OTF

All of those in-betweeners bird pics are touched up within an inch of their lives. Looks belting of course, but I'd perefer they left her au natural.

No doubt we'll be ruing missed chances plenty this season. We don't have enough feasible finishers up front. The Stoke match and the Man City match are extremes though. I'm not saying that we should be making any complaints about the Stoke match. I agree we should have been a goal (or several) ahead in that one, which would likely have dampened their enthusiasm in the second half.

Hopefully better positional play can be coached into him. His attacking intent is certainly something that should come in handy in the years to come. Routledge is far from a complete player and it seems that Lua Lua may score a few so if Routledge doesn't improve his own tunnel vision Lua Lua shuold be pushing through next season. Ultimately though we should sign someone else to play there

So your argument is that if we had better players we'd be doing better. Don't think you'll find anyone who'll argue with your truism. If the referees get it wrong as badly as they have been there needs to be a pre-defined avenue for complaint in order to improve the standard of refereeing. You may be happy to cop blatantly incorrect decisions on the chin because it serves to prove that we should have spent more money on better players, but there's no reason why others should - least of all our manager.

Yep. It's a legitimate grievance. The refereeing we have endured this season has been shocking. Not saying that other sides have not also suffered injustices, but there's no reason why they shouldn;t bring them to the attention of the head of referees. What are they supposed to do, simply accept that the refereeing is sub-standard?

Good on them. These sort of on field actions cannot go without significant punishment or else they'll become more and more prevalent.

Extremely early doors but Tiote looks the best player that we've signed for a LONG time. Ben Arfa possibly the most talented attacking player. If they're third rate then bring on some second rate signings. This is not an endorsement of MA, but rather a disendorsement of Year Zero's comment

Our squad isn't bad. Could do with a striker and a right back but noone of any quality is available in January unless you're willing to pay overs. So all in all I'm not fussed by this. Our last premierleague January brought us Nolan which turned outto be a masterstroke for our impending Championship season :(

I thought you watched the Chelsea match because he looked none of the above that game. I did watch the Chelsea game, and he wasn't great in that (I mentioned that in my comments on the game). But I still think he's decently quick and has scored a lot for a midfielder at lower levels. The decent passer bit I may have embelished on slightly. Was more my thinking that he's a better passer than Ranger.

Dickhead has probably realised that everyone thinks he's a thug, so he tries to apologise and then fucks that up.

There's no hypocrasy there as you've more or less pointed or yourself. Nolan's 'challenge' was disgusting. Just about any other player and that 'challenge' would have broken his leg. I'd have no hesitation or objection if he had copped a much more severe ban than he did. Each and every tackle like that in my opinion should be punished severely. Once a precedent is set these sort of brash intentionally physical challenges, courtesy of the penalty suffered, will start to become less and less common. That is in the best interest of the game, the players, the supporters and everyone involved. The FA rule that deems that incidents seen by the referee cannot be revisited is fucking ludicrous as it suggests that referees never get it wrong. As everyone knows that is patently not the case.

I'd say Vuckic over Ranger in that role. Vuckic looks decently quick, can score and a decent passer. A long term project obviously. Not sure what sort of role Ranger is best suited to to be honest.

All said and done points dropped in this match were largely down to the officiating. In the Blackpool game we didn't make the most of the chances we created. In the Wolves game we were shaken up by their physicality which was poorly dealt with by the officials. There's some good signs in terms of our movement and midfield, however I'm worried that if we go a lengthy period without a result then we could struggle to recover.

This thread needs more pictures.

Nigel de Jong is an animal http://nigeldejongisananimal.wordpress.com/ Going to add pictures and supporting evidence to this, and then hopefully spread it round as much as possible.

The more I think about it the more angry I am about the game, the officiating and of course that cunt de Jong. Really feel for Ben Arfa.

2-1! Great save from Gilks there at the death.

Passes weren't on in my opinion. Probably a case of Barton trying a bit hard. He didn't have a bad game but was wasteful at times.

Liverpool lifting now, Blackpool need to get some possession again. If they give Liverpool this much ball they'll get the second and possibly a third. Next ten minutes will be telling, thereafter if there's no goal the final ten will be as well.

And I think he's trying to field 12 men. I don't know why people bother. Nolan was innefectual today. In the first half he tuned the ball over consistently. In the second he barely touched the ball. Tried to get about with some mock defending but he's too slow to close down at the front. Perch was far from his worst, as others have said he had a tough job win so much space behind him. Still could have been a lot better positionally. Doesn't read the game well and overcommits himself forward. Enrique didnt have a good game turned inside by Johnson, but it has to be said that the shot was fantastically hit and was lucky to slip through Williamson's legs.

Goes to show that the best tactic away against 'bigger' sides is to attack. Defenders look great when there's no pressure on them, but most of the time it turns out that despite the vast discrepancies in price and wage there's not a lot between defenders in actual ability to defend against a player running at them, or continual flowing raids.

Blackpool 2-0up! Frankly brilliant movement and timing of the pass/run for their second. Liverpool players complaining but was clearly on-side and called appropriately. Where were these refs for our game?

Our players can't be upset about their performances today, hope Hughton gets that point across in the changing rooms after he finishes slating the blind cunt cheats with whistles that made a mockery of the rules today. Our central defenders were good. Enrique and Perch (perch in particular) suffered from the questionable tactics of playing a very high line opening up loads of space beging. Tiote again quality, a fantastic signing I hope he stays here for a long time. Barton didn't do enough and turned the ball over too often, but was ok. Nolan was shit. Shola on the balance was good, earnt a nailed on penalty and I think a second also earlier in the piece. Jonas was great early on but lost his punh as the match went on. Overall very good though, his best game in a while for us. Routledge was typically fruitless, lots of movement and pace but no technique or vision. Krul did nothing wrong. De Jong is a cunt. Ref is a cunt.

Blackpool up at anfield after half an hour...