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heystally!

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Everything posted by heystally!

  1. Collins didn't have to go back to Guzan. Guzan could have kicked it out straight away. Cuellar didn't have to get too tight on Routledge.
  2. I'd love Heskey to play against Bristol Rovers! Hope he scores a hat trick and puts himself firmly in the shop window. But knowing our luck, McLeish would then decide to play him every PL game and give him a new contract if he scored a hat-trick against a League One side.
  3. Have you just described a future possibility as a fact?
  4. Sad to say I can't see Mcleish getting the sack unless we were relegated. He's here for awhile. I wouldn't call five months "a while" :cry:
  5. We're currently on 23 points. If we suggest that 40 points is the "safe" zone to stay in the league, then we need another 17 points to ensure safety - so that's five wins and two draws. Looking at our remaining fixtures (and note the lovely run of games in the middle there...: Everton H Wolves A QPR H Newcastle A Man City H Wigan A Blackburn A Fulham H Bolton H Arsenal A Chelsea H Liverpool A Stoke H Man Utd A Sunderland H WBA A Spurs H Norwich A So taking out the ones I'm assuming we'll lose: Everton H Wolves A QPR H Newcastle A Wigan A Blackburn A Fulham H Bolton H Stoke H Sunderland H WBA A Norwich A That leaves 17 points from 12 games. I'd also probably discount Stoke at home, as it falls in that horrible run of games. And judging by today, I don't think Everton, Newcastle, Fulham or Sunderland are certain either: Wolves A QPR H Wigan A Blackburn A Bolton H WBA A Norwich A There's seven games to get five wins and two draws from. Going to be a tough second half of the season at this rate.
  6. But maybe you and I and the other fans were clouded by the idea that N'Zogbia basically single-handedly saved Wigan from relegation? Thinking about it logically, I'm not entirely surprised that N'Zogbia has been a failure. He was at Newcastle, saying "I'm going to move to a big club like Arsenal" and then ends up at Wigan. And it was easy for him to look good at Wigan. You'd have thought that as a manager, you'd take a careful look at the player, and make a judgement? I cannot believe N'Zogbia was incredible for Wigan and this poor for Villa. I think we've sort of been conned into thinking he's amazing when really he's actually an average player.
  7. I thought Clark was composed and won the ball well, Petrov was behind play in second half though... Bannan should have replaced Petrov on 60 mins... I thought he wasn't doing anything of any benefit to us today. It's not really his fault, but it seems like McLeish was telling him to sit deep and hold the midfield, but that was pointless as all of Swansea's possession was in their own defense and defensive midfield. And he's not really a visionary passer like Bannan, which is what we needed today to support the front three alongside Ireland. I agree about Petrov. Really at half time I'd have liked to have seen Clark and Petrov replaced with Bannan and Gardner. A little lightweight, but I didn't see Swansea as a team who would outmuscle us today. We just needed to hold the ball more.
  8. I swear in the first half, when he ran down the left and crossed in ridiculously high and long, that he actually gestered towards Ireland in the box at the near post, as though it was Ireland's fault or something!
  9. What about the man ultimately responsible for the mess we are in ? Lerner? Irrelevant over this one game. Suggesting Lerner is at fault for our defeat to Swansea also suggests he was successful in our win at Chelsea. We could have won this game regardless of who our owner is. But our manager and players did not perform up to scratch.
  10. Really hoping he's given a rest against Bristol Rovers. I'm not even bothered about the FA Cup this season, so as far as I'm concerned, they can change up the entire first XI and give some of the kids a go.
  11. Not that I want to take anything away from the way Swansea approach games, but I genuinely believe that we made them look like Brazil. We looked hopeless chasing them down, and we gave the ball back to them way to easy. If we'd been playing Barcelona today, we would have been absolutely destroyed. Luckily Swansea aren't as good as that.
  12. I really don't understand where the idea that he's having a decent season has come from. I think he's been exceptionally poor this year, like a player who has just had an entire season not playing football (which is exactly what he is). Hoping he'll regain form to the same level he was two years ago - I thought he was much improved against Stoke and Chelsea, and also second half today he did well to get over his mistake. But there's no excuse for how bad his first half performance was. Terrible.
  13. Since arriving here, I've thought N'Zogbia has had really poor positioning and off-the-ball movement, and today's performance was a new low. He did a few things with the ball at his feet, but by the end of the game I just felt he never looked threatening at all. Proving to be a waste of money.
  14. So we've got people saying that Gabby shouldn't play on the wing, despite the fact that he's been at his most dangerous this season when out on the wing? And that we can't afford the luxury of an "in-the-hole" player like Ireland, despite the fact he was key to our win against Chelsea away two days ago whilst playing "in-the-hole"? Madness. Our formation or team selection was not really the problem today. The problem was that McLeish made terrible decisions after our poor first half performance. It wasn't that we didn't need Ireland: we actually needed about three of him! How Clark played 85 mins whilst doing **** all is incredible. We needed Bannan to support Ireland in passing the ball around so that we actually kept the thing and made some chances. Ireland was also the only player who looked like he wanted to get into space and get the ball. No one else wanted it. No one else actually gave a shit. So to take him off was ridiculous.
  15. After the win against Chelsea, I was full of such optimism today, and now the game's over I'm so **** furious. And it's with both McLeish and the players. McLeish I had no problem with McLeish's selection. In fact, even before I heard the team I was telling my Dad that he should bring Bent in and drop Albrighton to the bench, and he went with the formation that I would have played too. But by half time it was clear that things were not working. Swansea are not Barcelona: yes they play nice football, and I applaude the way they try and approach games, but once the start passing the ball up the pitch they are going to lose it, which they did on a couple of occasions. We should have just continued to hassle players, stick to the men and not worry too much about the ball being with Swansea because we would get it back before to long. Instead we lost all shape in our midfield and gave them, particularly Britton, way too much space. I don't even know what role Clark was playing but he was anonymous first half. McLeish should have replaced him with Bannan at half time so that we'd end up wasting the ball much less. Bringing Bannan on with five minutes left was a **** joke. Personally I thought Ireland did ok. Not as good as against Chelsea, but he was the only player who actually looked like he wanted the ball, and could maybe create some chances for us. So to take him off and go 4-4-2 was pathetic. Bent was already out of the game, so by putting Gabby up front too, it meant that two of our players were absolutely isolated. Neither did anything in that second half, because we had no possession in the middle of the park to feed them. I don't blame his choice of players, or for the first half. But the changes (and lack of changes) that he made in the second half were atrocious. Terrible management. Players Bad performance overall from the majority. Terrible first half from Warnock but I was glad to see he was more composed in the second. The only player who came out of that with any shred of dignity was Stephen Ireland. No one else looked like they gave a shit about getting the ball. Swansea's movement was so frequent and fluid that they always had a pass on. If Ireland hadn't have been playing, we would have been a team of statues. Whether they thought it would be easy after the Chelsea win, or they were tired, either way it was just a shit performance with no passion or desire. Pathetic to see. --- So disheartened by the whole match. I'd honestly been given some sort of hope after Chelsea that McLeish could be a decent manager. How **** wrong I was. We need someone in who knows how to make a **** change when the problems we face are so glaringly obvious. How he felt that after the first 45 mins things were going well is beyond me. We desperately needed a change and he **** failed. Disgraceful.
  16. Today, he'll come on for 12 minutes, score a hat-trick, and be sold to United by midnight. ITK.
  17. Do people not just think that: a) Lerner should have kept a closer watch on the finances and O'Neill shouldn't have spent silly transfer fees and wages on players who never kicked a ball for the club ?
  18. Keeping those sides in the Champions League also increases their revenue, which subsequently increases their popularity in Europe and the world, which is good for the profile of English football and the Premier League, which means more people will pay to see games abroad, better players will come to the league, etc, etc. Keeping it this way is good for the Premier League. And although it's frustrating for a team like us, I think it's a real achievement for a smaller club to try and break through that gap and get into the top four. If we had managed it during O'Neill's reign it would have been much more impressive than finishing sixth and getting in through a playoff. So it becomes something to work for rather than work for the playoffs and then step up your games. It'd also increase the amount of games in a season which is a bad idea.
  19. McLeish does deserve credit. He sent out a team that beat Chelsea away from home. He also deserves some criticism for the way this season has gone so far. No one is disputing that really. Credit and criticism where they are due. Just because I give him credit for the Chelsea win doesn't mean he's now the best manager in the world. But he had a good day at the office.
  20. Every player has his price. Lerner has accepted bids for Barry (£12m, last year of contract, promised he could leave if he didn't get CL), Milner (£15-£20m plus Ireland), Young (£20m) and Downing (£20m). I would say that all of those prices were fair considering all players wanted to leave the club. Lerner set ourselves a valuation, and got that. Lerner signed Bent just a year ago for £18m up front and £6m of add ons. He would only sell Bent if it matched his valuation. I think given the fact he's entering his best years as a footballer, and just how valuable he clearly is to any future success we'll have, a club would have to pay £30m for Lerner to sell. And I just don't see that happening. Lerner is a businessman. We can argue some of his flaws in the last season or two, but he understands the balance between having Bent or having the money, and would only take enough money that would mean we could replace him adequately.
  21. Tbf I was screaming at him to square it for the tap-in when he got away. It would have been a simple open goal roll-in for Bent. The only problem was Ireland played the pass a little too early and it wasnt wide enough either. Therefore Bent still had Cech to beat somewhat. It also wasnt a great finish from Bent, he could have either taken a touch and gone around Cech or could have put some loft on it. He very nearly missed. But do we care? Do we bollocks He slightly misplayed the pass because he wasn't looking at Bent when he played it. If you look at the replay from behind him when he's through on goal, he was either looking at the ball or the keeper as his head doesn't move. Trying to give Cech the eyes. Just about worked, but I think Cech was expecting it.
  22. Mark Lawrenson really is a dick. Just seen his prediction of the Swansea game tomorrow. He gives us a two-nil win, but then he adds this paragraph to his description of the game: Why is that necessary? Regardless of whether it's true or not (which it is), it still has no relevance to predicting and previewing the Swansea game. Dick.
  23. Searched for a list of players who are out of contract this year. Found the following website (don't know how accurate it is exactly but some of them are certainly right): http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/spieler/vertragsende/basics.html Trying to think who could be moving to the Premier League, or within the Premier League, or who we should be going for on the cheap.
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