Happy Face

I'll paraphrase for you. "Stop being Fannys, booing and moaning about team selection. Make some racket and enjoy the best manager this club has had in years and the most successful manager it's ever attracted."

No, because there's healthy competition among the keepers. I'd expect Sels to drop off the bench once Elliot returns to full match fitness as Sels has already wasted his opportunity. But it wouldn't ring alarm bells if he couldn't usurp him, Elliot would just have to wait for his opportunity. Murphy hasn't played a minute all season despite being fit and is 34 in a couple of month. He's never offered any competition for a place whatsoever. I can't see any reason for this journeyman who knows he came here for a bit of wedge before retirement to get a place ahead of the most expensive player in our squad unless our most expensive player is failing in some regard to please the manager. I can't see how that would be beyond doubt? Like Gullit dropped Shearer and Ferguson and started Maric because Maric was looking particularly sharper than those two.

Thought he was coming back like other loanees, when .co.uk lumped him in with the ACON people

It's not concerned me while Mitro was still getting on the bench, only when he dropped even further down the pecking order. If Anita drops to the bench i won't give it a second thought. If he then drops out of the squad in favour of Tiote or Saivet or something, then I would think he must have done something seriously wrong too.

Rafa praised (£3m cover) Murphy's effort in training and gave him (£13m most expensive striker) Mitro's squad place. If Mitro has been training well and it wasn't intended as a kick up the arse then it's a kick in the teeth and you have to think it would damage his enthusiasm and hasten his exit.

Total Poster 20 ewerk 18 Anorthernsoul 18 Happy Face 18 Kevin Carr's Gloves 17 Ant 17 OTF 16 acrossthepond 16 Tom 15 scoobos 15 The Fish 15 wykikitoon 14 Dougle 14 Howay 14 strawb 13 MiddleAgeCool 13 StoneColdStephenIreland 12 @yourservice 12 Rayvin 11 barnabox 11 David Kelly 11 Dr Gloom 11 Monkeys Fist 11 ohhh_yeah 10 Andrew 10 ChezGiven 10 TheGingerQuiff 9 rogerbarton 9 ToonMarshy 9 zico martin 8 Holden McGroin 8 Jintsay 8 Kitman 7 Renton 7 tooner 6 McFaul 6 sammynb 5 Christmas Tree 5 gpirlo68 5 jonasjuice 5 SpartaFC 5 trophyshy 3 247 3 aimaad22 3 Ausman 2 vimalraja 1 AJack 1 angrysteve 1 arc89 1 Bryn5 1 Geordie1973 1 holycrosser 1 JonGoodwyn 1 Monroe Transfer 1 PaddockLad 1 The Mighty Hog

NUFC to Score 0 - sammynb, Monkeys Fist, TheGingerQuiff 1 - Kevin Carr's Gloves, wykikitoon, Holden McGroin 2 - Ant, acrossthepond, Dougle, Kitman, Dr Gloom, MiddleAgeCool, @yourservice, Happy Face 3 - StoneColdStephenIreland, Howay, The Fish, Rayvin, aimaad22, Tom 4+ - ewerk, OTF, scoobos, zicomartin NUFC to Concede 0 - StoneColdStephenIreland, Howay, The Fish, Rayvin, ewerk, Dougle, Kevin Carr's Gloves, wykikitoon, Tom 1 - Ant, acrossthepond, aimaad22, OTF, Kitman, Dr Gloom, MiddleAgeCool, scoobos, Happy Face 2 - @yourservice, Holden McGroin, zicomartin 3 - sammynb 4+ - Monkeys Fist, TheGingerQuiff

..and one more bit of balance in this monologue, despite being unconvinced Mitro is worth accomodating if he's reacted poorly, his only 4 starts before the Blackburn defeat were all victories - 6-0, 6-0, 2-1, 2-1 Averageing 4 goals a game when he starts doesn't suggest his trouble is fitting into a system that will work. You have to have some sympathy if he is frustrated, but as a young lad he might still need to learn how best to channel frustration.

..by this rationale, i would expect a long stint out for Colback after his shambles at the weekend, but the ACON might leave Rafa's hands tied.

Cheers Dickie. I would add, that I don't think it's cut and dry. The Keegan example I gave is counter balanced by the fact that he let Ginola get away with murder. He could smoke a fag on the half way line until the ball came back up that way and Keegan would be ok with it, because he was an irreplaceable spark of genius that oppositions couldn't deal with. He would do the same for Ben Arfa, whereas Pardew wouldn't. I think Keegan's position was consistent in that everyone was doing what was asked of them. Pardew's problem was asking Ben Arfa to do something he's never done or was ever going to do at any club and hanging him out to dry while other gutless lazy performers got away with disgusting performances that Ben Arfa could paper over in a single moment of genius. Mitro hasn't got the ability or experience of either of those players and it's pretty cut and dry to me that he doesn't deserve any leeway if he's reacting poorly to being dropped.

Mbemba's last start was the same as Mitro. The defeat to Blackburn at home. I was reading Touching Distance before christmas and the chapter where Bez told Keegan "I fucking told you" because Ginola wouldn't track back. He got dragged off immediately and didn't play again all season, despite the title being on the line. It's what the best managers do. They set a standard and if it's not met then the slacker is punished and has to work bloody hard to get back in favour. It's more valuable as a warning to every other player than 3 points are in the short term. I don't know if that is what's happening to Mitro and Mbemba. Clark has done well so Mbemba might just be being patient and training well. But I think in Mitro's case the pointed reference to Murphy working hard in training and deserving it spells out pretty clearly what's going on in his case.

But Mitro is clearly being a wanker and Rafa is trying to mould a player for the long term... or keep that attitude out of his team until he can be sold.

best reason to get through is to postpone the Brighton game and get it telivsed leter in the season.

Did someone mention turning games around after going behind? We've drawn one and lost one where we scored first. Winning 17. Which is brilliant. We've lost all 6 games that we conceded in first. Rafa gave us the fight to come from behind against Liverpool, Man City and the Mackems, 3 out of 10 games, when he had us in the Premier League. I suppose the rearguard action is more pronounced in this division when a team takes the lead against us.

You have a choice to say no, wherever you work. Just reading Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut for the first time as it happens. Excellent for anyone thinking about the employer/employee dynamic.

Watched inside no 9. Think there would have been lots of people turned it off, if they didn't know the people involved and have faith that something fucked up would happen. The payoff well rewarded anyone sticking with it to the end. Got Sherlock taped. Didn't realise it was another 3. Better effort than the last 2 year.

Now I'm doubful. Was Fish as vehement about survival last season as he was the season before?

I said it was mental to criticise him on new years eve and I said it was ungracious last night. So twice. I didn't direct it at anyone in particular because everyone's entitled to their opinion. I also made the point there and here about Mitro, that we scored for fun (16 goals) and never lost in the first 4 games Mitro started, but in his 5th game against Blackburn we lost at home and he was very poor. There is clearly something in calls for him to get more games and offer something different when we did so well with him starting, but he's not been started in over a month since that game when he let Rafa down which suggests either a longer term strategy from the manager either to get the kid's mind right (much as he did in the first month with Shelvey) or to not waste time trying to work on a style that will include a target man that can't act as a target and ship him out. The whole criticism of previous managers is that they never built a style of play, they would only do whatever it took to get a result game to game. Square pegs in round holes all over the shop. Underperforming stars played week in and week out, regardless of performance, in the hope that one game they might perform well enough that we scrape a win. Yet here are the fanbase asking why players Rafa has either deemed don't fit his system, or meet the effort level he demands don't get another chance as soon as a result or 2 goes the wrong way. Why we don't try Diame further back, or our top scorer at new year in 20+ years alongside someone else rather than where he's been effective in getting those goals as a lone striker. I don't disagree with any of the criticism individual players have had and I'm keen to see better players start over poor players, but I'll have a little patience while Rafa deals with the loss of Shelvey.

Both polls had 2 votes when I merged so I kept one at random. If you voted already, check it's still there.

I'm remarkably sanguine about RTW this new year. Last year I was shitting myself as people dropped like flies all around and everything they knew about that I didn't was dropped in my lap. We TUPE to DWP in a couple of months though, so I can put my feet up and live the lazy life of a civil servant soon

Someone start the Birmingham FA cup thread/poll please. I can't be blamed for this defeat, but don't want to tempt fate.

Fair enough. Been reading that we have to change to 442 though. That Mitro has to play with Gayle etc.

If I was manager of a team whose attempts had outnumbered the oppositions by 20 to 1 I wouldn't feel the urgency to make changes either. He made a change as soon as we conceded totally against the run of play due to player error and we had fewer attempts after that than we had before. Even fresh legged, Perez, Atsu and Murphy had less to offer than we had prior Their keeper made 5 saves (all prior to any changes). Our keeper made none all day. One of those days. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Rafa will keep his head while all those around him lose theirs. When you're having 5 times as many attempts as the oppositions, 5 times as many on target and dominating possession to the extent we did, you've done enough that you should have won. We've said it before on here that the system isn't just about winning the league, it's about getting promoted with the same system we will use when we are in the top flight, rather than chopping and changing ethos. Drilling a team in a system for the long term.

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