Dr Gloom

jesus wept. so if we're in a relegation battle come january, let's just carry on as we are eh?

Hicks and Gillet are going to try to cling on to power as long as possible. Let's be frank, they made their investment before the financial crisis but like most foreign investors, they're still going to want a return. This is why foreign takeovers are so dangerous for our clubs. Most don't give a monkeys about what kind of shape the club is when they jump ship - exit strategy is all about a return on the investment. That's why I reckon this could be a long, ugly, bitter, protracted dispute. Hopefully will be even more embarrasment for Liverpool fans than we've had since Ashley took over

enough to convert a gay guy to pussy that like

well they've managed to outdo themselves this year. i've never seen such a group of bell-ends all in one room before.

tbf to hughton, we're looking more solid at the back than we have for some time. and against man city and everton we took the game to them so i wouldn't say his approach overall is too negative. the only thing i think he's doing that most of us would change is persisting with nolan. though with ben arfa out now, it doesn't look there are many other options.

as much as a shithole as sunderland is, boro is far worse. hull, slough and milton keynes are my choices mind of biggest shitholes in the country

january jones

I agree totally about the importance of a winning mentality and spirit - belief counts for so much. Citeh might take a while to gain the belief to win the title but they're not far off. Despite the fact we matched them for long periods, I just knew they'd nick it. Was that down to a piece of individual briliance from Johnson or the collective mentality of the team ?

4-5-1 isn't necessarily a defensive formation, it depends on how you play. I don't think we were defensive against Blackpool, and when you start with 2 wingers and a shadow striker (yes I know it's only Nolan but still) it's harsh to call that overly negative in my view. If it had been like the beginning of last season where we sometimes lined up with a midfield of Gutierrez, Smith, Nolan, Barton and Guthrie then I'd be inclined to agree with you, but that hasn't been the case. If he was to drop Nolan and stick Ben Arfa in the hole, with Gutierrez out wideit would be the same system, but no-one could say it was negative or defensive. good point. chelsea play 4-5-1 at home and no one calls it defensive. it's the right formation with the wrong players - the system needs mobility and pace in the front 4. hughton's got it half right by dropping smith for tiote. now he needs to drop nolan for gutierrez. i've been impressed with hughton so far this season but he has a big call to make now and it's a test for him. at home, he should be playing our three most attack minded midfielders - routeledge, ben arfa and gutierrez. i don't mind nolan playing in the hole away from home but against poorer quality teams we need more pace behind the front man. It's more of a 4-3-3 like. same difference. 4-3-3 when attacking becomes a 4-5-1 when defending. it's still playing with one striker, three midfielders and two wide men however you label it - same as us. It's nothing like how we play tbf. Drogba and Anelka are both roaming forwards with pace and guile who interchange, taking turns to come deep. They in turn get overlapped by Kalou and Lampard and Malouda etc..It's a rotating 433. ------------Drogba------ -------Malouda-----Aneilka--- ------------Essien------- ------Ramires---Obi------- obviously their players are a million times better than ours but it's still the same system - one front man and two wide players getting up to support him. the main difference is we've got nolan supporting the front line man from midfield - they've got lampard or essien. i reckon this line up would be the best use of our current players: --------------------------------------------harper simpson/taylor-------williamson/campbell----------collocini-----------enrique ----------------------------------tiote----------------barton/guthrie --------routeledge-----------------------ben arfa-------------------------gutieerez --------------------------------------------carroll

4-5-1 isn't necessarily a defensive formation, it depends on how you play. I don't think we were defensive against Blackpool, and when you start with 2 wingers and a shadow striker (yes I know it's only Nolan but still) it's harsh to call that overly negative in my view. If it had been like the beginning of last season where we sometimes lined up with a midfield of Gutierrez, Smith, Nolan, Barton and Guthrie then I'd be inclined to agree with you, but that hasn't been the case. If he was to drop Nolan and stick Ben Arfa in the hole, with Gutierrez out wideit would be the same system, but no-one could say it was negative or defensive. good point. chelsea play 4-5-1 at home and no one calls it defensive. it's the right formation with the wrong players - the system needs mobility and pace in the front 4. hughton's got it half right by dropping smith for tiote. now he needs to drop nolan for gutierrez. i've been impressed with hughton so far this season but he has a big call to make now and it's a test for him. at home, he should be playing our three most attack minded midfielders - routeledge, ben arfa and gutierrez. i don't mind nolan playing in the hole away from home but against poorer quality teams we need more pace behind the front man. It's more of a 4-3-3 like. same difference. 4-3-3 when attacking becomes a 4-5-1 when defending. it's still playing with one striker, three midfielders and two wide men however you label it - same as us.

After reading those comments from CH, i kind of hope Nolan picks up a knock and takes the decision out of his hand

it's filled a lot of dull quiet hours at work

4-5-1 isn't necessarily a defensive formation, it depends on how you play. I don't think we were defensive against Blackpool, and when you start with 2 wingers and a shadow striker (yes I know it's only Nolan but still) it's harsh to call that overly negative in my view. If it had been like the beginning of last season where we sometimes lined up with a midfield of Gutierrez, Smith, Nolan, Barton and Guthrie then I'd be inclined to agree with you, but that hasn't been the case. If he was to drop Nolan and stick Ben Arfa in the hole, with Gutierrez out wideit would be the same system, but no-one could say it was negative or defensive. good point. chelsea play 4-5-1 at home and no one calls it defensive. it's the right formation with the wrong players - the system needs mobility and pace in the front 4. hughton's got it half right by dropping smith for tiote. now he needs to drop nolan for gutierrez. i've been impressed with hughton so far this season but he has a big call to make now and it's a test for him. at home, he should be playing our three most attack minded midfielders - routeledge, ben arfa and gutierrez. i don't mind nolan playing in the hole away from home but against poorer quality teams we need more pace behind the front man.

What a load of crap. I've been to pretty much every country in Europe with my work in recent years. Uk has everything going for it ... except the weather.

Madeleine McCann. Pass it on. Bad taste alert

hughton has created a rod for his own back by making nolan skipper. will he have the balls to drop him? he dropped smith after all. a far more mobiel unit would be routeledge, ben arfa and jonas all buzzing around carrol with tiote and barton deeper and smith and nolan benched.

41,915? that's a lot less than we were getting in most championship games last season. is this all to do with ashley's spaz decisions not to sell tickets to level 7 on the day? i noticed a lot of empty seats up there yesterday. i was hoping to get tickets on the door next home game i come up for. is it pretty much impossibke now?

I can't take a guy his age wearing a baseball cap seriously

carrol looks far too isolated with nolan playing off him. he needs a player with pace buzzing around him

we did hughton sub our two best players? why did nolan stay on the pitch when we were chasing it? why did we lost at home to stoke? why god? why?

Effectively a pint of mix? They do it in my Dad's local but they litterally fill half the glass with bitter and top it up with mild. Budvar is bloody lovely mind aye, half dark, half regular budvar. love both, and equally as nice to drink mixed.

don't know if they do it in bottles but my local does half and half budvar. lovely stuff

i love fridays. my boss fucks off at midday to his weekend retreat in kent and the rest of us fuck off for a liquid lunch, following the gaffer's example. stevie, you should embrace your time in the smoke, though i can see why you're not a fan if you have to ride the northern line when you're down here. the tube line from hell tbh. take the overground into work every day and quality of life down here suddenly isn't that bad.