We have other players who are good/decent, or capable of playing well when others are on song. Meireles is a good player, but he can't be relied upon as one of our better players yet as he has just arrived here. Glen Johnson is more than capable, but he's having his worst run of form since his pre-Pompey days, to the point where it makes you think 'is it form? Or was his time at Pompey just great form from an average player?', Agger is a class player, Skrtel is a great defender on his day, Fabio Aurelio was always reliable for us, Joe Cole is a good player, too! There are some decent players there, but it matters little when there is such a gulf in class between the better players and the coach. Until we have an squad of experienced, workman-like players, Roy'll never get us playing the way he wants.

liverpool could be bottom after the next round of games

Fantastic. As I was always told at journalism school a picture tells a thousand words

Rooney says he wants to quit United ASAP www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010 ... ter-united I can't see him being the type to settle abroad, and he said he wanted to stay in Manchester, so City seems the natural destination. He's going to end up being the biggest hate figure in Old Trafford if he signs for them, a scouse Judas playing for City!

Rooney says he wants to quit United ASAP www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010 ... ter-united I can't see him being the type to settle abroad, and he said he wanted to stay in Manchester, so City seems the natural destination. He's going to end up being the biggest hate figure in Old Trafford if he signs for them, a scouse Judas playing for City!

It certainly feels like a derby win from this side of the park, mate. We have had to wait since 2006 for a league victory in a derby far too long for me.

You're right though it was very routine, it was a lot more comfortable than I expected and a lot more comfortable that it should've been. According to Woy, you were unlucky to be one down at half time, deary me, what is he on? we were by far the better team all game, no question and fully deserved out lead when we got it. I know you've been anti Woy since he joined, who would you like to see in charge? Pellegrini?

Meireles looks like he has something about him but to be fair he's only just arrived so he'll need to settle. Glen Johnson I don't see it, he has his moments going forward but as a defender I just can't see what he offers, positionally he looks lost, he's very clumsy and always seems liable to leave a foot in or take someone out ala Blackpool. Even at Pompey his defending was called into question. The rest (Skrtel, Agger, Aurelio and Cole I agree). People are calling Torres and saying he's spat the dummy out etc, I can't agree Torres is a phenomenal player, one of the world's best and we should've been worried by him today but the fact we never had to give him a second thought says it all, he's playing with some tat around him. He wasn't given a chance today, one decent ball he had played to him by Gerrard (and it was an outstanding ball) all game, he's given no support when he has the ball to feet and when two defenders close him down like Jags and Distin did today no striker can do anything. Just like players managers can be out of their depth and so far Woy certainly looks well out of his depth.

Agreed, Dan. If I was to bother writing my thoughts into some form of blog, iainmacintosh.wordpress.com/2010 ... e-benitez/ would be pretty close to what I would write.

Agreed, Dan. If I was to bother writing my thoughts into some form of blog, iainmacintosh.wordpress.com/2010 ... e-benitez/ would be pretty close to what I would write.

We sure did, FSW and Rafa's cracking up, there was plenty more too. All good fun and jest and he gave it back with his small club jibe too. I think Rafa was harshly treated towards the end, maybe he did take the club as far as he could, he won the Champions League with an extremely poor squad (by CL winners standards) but I suppose there's only so far any manager can take any club, even Mourinho has found his time coming to an end at his clubs, how anyone can think Hodgson is good enough to do something Benitez couldn't I don't know. His comments today say much more than any chant we can come up with could, any Liverpudlian with an ounce of dignity would've turned the tele over before he finished.

Anyone hear Hodgson's comments to the Norwegian journo in the press conference? What a joke this fella is.

Adebayor was dreadful and has been for a while. Along with De Jong being scared of making a tackle, we were effectively playing with 9 men for 60mins. Throw on a class player and we score 3 and hit the woodwork three times. Joe Hart made two saves, so all this talk of Blackpool playing us off the park is nonsense.

Football is about winning the battles in the two penalty boxes. Blackpool went from box-to-box very neatly, and disturbingly easy, but we were better defensively and we were more ruthless in attack. That’s all that matters. We were poor between the boxes but we won.

Ask yourself…were you happier when we battered Bolton (the time when we hit the woodwork 4 or 5 times, and Jaaskeleinen produced 4 great saves, but they scored with a pen in the 83rd minute) but lost 1-0, or would you have preferred to have had a slice of luck and won?

We were terrible for 60mins but you don’t always win points for being pretty.


As for the ‘foul’ on the centre-half? It was never a free-kick. If anything, the defender pushed Tevez before the alleged trip. Tevez’s goal was off-side but it was marginal. It was never ‘clearly’ offside.

I see there was no mention of a the blatant foul on Tevez leading up to one of their goals.




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Our two best players this season were signed buy Hughes.

Bridge and Lescott admittedly have been poor. But then neither has been fit for a sustained run of games. At the moment I would rather have Zabaleta at LB than Bridge, and Boyata at centre-half.

TBF I would rather have Bridge than Ferreira or O’Shea, and I would also rather have Lescott than Brown or Evans, I would also rather have Richards that Rafael or Neville.

We have the most talented set of players that we have had at the club for a long time, we are not in a financially perilous state, crowds are good, the club are doing much more for the supporters, ticket prices are relatively low and there is at least hope that we may actually win something for only the second time since I was born. TBH, Dave, you rarely say anything positive about the club. If we beat United 3-0, you would moan about the price of a cup of tea.

He didn't cover himself in glory yesterday.


TBF though, I thought Everton played very well yesterday. I doubt Yakubu has played better.

How many games are Utd going to throw away this season? Fulham, Everton and now West Brom, thos lost 6 points would see us top right now. Saturday's goals were joke goals but still we had another 35 mins to score again. The Rooney situation is interesting but I still think it will blow over.

As for Liverpool the most worrying thing for me would be the manager thinking that the team played well in a game that they were never in.

Blackpool were unlucky but for City winning when not playing well has to be a good sign.

No, what did he say?

It is up to point. So far this season we've taken 8 points from 5 games in which we've played poorly. Last year we'd have been lucky to scrape 3 from those matches. And to some extent there are good reasons why we've been hit miss - the new system & players and the injuries. But we still have a couple of basic weaknesses, such as the over reliance on Tevez, which will need to be addressed if we are to become a consistent team.