them with a pinch of salt. But isn't this an incredibly needy post?!

I only saw the second half, apparently first half was pretty poor but I didn't think second was too bad. Still a bit frustrating though. Easy in hindsight to be critical of Gabbiadini taking penalties, but I thought he had an excellent record from the spot and don't think any would question he is usually a good finisher! Was impressed with Stephens today, though the fact United didn't really seem to be bothered meant his weaknesses (heading & positioning) weren't exposed. Targett on the other hand, was pretty dreadful. It may well have been different if we'd had Bertrand or even McQueen on the left. Obviously it's good he's fit again and is probably harsh to write him off after one game back though. Was expecting Tadic to have his usual terrible game, especially when I read some of the comments on the match thread, but he kept the ball pretty well and was looking for opportunities. Boufal looks like he is learning - he was looking for a pass a fair bit but most of the time there was so little running he may as well have carried on! Redmond was good until about 70 mins, after which he was shocking. Put it down to tiredness. I'm usually sceptical of JWP but thought he played well. He should be kept on 'crossing' free kicks but let someone else have shooting ones. Rodriguez continues to be dreadful. Around 77 mins was a classic case. Tadic picks up the ball in Saints' half, beats a man, looks up... no run, so keeps going. Beats another man, looks up, no run, keeps going. Eventually Rodriguez makes a run, and then stops just as Tadic is looking to make the pass, and Tadic keeps going. Shortly after, with the ball on the right with Pied (I think), Rodriguez calls for it on the edge of the area in a couple of yards of space. Pied makes the pass straight to his feet, but Rodriguez stands there on his heels waiting for it, and the United defenders nips in and clears it away. ARGH! Overall it might have been a decent performance, but there's only so many times you can use ineffectiveness in the final third to deflect responsibility from the manager rather than direct it at him. For a while our lack of striker meant that it was easy to excuse, but not now. And if the reason is "if only we had Gabbiadini on in the second half", then surely the question is "so why did Puel take him off?"

I have been in the Puel in camp for most of the season. For a while I was only just in, then I had a fair amount of conviction, and now I'm out. I'm happy with a top 10 finish, I'm not bothered that we're not in Europe next year, I'm grateful for an amazing day at Wembley, and I didn't care one jot that we sacrified the FA Cup as it made perfect sense at the time. It is true that with the exception of the top 7, every club in the division seems to be worse this year, and it's a much of muchness from us down to the dropzone. That's not great, but there have been plenty of mitigating circumstances, not least our fixture congestion. Our play in Feb/Mar really made me think we were starting to click and great times were ahead. Even the 'ridiculous' notion that we would trouble the teams at the top next year didn't seem that far fetched to me. But we seem to have stalled since Gabbiadini got injured and have never quite recovered. Every game is a cautious affair with players that look like they're afraid to play it forwards when they can play it sideways, but there are still glimpses of a decent footballing side there - the second half tonight vs United should have seen a lot more energy and decisiveness in the final third, plus United didn't even want to be out there, but there were some good performances and some nice passages of play. All these conflicting pieces would have me on the fence, but I'm out because of his squad management. I fully understand the rotation idea, but cannot for the life of me understand the exact decisions around team selection. There have been hints that some of our better/senior players aren't best happy and I have learnt of rather an alarming fact which either raises question marks over the management team or an individual player. For all the "lots of players have improved" argument, I do wonder why we haven't seen more of McQueen and Sims, or given Clasie (who I've never been massively impressed by, but recently he's done well when given a rare chance) and Hojbjerg chance to prove themselves.

You can't see Forster's face on this photo, but considering the Ibrahimovic & Kompany title pictures, I bet I know what expression he's wearing.

In short, yes. Though there's something about Stoke's kit (for recent years at least) that I'm not a fan of. Can't quite put my finger on it - maybe the shade of red, maybe the white shorts, or the red undefined sponsor. Or perhaps it's the lack of black on the shirt. I really feel including a black trim adds an extra dimension to the design, and obviously black shorts help too.

Oh god, I was joking. Maybe you were just carrying on the joke...!

Doubt I'll be able to watch this one, going to a talk by Michael Cox on the history of Premier League tactics - I always forget about midweek games when booking things!

Not this again... While we're at it, has anyone worked out whether 8th can qualify for Europa?

We might be able to sneak 8th by earning just 1 more point, but don't tell Claude... Imagine the scenes on here if we did that, especially if the draw was a 0-0!

Funny that you didn't manage to spell any of the names right until you got to... Saganowski!

Lucky lucky Redknapp.

I agree people who are actually at the game often notice things you can't see on television, but I cannot accept such deference this time, as I wasn't. I would say this though, it was an excellent stream.

I'll admit that there may be a little confirmation bias going on, though I do try to be objective! I found him to be generally ponderous in his movement and his passing/decision making throughout the game. The number of times we had the ball on the right, obviously trying to line up a cross, and he was completely still in the box. Only once the cross came in did he move towards it, generally half a yard behind the defender. I don't remember him ever getting in behind the defence - even though it's not his forte, he used to be capable of it. Another time that sticks out for me was when Romeu had advanced to a position about 40 yards from goal, looking for options. Rodriguez runs short and demands it (not bad), but then immediately, I think one touch, hits it back at Romeu with unnecessary pace on the ball. Romeu is then in exactly the same position as before, only with more pressure and with a difficult ball to control. He lost it, and Boro went on a break. I know that a single incident could be picked out for any player, but my frustration with Rodriguez is that so often the move breaks down when it reaches him, to the point it now seems inevitable, rather than being excited to what can happen when he gets it. As much as he took his goal well, he also missed a half-decent chance from the edge of the box. Since the start of the season he has been lacking in sharpness. There was hope for a long time that it was due to lack of fitness or even confidence, but it now looks (to me at least) that the sharpness has gone, and it's probably the most important ingredient for a successful striker to have in the Premier League.

It was an easy draw, but Watford weren't League 1, they were Championship.

I'd be tempted to pick the same team as the cup final and remind the players that we owe them one!

Unfortunately the penalty miss has given rise to the familiar "if only" promises that have been quite common this season, including from me. We have been underwhelming at times but there has also been a sense that we're not far away from being good. If Long makes it 0-3, it would have been interesting to see how we played with more confidence. Instead Middlesbrough got a goal back and we were left being at least grateful for a win, but wondering what might have been. Again. The team selection seemed slightly odd, but with hindsight it proved to be the right call. I would, however, question why if these players are all good enough to be on the pitch together, why we haven't seen a bit more from the likes of Clasie and Hojbjerg before now. It would be good to see how they would fit or contribute in our strongest side. At times our 'reserves' looked a little rusty, but overall I think we can be pleased with how they fared. My main concern with Clasie is the second ball - he often loses out, whether due to lack of speed or strength, when the ball comes loose following a tackle/header. Hojbjerg is almost the opposite, he puts himself about but lacks a bit of finesse and composure when it comes to his final ball/decision. A classic example would be his inexplicable backheel to Boufal which followed a determined run that could have set up an attack, but instead of playing a simple ball inside, he flicks it out of play... Thought Caceres was decent, but was hardly the best game to really test him. He was accomplished and calm but was occasionally a little bit too calm and got himself in trouble. Pied also looked good, but again in this game it wasn't difficult to have a decent game at right back as there was a lot of space for him to get forward. He showed ok delivery at times but not enough (yet) to make me think we're definitely covered for RB should Cedric leave. Long, despite the penalty miss and his shocking first touch, had a pretty good game doing what he does best. Rodriguez, despite his nice goal, was pretty woeful throughout and it's remarkable how people can see the match stats and conclude he's still got it. I'm hoping that teams interested in buying him focus on these same stats rather than actually watching him play. Boufal was probably our most disappointing player as this should have been a game that suited him yet nothing he did really came off. I actually thought it was a game that would have suited Tadic, but Redmond's introduction also changed the game in our favour. Even though there were positives from an individual viewpoint, it is worth noting that Middlesbrough were dreadful, and not because we made them look so. They looked like a team with no strategy, no style, and few good players. Just a team of triers, but without the cohesion and direction that other 'tough' teams have about them. The fact that we laboured to a win over them should not be evidence that we are heading in the right direction (by the same token, I argued vehemently that other performances, eg home loss v West Ham, did not mean we were heading in the wrong direction), and apart from the period between our 2nd goal and the penalty, it was nothing more than an 'average' display, with plenty of the same frustrations that have been present in the last few weeks. We had enough about us to warrant winning the game, but how I would have liked to see us finish with a fluorish rather than hanging on. I'd like to see us play well for more than 5 minutes at a time, to feel like those glimpses of promise aren't going to stay agonisingly out of reach forever!

Surely that's tautology, English managers are necessarily passionate.