Boxing Day Footie *spoilers be inside*

Rest well and get better soon Mrs VdS

Im sure the situation with Drogba / ban overlapping ACoN before , and it just comes down to "luck" of the draw

(Im sure its happened in the past with players flying back from Internationals the day of the match and therefore not really capable of playing - but having the ban count for the game the club never intended for them to play. I suppose looking at it the opposite way Im sure the club may be more reluctant to let the player leave if the ban wasnt in place )
 
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Panzerbjorn said:
Probably because of his non-performance against 'Wednesday on Boxing Day.
We seriously lacked a midfield against Sheffield, non of them turned up and Guthrie was just as guilty as the rest.

Today, in the first half at least, the introduction of Smith and R Taylor really helped give the midfield some structure and strength which we lacked on Boxing Day. Don't get me wrong, I like Guthrie but the players have to earn their place in the squad and you've got to go on the most recent past performance. Based on his performance against Wednesday, it was only right that he should be dropped for Smith and/or Taylor.

Panzer
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Guthrie may not have played brilliantly but he was out of position and still set up a goal.

Nolan keeps his place in the team only because he can score goals but his general play is always woeful. Last night he doesn't get a goal and so he looked like our worst bloody player. Using that logic Guthrie should be in the team because whilst he doesn't always play amazingly well (although we haven't seen him in his favoured position yet) he has the ability to create something.

Even if you though he didn't deserve a starting place then why didn't even get 20 mins? Pancrate was rubbish when he came on as he has been since the Watford goal.
 
Visionary said:
Guthrie may not have played brilliantly but he was out of position and still set up a goal.
...
Even if you though he didn't deserve a starting place then why didn't even get 20 mins? Pancrate was rubbish when he came on as he has been since the Watford goal.
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Good points, well made. :) I have to admit, Pancrate was anonymous yesterday and Guthrie probably would have had more of an impact.

I wonder if they just over-exerted themselves in the first half and the lack of a goal caused them to lose some confidence/inclination.

I think if we can play the way we did in the first half for the full 90 minutes, we'll be getting good goals 9 matches out of 10 and we do have a strong midfield in the form of Smith, Taylor, Jonas, Guthrie and Nolan. It's just getting the balance right.

Panzer
 
Panzerbjorn said:
Good points, well made. :) I have to admit, Pancrate was anonymous yesterday and Guthrie probably would have had more of an impact.

I wonder if they just over-exerted themselves in the first half and the lack of a goal caused them to lose some confidence/inclination.

I think if we can play the way we did in the first half for the full 90 minutes, we'll be getting good goals 9 matches out of 10 and we do have a strong midfield in the form of Smith, Taylor, Jonas, Guthrie and Nolan. It's just getting the balance right.

Panzer
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I agree with this. Normally we get an early lead and manage to defend it, when this doesn't happen we totally panic. It seems confidence is still quite low even though we're top. I have to blame Hughton for this as well, I don't he's charismatic enough to get players playing above their abilities. He's doing a decent job as we're doing better than I thought we'd be but we seem to be winning in spite of his tactics in that we just rely on a bit of quality from Jonas, Nolan etc. to win a game rather than good build up/team play.

I agree as well though that the performance wasn't too worrying. On another day we could've won 4-0.
 
SideWinder said:
Come on Newcastle! 2 bets on them but if Derby win, i'll still have 1 bet carrying on!
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Don't remind me of ******* Poocastle.

Backed them 4 times this season and 4 times they've failed to win.

Yesterday I had Chelsea, Swindon, Bournemouth, Forest, Everton and NEWCASTLE.

On Boxing Day I had Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, West Brom, Kauto Star to win the King George (and he duly obliged), and NEWCASTLE. :mad::mad::mad:
 
Pleasantly surprised with the Liverpool 11; only change being Kuyt for Aurelio. Didn't expect Aquilani to start after playing just 3 days ago and was expecting him to make way for Kuyt:
------------Reina
-Johnson-Carra-Agger-Insua
--------Aquilani-Lucas
--Kuyt-----Gerrard----Benayoun
------------Torres
 
Unless we get an early 2 goal lead, which we won't because we'll sit on 1-0, I don't think this game will end well for us. Villa get an early goal and they'll run riot which could kill off any hopes of a top 4 finish.

At least Kuyt's back to help them :rolleyes:
 
Pigeon should have some more faith in us, Im sure Kuyt will do tons of runing atleast =/ least its better than having dossena on the pitch or voronin!
 
The only decent team we've beaten this season has been United. We've lost or drawn to every other top team we've played (Spurs, Villa, Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Fiorentina and Lyon) and on current form I don't expect us to beat Villa. Having said that they only played two days ago and are missing one of their best players so we could get lucky.

Edit: We've only taken 5 points from a possible 27 against the other teams in the top 10 :(
 
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Villa park looks like by half time to be caked in snow! should be even more intresting of a game since looks like they all gonna be slipping on their arse or into other players.
 
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