ethicalstrategy

After watching the match against Fulham I'm less worried than I was. They were incredibly lucky to come away with all the points. Fulham absolutely battered them in the second half and it was only a combination of poor finishing, last ditch defending and some very bad luck that stopped them taking all three points.

Watching Vampire Lovers on MGM. Brings back memories from when I was a teenager. Ingrid Pitt was really quite stunning. There really are some magnificent breasts on show!!

Not much of a performance, but I thought Malouda was our most threatening player. He played some great crosses and looked dangerous. Unfortunately he only had Torres and Anelka to help him, which was like playing with both legs tied behind his back!!

Can't say I saw anything that got me excited

West Lower He never showed for the ball and his runs were all away from the man in possession. It seems that if we can't put it on a plate for him he offers little else.

Torres was completely absent on Saturday. He may as well of not been on the pitch for all the use he was. Which given our general attacking play was good says an awful lot about him. He had been showing good signs recently but on Saturday he was anonymous.

It's definitely all about the system and getting the players to implement it under pressure and against the better sides. On Saturday it broke down. The blame can't all be pushed on to the defenders. It starts from the front. We didn't press as we have to and so Arsenal had time to pick their passes. Individuals didn't stick to their jobs and we got punished. It may well be that we need some personnel changes but in the meantime it's up to AVB to stick to his guns and drill the players to carry out his instructions.

It was a car crash of a match that's for sure. But we have to hold our nerve. There is no point in looking to change and then reverting back at the first sign of trouble. We were shocking at the back but at least two of their goals were down to individual errors rather than the system. Let's just put it behind us and move on.

It should be called "the last but one man" rule really.

I say we should keep playing him. How else is he going to learn what he can and can't get away with in the PL? People are keen to focus on his errors but he also gives us pace at the back and terrific distribution - which is vital against teams that sit back against us. If he's still making the same mistakes this time next year then by all means crucify him. In the meantime a little patience wouldn't hurt. Most wanted to give Torres time, so why not Luiz?

I couldn't agree with you less. He's an inarticulate moron. Which puts him in good company on Talksh*te

He's a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. If he plays it should be as the central striker. He is not dissimilar to Torres in terms of the runs he makes. If he plays deeper then he slows play down too much for my liking, I thought he played much as he always does for us. Good on the ball, intelligent, but not clinical in front of goal.

I thought the Sturridge incident was pretty much identical to the Boswinga/SWP incident on Sunday. Having said that, I don't think Bosingwa should have been sent off. From watching the BBC highlights I don't think Malouda should be coming in for criticism. He seemed to be our main playmaker and did very well. I think once we are on the defensive with a man down then players like Josh and Mata are always likely to give way as they don't have the physical strength to cope with how AVB wants us to play in those circumstances. Although we didn't win against QPR, it is hard to be critical of how we set up to play with 9 men in the second half. The same can be said last night, although we did ride our luck a bit whilst a man down.

I watched the Madrid game last night and they played a very high intensity pressing game very high up the pitch against Villareal. It seems that even Jose has seen how effective this is for Barca and is looking to implement it. AVB is a big fan of Guardiola and you can see his influence in the new style we are looking to adopt. It may bring a bit of pain in the short term but I think it has to be the right way to go.

This is a really difficult case. He clearly used the words - the video is pretty conclusive and in any case he has admitted to using them as well so that is not in dispute. Ferdinand appears to be unaware of anything and has not put his name to the complaint that QPR have made. He really needs to come out and say something publicly on the matter. Whilst that is good that he didn't apparently know anything about any of this until after the game, it does call in to question JT's explanation of why he said what he said. I don't believe the JT is racist. He has played with too many black players for too long a time. If there was anything to the suggestions that he was racist it would have come out long before now. My guess is that he will not be found guilty but that won't stop people with an agenda tarring him with the racist brush. We are seeing it already in the press and on the social media. Luckily JT seems to have a rhinoceros hide so I don't think it will affect him too much. Having said that, his unwavering self belief is not always to his advantage.

I definitely like the way we have been playing and we have to persevere with it even if we do lose a few matches. We should be able to give Arsenal a lot more problems than they give us. Although we have looked vulnerable on the break most of the goals we have conceded have been from set pieces and poor defending not counter attacks.

A very interesting article. Hopefully it will encourage some sensible football debate on here instead of some of the crap that's been flying around lately!

Great. Just what we need. Another QPR thread!

Couldn't think of anything constructive to say so just tidied up the thread title instead!

Should have gone to specsavers!! Nasri was definitely tripped. Cast iron penalty.

I love Giles Smith

I'm going to credit you with a degree of irony in that post! The goal apart, Frank had a very good all round game. He worked hard, linked the play, got forward and played at least two defence splitting balls that ought to have resulted in goals. Maybe it was because we played against a team that also wanted to play rather than just packed the midfield and defence.

Yep. I thought Luiz looked very good. Bosingwa was his usual self. Mixture of good and bad. But the good doesn't out weigh the bad for me. Thought we played well. Valencia are a good side. Shame to concede late but overall I'm not unhappy.

Have to agree on Ribery. Haven't always been his biggest fan but he looks in good form now. A Chelsea frontline with Ribery and Robben wide and Mata in behind Torres would be pretty awesome.

Not too sure what to think about tonights match. I think I'd be pretty happy with a point. We saw last night that City and Utd are not all that. At least City had the excuse that they were away to a very good team. Utd at home to a middling team paid the price for the fact that they are crap in midfield and dodgy at the back. I hope we will be shown to be made of sterner stuff. I think we can be fairly sure that Torres, Mata and Anelka will start up front. The only alternative is to play Drgba and Torres with Mata in behind, but that's less likely. I think we might see Miereles, Ramires and Frank in midfield. In defence it will likely be the same five that started at the weekend.