craig

You can't have Robinson AND Southall Gribz !!!! So I humbly recommend that you drop Southall (or Robinson) and include Neil Lennon.... How any of us can forget Souness pishing himself laughing at Lennon after Milan put the Tims out is beyond me. Neil Lennon should be in that fat 11 !

You are right calscot about the away goals rule and it being very important not to concede at home - but it can also be as vital to at least take a slender lead on your travels. When you look at the two results ours is obviously better than Aberdeen's as Aberdeen need to score whilst we dont (although I am not sure I would want a penalty shoot out). You have to be controlled and I guess we were, but when you are playing an average team you want to hammer home that advantage, especially as they may not be such an easy task in their own stadium. Pana were average or having an off game. If average we have to think we have a good chance of beating them over there. If it was an off game and we could only draw with them then they will have oodles of confidence.

aye, bust my coupon, and most folks I would think

Gav my man.... how did you like that horse bet today ?

I can too Jon, but I think that away to Slavia will be a tricky tie for them !

If his move to Fulham goes through there is NO WAY FIFA will let him move again at the end of the season. I just hope he realises that he will have to tough it out in the Championship till the next transfer window in January 2009 (unless of course he appeals the legislation to the European courts).

I have a suspicion that Slavia will be a tough team for Spurs to crack. The rest of them I like and would just do an accumulator !

You make good points Ian - by comparison to the PLG era we are miles ahead in terms of morale, standing, competitiveness. I doubt we will be dominant anytime soon though. What frustrates me is that the personnel we had available suited a different formation but WS decided that he would play it safe, to not lose the game, which means having to score away from home. Playing a midfielder up front ? Even you have to admit Ian that this one selection made little to no sense. If he doesn't rate Boyd and/or has had a falling out with him then he should punt him - if Boyd isn't going to see playing time then cart him out, take the cash and replace him, although I don't know where you replace a 30 goal a season striker. But it isn't just about Boyd, some of the other decisions were baffling - Burke dropped whilst playing well, Adam still playing whilst being poor of late, one striker (midfielder) and little pace to support him, Naismith dropped whilst playing reasonably well. It is just as well the defence picks itself or one would worry about the players he would slot in back there too !

I managed to get just over even money on betfair

That is as close to a mortgage bet as you will get. Off to go find that bet now !

I dont think Gazza_8 was saying that Pana are better than us, he never even looked at their performance other than to say that Pana never broke sweat. The fact of the matter is that we didn't a game that was there for the taking and it doesnt matter much whether that is down to bad luck or poor play. We now have to go to their patch where they SHOULD be a more formidable proposition. Ian, it isnt about whether we should beat every team that we play. You actually allude to this yourself when you said that they gave us 3-4 scoring chances - if they are that much of a poorer team than us then why did we set out a defensive formation and with a midfielder up front ? A European tie at home to a mediocre team and WS plays negative tactics - he should have been going for the jugular (within reason, obviously a 2-3-5 formation isnt called for but neither is a very negative 4-5-1). IMO it isn't all about us going over there and getting a result either - WS is playing negative tactics which don't even suit the personnel we have on offer, so even if we DO make it through we will end up playing the same negative tactics and Werder Bremen will lap that up and take us apart IMO.

I bet against the draw in the Dundee Utd game. Had 25 quid on the game being won in 90 mins. 25 quid profit, thank you very much

I fear a drab. boring game. We have ZERO pace in that team (Novo aside), and little creativity. It looks to me like a team which is going to be hoping for set pieces to create chances. McCulloch up top on his own is a mystery and must have Boyd reaching for his agent's phone number. Novo in for Burke.... not necessarily a bad thing, but Burke has done nothing wrong to warrant that. Yet on the opposite flank we have Charlie Adam who has been MURDER for weeks now. How does Adam make the team and yet neither Burke nor Naismith can ? Unfathomable. The defence and GK obviously pick themselves but aside from that only Hemdani and Ferguson are choices which make sense to me (Novo - hasn't played for weeks and probably not quite match fit; Davis - hasnt played for us at all; Adam - been poor in his last few games; McCulloch - not a striker, no further discussion needed). And then we have left out Burke - been playing pretty well in the 4-5-1; Naismith - see Burke; Cousin & Boyd - natural strikers as opposed to McCulloch Seems to me that WS wanted to squeeze players into his preferred 4-5-1 formation when, with the personnel we have, it was screaming out for a 4-4-2. Playing 1 up front normally only works when they get the support from swift breaks - who aside from Novo and Fergie will provide that ? Hemdani usually gets a nosebleed over half-way and Adam is slower than even Pete (and Pete is 96 years old !). The formation makes sense in that we have used it all year but that is negated with the personnel we have. 4-4-2 would make so much more sense, to this bear at least !

I think there are a number of issues surrounding the do you, dont you play Cousin issue. 1. Cousin wants to leave and has stated his desire to leave 2. He has had derogatory remarks about his team mates attributed to him (apparently lost in translation....) 3. He has shown on many occasions this season that he simply can't be bothered, he HAS been lazier than Boyd 4. Given 3 above do we really think he will go out there and apply himself professionally ? I for one don't - he wants to leave, has his transfer being decided upon next week and I highly doubt he would put himself in the position of risking injury and the transfer being cancelled. 5. Given 4, I could actually see him requesting not to be selected 6. He DOES have the talent to win games 7. He played great against Lyon and Barca but the one game where he should have been "up for it" which was against Lyon at home, he was completely disinterested again. I just think we should deploy the 4-4-2 - surely Fergie and Hemdani can give cover for the defence, allowing the wide men to support the front men and putting pressure on the Pana back 4 ?

I think playing 4-5-1 will play right into the hands of the Greeks - they no doubt will be technically good and if we don't pressure their defence then they will be able to pass the ball out with no pressure, allowing their midfielders to pass and move, creating space. And we all know that Ferguson isnt the best at tracking back as well. I think the 4-4-2 would be more effective tonight and I think our personnel suits that formation better. Look at the midfield, the 3 CM's would be BF, Hemdani and one from Adam, Davis & Faye(Adam has been playing poorly and Davis hasnt played at all yet - and least said about Faye the better). So if we revert to 4-4-2 we could utilise Boyd with a pacy front man (either Novo or Naismith) and apply pressure to their defence.

And West Brom should have been a win, obviously ! They have gone off the boil a little bit recently !

I hate it when home teams bust your coupon ! Arseholes. Would have been a nice wee win !

what was their score Gav ?

Gribz wont thank me for posting this...... I got a tip yesterday on the gg's. Had 105 quid on it each way at 10/1 and..... yep, you guessed it..... it won. Handsome profit. However..... also managed to lose a ton of money in the last week or so on horses, so the big win has pretty much just evened out previous losses for the last week.

Agreed that they have both done this. I think when SAF created a team from his youth set up it was what transformed Man U into the dominant team they became. They were already a very strong team at the time but when Giggs, Neville, Neville, Beckham, Scholes, Butt came into the team at such a young age he got the core of a team which stayed together, and improved together, for the better part of 10 years. They didn't have to spend a ton of money as they had a nucleus of a formidable squad (and when you add in that Roy keane was in his prime too you have a great team). Wenger seems to be doing the same thing at Arsenal and some of the younger players he has in the team have improved tremendously this season (Flamini for me is the prime example - last year or a couple of years ago looked no better than a squad player but this year seems to have made a starting slot his own - at the expense of Gilberto, who is no slouch). Comparing their records is very difficult, especially with time served and the fact that they both took sleeping giants and turned them round so well. What is beyond doubt though IMO is that they are BOTH geniuses.

Glad Senderos scored first last night - I was planning on betting Adebatyor to score first with the score being 2-0. When I found out it was 2-0 I thought "uh-oh" ! Would have paid 18/1 had Adebayor scored first, and I dont like correct score bets.

I thought someone said we were asked for 2 mill but wouldnt go higher than 1.5 mill. COuld be wrong though

The problem for us would be that even though we could afford to pay 2 mil for Macarthy or Santa Cruz so many other clubs in better leagues would be in for them. But it is amazing how much some of these untested players will go for. We were quoted 3.5 mill for Luke Moore.... and yet could have paid just over half that for Macarthy - unreal !

Would never buy a Man U top either... but I liked the retro look, was pretty neat to see. Did City not have their sponsors name on their shirts as a mark of respect or do they not have a sponsor ?

Did I say that I was going to be in an executive box at Emirates next month for the Arsenal Middlesborough game ? :fish: