Overdubber

Must mention I do like the reports you put in, and would agree to pretty much the whole of this one. Just one thing, is you seem to mention the comming game against arsenal as a kind of look over the shoulder thing, whereas I`d itteate the fact we`ve overtaken them (for now) and should be concentrating more on those teams in front of us (such as Man U, one point and a game in hand). If we can keep up the fine displays week in, week out, 4th position should not be an issue, rather 2nd or 3rd (both Chelsea and Man U are slipping on the form they`ve enjoyed in previous years). Hamburg shouldn`t really be an issue, as both teams are through, and it`s basicly a game running out the winter season for them (Bundesliga finnished on Sunday for a couple of months, so playing up a handfull of our second guard isn`t as unreasonable as it may seem at first glance, as match practice is a welcome change for some of them, and a chance to prove themselves for the real league starting line up. Will be driving up to the game on Wednesday (800KM), not really expecting a thriller though.

Have to agree with most of the article, but acouple of things did distract from the point. The amount of money on the bench was one, as just because a player costs a certain amount does not guarentee a starting place, and nor should it. I`ll be glad when Freddy gets back to full fitness, as this is the type of defender we really need against such opposition, and TBH, Shorey still has to glue into that back four in my view. Saving L. Moore for Thursday may well be a good decision, time will tell, and putting a NRC in midfield against Pompey was a decent choice to take, as he`s a difficult one to get past. Fully agree with your MOTM, as he`s really battling right now. Puttin Barry at LB is nothing new to us, and he does very well there, even if we all know he can be more effective in the middle. I get the impression that MON wants to plug up on the against goals stats, and seems to be doing quite well so far.

Sure playing a team like that will always be difficult, even under the best of circumstances. To be fair we played quite well at some stages, especially the beginning of each respective half, but our attack looked really lightweight, and we really had trouble keeping the ball whilst pressuring their defence, who had a very good game indeed. Those commentators were creaming themselves........

Nice article, and good to read hgow the reserves are doing on a regular basis. Love your articles Limpid, keep up the good work.

Cheers for the game report,good stuff to read from fan 2 fan. Seems the way we are playing right now we will earn tat bit of luck we've been deserving for some time now. Pretty close on Saturday we came indeed. No reason to worry on the team front, as they all seem to be working for each other at the moment, as you so rightly poined out.

Too true! Still, what do you expect from papers like the Daily Star? Utter drivel! Drawing United at home could be a classic way to start the campaign, and hopefully not finnish it!

Great match review, thanks for that. I only got to see the firt half, but was dissapointed in the way that we sat back after the first goal, seemingly playing for a counter attack. I wish we were able to keep posession of the ball for longer than 5 passes. United were passing up to 17 times!

Nice article you got in there. Not too soure about Bent, I feel he's overrated myself, as are most english or british players overpriced. I hope that Harewood makes some waves, as I am one of those sceptics who didn't ratehim in the first place. But I don't mind being proven wrong. MON will have seen some potential in the man, I'm sure. Would be good if it worked, and would prove how overpriced some of these english players are along the way.

I think this Thai bloke is an ex prime minister. Maybe Tony and Cherrie Blair are planning to take over Bangkok Utd. in return.

Twas indeed the best part of an awfull game! :!:

I see that too, and I can't see it all happening with one bout of summer signings either. It will take time (and I don't mean a couple of weeks) to get to the point where we can break into the top four. What's going on is certainly moving in the right direction though, with the young players of class getting the chance to play together and form a unit. But we must really stop being so easy to score against, especially from set pieces, as this makes life difficult. Considering the amount of points we should have made, but didn't last season, we could have been in a european spot already!

De Jong didn't do too well under Thomas Doll as a manager, but then again, neither did the team. I saw him play a few times, but didn't consider him to be that great. Maybe I was missing something there though. At least he's a player who can pass the ball.

I wouldn't fancy Smith either, not just because he's a Man U reject, but rather I don't rate him, neither as a team player or as a box of tricks.

But was he any good? Yes he wasn't bad at all actually. Had a couple of seasons playing for Hamburg, lost his form a bit, then went to Frankfurt, where he does pretty well. Wouldn't make the cut for the premiership though.

An asian player also has the added benefit of basking some light on a team like ours out in asia. Takomara made a fortune for Eindhoven when he played there. Seems the whole of Japan was suddenly wearing a PSV shirt, which apparently lead to Eindhoven making more out of licencing costs than the guy cost in the first place!

Can't see Sneidjer comming to us. Would be great if he did though!

Not sure if Ribbery is going to Bayern. It's being flaunted in the press, but so were Sneijder an Van Der Whatever his name is- The guy from Hamburg. One worthwhile kickout they have is Van Bjui(?)c, the big belgian defender. I think he could cut it in the premiership.

I read somewhere that Villa are being connected with Phillip Lahm from Bayern Munich. Alot going on in the press at the moment about Bayern, but I don't put too much into all that is said by the press out here.

I'm part of part of an elite squad - code-name: Berbatov - tasked with gathering secret info. for Spurs concerning all Prem. club. Every comment on this board is filtered by me, then sifted and analysed by teams of skilled cryptographers and pyscho-linguists and painstakingly cross-matched to tens of thousands of other info. sources : a veritable goldmine of valuable info. for Daniel Levy and Martin Jol as they plot our coming world domination. All my posts - including this one - are skilfully designed to extract additional nuggets from unwitting respondees. Even now knowing this won't help you avoid the trap. Yepp! Looks like a spurs fan to me! So when are the intergalactic assosiates comming to give you all those kryptonite crystals before you go to bed in the evenings? Do they still put bromide in the tea?

Yes I saw that goal to. Nice strike, but really I'd put that one down to poor defending. Reminds me of one of the points Villa have really improved towards the end of the season.

Fred seems to be pretty good. Big, strong and fast. He certainly has a few skills to. I personally feel he holds the ball too long sometimes, which doesn't really work in premiership football, but I'm sure the right people will realise that to, and hopefully do something about that. Last season was a very consistent one for him, which is a good sign. You know how it its with these Brazilian strikers, a bit erratic sometimes. One thing concerns me is that the kind of defence he'll be up against in the premiership is a couple of knotches up from the french league.

The papers here in Germany are saying that he's been bought by Bayern. Thought he said he was going to sign for Valencia as I read on these boards?! All taking a long time for this kid, still think we're in with a chance for him. He rejected the move to Germany btw, he doesn't wana play in that league. Don't blame him! Footballs shit out here!

The papers here in Germany are saying that he's been bought by Bayern.

West Ham are in London. Everyone (around the world I mean) knows that. But Villa? I often get asked where they are. I'm in full agreement about the Bellamy bit there. He might be captain of Wales (well, is due to become), but he's still a has been in my eyes. I recently read a couple of bits and bobs suggesting that a guy called cook (QPR?) is being linked with villa. A defender of some sort.

He's being linked with west ham. Bit of a waste of his talent.