The Fish

Vieira and Toure dominate that centre of the park. Has Sissoko got the cahonas for that? Doubt it.

Why'd you choose 11 games?

No nowt about him beyond the fact he's undertaken the herculean task of getting Rangers from the Scottish Championship into the Scottish Premier League for the first time in their history.

Gary Monk has been sacked by Swansea. Harsh iyam.

Letting the game pass him by has nothing to do with his ability, it's his attitude. In terms of his defensive ability, the boy can't tackle, hasn't got great awareness of hos to occupy the right space and doesn't play low-risk passes in tight areas which ends up inviting pressure when the pass goes astray or the player who receives it is immediately in trouble. We should be able to play with 1 defensive midfielder & 1 more focused on attack, but we can't with our current squad. That said, our attacking midfielders leave our fullbacks exposed, so we might need two defensively minded centre-mids to help cover the flanks? I don't mean we need two Tiote's, but certainly couldn't play with Tiote and, say, de Jong.

Can't defend and likely to let the game pass him by.

"Reality" is subjective bullshit anyway.

Yeah, probably. Bonkers that we sold Abeid for buttons. He had the rudiments of what we need.

I don't think we're on opposite sides of the argument here. I think you think I'm saying "lets stick with Anita & Colback cos they're doing a good job". I'm not. I'm only saying we should stick with Anita & Colback in the centre because we have nobody else that can do that job. Sissoko goes missing far too often to be used in the engine room. And for all his undoubted quality going forward he is 100% not a defensive or holding midfielder. This means we should sign a proper central midfielder so we can get shot of Anita/Colback. I'm only looking at the next 4 games because by the time we meet Arsenal we should have bought and registered a quality central midfield.

I agree, but I'd say those stats are due to a lack of form, rather than a lack of ability. Moreover my point is that we should keep roughly the same team as played against Liverpool (perhaps rotating the strikers) rather than trying to shoehorn Sissoko into the centre, or whatever.

Aye. I'd spunk 1/2 the budget on a quality Centre midfielder who can actually play a bit. 1/3 on a centre back and 1/6 on a left back. Charnley will spend £12m on an out of form number 10 and £500k on a striker from Gillingham.

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To be honest, there's an argument that we can persist with two guileless centre mids. We've the quality & goal threat from Sissoko & Wijnaldum and with Cisse, Mitrovic, Perez & de Jong we've permutations of strikers that might grab a goal on their own or from the supply from the aforementioned attacking midfielders. we'd be much better off with a string puller; someone who contributes to our shape & structure as much as he does to our attacks, however until the January window, rather than shifting Sissoko into the centre, couldn't we get away with Anita & Colback doing a boring job in the centre? Ideally their job would be done by one man, but honestly? we haven't that man, so what're we supposed to do?

Good. Much rather a boring arsehole like Anita, than another Nile Ranger. Nobody is saying VA is class, just that you have to give credit where it's due.

You can prove anything with 'impartial evidence' I agree that he's been shite all season, agree that those two aren't the pair to take us forward, but he was decent against Liverpool, as he was against West Ham. The worry for me is that he only pulls a decent performance out of his sizeable arse once every crisis.

Two of those have already happened.

That'll be it.

Who had more? I've got VA completing 36/44, then GW next with 30/41.

Ages; I use a dead man trigger.

He didn't like.

Split them into paras so it's easier to respond. 1. Dunno what might be happening behind the scenes, blood & thunder wasn't we we need it's control & leadership. Mitro is only a kid and will be slowly introduced to the league, imo. I think if we were higher up the table we may still have been playing him sparingly, he's a volatile but promising talent. I wouldn't bet that we've written him off as of yet. 2. That's a recruitment issue, but I never like building a team around 1 player. One proper injury and you're entire focus is knackered. See What Dalglish did when he took over. Signed players to pivot around Shearer & had no idea what to do when he was crocked. 3. Thauvin is similar to Mitrovic for me, needs to be gently introduced. I'd expect him to get similar chances as he did v Liverpool. And then starts against weaker opposition.

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Never seen him perform well in the centre, despite him having all the attributes you'd want for that position. And despite him drifting central when he's supposed to be out wide. It is a cuntnundrum and no mistake.

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