gojo_ed

You know what, I would love it if we won from a handball/dodgy pen/offside. Just to see the tw*t's reaction.

What you are talking about, that was no way near over the line

Wasn't having Drogba on the bench the plan in the 2nd Leg vs United though? We don't want to leave ourselves with too much to do- we should be looking at it positively about our best chance of winning from the start rather than looking at what we might have to do in the 60th minute. Torres is hardly an awful option to have on the bench anywaym and if Drogba isn't fired up from the start for this one then he never will be.

Didn't expect to be in this position a few months ago :D I'd agree with that team, maybe Kalou for Anelka (though to be fair Kalou is far more dangerous off the bench than Nico) and perhaps Ramires for Essien, but yeah Drogba has to start as the main striker with Torres off the bench for me.

We can't afford to mess about with 4-42. Our in-form strikers at the moment are Drogba, Kalou and Malouda. In the 2nd leg we saw what impact Drog had on their defence, they are going to be nervy and we need to take advantage.

Alves is just a twat of the highest order...is there a game where he doesn't con the ref? I dislike Barca, but have to say Messi is unreal. That second goal...bloody hell, it's almost taken for granted that he does that, 51st goal of the season?!

Not sure where else to post this, I know it's RAWK, but even by their standards this is hilariously pathetic http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=274100.0 "I've voted so many times now I could almost fill it out blindfolded" :laugh2:

Stop the press Arsenal collapse after January... Bit harsh booking Cohen for taking his shirt off, the lad was in tears.

We'll be fools to let him go. Young, English and in form he's the type of player we need. Excellent servant he may have been to us, but what does Anelka have over Sturridge?

Wow just got back from holiday this morning, and now this!! :) Living away from home as a student I don't get as many chances to go as I'd like so this is an amazing opportunity, cheers Loz and I look forward to cheering the boys on!

I understand what you're saying, and of course I'm in full support of Torres and sure he'll come good...but are you saying that if Liverpool/Man Utd/Sp*rs had signed a striker for £50 million, and hadn't scored after 10 games, that there'd be no criticism or media attention? Look at Rooney's goal drought post the World Cup, going back a bit further Crouch when he first joined Liverpool. Admitedly neither of those had quite as much focus as there is on Torres but then again neither cost £50 million. This isn't a criticism of Fernando, just that the expectation and pressure is inevitable from the price-tag and reputation, although it is indeed exacerbated by the fact he's playing for us...

At the very very least he should be on the bench for every single game remaining in the league. Maybe shouldn't start away to Man Utd and at home to Spurs, but the other games he definitely has the quality to play at comfortably. Now's a decent chance to give him experience in a (relatively) low pressure environment, and the form that Lampard/Essien are in he can't do much worse.

Under-appreciated during his time here, we have missed someone who can dictate the tempo and control the big games...having said that didn't his FA Cup Final injury last way into winter, so we wouldn't have seen much of him anyway?

Cech Ivanovic-Luiz-Alex-Cole Mikel Ramires Yossi Anelka Kalou Torres As others have said play Alex, we need him next Tuesday..I'd play Yossi in midfield just for a bit of creation-Essien, Lampard and Ramires seem to lack any ideas apart from sideways passing, and running in straight lines at the defence. Anelka and Kalou have had few chances considering they're in better form than Malouda/Torres/Drogba, and I'd start Torres purely for the reason that if he can't score at home vs Wigan, he doesn't deserve to start the 2nd leg.

Terry won pretty much all of his headers, seemed the most composed out there. Bosingwa defensively was a joke, Essien and Lampard couldn't get a hold of the ball, Torres and Drogba looked like strangers...plus ca change

Seriously, we need to abandon 4-4-2 now. Essien and Lampard cannot keep the ball well enough, Torres and Drogba looked like they were playing different games. Ramires is no winger and Bosingwa defensively is clueless. Having said all that weirdly we could have had 1 or 2, and the tie is far from over.

Kenwyne Jones was a beast today. I think it was noticeable how as soon as Ramires was subbed our midfielder lost control completely. Lucky to get a point...

If they keep on playing like they did yesterday they'll never be top 2. They're far too negative against the big teams, I hate Spurs, but one of the reasons they finished 4th last season is because they attacked us, Arsenal and Man City (at Eastlands). Mancini's first objective seems to be not to lose which is crazy considering how much they've spent. I agree, apart from Tevez they don't have too much over us. Kompany is class but would he get ahead of Terry/Luiz? No chance. Ditto Joe Hart. Silva has fantastic ability though to be fair. Funny how Dzeko is yet to score a league goal yet this has hardly been commented upon, yet Torres' goaless run so far has received more attention than our decent form!

I'm not too upset with it tbh. We know we're capable of beating Utd, I'm sure they'll make a huge fuss about having a "European" referee but 10 years unbeaten vs them at the Bridge says something. With their injuries mounting and ours easing it isn't as tough as Barca/Real Madrid.

I can see why people are moaning about Malouda, but then again he has scored from similar positions before (e.g. Bolton away). I don't think we should be treating Torres any differently to any other player, both he and Drogba are in poor form and it's crazy that Anelka who has been scoring, is on the bench. What we do need to do to get the best out of Torres is to play the ball early, at Liverpool it was Alonso and Gerrard who'd spray early balls for him to run onto and scare the sh*t out of defenders. We're a bit slow and laboured in our build up at the moment, and when we do counter it's usually one player who runs 20 odd yards with it rather than playing the early ball.

Good result, bit sloppy at the end but 3 points is 3 points

With the return of Zhirkov, and hopefully with Alex and Benayoun coming back to fitness soon I think we are fairly well placed to handle these fixtures. I know it's a huge cliché, but all we can do is take each game as it comes and see where we end up. Hopefully Wolves can do us a massive favour today, then we can open up a gap in a game we really should be winning tomorrow. (edit typo)

A tweet last weekend from Szczesny: Ah, isn't life wonderful sometimes? edit: Ha just seen Plok's post, amazing

Terrible news, far too young...RIP

Good performance. Copenhagen gave us too much space and respect, but if you'd offered me that result beforehand I'd have snapped your arm off. Anelka was excellent, as was Ramires again. I thought their striker N'Doye was a disgrace...and as for the referee giving Florent a yellow for walking off slowly, if that had been applied the last few months I'm certain many of our opponents would have gone down to 10 men!