adambwfc

Yes. Looking back I was most definitely wrong.

Round pegs. Round holes. I'd rather him there than any other fit player we have.

Very little difference to the treatment of Megson. Though Kean seems to be a nice enough bloke which changes it a little.

Created the first, created the space for the second. That's good enough for me in his first start in a while.

To be fair we'll be playing Everton, Chelsea, Stoke and Tottenham. To add to the discussion, I don't think we'd have got more points away from home with Megson than we got with Coyle. In fact I think we'd have got less, as I don't think Megson would have beaten West Ham, it was the pushing from the off with quick counter attacking play that beat West Ham, something we didn't do a lot of under Megson. Though we'd probably have got more points at home by beating Fulham, so swings and roundabouts really.

To be fair though, he's played pretty much every game this season. For a lad that's only just arrived and is still adjusting not being as great in the second half as the first is something that'll probably disappear in time. If his replacement wasn't Riga I'd say he'd have had a bit more of a rest and would be able to maintain his performances throught the 90.

If he's the shrewd and smart businessman I hope he is then he should be speaking to Wenger about Ramsey, who's far better at this moment in time.

Yep

Ahh bollocks

The problem is I haven't seen much of it from Elmander either, obviously he's been on the pitch far less but I haven't been impressed with him at all apart from about 20 mins at Villa. But yeah you're right, Davies finishing has been lacking at times, and in truth I think this is his last year at the club and think he may well need replacing next season, but unfortunately I don't see his replacement being Elmander. Also, although he hasn't scored many, Davies's goals have been far more crucial. I also think he offers more to the team, especially when we're playing teams with physically weaker/poorer defenders. Also, going back to Homer's point I'd disagree having seen any real positioning sense from Elmander, espeically when compared to Klasnic.

At the time of the goal against West Ham Davies had been on the pitch for 120 minutes, Elmander for 50 and we scored on a counter, I think we can forgive Davies for that. He wasn't playing against Wolves. The goal against Villa was from a freekick iirc, in which Davies was the other side of the box having tried to win the flick-on. Frankly, in all of them the goal was totally made by another player in which Elmander was applying the final touch, none of which I would say required any positional sense to score. Yes, he scored them and I'm taking nothing away from him there, but it didn't take anything much to score them, and I don't think Davies wouldn't have scored them if their roles were reversed. Which was my original point.

Oh, of course, and I'm not complaining he scored, all I'm saying is that Davies would have scored the goals as well. Looking back I didn't make that clear.

TBH, yes Elmander has got a better goal/minutes this season than Davies, but the combined yardage of his three goals can't be more than 10 yards, he's scored 3 goals most definitely made by others (Lee against West Ham, Cahill against Villa and Klasnic against Wolves) that I coulda tapped in, and he was still rubbish in those games. He'll probably have a longer stint mid-week and then might start in the cup. For me he has to consider these minutes, even if limited, as the minutes that will make or break his career here. However, we can't sell him without getting a replacement because Klasnic can't last ninety minutes.

Let's be honest here. Taylor's had about three good games since April, and he's been dropped once in that time. He's looked slow and today was not the first time he's been missing easy chances. I also put some fault on him for their first goal. At the very least he needs a rest and stick Gardner left wing so at least we've got a bit of pace. I don't think he's a bad player, he proved that the majority of last season, he just looks unfit/tired. FWIW, I thought Cohen was one of our better players, with Lee our best, Muamba was good at what we know he's good at and bad at what we know he's bad at, Steinsson was at best average, McCann was woeful, and we can't judge Elmander on 10 minutes but we all know he's not good enough. Dowd was shite to both teams, I'd have given them 2 penalties.

Did they ever say who scored the fourth?

Fair comment, but a bloody stupid thing to say.

Very true, one of our biggest problems yesterday, apart from both centre backs making silly errors, was that whenever Robinson had the ball the one person he could pass the ball to was Muamba, who would then collect the ball, turn round and find no-one moving to receive the ball and would then lose the ball or pass it back to Robinson to hoof towards Dunne. Too many of our midfielders are static when they don't have the ball.

True, true. And he isn't the greatest defender, especially if you compare him to say N'Gotty only a few years back. But if I was picking between Steinsson and Ricketts for defensive ability I'd still have Ricketts, not by a lot, but he does seem to make less fatal mistakes than Steinsson. Although, to be honest, reading that last sentence back it makes me realise that after about 5 years of having a problem at right back, we still haven't solved it. Although, he does look a good attacker, and if Davies had turned in the easiest chance of the match he would have got an assist today.

He got outplayed by Giggs, no shame in that. And he's a better defender than Steinsson was at the end of last year. And the disallowed goal should have been disallowed, Ricky handballed it.

-1 minute, they'll be 1 goal up by that stage, ref'll blow whistle as Lee rounds their keeper.

3-2 Davies, Cahill, Taylor and a brace from Bent.

Campo got released, and tbh on the form of his last 18 months here I'm not surprised.

Hull, Portsmouth & Blackburn.

But the point he's making is correct, Greening is an attacking midfielder and would therefore show a change in how we play it through the middle.

Haven't we got Davis off Pompey?