OTF

Not dredging back through the thread, but damn were they poor today. We should really have won. That chance that Shola missed early on.. Very disappointing to have conceded like that at the end. It wasn't the fact that we drew, but the way in which we did it. Any Sunderland fan who says anything about is dense and has some nerve. They should thank their lucky stars and say nothing more about it.

Though if you gave Butt time on the ball he could usually pick out a pass.

Agree that the pressure is on them. Problem is this is a good chance for them to beat us depending on who we put out. Fair chance they will bottle it I reckon.

Even if he's not going to play I'd stick him on the bench to play on their minds a little. If he actually is out, that's a lot of responsibility on Shola and Kevin Nolan.

I can verify it. He was at the ground at 6pm according to my sources. Sure it wasn't Shola Ameobi's kid?

Very different players (SWP and Barton). One issue is that SWP doesn't play frequently enough to judge how good he is at the top of his game. Moving Barton back into the centre is surely a target despite him performing well in a slightly wider role (he doesn't get too far wide that often).

Does seeem to have a good effect on others when he plays (not all of the time), but I still worry about his mobility and on the ball ability particularly when Tiote is not available to play alongside him. At his best as a pleyer IMO when he's reacting instinctively in and around the box.

With SWP I'dd have him here no questions asked - but on a loan. At 29 being so reliant on speed and being so small I'd say before too long he'll pick up an injury and the older he gets the longer it will take and the more he'll lose in recovering. Contracted to Man City until 2013.

I dont think I have ever seen him dive in. Didn't mean dive to the ground... Mean he's not patient doesn't jockey.

It's like punching the air in celebration, then getting charged because you could have potentially hit someone. You're undoing Alex's hard work tbh Because Alex has as much to do with your shite analogy as Tiote has to do with Eduardo being tackled. There's no limit on how fast you can run, jump etc in football so your analogy doesn't work. Driving at 120mph is illegal, running and jumping at whatever speed you like isn't.

The ball was in Tiote's possession (under his foot) when the contact occurred. Prior to that noone was in contact with the ball.

You're right, we should judge him on what didn't happen, rather than what actually did.

It's like punching the air in celebration, then getting charged because you could have potentially hit someone.

You're wrong. You've heard it from referees, etc. It's not a tackle and it's not a challenge, Tiote is going for a ball that noone is in possession of. He gets to the ball first. End of story. The above challenges are completely different as they all go directly into the player. Tiote goes directly into the ball, then contact occurs because the Stevenage player is continuing on his run. Factually it is the Stevenage player that initiates the contact against Tiote who is in possession of the ball. I can't see what Tiote's history and tackles by other players have to do with this?

... or he should beat his man, and get his head up so that he can make a pass instead of putting in a blind cross. There's plenty of value in being able to beat a man even if you can't cross. Mentally it will make their players back off and will give us more time on the ball. Beat your man and make a short pass. It's defensively that I worry about Routledge, he seems to do quite a bit of running in defense but has no patience, diving in too often and is poor positionally. Larsson from the half that I watched reads the game a hell of a lot better and is good positionally in defense, not overcommitting himself in attack and picking up off the ball runs.

Some more images of the incident. ..and some decent footage of it from 12:00 minutes... http://rutube.ru/tracks/3966724.html?v=f68...;bmstart=720240

I was really hoping he would be in by Sunday to play on the right with barton in the middle! Yeah, Routledge isn't the right man for a derby match, without a new player down the right our options are extremely limited. I don't like the idea of anyone but Tiote playing alongside Nolan in the middle, so perhaps play Nolan in behind Carroll with Barton and Guthrie in the middle and Routledge on the right and Jonas on the left.

Routledge was good for us in the second half of last season. Larsson would improve us.

What are the motives and benefits of those conducting the experimentation with contrails? ...and does your tin foil hat heat up on a hot day, or is this not an issue because you don't leave your bunker?

If he's not going to play him it makes sense. It's only a month and Jose is over his virus. I guess what puzzles me is why Lee Clark could see him in a left-back position but Pardew prefers to play Perch there when Jose is out. Tis annoying. I was hoping that we'd have seen more of Kadar thus far. Enrique out was a good chance for him to play, so was the FA Cup match. Those couple of looks at Perch should have showed Pardew his value.

About 5 times the player Smith is then....

More likely to be Guthrie I'd say, but Gosling might get on the pitch.

Would have improved our squad that's for sure. Not being held to ransom on wages is one thing, but if they keep scrimping we'll end up with noone.

Should have locked him in a room with Smith when he was at his worst with the flu. Having Enrique back makes a huge difference as he is confident in possession and is of course our best defender.

He's over the injury, had been back in full training for a few weeks, playing his first behind closed doors game shortly... unless you mean it will take an additional 3 months to get match fitness/sharpness like it did Michael Owen constantly.