Alpaywasawesome

Sanchez has really become the lynchpin in our midfield. I think he's now even more important than Delph. 

ooohhh Bacunaaa free kicks. Missed em.

Oh my Hutton!

Bacuna looks so much better than NZogbia. Sure, he's misplaced one pass already, but Zog loses the ball from his dribbles 90% of the time anyway.

I don't like Vlaar Okore as a partnership. Vlaar has to move over to his unnatural side. 

As much as we should rightly criticise his vulnerability in defence, he was also hung out to dry by Lambert. At the end of the first half, there was almost unanimous consensus that Lowton was struggling big time against Young, and good goal scoring opportunities were to likely to be the result of Young constantly skinning him. Everyone could see that. This is not revisionism or hindsight - this was astutely observed by the whole room of people I was watching in, as well as many on the site. 

But Lambert didn't do anything at half-time to change anything. Surely he noticed the problem? I don't know what he told Lowton to do differently to prevent himself being beaten, dropping deeper or whatever but it didn't work - what was the rationale of keeping Lowton there instead of say Bacuna? It wasn't as if Lowton was offering much in attack either way because he was constantly pegged back by Young(he didn't have the pace to catch him on the break) and everyone knew Bacuna, on the other hand had the pace and athleticism to keep up with Young. 

These types of situation I feel we shouldn't blame the player but the manager for making him look shit. If you play Barry at fullback against speedy players he's gonna look like dogshit, as he did a few times under DOL - Dennis Rommedahl FFS looked like a world-beater when up against Barry. There's a good player in there - Lowton has showed us glimpses of his ability before, his crossing, his passing and technical ability is all there for everyone to see. 

It doesn't help when Lambert hangs him out to dry. 

People complain about him not being technically good enough - but when you look at Richardson and Zog who constantly lose the ball either by their failed dribbling well ... at least Bacuna makes runs and gets into good positions, and his finishing is pretty sound.

Positives from the game? No Richardson in the first team for the next 3 games - but if Zog stays in God I will be pissed.

Benteke's had a stinker

Lol. 

Get Zog off for Delph in the second half. Come on.

Zog is useless. Please. Please. No more. 

Detestable team of pansies. Can't handle 11 on 11, the only reason they can beat 10 men us because with the extra man they finally can pull off their stupid passing triangles. I hope Spurs get relegated I really do. 

He made a great penalty save against us last season..

To be fair, any decent keeper who's done their homework on Benteke would have saved it. Benteke is a crap penalty taker. He strikes them to his left, not with very much pace nor very precise placement. Last season both Szczesny and Howard knew where Benteke was going to place his penalty and saved them. 

Keane better be putting the fear of McGrath in em' 

Fire, desire and goddamn concentration better be present in second half. We can't fall to shit after conceding. The mental strength of this team is so brittle. 

3 days till I start uni, 3 days till I start swimming and gymming every day. Can't wait.

Really wish you the best of luck mate. Best to get a gym buddy. Preferably a female you fancy just for accountability purposes. Every day is a bit much though. Just maintaining thrice a week is a pretty big challenge already. Went in last year with the same ambitious plans for myself but nope, it's not sustainable. But since I've gotten a leggy gym buddy in my cohort we've been working out consistently.  

Carragher summed up Gabby pretty well in his post-match review. 

"He wouldn't be in the top 10 or 15 strikers in the premier league, but if you ask centre-backs who they wouldn't want to play against, he'd be in the top 4 or 5". 

Okore-Donacien will be our long-term CB pairing. We have 2 great prospects who have all the raw attributes for a great centre-back, we should take our time with them. Hopefully Vlaar-Senderos can be our first-choice pairing for the next 3-5 years, and we will have time to bed them in, in the cups and dare I say, European competition. 

-------------------------------Guzan--------------------------
Hutton--------Senderos-----------Vlaar--------Cissokho
----------------Delph----------------Westwood------------

Weimann/Gabby------Cleverley------Richardson/N'Zogbia

---------------------------Benteke---------------------------

I think Lambert will persist with the 4-2-3-1 formation for most games. For games where we'll be under the cosh, Sanchez can come in for Westwood/Delph/Cleverely depending on who's in better form and on the wings we have 4 players capable of filling two slots. It will any permutation of those 4 depending on form, and of course Grealish to come on as a sub.

And of course if we wanna play a front 2, we have a great option for the 5-3-2.

-------------------------------Guzan--------------------------

Bacuna------Senderos------Vlaar-----Cissokho --- Richardson
----------------Westwood---Sanchez---Delph-----------

-----------------------Benteke----Kozak-----------------------

Of course either one of Benteke/Kozak could be paired with Weimann/Gabby to have a more traditional strike partnership. But I think we haven't seen enough of Kozak and Benteke together to see if they would work. Apart from possessing an aerial threat, both of them are strong hold-up players and Benteke has pace to burn while Kozak isn't that slow himself. Bacuna might also be considered a better option at the RWB slot, as he has more pace and energy as well as possessing more of an offensive threat than Hutton although it unbalances the right side a tad as Bacuna might not be as solid defensively and Hutton-Senderos seem to have struck up a good understanding on the right. 

But I think the 3-5-2 needs really good offensive wing-backs to work, and most of Bacuna's bad displays in defence have come as a RB in a flat 4 -he's always played well as the RWB in a 5. So given that, and the fact that he has had a season's experience under his belt I think he would be a better option than Hutton there. 

Options options options. How fantastic. 

Agent Ridgewell scored for his new club in the MLS. Solo goal starting from the halfway line. The MLS defenders look so easily brushed aside though. 

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/liam-ridgewell-scores-super-solo-goal-for-portland-timbers-v-new-england/

Ashley Young's been playing as wingback for United in their friendlies. Seems to be getting a look-in under Van Gaal.  

No way Lambert will want to sell him, and he doesn't have to unless Lerner forces his hand. Vlaar is too much of a professional to force a transfer. 

One more season of Vlaar is invaluable to us. Selling him is madness.

Helped in our great winning run 2 years ago to avoid the drop. Was a cheap, available alternative to Moussa Sissoko which Lerner was just too stingy to let us get. 

Some views from Fulham fans:

http://vivaelfulhamforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=958&p=3100

It's a bit worrying they think that a 34 year old Aaron Hughes (remember him guys?) is a better option than him. And from their analysis of his defending, he sounds an awful lot like Baker & Clark. 

Robinson looks pretty good.