chicagoblue

Wake up Ossie!

Well, we've cashed in all our banked good luck. Maybe we'll actually play in the second half?

How is Jelavic offside from that? No excuse for that. Pienaar running away from everything, doesn't seem to want the ball. Everyone's touch is really poor. Going to need plan B in the second half. I'd have Vic/Velios on for Jelly right away and maybe Kev as well.

Distin completely loses Lambert and Jelavic/Baines bails us out, then we fail to clear, make a complete hash of it and Howard has to save us. Ooh, finally an attack, that comes fro a complete mis-touch.

Why is Coleman isolated against Lambert? This is ridiculous. Changes needed now.

What in the fuck is going on? This is abysmal.

The only thing keeping us in this game right now is the fact that Southampton are also fairly wank

Completely sold Jags on that. We're going to go behind if our play doesn't dramatically improve.

WTF was that Distin? Need to start moving the ball with pace and purpose.

Not too clever there from Nev

Better from the fullbacks there

We do look half asleep still. Need someone to grab the ball and have some composure.

That's a good flick on from Fellaini there, Jelly needs to do more with that.

Our passing has been quite poor so far. Need to settle in to this and play them out of it.

Glad to see Mirallas back on the bench, but Neville and Naismith to start...? Think Anichebe's a bit hard done by here. Would prefer to see two up front with Fellaini in the middle, hope it works though. COYB!

I completely agree that he shouldn't be brought back if there's any real risk of a recurrence. Once he's fit again we need to keep him that way for the rest of the season. Just seemed like it had been an awful long while since we'd heard anything about his progress. Glad to hear Moyes thinks he's nearly ready.

Strange one indeed. Any word on us deciding to go out and win a game? How about Mirallas, think we can pry him out of the physio room this week, would surely love to see us do something new as I fear Swansea have exposed us a bit as predictable and incapable of breaking down a determined defence. Mind, I can't really see Southampton setting themselves out for a draw with a chairman and new gaffer keen to impress. What say we keep the ball on the ground, work it to the by-line and play an incisive pass or two. I think I'm done with predicting scores, but I do expect a win here.

Quite possibly both. Guess it depends if he already has another contract lined up somewhere or is even interested in getting another one. If he's actually looking for employment after this year then you'd think now would be the time to get back in the shop window, which is definitely something we can offer. We also have a half decent history of bringing in older players on short term deals, finding mutual benefit, and then shipping them on to a longer term contract elsewhere. My guess, if we have any interest in him at all it won't be revealed until the very end of the window as we'll look for younger longer term options first.

Don't think it's per se Felli's presence up there, it's the kind of deliver we've been putting into the box. Having Felli as a target or back to goal striker should work for the team. Lobbing in crosses does not work for Jelavic though. Agree. Look at how we scores. Balls into the box on the deck for a one time finish. That's his bread and butter. Even better if they're being cut back from the by-line. For all Baines' excellent deliveries, they're not what Jelly thrives on. The crosses, floated or more targeted, are much better for Vellios, Anichebe or Felli. However, Jelly is so much of a better finisher that we really should be focusing on getting the service to him that he needs to score, not simply trying to create "chances" for mediocre strikers. Speed on counter attack would help to an extent, maybe, but Jelly is not fast. He's also not terribly clever with the offside trap. I really don't see him as a 'shoulder of the last defender' kind of striker, but whenever we look to release him it tends to be in that situation. What we need is Baines/Pienaar or Coleman/Mirallas/shudder Nais to get down the outside and near the box to play crisp passes into Jelavic. We haven't done that b/c we've run so much of our play through Fellaini. Just look at the statistical analyses for where Jelavic gets his touches. Way too many of them are outside the box and in the channels. All that said, I agree that Vellios needs some more game time. If we're going to keep playing crosses into the box, and we will since Baines is great at that, then we need the big aerial threats to be up there, and not playing on the wing.

... Malouda? Obviously no future down south, worth taking on for 6 months? He knows the league, can turn a game, given our bench and injuries he could be a useful option for the second half of the season. Couldn't see him starting, but for the last 25 minutes of a game I think I'd rather see him getting ready than Naismith.

Pretty sure it just game down to either wages or more likely to get lots of playing time at Stoke. Pretty sure he saw Felli in front of him and realized he'd have to bide his time or play out of position and wasn't interested in that. Fair play to him, but from what little I've seen of Stoke this year he's been rather wasteful in possession. Not sure he's what we need. Of course for 3.5 we could have tested that theory and made another quick profit if it didn't work out.

He's just back from injury no? Going to take him a while to get going and I suspect City will want him to be playing regularly, which we certainly wouldn't be in a position to guarantee. Can see him going to Swansea or Norwhich

Not a lot of goals for all his appearances. On the plus side he's been appearing regularly for the USMNT and would likely qualify for a work permit.

Actually thought Neville played his role perfectly today. Always on hand to stifle their half assed counter attacks. The problem was the substitution. Should have been Hitz on, not Nais. That would have left Felli up top and offered a threat from distance, which, since we weren't breaking them down, we needed.

Well that was awful.