HJ

Why the hell did NRC need to step off the post

Here we go then

Collins looks drowsy

Lucky

Ahahahaha, they want to fail!

Good news for Villa. They took Pardew over Jol.

You could get Jol if Houllier makes a mess of it.

I dont think Jol would ever have taken the job.

Hughton was sacked because Newcastle had somebody lined up to replace him. Okay, that somebody was Alan Pardew, but imagine if it was Martin Jol? Jol would have kinda been in on the sacking of Hughton. That is the same Chris Hughton who was Martin Jol's assistant manager at Spurs for three years.

I think Jol is an honourable man and you dont shit on your mates like that, do you?

Not to mention Jol was ousted from Spurs when their board went to Ramos behind Jol's back, and he wasn't too happy about that..

but the injuries do still have to be taken into account a bit.

Sure, take them into account a bit, but to say we have no chance is poor.

Rather than staying calm and letting Houllier continue to ruin our club...

The club was here a long time before GH, and will remain so a long time after he has left. If we lose to West Brom AND Wigan, then we can start to ask questions, but can anyone honestly say they thought the side we were forced to put our against Liverpool was anywhere near capable of beating them?

Your last point needs re-emphasising for some on here.

Yes absolutely it was capable. We have a lot of injuries at central midfield but it doesn't turn us into a conference side ffs. Last season we went there with a back 4 of Shorey-Davies-Cuellar-Beye but they defended like their lives depended on it and we won by scoring from set pieces. And Plop had Torres/Gerrard playing then.

The perfomance was very poor but make no mistake the mdifeld we started with last night of Hogg and Clark in middle alongside out of sorts Ireland and back from operation Albrighton was still a big handicap before a ball was kicked.

Course Hogg and Clark in middle is the same as when had Milner , Petrov and Reo Coker starting in same game last year ....?

Our back 4 wasn't the same either, not one of our first choice back four now was playing. Neither is Liverpool missing Torres/Gerrard. Milner was playing wide and Sidwell was playing in the middle btw.

Of course it's a handicap we had to play two youngsters in the middle, but to say that team is not capable of beating an above average premier league side is just rubbish.

Rather than staying calm and letting Houllier continue to ruin our club...

The club was here a long time before GH, and will remain so a long time after he has left. If we lose to West Brom AND Wigan, then we can start to ask questions, but can anyone honestly say they thought the side we were forced to put our against Liverpool was anywhere near capable of beating them?

Your last point needs re-emphasising for some on here.

Yes absolutely it was capable. We have a lot of injuries at central midfield but it doesn't turn us into a conference side ffs. Last season we went there with a back 4 of Shorey-Davies-Cuellar-Beye but they defended like their lives depended on it and we won by scoring from set pieces. And Plop had Torres/Gerrard playing then.

Mr Mcinally how did Birmingham have the better chances... please remind me which these were?

The 2 goals, Jerome through on goal 1st half, Zigic in front of goal 1st half **** up his first touch when he should have tapped it in first time, the disallowed goal, Derbyshire at the end. They did have better chances.

Tippy tappy possession shit. We had two real goalscoring chances (the goal and the Ireland shot + Ash rebound) and they had several more.

Agent Ridgewell doing us proud. Standing yards offside when Zigic "scored" which allowed us to equalise.

He wasnt affecting the play at all, poor call. And I'm not sure Gabby was onside either, lucky few mins there

GABBY **** YEAH

That's great from Luke Young, **** up and yell at Hogg

Larsson is such a **** word removed

At least we aren't going with 3 defensive midfields. Hopefully the defence can wake up and keep it tight, Gabby's gonna nick it..

It's been said before, but a 29 year old striker who not so long ago went 11 months without a goal is not the answer to our problems. Yes, he is in form at the minute but if we signed every player who had a couple of months of good form we could end up with a squad of Stephen Irelands.

There were people who wanted to pay £20m for Roque Santa Cruz

Also I would add that his performance on Saturday had everything except a goal. His hold up play was fantastic and he skinned a few people very nicely indeed.

This is true, he played very well overall and almost always managed to direct difficult balls, hoofs and such, to teammates.

I'm much more encouraged by his ability to get into goal scoring opportunities than his failure to put them away. Scoring is always streaky due to the small amount of chances you get in each game (and even good strikers only score 30%-ish of their chances). It's not a real worry unless he goes 10+ games finishing like that.

How can Houllier be called defensive when he brings bannan on and then carew?

He started with 3 defensive midfielders who are all pretty useless going forward, and Heskey up front alone.

he played a 451/433 i dont think its fair to say he was negative. What other options did he have? Ireland has hardly looked good lately.

He had options. Instead of 3 defensive midfielders he could have dropped one and

a) Played Bannan left, or in the middle with Ash left

played Ireland off Heskey and Ash left

c) played Fonz up front with Heskey

d) played Carew up front with Heskey

He chose 3 defensive midfielders because he just wanted to avoid a loss, not because he absolutely had to.

How can Houllier be called defensive when he brings bannan on and then carew?

He started with 3 defensive midfielders who are all pretty useless going forward, and Heskey up front alone.

I'd like to know why we played without a left winger. To replace him with a CB playing CM :?

Eh?

Downing played LW.

He was RW? At least first half. Lets say 'without two wingers' then.

Young played out wide most of the game....

4-5-1, Young Clark Coker Sidwell Downing.

Young did have a bit of license to wonder at times though.

Young played behind Heskey most of the game, he even mostly defended as a striker ie. centrally blocking the passing lanes for their CB's. Defensively either Young/Sidwell/NRC scrambled to left every time Carr went forward.

It was a bit of a mess, good enough defensively I suppose with Clark in the middle leaving the others the freedom to go to left but attacking wise it didn't work at all, ultra-negative and with all our CM's being a bit rubbish going forward it just leaves Young/Downing/Heskey too much to do.

I'd like to know why we played without a left winger. To replace him with a CB playing CM :?

Eh?

Downing played LW.

He was RW? At least first half. Lets say 'without two wingers' then.

I'd like to know why we played without a left winger. To replace him with a CB playing CM :?

Good performance, just unlucky.

Not all that unlucky when you play Heskey as lone striker and have NRC one of the players whose role is to join attacks.

Could have at least put another striker on at the end when we were chasing.

Needed Friedel for that point, MotM.

Now what are we going to moan about??

That he's not an especially good manager. IMO.