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We are now midtable fodder/dross. Torres will be gone within a year and then we'll get someone like Carlton Cole in to replace him. We'll also probably sell Gerrard and replace him with Danny Murphy, then we'll have a real whizz bang team - relegation potential for sure.

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This is absolutely true, but no matter how much dough you have. Johnson is an 8m player tops.

 

I'd agree with that, he's an 8m player for the style we are currently playing, he's no good at defending in a back 4.

 

He'd be much better in a side which plays possession football like Barcelona, Spain, Arsenal etc.

 

I feel if we're going to play 4-4-1-1 then we should get rid and use the money to buy a proper winger and another Finnan type RB.

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Carra Skrtl with Poulsen and Lucas as an anti football spine is begging for a point or a 1-0 defeat. Play it safe by not playing at all. That lack of guile and movement is going to effect the rest of the team, Maxi doesn't have the pace, Jova seems to lack the ability to pass well so they all become isolated and ineffectual in the end, moves break down etc.

 

This is spot on.

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We didn't pay 17m for Joe Cole though did we? For a 17m full back in our current financial climate I expected much more if I am honest. He isn't exactly an all-rounder is he? He is a technically gifted footballer and comfortable with either foot but his last two predecessors were much more reliable players.

 

I'm not so sure that Johnson was bought in our current financial climate. I remember the summer he was bought and Rafa thought he would have more money to spend. The summer Johnson arrived I'm certain Rafa fully expected to be able to buy one more £20M rated player. Since then money has dried up as the owners have increasingly been revealed for what they are.

 

Don't get me wrong though - Johnson is not worth £17M, but at the time of buying him I thought we did well to add a good attacking option at right back.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing Johnson move up to right wing and Kelly having a go at right back. I think that might offer more attacking impetus to the whole right flank.

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Skrtel and Johnson totally fucking stunk the joint out. Lucas and Poulsen were an even worse central midfield partnership than Lucas and Masch last year. The worst thing is, I reckon we'll play that same midfield against the Mancs.

 

If we do, it will make our drubbing at the hands of Man City seem like a decent result. I can also see things starting to get ugly for Hodgson at that point, should he make that mistake.

 

Not sure about all the Konchesky praise, he was ok but let way to many crosses in. Reina bailed him out bigtime on one.

 

Spot on. Especially since he wasn't up against someone with pace. Hopefully he'll do better once he settles in the team. If he doesn't, we have a problem.

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Looks like I was right on the 0-0 prediction. With that formation, I don't think you could hope to expect anything more.

 

As I've said, it's not Roy's fault with the formation. He doesn't want to play it, but we had 9 "Rafa" starters today, all conditioned to play 4-5-1, even more so away from home.

 

At least Cole is back next week. Unfortunately, it's for the hardest game of the season, and to put it mildly, I'm not hopeful of getting any result at all out of there.

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I'm watching it now as I've been out all day with family. Looks like spot on tactics from Eck. Playing to our weaknesses perfectly while working hard and closing down all space through the middle knowing that we won't play it wide. If we had a winger we could well have won it. Maxi playing deep without constant movement and a quick tempo leaves him mired while Jovo was never played in early. Two new boys looked good but why wasn't Patches given some time?

 

also, the defence has been fucking shite.

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I'm glad that's over with. I hate that place. I wouldn't be surprised if they take points off the likes of Arsenal and the mancs if everyone is fit for them. They're horrible to watch and they make sure the whole match is horrible to watch, but it's a logical approach from their perspective and they do it very well.

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I agree with the people who are saying that Torres was shite. At the very least we should expect him to put some fucking effort in and look arsed. As others have said, N'Gog or Babel would have been crucified for that.

 

At least we now know the answer to what would have happened if Rafa had left Torres on last year instead of throwing the lively N'gog on...:whistle:

 

Birmingham is the only team Torres has met more than once and not scored against (for you statto fans out there). Another interesting fact is we now share the PL record for most consecutive draws with an opponent (7):|

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It's funny how the media's (not just SKY's) line of questioning differs with Roy from Rafa:

 

Compare this opening gambit:

 

"Roy, not many teams win at St. Andrew's..."

 

with:

 

"Rafa, another frustrating afternoon..."

 

Geoff Shreeves was treating Uncle Roy with kid gloves n'all.

 

That's probably the only positive I can think of with having changed manager*, the fact that the media won't give us such a hard time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* and of course Stevie and Carra won't be as frustrated as we now have a quality British manager who knows what the Premiership is all about (e.g trying to salvage a point against Birmingham)

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Looks like I was right on the 0-0 prediction. With that formation, I don't think you could hope to expect anything more.

 

As I've said, it's not Roy's fault with the formation. He doesn't want to play it, but we had 9 "Rafa" starters today, all conditioned to play 4-5-1, even more so away from home.

At least Cole is back next week. Unfortunately, it's for the hardest game of the season, and to put it mildly, I'm not hopeful of getting any result at all out of there.

 

Sorry, but that is bullshit. With the squad he had at his disposal today, he had a lot of options for a dynamic 4-4-2 formation.

One example:

 

----------Torres--N`Gog (Babel)------

 

Jovanovic (Babel--------------Maxi(Babel, Pacheco)

-----------Gerrard-----Meireles (Poulsen)--------

 

Besides; I don`t think the formation was the problem. It was Hodgson`s choice of players. We could have had a good 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 formation too.

 

------------------Torres------------------

 

Jovanovic--------Maxi.................Babel

----------Gerrard-------Meireles (Poulsen)---

 

The problem: Hodgson seem to be shit scared to take any kind of risk at all. If we were rock solid in defense I could in some way understand it, but even the defence were all over the place despite having two CM to help them.

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I'm watching it now as I've been out all day with family. Looks like spot on tactics from Eck. Playing to our weaknesses perfectly while working hard and closing down all space through the middle knowing that we won't play it wide. If we had a winger we could well have won it. Maxi playing deep without constant movement and a quick tempo leaves him mired while Jovo was never played in early. Two new boys looked good but why wasn't Patches given some time?

 

also, the defence has been fucking shite.

 

For me it's brought on by the naive wider formation exposing us. We look like nervy schoolboys throwing ourselves frantically, we don't look solid and United may have a field day.

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Should play this formation, we won't but it'd be worth a bash.

 

Reina

 

Johnson Carragher Agger Konchesky

 

Poulsen

 

Gerrard Meireles

 

Cole

 

Torres Babel

 

 

 

Totally agree. That line-up would scare most defences, but would Hodgson take the chance? Of course not.

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He paid £17m for him because he thought he had more money, I'm sure if he knew he wasn't going to get funds for every player he wanted he would've spent less on a Right Back.

 

Are you suggesting it would have been alright to pay £17M for Johnson if we had more money availible?

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Do you think Hodgson will be gone by the end of the season ? Im not talking about results, im talking about performance.

 

Yes, he'll be gone. But this assumes the club will be sold first. If not Purslow and co will keep him on for all the same reasons they hired him in the first place.

 

A more interesting question is who the next manager will be. If Rafa wants the job he will be a serious contender. But he won't want it if Purslow is still here.

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I thought Skrtel was our best defender today.

Has been all season.

 

I dont think its possible to disagree more with a post than what I do with this one.

 

Skrtel was awful once again, he seems to have a habit of actually never cover his zone in the box, he is ballwatching and he is a complete liability and only a superb Reina saved his arse a couple of times today.

 

The sooner he is out of the team the better it is, his distribution is fuckin awful as well.

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