romavillan

come on you lions! agree would have rather seen carruthers on the bench rather than hesky. then it would have been 6 home grown on then bench would like to see bannan and gardner in the middle if we're winning in the second half...

seen a lot of cisse this year for lazio, he's still quick but he wasn't all that in serie A. onuoha is a good player, would have liked him with us, taiwo is decent too. still though, 3 new faces with little time to prepare. let's hope they don't gel straight away!

still 5 of the bench are homegrown, how great is that? the team looks good enough to beat the R's lets just hope that the atmosphere isn't as poisonous at VP as it has been. we need some confidence on the ball and a good start, might have been an idea to start with bannan and gardner, maybe lichaj too at least they'd have no fear and everything to prove...

shit, carruthers didn't make the bench. shame. judging from his tweet he was looking forward to it....

bench?

played on sunday? was a doubt for that though.

yeah i can't find ireland being injured, would LOVE a debut for carruthers!

mental 15 minutes, hutton belting it off walcott was the suicidal part really, although no need for the two tackles for the 2 penalties. shame we looked good in parts. the training ground routine for the first was great, bents finish was incredible (harder than his first effort).

not sure how much AM can do about snap decisions like that. he could have brought on the youngsters after the 3rd went in to have a go with fresh legs a bit sooner. bannan showed great vision a few times when he came on. we missed a chance late on.

great game, and AM sent out a good team set up well on the counter that on another day might have done the job. can't see much to beat AM with after that game to be honest!

good effort, unlucky not to have capitalised on our chances by the sound of it, especially the offside. will have done them all some good though, great experience this nextgen stuff for them. bodes well for the future...

don't suppose anyone fancies swapping skype names, calling me with the radio up so i can hear too?

so hope we get through to the semis

It's online comms on Radio WM on iplayer.

Link WM

ah thankyou, working fine here in italy too.

just gone behind though, against the run of play they are saying. come on we can still do this.

don't suppose anyone fancies swapping skype names, calling me with the radio up so i can hear too?

so hope we get through to the semis

very much so, he has the makings of a very good player, he had a massive blow when his knee got crocked and hopefully now he can come back to some form at leeds. eiter for the end of the season with us or to get back here for a full pre-season to kick on start of next season.

by the looks of it he played 90 mins in their 3-1 win, guardian gave him a 6.5/10 for his performance. hopefully he can improve while he's there and come back raring to go...

to be fair he's young and could have just been trying to say he'd love to play week in week out up at leeds to get his head right and get back into the form he had before he knackered his knee.

surely it's understandable to be chuffed to be back home? i'm in italy now and i love going back to brum every now and again doesn't mean that once his head is sorted and he has his confidence back he can't come back and be a model professional for us.

it might sound harsh but it is a fair point. Van Persie can miss an easy one but he's got more than enough brownie points stacked up in his favour for it to not matter (in terms of whetehr his place would be questioned) and of course he scored later (van Persie).

Anyway, the original point is valid. I though Gardner had a good game and was very promising and looked confident - but the chance should have been tucked away. I disagree with it being teh difference between him being dropped or not as I think he will be kept in simply because his confidence levels will be sky high - remeber the 30 yard free-kick? to have the balls to want it and actually take it takes some doing for a kid just coming in.

but, he simply has to score those easy ones - or he'll never be anything other than the Noel Whelan standard.

mental! instead of being encouraged by the fact he has the nouse to get there from midfield to be in the position to score on his debut. he shoudl be dropped as he missed a sitter? he's not a striker ffs, he is paid to play in midfield. where he had a cracking game covering 2 positions through the 90 minutes. he looks composed, he can pass and has vision and good movement off the ball. all qualities that should keep him in the side as a MIDFIELDER. if he was a striker and missed a couple like that in 90 minutes you might have a point. he's not though, and he's a kid who needs his confidence building, not destroying by giving him flak for missing a header a few mins into a good debut.

tough ask playing him at full back, specialist position and one where you need bags of pace these days. he'd deffo be better as a centre back for me

depends on the price to stand though ay, if it's half price coz they get in twice the people i bet the standing areas would be full!

nasri through the middle is twice the player he is out wide and mancini only plays him wide at the mo.

ireland on his best form at city might come close, he's gonna have to be on top form for the rest of the season before anyone starts comparing him to nasri!

here's hoping though, he's been looking better and better...

based on first touch, control, one touch passing and vision.

all stuff which delph seems to forget once he crosses the white line at the moment, and all stuff he has in spades. very frustrating player delph, needs to get his head right so he can play to his full potential. that's true of the squad as a whole at the moment though.

anyone know how he got on in the first half against wolves in the 7-1 win? lloks like he got taken off at half time...

Is that you Lee ?

No it not. So do you actually think Barry Bannan is a better player than Lee Hendrie was for us?

when lee had only played a handful of games for the club at first team level you mean?

i remember him coming through and loved the fact he was a local lad in a league where it seemed like a fairytale that a local lad would come through. but i reckon bannan looks to be technically a better player. whether he has the character to turn that greater technical skill into greater success in a claret and blue shirt than hendrie is impossible to say right now.

i think he looks a better player at this stage in his career though. you can't compare lee hendries full career with bannan's few games. that would be bonkers.

is he really all that?

yes.

(close thread)

3 points for us today, they won't score, we will.

line up isn't too bad to be honest! if they all give 7/10 performances we'll win no worries...

4-2-3-1 should be great for us...

--------------------Given(when fit)/Guzan--------------------

Hutton/Cuellar-----Dunne---------Clark------------Warnock

------------------Petrov------------Herd-----------------------

Albrighton/Zog----------Ireland------------------Gabby/Zog

-----------------------------Bent--------------------------------

the 3 should ne fluid and swap flanks, pop up in the middle with ireland adjusting to either flank. that team ahould do alright. giving gardner, bannan, stevens, weiman, fonz, marshall, lichaj et al a run from the bench to build up playing time...

not convinced it's mcleish's fault that formation doesn't work, but it DOES take time to get things right. he's had 20 games, and we've produced very good football against arsenal and chelsea playing that way. that should be reason enough to stick with it. mcleish shouldn't have heskey in the 3 though, and collins going could force him to put clark/cuellar in the back 4. personally i prefer clark as he is a more complete footballer.

as i said on the last page, sacking mcleish now would be a mistake, a mistake that woudl increase our chances of going down i'd say. if it's clear he's not the man to build a new team around our youth coming from the academy then end of may is when we shoudl part company with him. until then he should be backed 100% so we can finish as high up the table as possible

don't worry sam, check my post at teh end of the last page

we aren't ALL completely negative.