Dr Gloom

Smith and guthrie all the way. Barton has been nothing but total pants since he signed for us. Agree about the need for a winger - jonas aside, we've no natural wide men.

shame that such as decent player is such an odious little shit

we don't really have a big enough (or good enough) squad to rest and rotate players do we? the best 11 has to play every week, often twice a week. the fixtures come thick and fast in this division

Butt geremi and Barton have all looked average at best this season. Guthrie, smith and Nolan look decent at this level. They should be our first choice cms. A new winger or two wouldn't hurt. We don't really have any natural wide men other than jonas and he's out injured

It wasn't the numbers that lost it tonight, it was a poor midfield. Butt and Barton have the quality to dominate a midfield - they just failed to do it tonight. kind of supports my point doesn't it. we need better quality and depth of squad than those two. likewise up front. ranger, carrol, lovenkrands, ameobi - not really good enough if shola gets injured is it

goes to show how much the squad needs extra numbers. the warning signs were there on sunday against cardiff

means we stay third behind boro and west brom

for fuck's sake. i saw this one coming actually. wonder what accadacca is making of it

i suspected midweek trips to the likes of blackpool could be where we tripped up

i doubt ashley will sanction more loan signings unless they really are emergencies. why increase the wage bill when we're top of the league and unbeaten? he'll want to do it on as much as a shoe string as possible.

----------------harper simpson---taylor---collocini-------enrique guthrie----smith----nolan----------jonas -----------ameobi--lovenkrands

smith has played centre mid, right mid and up front. he's looked very poor up until this season and still hasn't scored a goal for us. that said, on this season's evidence he is good enough at this level.

Come on Alex , You can do better than this. are you saying smith wasn't total garbage for us in the premier league? i'm struggling to think of one decent game smith had for us before we were relegated. he was a liability for us in the top flight, especially when played in midfield. good to see he's found his level mind. Someone can check the stats but didnt he only play 3 or 4 games for us last season ffs. Bearing in mind his injuries, the distraction at the club, his lack of games and his change in role, i think everyone is being unfair on the lad. Has he not reinvented himself into a David Batty. I also love the way all those who moan about some of us having blind optimism about our promotion chances are the very ones who have blind optimism about how well Jonas is going to do........ smith has been absolute crap up for us up until this season. i'm not defending jonas either btw Checked the stats and he played 4 games for us last season, 2 as a sub. why ignore his games prior to last season?

lua lua left mid based on what exactly? a handful of games coming off the bench? shola has to start if fit.

all of them.

Come on Alex , You can do better than this. are you saying smith wasn't total garbage for us in the premier league? i'm struggling to think of one decent game smith had for us before we were relegated. he was a liability for us in the top flight, especially when played in midfield. good to see he's found his level mind. Someone can check the stats but didnt he only play 3 or 4 games for us last season ffs. Bearing in mind his injuries, the distraction at the club, his lack of games and his change in role, i think everyone is being unfair on the lad. Has he not reinvented himself into a David Batty. I also love the way all those who moan about some of us having blind optimism about our promotion chances are the very ones who have blind optimism about how well Jonas is going to do........ smith has been absolute crap up for us up until this season. i'm not defending jonas either btw

ok, a squad of 30, but i count at least 13 with little to no experience (in bold below). injuries to say 3 or 4 key players will leave us looking stretched. promotion is no certainty, despite the good start. yesterday's performance was evidence that we won't walk the division as some are predicting. a valuable win, yes. but apart from the first 20 minutes, we never controlled the game 1 Flag of England GK Steve Harper 2 Flag of Argentina DF Fabricio Coloccini 3 Flag of Spain DF José Enrique 4 Flag of England MF Kevin Nolan 7 Flag of England MF Joey Barton 8 Flag of England MF Danny Guthrie 11 Flag of Denmark FW Peter Løvenkrands 12 Flag of England DF Danny Simpson (on loan from Manchester United) 16 Flag of England MF Ryan Taylor 17 Flag of England MF Alan Smith (vice-captain) 18 Flag of Argentina MF Jonás Gutiérrez 20 Flag of Cameroon MF Geremi 22 Flag of England MF Nicky Butt (captain) 23 Flag of England FW Shola Ameobi 24 Flag of England FW Andy Carroll 25 Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo MF Kazenga LuaLua 26 Flag of the Netherlands GK Tim Krul 27 Flag of England DF Steven Taylor 28 Flag of Hungary DF Tamás Kádár 30 Flag of England FW Nile Ranger 31 Flag of the Netherlands FW Frank Wiafe Danquah 32 Flag of France MF Wesley Ngo Baheng 33 Flag of Sweden GK Ole Söderberg 35 Flag of England DF Ben Tozer 37 Flag of Ireland DF Callum Morris 42 Flag of England FW Ryan Donaldson 43 Flag of England MF Jonny Godsmark 45 Flag of England DF Darren Lough 46 Flag of Slovenia MF Haris Vučkić 47 Flag of Scotland MF Bradden Inman

Come on Alex , You can do better than this. are you saying smith wasn't total garbage for us in the premier league? i'm struggling to think of one decent game smith had for us before we were relegated. he was a liability for us in the top flight, especially when played in midfield. good to see he's found his level mind.

long way to go. looking good for now. long hard slog of a season mind - a few emergency loans still needed.

exactly. he's a liability in the top flight. bizarre also that he has become a championship version of makelele minus the goals Makele barely scored any. exactly

exactly. he's a liability in the top flight. bizarre also that he has become a championship version of makelele minus the goals

agree with that. ranger put in a good shift but looked out of his depth playing up front on his own with little support from midfield. i'd drop barton next game or move him inside. he offered nothing on the flank. great result though

i cringe when i hear our lot sing that one. up there with "shit ground, shit fans"

we'll miss him today tbh

everything's ine. no worries. we'll hammer cardiff on sunday