Always rated Bentley as well. Redknapp never gave him a chance unfortunately. Shame the poor lad got injured at West Ham, would've like to seem him have a run when Lennon was injured.

As you were saying last night, this was a chance for Giovanni Dos Santos to prove his worth and instead our best creative midfielder got thrown out there :evil:

I couldn't believe he stuck VDV on when it was so clear that it was pace that would destroy them. VDV annoys me becaus he seems like he wants to play up front, but he doesn't have the pace. Then he tries to play on the wing, and he doesn't have the pace for there either. Modric in the first half was quality, attacking at Norwich. As soon as VDV came on, Modric was sitting deeper, he wasn't much of a threat after that.

Modric should not play as a deep midfielder, he needs to get the ball beyond the half way line and not just outside our own penalty area. Thats the problem when Rafa is in the team. I'd like it to be Luka playing in a 5 man midfield in front of Parker and Sandro/Livermore.

There's no doubt that VDV can be brilliant, but he's inconsistent and drifts in and out of games. He didn't offer much when he came on last night, just seemed to be getting in the way of Adebayor and Defoe, whose partnership that was brilliant at the start of the season seems to have lost its way. I put that down to Defoe being injured/not playing, but we'll see over the next few games how they work together, if they do.

Last night's game confirmed to me that if we don't get Adebayor permanently, I want Grant Holt.

Big game this weekend. A win would give us a nice confidence boost into the last few games of the league. Part of me doesn't care for the FA Cup anymore though. We rested players last night when in reality, the league should be our priority. If we were going to rest players, it should've been this weekend. That being said, I think if we have a full-strength side and if Bale and Lennon stick to their wings, we should beat Chelsea. I can't seem them handling our pace.

Edited by MaxiiGCU: 10/4/2012 06:03:48 PM

Exactly right, we NEED to finish 4th. We could probably have beaten Chelsea anyway, they're as out of form as we are.

I think VDV is too slow for the pace of our team and isn't a 90 minute player. I rate him, very highly, but he's not a perfect fit for our set-up.

We should definitely get Holt, rate the guy highly. Can see him getting on the end of Bale's crosses well :D

Was just thinking about when we played Norwich earlier in the season and beat them 2-0. Had Bale down the wing. Sandro and Parker in the middle, Modric in a more attacking position. VDV was on the right wing, if I remember right though he had more of a free role, supporting Adebayor. I remember us absolutely dominating that game, Bale was on fire. We NEED to get back to that way of playing, the way that people associate with us now.

I would play this vs Chelski:



Parker and Sandro would boss the midfield. Modric gets to be the creative spark, which is where he's best. Bale and Lennon constantly attacking the wings, cutting in every now and again. Hopefully Adebayor has one of his good games, and not one where everything seems to just bounce off his knee.

Apparently "crisis" at the club. I'd say there isn't a crisis but something is definitely wrong. How the fuck did we go from +10pts on the scum to what will amount to -5 (after they murder wolves)?

Anyone think that our dip in form is to do with 'Arry being talked about the england role? since then our form has kind of gone well shocking

Yeh exactly, seems like a loss of focus since about 40 minutes through that game. We even dominated the first 40, since then its just gone to hell.

Dominated the first 40 of what?

Game at the Emirates. I must revise my statement though, we just put our chances away, your midfield fucking choked us.

Yeah I was gonna say, dominate isn't really the right word. I mean in that first 40 we had just 1 less shot than you had in the whole match.

Apparently Bentley is set to play in the F.A cup tonight. Will be good to see him get a game, i've always rated him.

Holy shit, I hope so. If that's the case, I can see us playing a standard 4-4-2:



Would prefer Saha over Defoe, Defoe rarely performs in the big games and I like having him come on as a sub for the last twenty minutes or so to expose the defenders with his pace.

No Kaboul is a blow. Perhaps King will pull a magical performance out of the bag.

Parker back is a boost, can really see him dominating the midfield.

People can say what they want, the "no-goal" changed the game. Once again it was us on the receiving end.

Fucking devastated.

:( how is that possibly a goal

Fucking shit. Devastated. Disgusted with the ref. How he can even give that as a goal is beyond me. I'm sure the rules are if it isn't clearly over the line, the defensive team get the benefit of the doubt. Not only that, but Terry committed a foul on Cudicini.

I'd like to see how many points we would have had all the decisions that should have gone our way actually had done. It seems that we've really copped a lot of shit from refs these last few seasons.

Funny you should say that actually - have a look:

http://www.debatabledecisions.com/tables

Liverpool and Arsenal robbed the most, apparently :P

Wow. I honestly would've thought we'd been robbed of quite a few points. I remember the Stoke game we had a goal disallowed. We had a goal disallowed against Wolves. Had quite a few penalty shouts turned down that should've been given.

Edit: Just took a look at the decisions for each team. I think they've got it wrong on a few decisions that went for us.

VDV vs Arsenal wasn't handball, it was shoulder/chest.

I think Cahill's red card was a red card. Had he not brought down Parker, Scotty would've been clean through one-on-one with the keeper. Fair red card in my opinion.

Bale's penalty vs Arsenal was a penalty, but it didn't have much effect on the game tbh.

2nd Edit: Also, look at how five decisions that should've gone our way were against Stoke. That game was a pivotal moment in the season really. Had we got them three points we would've been three points clear in fourth now.

Edited by MaxiiGCU: 16/4/2012 11:16:22 AM

Edited by MaxiiGCU: 16/4/2012 11:17:58 AM

Was red for sure. I was 30m from it. You jelly Maxi? :D

Very. Haven't been to WHL in years :(

I'm moving back to England soon so I'm definitely going to be trying to go as often as I can :D

Funnily enough Bale's goal was a dis-service to us. If he wasn't there surely that c*nt Atkinson had to send off Cech and award a penalty?

:lol: Parker was on just past the halfway line right next to the touchline 50 yards from goal. There is no way on any planet that that is a clear goal scoring opportunity. It's Scott Parker ffs, not the road runner :lol:

As for the Bale penalty, much like Ashley young last night the only contact was him throwing his leg out once he realise how heavy his touch was. Add to that the fact that he was already half way to the ground before any contact was made.

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 16/4/2012 06:33:20 PM

That's what I was thinking. When he put it in the back of the net, part of me was like "Fuck, we could've had them down to ten men there."

There was no other defender between Scotty and the goal, could you have seen Zat Knight catching up with him? No. It's a red card.

Bale's I agree was debateable, there was contact and he made the most of it, I'll admit that.

Redknapp out.

Toothless. We'll be looking at 6th place soon enough, terrible capitulation.

Welcome back to near mid table living :lol: ;)

Edited by M.L.: 23/4/2012 02:12:51 PM

Well, four games games left: Blackburn home, Bolton away, Villa away, Fulham home.

Three points behind Newcastle, six behind Arsenal with one game in hand over them. Not to forget we're only one point ahead of Chelsea.

Arsenal have Stoke away, Norwich home and West Brom away. Newcastle have Wigan away, Chelsea away, City home and Everton away.

I think we have the easiest run-in of the three, and if results go our way and we pick ourselves up starting this weekend, then we could still finish third. That is a big if, but I think it's what we should be aiming for. If Chelsea beat Newcastle and we don't pick ourselves up, we really could be looking at sixth place. Bloody hell, if we have a monumental fuck-up, even Everton could overtake us.