now this is not a blind defence of scolari, he has made some mistakes ( mainly relying on deco no matter how sh*te hes playing), but im going to try and put a bit of perspective on the home results so far this season. weve now played 9 home games, won 3, drew 4 and lost 2. the 3 wins were pretty impressive batterings of pompey, villa and sunderland. the losses were liverpool and the arse. draws v spuds, utd, newcastle and now west ham. we were very unlucky to lose the arsenal game with the ridiculous offside goal coming when we were fairly in control and doing ok (not brilliant). the liverpool game was also slightly unlucky as their goal was a lucky deflection, though we didnt play well in either of the defeats we could easily have won one and drew one. now the draws, i dont think we deserved anything other than a draw from the utd or the newcastle game as we were rubbish. we battered spurs and with a bit of luck or the bounce of the ball we would have easily won it. though we were pretty rubbish again in the west ham one, we should have won it as how the penalty wasnt given ill never know (well i do, rileys a joke and never gives us anything.) so, we havent played well but could have won 3 or 4 of the draws/defeats with a good bounce or a bit of luck, the kind of thing that went joses way quite a few times in our home games. i remember someone once saying he`d rather be a lucky manager than a good manager (not sure who it was) and i think he had a bit of a point. like ive said, we havent played anywhere near as well as we could at home, but we also havent had a lot of luck. scolari doesnt help himself by relying on the same players all the time, but i do sort of understand why he does it. theyre players he knows the best and trusts, but unfortunately for him they are letting him down at times. the problem is if he keeps playing them no matter what, he will deserve all the stick he gets. but for now can we sheath the daggers and step back. give him some time to settle in, the home fixtures havent been easy, there was always a chance of a problem once we lost the home record and thats whats happening.

now this is not a blind defence of scolari, he has made some mistakes ( mainly relying on deco no matter how sh*te hes playing), but im going to try and put a bit of perspective on the home results so far this season. weve now played 9 home games, won 3, drew 4 and lost 2. the 3 wins were pretty impressive batterings of pompey, villa and sunderland. the losses were liverpool and the arse. draws v spuds, utd, newcastle and now west ham. we were very unlucky to lose the arsenal game with the ridiculous offside goal coming when we were fairly in control and doing ok (not brilliant). the liverpool game was also slightly unlucky as their goal was a lucky deflection, though we didnt play well in either of the defeats we could easily have won one and drew one. now the draws, i dont think we deserved anything other than a draw from the utd or the newcastle game as we were rubbish. we battered spurs and with a bit of luck or the bounce of the ball we would have easily won it. though we were pretty rubbish again in the west ham one, we should have won it as how the penalty wasnt given ill never know (well i do, rileys a joke and never gives us anything.) so, we havent played well but could have won 3 or 4 of the draws/defeats with a good bounce or a bit of luck, the kind of thing that went joses way quite a few times in our home games. i remember someone once saying he`d rather be a lucky manager than a good manager (not sure who it was) and i think he had a bit of a point. like ive said, we havent played anywhere near as well as we could at home, but we also havent had a lot of luck. scolari doesnt help himself by relying on the same players all the time, but i do sort of understand why he does it. theyre players he knows the best and trusts, but unfortunately for him they are letting him down at times. the problem is if he keeps playing them no matter what, he will deserve all the stick he gets. but for now can we sheath the daggers and step back. give him some time to settle in, the home fixtures havent been easy, there was always a chance of a problem once we lost the home record and thats whats happening.

I think won 3, drew 4 and lost 2 speak for itself really. I would understand where you're coming from if in each of the games we'd drawn the oppo keeper was MotM, be we've hardly mustered a shot in alot of the games we've got nothing from. And 2 of the sides who've managed a draw were in the bottom 3 when we played them, and West Ham were 4th from bottom yesterday.

When you start blaming luck, and refereeing decisions there's usually a bit more to the problem. The managers who moan about luck and decisions are usually the one's looking over their shoulder, worring about their future. Paul Ince springs to mind at the moment.

I'm putting this in every post now but I will put it again. The whole season we have been without Drogba and Essien which are one of the best players in their positions in the world. I think some of the luck factor can be explained with their absense.

Again I will refer to ManU who have been without their most influental player Ronaldo. They are trailing us although they are supposed to be the team to catch. If you have a player that caliber the teammates are going to miss him when he is injured and it will show in the league table.

The other thing is that Scolari have been sort of helpless when teams are parking the bus at SB. He can't find keys to brake it. We have had no chance but to rely on Malouda and that has cost us. Also Joey's absence has cost us. The guy can't cross but he can take on defenders.

I think most of these things you can reason although you are as right or wrong as I am.

Bit of an aside here, but just a quick view on our home support and how they always seem prepared to swallow any bad decision without complaint, no matter how awful.

Now as anyone who has seen the Wet Spam goal will know there was a blatant handball in the build up. A handball that was missed,(or perhaps ignored?), by both Mr Riley and his lino. I was sat in my usual seat in the Shed Upper and was off my feet screaming for the handball and calling Riley every name I could think of. However very few others around me were doing the same even though, like me, they had seen it clearly. There did follow a very brief couple of half-hearted chorus's of "1-0 to the referee" and " you don't now what you're doing" but that was pretty much it by way of voicing our mass dis-pleasure at the standard of officiating.

Now I can tell you, with 100% certainty, that if that had occured at Anfield or Goodison, sh*te Fart Lane or the Theatre of Muppets the roof would have lifted off the ground with the boos and calls of hatred for Riley. He would have got dog's abuse for the rest of the game, not to mention, in the case of ManUre, 'oul Red Nose waiting for him to come off the pitch at half-time. Those home crowds would not have let him forget the mistake and would have put intense pressure on him to give a decision to even it up. And I would bet my last dollar that if one of their players had gone down like Lamps did towards the end, he would have given the penno simply because of the pressure the crowd had created.

I really have given up in respect of our support at home. As Geezer says, the MHL is the only area that can be relied upon for consistent vocal support.

I totally agree Just and it's something that was driving me up the wall before I stopped going. It's not so much for me about giving the ref continued abuse, but it's about having people at the game that are actually watching the game, understand it and care enough to react as and when these things happen. That forces decisions the ref is suddenly sure of what he's seen, because after all 10,000 others saw it and they're on the same side of the pitch.

Seating has made the fans relax more, people sit there chatting and not really paying attention and we all know that half the fans over there now don't really care anyway.

I'm putting this in every post now but I will put it again. The whole season we have been without Drogba and Essien which are one of the best players in their positions in the world. I think some of the luck factor can be explained with their absense.

Every team misses players due to injuries. Compared to the last two seasons we have been relatively OK. We have one of the deepest squads in Europe for that exact reason.

Again I will refer to ManU who have been without their most influental player Ronaldo. They are trailing us although they are supposed to be the team to catch. If you have a player that caliber the teammates are going to miss him when he is injured and it will show in the league table.

ManUnited have played all their tough away fixtures already (Pool,Chelsea,Arsenal,Spurs,Everton,Villa,Pompey) and only trail us by 5 points with a game in hand. We are yet to play any of those teams away and we couldn't get much against some of them even at the Bridge.

Every team misses players due to injuries. Compared to the last two seasons we have been relatively OK. We have one of the deepest squads in Europe for that exact reason.

All teams do miss players but I'd say we have been particularly badly affected this year. Our squad is only deep defensively but not up front which is where we have really struggled against the better teams.

All teams do miss players but I'd say we have been particularly badly affected this year. Our squad is only deep defensively but not up front which is where we have really struggled against the better teams.

this is what weve missed this season so far. drogba, riccy, essien, ballack and joey cole. now considering thats pretty much the heart of our defence, midfield and attack missing you can see how scolari really has had his hands tied with selection. for other teams this would be man u - rolando, rooney, vidic, scholes and carrick. liverpool - Ger 'National Traitor' rard, torres, carragher erm, ive ran out of decent players. arsenal - adebayor, fabregas, van persie, gallas and erm ran out again. now, the fact were 1 point of top doesnt look too bad when you look at the talent were missing. and considering that any one of essien, drogba and joey cole could have had a massive impact on the 2 games we lost, probably even riccy defensively. and im not blaming luck and the ref for the losses. jose`s team won plenty of home games with luck or the refs decisions going our way, im just pointing out that the tiny differences between winning and losing.

All teams do miss players but I'd say we have been particularly badly affected this year. Our squad is only deep defensively but not up front which is where we have really struggled against the better teams.

The only long term absentee among attacking players was Drogba and as important as he is, the fact that he won't be available for the first two-three months of the season due to injury was well known fact in the summer.

The only long term absentee among attacking players was Drogba and as important as he is, the fact that he won't be available for the first two-three months of the season due to injury was well known fact in the summer.

and joey cole, and ballack. so thats 3 of our most important attacking players out of 5.

Bit of an aside here, but just a quick view on our home support and how they always seem prepared to swallow any bad decision without complaint, no matter how awful.

Now as anyone who has seen the Wet Spam goal will know there was a blatant handball in the build up. A handball that was missed,(or perhaps ignored?), by both Mr Riley and his lino. I was sat in my usual seat in the Shed Upper and was off my feet screaming for the handball and calling Riley every name I could think of. However very few others around me were doing the same even though, like me, they had seen it clearly. There did follow a very brief couple of half-hearted chorus's of "1-0 to the referee" and " you don't now what you're doing" but that was pretty much it by way of voicing our mass dis-pleasure at the standard of officiating.

Now I can tell you, with 100% certainty, that if that had occured at Anfield or Goodison, sh*te Fart Lane or the Theatre of Muppets the roof would have lifted off the ground with the boos and calls of hatred for Riley. He would have got dog's abuse for the rest of the game, not to mention, in the case of ManUre, 'oul Red Nose waiting for him to come off the pitch at half-time. Those home crowds would not have let him forget the mistake and would have put intense pressure on him to give a decision to even it up. And I would bet my last dollar that if one of their players had gone down like Lamps did towards the end, he would have given the penno simply because of the pressure the crowd had created.

I really have given up in respect of our support at home. As Geezer says, the MHL is the only area that can be relied upon for consistent vocal support.

Valid point Just. It was always said that the Kop or Stretford End was worth a goal to the home team. Having visited both Anfield and Old Trafford on numerous occasions I have to say they are overhyped but they do complain loudly when decisions don't go their way and shout out en masse for any falls in the penalty area. Our home support is piss poor on the other hand and I think that is a major factor. Even on our unbeaten run at home there were way too many draws over the last 2 seasons and the 1-0 nervy wins were most common when we got 3 points. When teams park the bus at the bridge and limit us to a few chances a supportive, loud crowd could make the difference and gain us that vital 50/50 decision. It probably wouldn't hurt the players either.

I agree the referee and linesmen robbed us big times in the last 3 home games, in truth we should be at least 4 points better of now. I dont think if there is anything we can do about that, an unified hostile home crowd maybe the only soultion. However the truth is we havent created enough in the last 3 matches. We dont have anyone who can run against defenders in the box to earn the penalty lottery, something Ronaldo and the cheating scouser scums do at least 5 times a match. We havent tested the GK enough. I remember Green only made a couple of good saves yesterday. The direct Freekick and corner are a joke at moment, how many times have Ballack or Lamard hit right to the based of the wall? Most corners are clearing the first line of defenders, or looping into the arms of the GK. I think teams are quite contend to concede free kicks or corners against us, because they know we cant hurt them. We are never going to be the　referee's favourite child, I remember we got some shocking decisions in Jose's first year, but we were way too good to get past them. Moaning about referee will not help Scolari nor the team, better work on things we can control - passing, crossing, shooting, free kicks, corners.. The list will go on for another page ;)

I have to agree with DKW the footballing Gods are not with us at the moment . Blatant offside agaisnt Le Arse , Blatant handball ignored , Blatant penalty not given .

We are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and keep shooting ourselves in the foot .

We should be 6 points clear at the top not 1 point behind.

We need to be more direct and start to play a bit more clever . Instead of taking the game to the opposition at home we need to sit a bit deeper and draw the other team out . Playing as far up the pitch as we do makes us easy prey for breaks and we don't have the pace at the back to cope with a quick team . We also leave ourselves wide open with 3/4 of the team in the other half .

The football at the moment reminds me of how we played under Vialli all very pretty passing but no end result of people taking pot shots . We seem to want to pass the ball into the net all the time .

I have to agree with DKW the footballing Gods are not with us at the moment . Blatant offside agaisnt Le Arse , Blatant handball ignored , Blatant penalty not given .

We are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and keep shooting ourselves in the foot .

We should be 6 points clear at the top not 1 point behind.

We need to be more direct and start to play a bit more clever . Instead of taking the game to the opposition at home we need to sit a bit deeper and draw the other team out . Playing as far up the pitch as we do makes us easy prey for breaks and we don't have the pace at the back to cope with a quick team . We also leave ourselves wide open with 3/4 of the team in the other half .

The football at the moment reminds me of how we played under Vialli all very pretty passing but no end result of people taking pot shots . We seem to want to pass the ball into the net all the time .

Like we did under Jose?

Who was Vialli's assistant? - coincidence?