Ha'way then, let's be judge, jury and executioner. Some of the players are ****, some are not, in that squad somewhere, there is a decent team, certainly a team that is capable of getting some points, some goals, and not leaking more than Nigel Planers shoe. Does Mannone get a chance? Cuellar and O'Shea have the combined speed of a galapagos tortoise.have a r/b not getting a game, a l.b (not the ginger) who may one day be fit, if not just who signed the knacker? The midfield, well god knows, Catts for sure, the rest take your pick, Mavrias, what about DMK?. What hold does Larsson have on the club, must be something grubby, cos every manager keeps playing him. Forwards, well the best one is crocked again, one that can't score for some reason (but he will one day) a loanee from the dippers, and a couple of flops that look worse than Jordans tits job. It's all in there somewhere,
Not much to choose between Westwood and Mannone but, I'd give Mannone a game or two. CD is a mare at the minute we are stuck with JOS and Cuellar at present so why not play one or the other with Roberge who is much quicker than both put together. RB should be Celustka LB Colback he's all we've got and is getting better each game he plays, still would prefer an out and out LB for once in what is it 4 years now? CM looked okay yesterday Catts when he gets fit should be fine and can play as long as he keeps his cool, Ki looked good as well. LW has to be Mavrias with Johnson on the right maybe even Larsson. CFs (yes 2 up top) Altidore and Borini with Borini swapping with Giacherinni for certain games to bolster the midfield up a bit and, give us a little bit of forward skill. The formation has to change for the type of team we are playing unless injuries dictate otherwise, so 4 4 2 or 4 5 1.
Westy Celutska__Diakite__O'Shea__Colback Catts_____Ki Johnson___Borini____Giacc Jozy OR Westy Celutska__Diakite__O'Shea__Colback Gards___Catts_____Ki Johnson___Jozy___Giacc I wouldn't have Cuellar, Vaughan near the first team again. Probs not Larsson either, bar a sub appearance at right midfield. If Roberge gets his chance to oust O'Shea, even better. Would like to know what has happened to Cabral & Karlsson?
What has Celuska done wrong Comm? I thought he looked a good player (would swap him for Debuchy no problem). Surprised me to see him sub. I can't get the fascination with Larsson. A midfield three of Cattermole, Gardner and Ki would look good to me. Cattermole was exellent yesterday for you lot. He could give the bite, Gardner the box to box with some decent long range shooting, and Ki to be that bit of class to pick a pass. I don't think Altidore will ever be prolific but he does ok as a target man, so whilst Fletcher is out I'd try a front three of him, Johnson right and Giaccherini left. Johnson with less defensive responsibility with Gardner covering to the right. A fluid 433 which becomes almost 4411 defensively. Defensively Celuska should play, but otherwise, like ourselves you look shaky. Not sure what te solution is there bar becoming really negative. Maybe try to give Celuska, JOS, Cuellar, Colback a long run to get some understanding? Couldn't comment on Roberge but I'd forget Diakite/Brown as they look like crocks who can't be relied on looking at respective careers. Thought you were unlucky yesterday but being honest you could always sense Liverpool looked likely to score a few. Whenever they broke you were a bit all over the shop, and but for Cattermole stopping some of those breaks before they got into full swing, you might have had more trouble. They are not the same team without Coutinho but still have class of course. As you say you are not as bad as the one point you have to show but need to get some points on the board.
------------ Westwood ------------ Celutska - Cuellar/Dia - Roberge - Colback ----------Catts ------ Ki ----------- Johnson ------ Giach ------ Mavrias --------------Altidore -------------- Rotate Johnson/Giach/Mavrias/Borini across the line behind Jozy. On form Seb and JOS need dropped, they've showed nothing to deserve selection at the moment.
We need to plug the gap at the back and help altidore out. Id like to see us try wingbacks against Man Utd .......................Mannone........................ ...........Cuellar....Diakite.....Roberge....... Celustka.......................................Colback ............Ki...Cattermole...Giaccherini........ ..................Altidore....Borini.....................
The reason Larsson is there is to show the youngsters and the foreigners how to do it. I mean who, in our team, is better and standing still and pointing at other people telling them "you should be marking that player cos I can't be bothered to run with him" I would play O'Shea but not with Cuellar!! I know how poorly O'Shea played at the weekend but, at the moment, I don't know if the alternatives are any better!! Maybe give them a chance. Catts and Giaccherini were excellent on Sunday and Jozy, whilst he does his bit, he will never get 15 goals in a season - the moment Fletcher went down with that injury last week I though "We're doomed". We need a little bit of luck as well - every time the ball bounced off someone it fell to an oppo player on Saturday and if you can't have the luck when you're playing well then when can you (that coupled with the handball goal (which would've been spotted by a video ref - goal-line technology has not yet been used yet there have been numerous off-sides and handballs etc. which could have changed games which a video replay would've benefitted (not just us buyt the PL in general). Moan over - I enjoyed watching us yesterday - thought we played some neat stuff and looked dangerous when going forward (until the ball went in the box!) - May have been a totally different outcome if Fletcher had been playing
For me John O'Shea barring the odd game has always been poor. He lacks pace, has no distribution and his positional sense and constant ball watching always leaves a spare opposition man free. I was watching the replays last night after i got back from the game and if im not mistaken it was at least 1 (if not both) of Suarez's goals JOS was just looking at the ball leaving Suarez to run scott free round the back. Over the last 3 seasons we have constantly conceeded sloppy goals even though we have had numeorus defenders, i.e. Bramble, Turner, O'Shea, Brown, Diakete, Roberge, Cueller, Bardsley, Richardson, Colback, Gards, Celutska, etc. The one consistant (when fit) has been JOS. Yet we are always conceeding silly goals. For me the solution is simple. Before any one jumps on me, im obviously not saying every goal is JOS fault, however i do think he needs to be dropped. I would much prefer to try Roberge & Diakete together as they looked a lot more solid partnership against Arsenal.
He can;t be picked until January now as he wasn;t given a squad number - although no, he hasn;t @wormed his way@ back into my thinking - I liked the lad as a player - proper 100% player but his antics this season have been nothing short of shocking and disgusting towards us fans - he may dislike Paolo but what he did on twatter or whatever it was is somthing we watch, not Paolo! Besides, Celutska is a better right back - particularly going forward
Am I being desperately wishful and naive but looking at our results to date we have had home defeats from the arsies and luvypool..we wont the the last to lose to that bunch this season..fulham we wus robbed and southampton was a good result all in all..so the brom beat us then they took Man U away so they aren't a bad team, the palace we wus rubbish thanks to a sending off. OK we've got 1 point 6 games in but ref decisions and bad luck and players in depression haven't helped. We really dont know how good our team is until we play some of those around us at home ..Swansea onwards is when we will know... I thought we looked OK on sunday...a handball goal set us on the back foot and liverpool were able to play to their strengths. I think we have a far superior set of players than last year so should do no worse....I still live the dream.... Sunderland supporters are prone to do that or maybe they have no alternative way to look at the world !!!
I might have bumped into you after the game at the weekend - I said to a young lad (around 22/23) that I reckon we're doomed (which, as an eternal optimist, it pains me to say) and this lad said - "Ha'way man, Arsenal and Liverpool have beaten us here and Fulham was a freak result as they had only one shot in the entire 90. Barring Fletcher's injury and the Sending off at Palace we'd probably have done OK in those 2 games as well" I am optimistic but I simply don;t see a way of turning this around. On the plus side - it's a 6 pointer against Man U on Saturday what with them only 6 ahead of us....
