Papa Lazaru

Definitely would be starting Marveaux for Obertan, he's looked comfortably better whenever he's played and since Obertan doesn't track back enough or work especially hard if Marveaux doesn't then we haven't lost anything for the gain of a better footballer. And despite the defence having a cracking record so far I'd have Santon in at LB and move Raylor to RB. Raylor has earned his place i the team more than Simpson for me and he'd be much happier at RB where he is on the correct foot both going forward but also for tackling and intercepting. And personally i'd start Ben Arfa against Blackburn and see how he handles 90 mins and if it goes well and he looks well recovered following 90 mins then i'd start him for Best against Stoke.

This is the crux of it, every fan of every team would love every minute of it if they won trophies galore and they wouldn't give a flying fuck if it was done on the back of big money backing. So bitter manu fans can tell themselves all they like that City fans won't enjoy it as much, won't make it true in the slightest and city fans will enjoy it all the more with each manu fan like this who shows how much its already eating them up even though city haven't won anything much yet.

Always happy to see that twat suffer, spent the whole game trying to referee it as he does every fucking time, if he played for some nondescript mid table team he'd be breaking reccords for cards for dissent, but playign for one of the big 4 entitles you to scream abuse at refs all match and tell them what decisions to make. Fair play to Foy today though, gave Chelsea fuck all no matter how much they whinged at him.

Tbh Phil I always had time for him but the more WIlliamson played last season the more he got found out imo. Massive tart as well. About the same, i thought he looked less convincing with time, though still isn't bad cover, its more that if he's needed alongside Colo i'd be pretty calm and think it'd be ok, but him and Taylor together is more worrying as they lack Colo's intelligence, positioning and footballing ability which helps settle the other one down. Throw Perch anywhere near the team and disaster awaits, and that's the worry, suddenly we could have a back 4 that has 2 fullbacks everyone questions and Perch at CB! But if Colo stays fit the rest of the back 4 will always do better IMO whoever comes into the team, and hopefulyl soon Pardew will get Santon in and once he's settled into the back four we will be even better.

As much as City clearly have quality all over, when we play them i hope Silva is missing as he makes everything tick for them, he runs the show from start to finish

Long way to travel for them to get home!

Looks a bit like that posh kid who sold antiques then became a tranny! But fair play if he's winding up the mackems on RTG, that's always worth doing.

I've never understood anyone doing this, if you're a supporter you turn up and support for 90 mins (and if you have to then complain after the final whistle), if you're a customer you pay your money and if you feal cheated you give out some stick. It doesn't help any individual player or the team when the crowd stats jeering, booing or whatever and its bad enough say at halftime (though it didn't happen this saturday) but during the match is moronic. So i can imagine he did get worse from getting some stick which i don't ever want to see, however even with 100% support he just looks way off being good enough at the moment, and i like to give players longer than anyone usually. I certainly wouldn't write him off completely long term quite yet, but currently Marveax has to replace him whislt the coaching staff get Obertan to use what he has better and use his brain more and make him aware of the need to get back and help the defence and work harder. I think he'd have got less stick if the fans percieved him to be a real grafter who was struggling to deliver rather than half hearted and failing to deliver.

He was piss poor again today and Marveax showed what happens when you put an intelligent footballer with some skill into the position. I just think Obertan is Pardews blind spot, nearly every manager good and bad has a player they rate and keep picking when everyone else would drop them for a superior replacement.

If we turn up believing this is already won we might slip up, but if we are fired up from the start and turn in a good performance this could be a nice comfortable win. Its the perfect chance for Pardew to give HBA and Santon starts in place of Best and whichever fullback he prefers. But if he does drop Simpson i'd hope he would move Rayor to RB and put Santon at LB, which is probably what i'd go with, i think Raylor deserves to stay in the team more than Smpson. I'm going for a win with a few goals and some entertaning football!

Even more reason for him to prove his worth. Now or never as it were. Looked a good player (or good prospect at least) when he first broke into the first team squad. Left peg as well which would help for cover at LB. Might be worth extending his contract by another year. Can't see any reason not to IMO, he's always looked decent to me and as he can play LB and CB he is potentially very useful cover for us in areas we aren't exactly overstocked and his wages will hardly break the bank to give him another year, hopefully injury free to show what he can do.

Wait till he has to deal with the Real Madrid fans demands when they come calling! He is a complete bellend like, out of his depth at this club and has yet to ever blame himself for any of it, always shifts it onto the fans or something else.

Because of the long term injury i think he'll be fine for a while yet, but at the end of the day he nows he is better tha players keeping him out and he'll be desperate to get in there and show it and i think Wigan is the perfect chance to start him and Marveaux plus Santon and if Ben Arfa tires second half he can be subbed but will have got alot more time in his legs than 20 minute cameos.

They have 20 page long threads on our friendlies sometimes! I reccomend a read it is hilarious!

JUst having a read of the smb thread on our match, which as ever is about the longest thing on their board and the bitterness, obsession and jealousy just oozes from ever page, it really is entertaining to see their lives revolve around us over there!

Coming back twice against a potential CL side is good going and shows we have something about us. Though Colo was class and lead from the back, Tiote put in a great shift and Jonas worked hard and set one up. Obertan is the weak link though, offers little, seems to lack the brains to take the right option and doesnt work hard enough. Marveaux looks quality when he plays and has to start on the right wing now. Ben Arfa and even more so Shola changed the game for us, both wanted the ball, moved it round nicely and upped the tempo and its time for Ben Arfa to start against Wigan, as well as Santon who in his brief appearance did nothing worng at all and has to be better than either of oir fullbacks. So very good effort today, deserved point but time for Ben Arfa, Marveaux and Santon to take over in the team for me.

Nice for an international coach realising that a player shouldnt be risked and potentially crocked for his club in a match that doesnt really matter. Almost unheard of! Usually they run them into the ground not giving a shit as the club and its fans will suffer the consequences, top guy for doing this.

Speaking of Celtic, saw a link on the smb: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstori...e-at.6847421.jp

all the reports have said Ireland and wales will both put in a performance and it's a tough choice between the two, don't think anyone is under estimating either team tbh Could be a cracking game if both hit good form, i think Wales may do a France and pull out a massive performance in this game and get to a semi then blow it against whoever they play there.

"Leave it Steve, they're not worth it, you can play a song of your own to get back at them when we beat them!"

There's a question mark over Best rarely ever finishing 90 mins in the prem, but he's never really struck me as somebody who doesn't work hard enough for the team. Thought he had an impressive game against Wolves, as he did against Blackburn and i'm thinking he doesn't score when he has a good game and gets the goals in the games where you think he hasn't done much at all!

And that's where we disagree because i think Ben Arfa or Marveaux helping the midfield rather than Lovenkrands up front would have kept more possession which means Wolves getting the ball less, and getting it out wide less. So it does matter because Wolves like every team in the game do not score from every cross, so you reduce the number of crossess, you reduce the likelyhood they score, thats a pretty fair observation imo. I'm not guarenteeing it would stop them i'm saying i think its the best chance we had because they were on top (which is to be expected away) so we had to reduce their chances as best we could. And i wouldn't have brought Santon on either! I would start him next game though, SPurs will be a tough test no doubt, but he's got to get up and running soon and i'd go for it personally.

True but i was reading some criticism of Pardew for the subs elsewhere and i'm just dumbfounded by the sort of shite that gets written by people. If his subs could have prevented Wolves gaining the ball in wide positions (an idiotic idea) then yeah maybe Pardew could have done better. The reality is that we were away from home playing against a committed a half-decent side looking down the barrel of a 4th defeat on the bounce. They are going to get the ball there and they are going to try and knock it into a box with 4 or 5 players in. Its putting pressure on the ball out wide to make it more difficult to play a decent cross and as you say, back post defending. Where Guthrie and Lovenkrands come into that is not clear, apart from some vague idea that we would have held on to the ball more and thus prevented them working the ball wide and sending crosses in. Which is fucking stupid but nevermind. Without Ba to hold it up and with our midfield being overrun completely by Wolves you don't think somebody like Ben Arfa or Marveaux playing deep off the striker to ad to our midfield and actually get hold of the ball and start knocking a few passes around would have helped at all. Just because you wouldn't do it theres no need to call everyone fucking stupid, its a basic option to have used and nobody said Lovenkrands should stop the ball out wide that is the defenders job, but it was getting wide because we were not retaining any possession. Theres nothing stupid away from home about putting an extra player in to help out a midfield being swamped and that's what people have said. The other thing they've said was Sammy Ameobi was a better than Lovenkrands as he's faster, more energetic and would occupy them on the break and give them something to worry about, again, nothing stupid about that. He didn't have a big striker on the bench to try and hold it up or to help defend set pieces in the air if he thought that was needed therefore his options were help the midfield out or fast young striker to run them about a bit. Doesn't change the fact either that he's done a cracking job so far with results as i'm not one of the people saying its all luck, but he's failed twice to stop our midfield being overrun (QPR the other) and people are going to comment on that.

The interview SSN played was great value. S/He was defending Cattermole who was supposedly going about like a tit as usual today and all the elocution lessons went out the window - sounded like a squeaky kid whining 'why yu always pickin on us' . S/He's gonna blow . He always whinges about all the new players having to settle in, well firstly that's his fault for bringing so many in at once and secondly QPR have done fine with half a new team playing at the same time! Also cattermole isn't just a dirty, cowardly little thug he is also a complete retard, every time you see him on a yellow you just wait for him to make another moronic challenge as he literally has fuck all else to bring to the game and he gets away with it so often, he should have had more reds than you could count for accumulating yellows.

Yeah, poor game today after a solid display against Blackburn and i'd just really like to see what Marveaux does with a start in the prem.