You sound quite bitter.

Mori is a good manager, there's no doubt about that. But i don't think he would be interested in managing a team that requires rebuilding. He's always had the luxury to buy top players to complement existing top teams. He's a manager you'd want if you have a top team and need trophies. Not saying we're not good enough to win trophies but we have other more important issues to worry about. Matters like long term stability is essential to us, and Mori has a poor track record when it comes to long term stability. In any case, he won't come here - he has his eyes set on man united.

Monstar speaks the truth. As did Sheila.

Is it just me or Skrtel looked a complete different player last night. He was immense besides Agger who was also outstanding. Skrtel looked a lot more confident and his tackles were well timed and tenacious. That's the best defensive display by our back 4 this season. Never once i was worried about West Brom doing us some damage.

On another note, was pleased to see Reina getting the armband. Oh and Suarez was brilliant as usual. So good that others looked a bit meh to his standard. Long it may continue.

I know youtube hardly tells anything about a player but damn he looks really good in that video. His movement, ball control and the quick passing is exactly what we need!

Don't know about that. Kenny really rates him as a fullback and would even play him as a leftback than playing him in a more offensive position. I really like Kelly but Johnson's attacking flair is something we desperately need in our fullbacks. If we set out to dominate games, which we should, then Glenn will be the player we need in fullback. He has superior mobility which complements high tempo football and is crucially important defensively. In theory, him and Enrique can provide killer balls to Carroll all day long. That's not even counting the contributions from Downing and Adam. Finally, he is also a goal threat which Kelly is not - at least not yet. At the top of his game, Glenn can be a devastating rightback and the only way for him to get back to his best form is to play more games as a RB.

We had some good moments, but so did Swansea. At the end i thought it was a decent open game but that is only because we allowed Swansea time and space to play their own game. I actually feel that Swansea had the better use of possession than us. We were quite dire at times last night. For the most part, Swansea were mobile and fluid in their build up, and we were the total opposite of that. We looked lethargic and off pace. You know that typical hyde form i always speak about; unpredictable, rash and sluggish. I looked at the Swansea players making intricate runs deceiving our players to the point of stretching our backline and midfield, and all we could do to respond was to lump the ball forward to Suarez to make things happen. Obviously Kenny has his own gameplan, but last night screams for a CM to slow down the game so we could dictate the tempo, but instead players like Adam were hurrying the game and trying too hard to make things happen. As a result, our passes went astray or gifting Swansea the possession in which they made good use of it. Slowing down and pacing up the game, making probing runs as well as passes, all the stuff you would expect from us. They were the better side if we can be honest.

Enrique was as bad as well last night. I don;t know whta it was but there were times when both our fullbacks were just parked outside not wanting to go forward. In any case, the fullbacks movement is mostly dependant on the players in front of them and the upfront players were having their own sets of problems. A lot of things were wrong last night. Suarez didn't look as sharp and when he did, everyone else was fraction second slower to his speed of thought. The problems were mostly the movement (or the lack of it) up front by Downing, Suarez and Henderson (Kuyt in the 2nd half). In the first half we were practically playing with 10 men as Henderson went missing. By the time Kuyt came in, Downing started to go missing and Suarez was still struggling to find form. And by the time we woken up, it was already too late.

Arafat ? As in Yasser Arafat ? Other than that, i agree with your post.

It's not the goals i'm worried about, it's the unpredictable form. I don't mind winning ugly but depending on some jammy goals to secure a victory is the path towards mediocrity. Maybe we are mediocre at the moment, maybe the good performances are actually the hyde form - the unnatural form. Whatever it is, we need to buck up fast because the other 4th place rivals are already in superior form and consistency. Finishing outside the 4th place will be a disaster. Unless we win some trophies.

Even Agger notices the unpredictable form:
This post has been edited by hfi: Nov 7 2011, 11:46 AM

The key is CL football. This is the minimum expectation anyone can hope for. Even Henry said the minimum expectation is CL qualification. There will be a major shitstorm should we fail to qualify. And it's a realistic expectation since we have zero European matches this season. Our focus should be getting into top 4, not top 7.

The lack of European matches doesn't mean you suddenly become magically better in the league, but the lack of mid week European matches means we will have more time to train and prepare for local matches with no ill effects of travelling etc. So instead of 3 days of prep, you will ideally have a full week to prepare. Less midweek matches also means less fatigue, less chance of injuries etc.

I'm under no illusions that it will be a walk in a park to secure 4th place. But i think our team is on par with Spurs and Arsenal. They maybe a tad stronger but hey this wouldn't even be an issue had we not moved on Aqualani and Mereiles. But that's life and i hope we're not suffering because of it. Maybe we will end up being 7th yet again but i don't like thinking about that right now especially when we've not even reached the winter period.

I expect a CL qualification not only because i need us to be playing with the big boys but also because we need it in order to stay competitive. You've said it yourself, we lack the financial power to keep up with the rest of big teams and this is why it's even more crucial that we get the 4th place. Even Rafa would struggle to build a team without the CL money. We cannot let either Spurs nor Arsenal reaching the 4th place, or we will be left so far behind that we may even succumb to the level of Villa and be forever trying to balance the book.

I think it's because our formation, if you watch properly, changes to 4-3-3 during the game with Lucas, Hendo and Adam becoming the 3-man midfield. This explains why Kenny favor Hendo over either Maxi or Kuyt on the right side. Hendo tucks in centrally to compensates for Adam average work rate and at times dubious positioning.

This leaves Suarez, Downing and Carroll upfront to mount the attack. Ideally, Maxi can play one of the 3 attacking forwards but i think Kenny prefers Downing for pace, Suarez for trickery and Carroll for the big presence upfront. On paper this looks ideal and balanced, but it hasn't really worked out because Hendo has the tendency to become a passenger which affects the midfield battle. Compounding the problem is the fact that Adam can be a bit rash and wasteful in possession. Before you know it, the 3 attacking forwards are left isolated and are forced to come deep to collect the ball. Which is why sometimes we have no one in the box to meet a cross.

Imo, Maxi and Kuyt are by no means prolific forwards but they have a knack of getting in the right position at the right time. But this means nothing if we can't get the ball into the box.

Here's my take on the signing of Carroll. We didn't pay for Carroll, Chelsea did. Torres's fee was whatever Carroll's fee was plus 15mil. We held as long as we could before finally deciding to let Torres go and the deal was only made possible because Carroll agreed to come to us. We were also scouting Llorento at that time too but with only days to secure a deal, a foreign target was simply too difficult to conclude. Suarez deal took almost the entire month worth of negotiation, ditto Charlie Adam who we failed to secure.

Personally, i don't think it was that bad of a signing. Carroll looked comfortable in the Premier league; scoring goals and was even leading the score chart. Kenny wanted goals and he saw Carroll as a goal scorer and the stats wasn't lying as well.

Now you could say why didn't we just keep the money and wait till next summer ? Well at that time, we were still playing in Euro and were making the final push towards 4th, Kenny in his wisdom (and evidently justified) didn't fully believe Ngog could lead the line. In hindsight, he might as well had just waited till summer as we failed in Europe and ended up 7th. But who can blame Kenny for trying ? It was his duty to try and win a trophy and secure us the 4th place.

Well we already bought Carroll so this forced our hand a bit. I think it was the correct decision to complement the purchase by getting someone who could feed him. The problem now is the lack of contingency plan, if Adam don't work out there's no one else to come in and do the job. There's Gerrard but he's out injured. Spearing isnt the playmaker we need but i think he may soon be needed. If only we had not sent away a certain Italian midfielder.

Torres scored for fun when played for Liverpool but no where near prolific for Spain. Different systems, different results.

Maybe he's more comfortable and confident playing in certain system and/or environment so his finishing is more consistent.

It was a lovely performance by us. Not the very best but good enough to nick a win. Very happy that Maxi scored, lovely one-twos and the way we pressed aggressively to force Chelsea into making an error is something we need to do more often. And you get that by playing Maxi, Suarez and Kuyt. But i can see the logic of not playing them all the time given their age and fitness level.

And Glen gliding into the box and cooly scoring the winner was simply beautiful. He's a top fullback when he wants to be.