[Beefy 1965]

Just have a go FFS !!!

Then play players with pace FFS !!!

Then you just never know

Crystal Palace 3 - 1 Liverpool

[WBA-Josh]

There's a massive difference between having a go at home to Liverpool and having a go away at Chelsea. If we had a go yesterday by playing attacking players we would have been torn apart by Chelsea.

Look at the first half hour of the match, we were defending very deep and they were still able to get through. Now imagine us playing higher up the pitch and having a go. They would have got through even easier and would have probably put 8 past us. We would receive plaudits for trying to attack but the players confidence levels would be shot to pieces.

I admit that yesterday was terrible but away at Chelsea, you have to defend deep and hope to soak up as much pressure as possible. It is the same in Spain when playing Barcelona and Real Madrid. Rayo Vallecano always have a go at both teams and most of the time get battered because of it. For example last week Real beat Rayo 5-1 because Rayo had a go at them. Last season Barca put a total of 10 goals past Rayo in the 2 matches that they played. In both matches Rayo had a go at them too.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

What if there are no players with pace available?

[Slick_Footwork]

From watching Celtic in the Champions League over the last couple of seasons, games like this are what Samaras excelled at.

The guy understands having to get behind the ball and defend but is actually an outlet on the counter attack. He has the strength to hold the ball, so you're not constantly under the cosh, and has a physical presence from set plays, which is probably the best opportunity to score.

Considering how ineffective Brunt and Dorrans were in the Newcastle game and the fact that we'd probably get beat at Chelsea regardless of the XI, seemed like an ideal situation to give Samaras a chance. Still, Irvine rather persists with the most defensive players.

Irvine's interview was a joke too - "The game plan went out of the window after the offside goal". Well, if John Terry hadn't missed an absolute sitter from 3 yards, it would've gone out of the window inside 5 minutes. But for an array of saves from Foster, this could've easily been 6 or 7.

I've not got a problem with a defensive set up to hit on the counter, but it has to be executed a lot better than this.

[Beefy 1965]

What if there are no players with pace available?

Gamboa wide right, varela wide left

Anything is better than Dorrans and Brunt with no pace,

Im not saying lets go out all attack Josh just have a bloody go otherwise what's the point of turning up ? I'm fed up of turning up just to have our Belly tickled like a little Kitten with no whimper.

What was our excuse at home to Newcastle ? they are not Chelski either , yet same players, set up defensively by a negative coach and guess what same outcome,

Are we going to die wondering.

What does JP do if he doesn't sack the scouting network for bringing in players who AI thinks are not good enough.

Someone has to pay for this stagnant set up at the moment, someone is to blame,.......
But who

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

What if there are no players with pace available?

Gamboa wide right, varela wide left  

But Varela's been injured all season up to now, and can someone point to what Gamboa's actually achieved when he's been given the chance in both league and cup matches?

This is all so reminiscent of this time last year when we were demanding to know why Clarke wasn't playing certain players. "Why doesn't he use Scott Sinclair? Why doesn't he drop Ridgewell and play Popov?" Then (with nothing to lose) Clarke did stick those players on, and we saw for ourselves exactly why he hadn't been using them...

[Beefy 1965]

But reading AI messages that was after the International break and Varelas behind closed doors game he would be available yet not even in the Squad .

Regarding Gamboa he looked decent enough to me when i have seen him , but small Cameos here and there are hardly going to help including Ideye what chance have they got if they are on for 15/20 mins at a time,

We could stick with Mozza Dozza & Brunt I suppose and watch championship football I suppose next season.

I bet my life Mel would have had more points with this squad than Muppet Irvine has

[Tom_Wba]

But reading AI messages that was after the International break and Varelas behind closed doors game he would be available yet not even in the Squad .

Regarding Gamboa he looked decent enough to me when i have seen him , but small Cameos here and there are hardly going to help including Ideye what chance have they got if they are on for 15/20 mins at a time,

We could stick with Mozza Dozza & Brunt I suppose and watch championship football I suppose next season.

I bet my life Mel would have had more points with this squad than Muppet Irvine has  

This is what i can't understand Peace wouldn't back Mel's vision but we go out and sign players i truly believe Mel would of been happy with SO we've got these attacking players so now what do we do OH YES go and bring in a failed negative Irvine

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Fifteen or twenty minutes is a fair amount of time in football when you consider that it takes no longer than twenty seconds to run from one box to another, a couple of seconds to beat a man and put a cross in, and a couple to score. A player can't always change a game single-handedly, but if they've got the quality and the desire, they can at least show the kind of threat which books them a starting place in the next match. I wouldn't say that Gamboa's necessarily done badly when I've seen him, but I haven't exactly sat up in rapt admiration of his attacking skills, either.

Again; the coaching staff undoubtedly make their fair share of mistakes, but if a player's tearing up the training pitch five days a week and showing the quality and drive which could really be the missing piece of the jigsaw for us, I fundamentally don't believe that Alan Irvine then says "sorry mate, I can't put you in the starting line-up because you're not slow and British enough." There are things here which we're not seeing, which we're not privy to.

Pointing to last season again, all kinds of conspiracy theories did the rounds about why Clarke was leaving Berahino out of the starting line-up, but over time - when we got so desperate that we were throwing him on every week - it became obvious that he didn't really have his head screwed on at that point in time, and Clarke had obviously been trying to break him in gently. None of us knew that in the autumn, so it all became a storm of "Clarke's a muppet", "Clarke's clueless", etc.

[bomberbrown1968]

They haven't become bad players all of a sudden, the buck has to stop at the coaching & selection process and that's down to Irvine who's the head of all coaching and selection.

While you say you're not convinced by what you've seen of Gamboa, are you any more convinced what you've seen of Baird?

It's not only Irvines selections I'm astounded by, it's the in game tactics and substitutions he employs, notably when Gamboa comes on he switches Wisdom to left back ???. Yacob hasn't made a league start for as long as I can remember, but starts against Chelsea ???. And when we have managed to take the lead in a tight game he tries to shore things up at all costs to the detriment of any formation we may have had, Sunderland first day of the season.

His interview spoke volumes - "game plan" the only game plan we had yesterday was to go to Chelsea devoid of any other intention than to get 0-0, when we went a goal down that was it!!!! he didn't have another. The sooner people see him for his ineptitude rather than him being just a nice bloke the better.

There are 3 worse clubs than us this season, of that I'm confident, but I won't accept that there are 16 better