Bunnski

My criticism of him has always been centred around his pathetic off-the-ball contribution. On the ball he is a competant technical player, nothing more. I'm still yet to see why he is so grossly overrated or what exactly "ticking over" constitutes. He usually has very little impact on games and is a complete passenger more often than not. When he actually plays well, like he did in that little run of games including Cardiff, Newcastle, Man United etc. we all noticed and praised him for it. The reason many people don't most the time is because he is totally anonymous. The problem though is people have been so taken in by the "unseen work" mantra that any anonymous performance is automatically deemed acceptable under the guise of this. It was the same with Petrov during the O'Neill days, I always thought he was the obvious weak-link in that midfield but his inclusion was excused on for the same reasons that Westwood's is. Petrov was massively under-rated when he played for us. His game was to break up play and give the ball to one of our attacking players, in the season before he got sick he had started adding goals to his game and was a top quality player for us for a few seasons, alot of fans only realised how important and good he was after he was gone.

Well unlike yourself I can't give any guarantees regarding the team but I'd be of the opinion that once we sign a DMF then we will play a diamond in midfield and Westwood & Delph will be the 2 centre midfielders. We can also set up plenty of other ways to accomadate a DMF and both Westwood & Delph . I'm hopeful that Lambert realises that Westwood is wasted sitting back so deep and will play a proper DMF to allow Westwood to dictate games by concentrating on what he is good at.

You can guarantee that Westwood is the midfielder we are trying to replace.? It's good to have another itk around here, what other guarantees can you give us about the team Paul?

It's almost like people have to throw as many off topic negatives in on a discussion as possible despite the fact it derails the thread and usually ends with all the threads being filled with the same generic shite...

The touch and then the strike are sublime :

If he's such a poor set-piece taker, why is he finding his target and creating chances? He has been under orders to float balls in for a season and half. He showed he can whip in a great ball when we changed our approach to corners. He showed clear signs of improvement last season. He scored 3 great goals compared to none the season before and his stat of being second to Gerard in chances created is great for a player playing for us considering the season we had last year. Also to belittle the stat is silly as it applies to all players regardless of how it is calculated so to score so high is a good achievment. He would of had even more if Benteke and Kozak were fit for the full season.

Goalie, defence and midfield look great imo but it's up front where we need help. I'd swap N'zogbia for Weimann and then put Richardson in instead of Weimann. Bent relies on wingers to supply him and I reckon N'zogbia and Richardson will be able to put in some good delivery. Sub Gabby and Weimann in at some stage and we would have a very competitive team on Saturday.

I'm bemused by the amount of people that can't see how good a player Westwood is. If we sign Sanchez then it will allow Westwood to sit further up in midfield beside Delph and concentrate on what he is good at, he is never a DMF. When we play good attacking football he is always at the heart of it, his passing is brilliant and he was second only to Gerard in chances created by an English player last season. It's not his fault he had the likes of Gabby and Weimann upfront who constantly made a balls-up of our good chances. I look forward to him improving again this year and being one of our best players. In the first quoted post, the words 'by an Englishman' are quite a qualification! Yeah I thought so to, thanks for your input!

I'm bemused by the amount of people that can't see how good a player Westwood is. If we sign Sanchez then it will allow Westwood to sit further up in midfield beside Delph and concentrate on what he is good at, he is never a DMF. When we play good attacking football he is always at the heart of it, his passing is brilliant and he was second only to Gerard in chances created by an English player last season. It's not his fault he had the likes of Gabby and Weimann upfront who constantly made a balls-up of our good chances. I look forward to him improving again this year and being one of our best players.

Was at a kids party today and was talking to a few Liverpool fans who told me Cissokho was improving everytime he played and was decent in his last few appearances so I guess this qualifies rock solid ITK going by the standards in this thread.

He has something to prove and he is giving it his all in pre season. He is a welcome addition to the squad and will hopefully keep the right attitude through out the season.

Looking at Danny Batth? I'd be very surprised if we signed this guy. He looked solid, and I reckon he'll go for money eventually, but we currently have 5CB's, 6 if you count Herd, and it seems like a position we just don't need to strengthen in. What's more, Batth is only tested at League 1 level, which would go against everything we've been doing in signing experience this window. We currently have 5 CB's but only 3 are prem standard We need to get rid of Clark and Baker ASAP At least Baker has shown signs of progressing, Clark has gone backwards and looks worse everytime I see him play. He might just about make a half decent defensive LB but he is never gonna be a CB at a high level.

The Sunday post in Scotland is reporting Tonev is on his way to Celtic on loan with a view to a permanent deal #avfc Could be true as he didn't even make the squad yesterday.

Chelsea are a big club and he did look more than tidy before he got injured. Stop the waffle.

I was impressed with him today. He was commanding and solid.

Getting a new CEO is fine and all but I'd much rather we got contracts sorted for the players we need to hang onto. The season starts next week and we haven't got anything sorted in that regard. Is it down to us not putting good offers on the table or have we not even offered anything yet or is it down to the players hoping to get out of the club or maybe waiting to see what happens with the ownership situation before they make a decision?. I really thought we would of had a couple of our important players tied down at this stage of the season.

Like someone mentioned he was doing fine up until the Liverpool away game. At that stage of the season he had 4 goals and 5 assists in 18 games and had also won us a few penos. He is not the type of character to turn to when things are going bad and he just becomes part of the problem rather than stepping up and showing an example to other players. I have hopes that if we are more solid this year and pose more of a threat then I think Gabby will find form again. I really hope he does it soon as he has been hopeless in pre season and the signs aren't good atm but he can be a big player when he wants to be and is a much better than Weimann is in the wide positions. In saying all this I can't get over how he didn't find Bent with that pass earlier, it was shocking.

Love this photo:

We could probably do with having a midfielder who can pass the ball in that team.

http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=272332&part=sports

No Tonev in the squad, wonder is he on the way out.

Shocking production as per usual. You would think it would be easy to do a good quality live broadcast these days but it seems like they haven't bought any new equipment in 10 years...

It's interesting that Stevens starts ahead of Bennett. I've givin up on Bennett at this stage and am happy enough to see Stevens get a chance although I doubt he will be upto it but we'll see. I'd like to see Weimann through the middle and Gabby on the left wing with N'zogbia on the right wing.

Ron is on the bench so I'd hope he will get 45 mins today and then be ready for next week. Be interesting to see how big Philipe gets on vs decent opposition.

I'm expecting Palace to be keeping it tight at the back so Speroni should score high. Maybe Goose might be a good option now that we have a half decent backline.