54veteran

Any tips for a reliable stream? Haven't been having much luck lately

Nice to see the Liverpool revival stalling. No Gerrard, no creativity. Recovers from an injury and then re-injures himself in training. Maybe a lesson for us here too. One win doesn't mean we're back on track and it'll be business as usual. Every game's a friggin cup final from now on.

Brian Clough was famous for taking his team on holiday before important matches. A few beers and no training for a couple of days. It won him 2 European Cups on the trot, with a team made up mainly of rejects and bargain buys. That was thirty years ago, but the fact remains that you can over train your players and bombard them with tactics to the point where they freeze on the day. I know malaria isn't catching, but it certainly looks that way at the moment.

Echoes of the World Cup, where the French and English dressing rooms were not the happiest places to be. I suspect ours isn't that congenial at the moment either. Sort that out and the rest will follow.

He's the key because he's the only creative midfielder we've got. Much as I disliked Ballack in the role of foot soldier, he would have made a good guvnor in Frank's absence.

Nah, what would he care? Back to Serie A with a golden handshake doesn't sound bad to me

Apart from Frank, I'd say Drogba is probably our only football brain, but I think he gets bored and frustrated with what's around him.

Something's not right here. I think we may be seeing a power struggle along the lines of Rooney's with SAF. I for one don't really buy the JT injury, where suddenly he's able to play two matches in a week. More likely he's sending out a message that he's not going to bust a gut while the powers that be are busy squabbling in the boardroom. If the fiasco at Newcastle is anything to go by, players could be forgiven for feeling that they're kept in the dark and fed on manure. Maybe a pep talk from RA will work its magic like last season, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Couldn't agree more. You build your team round players like him. Physically he may have a way to go, but nobody can dispute the vision and the workmanlike temperament. Playing him just wouldn't be a gamble in my view.

"It's not a good moment. The bad moment continues". Actually, Carlo, I think we've hit an iceberg...

A very early shower I would think

"with Tom Huddlestone, Rafael Van der Vaart, Jermaine Jenas, Niko Kranjcar, Jamie O`Hara and possibly Luka Modric all missing, could we have a major crisis of our own" Hmm, so we can't get away with the "Woe is us" routine. I think we need to get solid at the back, and maybe forget about scoring goals for a bit. Drogba could make a perfectly good centre back to partner JT, and his distribution would no doubt be a useful weapon. The time for tinkering is over, we need a new plan.

There's still the Crouch routine to worry about. No doubt there will be plenty of free kicks for them to exploit, and Lennon will run us ragged while we're busy looking after Bale. I'd like to see us park the bus and get a 0-0. As it's back to the drawing board time, that would be a very good starting point. Do we actually have a bus to park?

I'm sure the local girls school will give us a game if we need to win something.

Chicken and egg. If he had more time, maybe he'd be playing better. At some point you have to take a gamble. He'll flourish somewhere, but probably not with us.

A pointless exercise this one. Whatever happens, no one can take anything useful out of it. The kids aren't going to get any better without real PL experience. Unfortunately we've let things slide so that we no longer have the option to introduce them gradually. It could have been a seamless, and relatively inexpensive, transition had anyone had the brains to see this situation looming.

Our situation is not unlike Australia's in The Ashes. Things have moved on and we haven't noticed.

We steadied the ship last season, but I don't think we can repeat it. Too many good sides out there. Everyone else seems to be building and improving, whereas we're just hanging in there hoping for the best.

Well we were lucky today. We didn't deserve anything from the game to be honest.

Total shambles. We'll be the laughing stock of the PL by Xmas

One wonders why everyone wants the WC if no one's going to make money out of it. Large scale projects equals raw materials and energy, and RA is a big player in those fields.

Why what?

Roman will doubtless have a few more millions after the next World Cup, and sending The Three Stooges out to promote our bid probably clinched it

Him and Deco were both playmakers, and we already had one of those in Lampard. Two expensive square pegs in two round holes I reckon.