romavillan

changing to suit the squad doesn't mean picking a system that suits one player and compromising the other 10 though does it?

clark and baker in the middle seeing as there's no vlaar, neither are fullbacks and with bennett and stevens out the only option left is lichaj really. we are ever so slight favourites, draw and away win are both the same really. not much to choose from between all 3 results odds wise so the bookies are on the fence. 3 points would be fantastic but any point is a good point for us at the moment. they have a very mean defence and we don't score many. early goal for us would be good to open the game up a bit, without that it coudl well be a 0 - 0.

KEA has shown his potential but not played to it consistently, same with Bennett. I think Bennett will turn into a very very good player for us to be honest.

indeed, and the idea he should be out if we're still in the shit before the jan window as mentioned on this very page is complete and total insanity. very much straw man i'd say. tends to be a snap response when people get pulled up for slating him constantly in every thread possible.

why the wenger talk? wenger in 1996, then yes all day every day would want him here. wenger is the wrong side of 60 now, wouldn't come in a million years either and his best days are well behind him imo. PL on the other hand is young (for a manager) has a lot of ambition and wants to create something special, to grow a proper team and win things with it. that's his project here and let's all hope he is successfull too! let's have someone here who will leave their own legacy, who's to say PL won't be our wenger?

yup i don't think we can hope for 4 points realistically. we're favourites and we're at home, i reckon we shouldn't be worried about trying to match them physically or get into a fight with them and compromise our side's shape to accomodate more big players in the line up. we should be set up to keep the ball as much as possible as stoke will be fairly generous in pumping it up the pitch to give it us back. the longer we hold on to it when they do give it away will take the heat off us in terms of physical battles and get them chasing shadows. imo if we try to play them at their game we'll lose.

ah tony daley, used to buy his bensons from the shop up the road from me when i was a kid.... he did turn out to be decent in the end, after a few years of just screaming down the line with his head down ignoring everyone else. hard to compare what BFR, little and gregory had to do to build a competitive team with what PL has undertaken though. the squad already is hugely different, it's been a massive change not only in personnel but work ethic, personality of the team and tactics. at least new arrivals in jan and summer will be picked to integrate in the new way of doing things and not have to settle in to a team that is trying to get to grips with absolutely everything from training to matchday tactics being different. as we progress the changes will be less traumatic for the squad as a whole.

very thin line, couple of lucky richochets for chicarito that had he had less luck and the ball had **** off a long way after a bad first touch and we could have had at least a point, possible 3 of man u, bags of confidence and be up the table. possibel less nervy displays at reading and qpr too... tons of what ifs, and i'm sure qpr are saying what if when they hit the woodwork it had gone in...

7 would be amazing, 6 would be great and 5 points will do i would think. less than that and we'll be going a bit backwards after gaining some momentum of late. as for optimism, i think we can only get better from here on in, there'll be a few out and a few in to the club during the jan window. bringing the squad more towards what PL is after. the u21s doing well it seems too, a few of them must be edging nearer the squad and at last we have a manager who can bring them on. by the end of the month i reckon we'll be 14th with a bit more of a gap between us and the bottom clubs and less of a gap to mid table. let's face it, it's been shit for a while but i'm optimistic we are turning it around. i spose this should be for the jan optimism gauge but i really am optimistic about what henke will turn up for us in january!

it's also not impossible to break into the top 4, just incredibly difficult. chievo verona did it back when serie a had all the money. in fact they were more handicapped becuase the tv money back then in serie a was negotiated on a club by club basis, meaning juve, milan and inter got the most by far and littel chievo got shafted, even when finishing in the CL places. personally i think the only way we can progress is the project we have started now, just lashing cash at it is not within our means and is the reason why we have had to tear it all down and start again. the tearing down bit isn't finished either to be fair. dunne, warnock, hutton, given, ireland and bent will all go i think. if not in jan then in the summer. we have a 42,000 capacity stadium that isn't full every home game liek some other clubs in the division. firstly we need to get this young and hungry team to win a lot more than it loses at home sweating blood and entertaining. if we can get to that stage we won't be in danger of the drop anymore and will start to see more full houses and more revenue from both tv money in league position and increased attendences etc. if PL is the man for the miracle and he does construct a young side that can compete with the top 6 in a couple of years then we coudl be in for quite a ride. in our favour is that the tv money is shared fairly, if we did manage top 6 again a few times with a wage bill less than half of what we had the last time we did it and the increase in the revenue, we would be in a very very good position to kick on from thereas it would be sustainable growth.

5 points from our last 3 was something i thought was a decent return, i don't see why we can't get 6 points from our next 5 games. that would leave us on 20 points from 20 games and looking a whole better than a couple of weeks ago. tottenham on current form is a very tough ask but stoke, wigan, chelsea and liverpool are all games we can get something out of so why not a win and a few draws? or a couple of wins? i think we're due to give someone a pasting and we're also capable of turning up a surprise result or two if we play at our best.

and it's very early days for PL!!

we decided after an onslaught in the second half to shore up and take a point home. nothing wrong with that in my book, you can say "worst team in the league" all you like but it doesn't change the fact that they turned in a good performance against us and have some good individual talent which combined to make a defeat just as likely as a win had we gone balls out for one. we were good in patches, and even in the second half where we were less effective going forward we had a couple of spells where we completely took the wind out of their sails by keeping the ball for ages. it's not exactly a massive disaster is it? a point away from home? doesn't smack of desperation or fear to me after watching it. the game was full of mistakes from both sides and in the circumstances the point was a good return. i don't think anyone is saying that we were amazing and it was a huge performance, neither against reading. we played a lot better in losing to man u and drawing with arsenal than we did winning against reading and drawing with qpr. the positive people are seeing an improvement since swindon and takign the positives from that run.

last year after getting 19 from 15, we went on to get a further 19 from 23 games. consistently looking shitter and shitter. i would expect our return from the next 23 games to be more than 30 points, we will improve throughout the season and there will be some more new faces in jan. this is a long term thing and whilst i agree some new faces will be welcome in january i'd hope they are a continuation of the type of player already signed. benteke, vlaar and westwood are the standout signings but lowton, bennett and KEA i think will eventually be up there with them 3 too. that's 6 players without counting players coming through that have been promoted to the first team. that's a massive change in personnel and there has been a massive change in tactics too. i think that goes some way to explaining the start we've had.

yep, draw against stoke and we're unbeaten in 4 games, but then we have a couple of tricky games. we are ever so slight favourites and getting 3 points at home more than not would see us comfortably mid table by the end of the season. very hard game though stoke, big physical test for our lads and i'd like to see us bossing possession and getting them knackered chasing shadows so we can create chances. 3 points from the game against stoke would be a sign of good progress.

yup, second striker in a 4-4-1-1 would be ideal for ireland, but we aren't playing that way, or at the top of a diamond with bent and benteke up front woudl be really attacking but we don't play like that either. centrally in a 4-2-3-1 (which we DO play) as part of the 3 he should be pushed up and run beyond the striker as often as possible. that's something we could do, but would leave us light in the middle if the other players in the 3 are gabby and weimann. personally i'd prefer to see him playing, same with bent, but if the other players we have fit better together in a shape that doesn't suit them we can't play a team that suits two talented players and compromises the other 9. makes more sense to play 11 in a way that suits them all. freeing up £140k a week in wages is £7m+ a year. we need more numbers in the squad, i'd trust lambert/henke to find 4 or 5 players to bolster and improve the squad with those resources. so if they aren't going to play, they should go, sellers market in jan too. seems to all add up at the mo...

really scrappy game, shit conditions, loads of players slipping and giving the ball away. had benteke not been just offside i think we'd have gone on to win and been a lot more comfortable. last two performances haven't been at the levels of the man u or arsenal games that's for sure. i don't think you can say we were overly negative though. with 20 mins to go we looked to protect a point and did it successfully. where's the harm in that? we were 3/1 to win and the draw was 2/1, QPR were favourites to win at even money. we've upset the bookies for the second time in 3 games. we'll get better, have a bit of faith. there were a couple of spells of good possession that really got us out of a hole in the second half and that's the sort of stuff we need to build on. as it stands we're 2 points clear of the drop zone and we've just got 5 points from the last 3 games. the players know and we know that the team can play a lot better than today. hopefully we'll be less nervous against stoke and get 3 points for 8 points in 4 games. UTV.

lambert on zidane style hopefully it'll be up to wee barry and westwood to create for us.

might be positive having herd in you know, could be a 4-1-4-1... -------------------guzan------------------- lowton-----clark------baker------lichaj --------------------herd-------------------- holman--westwood--bannan--gabby ------------------benteke----------------- that might be pretty usefull to be honest

i'd put more money on bent bucking his ideas up in training than lambert buckling under pressure, every time he fielded the question he didn't look too bothered and confident he'd done the right thing.

he's on the bench today

back to back wins would be amazing, if PL can manage to get them playing less nercously than against reading we are more than capable of doing it. i am personally shitting bricks though so would understand if one or two of them were too

http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php vlaar late fitness test and no bennett by the look of it. a little look at qpr's board sees them feeling quite confident about turning us over. depends if we suffer from an attack of the same nerves as in the reading game or not for me. if we play to our potential we should get something out of this game. if we shit it like with reading we will be lucky not to lose.

back to normal for this one then after the reading match thread, lawro says we'll lose as do the bookies. an away point would be a good one and a win could see us get up to 14th in the table. i'll settle for a point though, there'll be a good atmosphere for them with dodgy old 'arry taking the reigns for te first time at home.

nah parker no, we should have got him instead of sidwell but not now. he could have been having a look at liverpool rather than scouting anyone. otherwise who was he looking at? spurs have some good young talent but they aren't going to be letting them go and they'd all want big wages. same with liverpool's youngsters. i just can't see him looking for a short term old head, even though it wouldn't be too bad to get a couple imo as much as i love the academy graduates and young players we have it might make the transition a bit smoother and give the younger players someone to learn from...