Mad Scientist

The only good point? I though there were more good points than that. The return of Masch (who played well, we've missed him), the return of 4231, the best performance so far this season. The last one is not saying much and it wasn't a vast improvement, but I think it was an improvement none the less - I thought we looked like a team rather than a collection of individuals for the first time this season. I also think Arbeloa played better than he has been doing, Carra and Skrtel both played well, and Keane had his best game so far. Ngog also did ok when he came on. And Kuyt actually got substituted. All mildly encouraging. The international break has (for once) come at the right time for us, we've got some more time now to get the new players bedded in and get our two best players on the mend.

I see that Lucas started on the left and Keane in the middle. Then they swapped for a bit. Then in the second half Keane was in the middle again and Lucas went right and Kuyt left. Rafa said he asked Keane to come to the left a bit more in the first half, and spend more time in the center in the second. Maybe Keane was able to create chances because the Villa midfielders and defenders weren't sure where he was going to pop up next. A revolutionary concept that one.

I think Keane has been trying a bit too hard if anything, he needs to relax and enjoy his football and we'll see him improve further. All this 'Keane was playing wide left' is ignorant nonsense. Keane, Kuyt and Lucas were swapping positions in the three behind the striker all match. That's what the 4231 is all about. I thought most of the attacking threat we had yesterday was coming through Keane, who had his best game for us so far. He probably should have scored himself, and he made good chances for both Ngog and Alonso.

With a very good reason - it always takes time for new players to settle into the team, regardless what league they've come from. There's a chance they might settle in a few games quicker if they've come from the Premier League - i.e. they already know what English football is like - but they still need time to get to know their team mates and what their new manager wants from them. This season is even worse than most because half our first team didn't even get a proper pre-season. Now, everyone is back, and it's looking like our last addition will be in before the weekend. We're still going to need 10 or 15 games to hit our stride fully, and the injury to our best player is not going to help either. The 4231 with Gerrard in behind Torres worked really well towards the end of last season. Having said that I still don't think that second striker is Gerrard's best position - he's great going forward but nowhere near as good if his back is towards the goal. So that's why I think Keane has been bought. He's going to take Gerrard's position in the center of the three and Gerrard will move right, replacing Kuyt, who will be the backup for the 3 starters (Babel/Riera, Keane, Gerrard). Gerrard's best season for me was not last season, it was the one where he spent most of it at right wing, and I think the advanced attacking role to the right of the 4231 will suit his strengths well and still allow him to link up with Torres. I expect that the three behind Torres will also interchange during the match, and the two wider players could well swap sides as well. It was also noticeable that Gerrard got moved around during the matches last season as other players got subbed on or off, and I expect that will continue as well. We haven't been able to play 4231 yet this season because we've only had one senior player available who is suitable to play in the 2 - Alonso. Now that Masch and Lucas are back we'll revert to Rafa's favoured formation, with two from Masch/Lucas/Xabi in the 2, and three from Gerrard/Babel/Keane/Riera/Kuyt/Benayoun/El Zhar in the 3 behind Torres; and with Kuyt or Keane able to move up front if Torres picks up a knock or needs a rest. As Rafa has already said - with the whole team struggling at the moment the strikers are not being given a chance to shine. Neither Keane nor Torres have stood out in the matches played so far. Writing Keane off after four games is just thick.

Kuyt reminds me of Carra too. Gives 100% every game and would run through brick walls for the club. Also not the best technical skills or passing ability, limited goal threat and not the quickest. The difference is, one's a centre back and the other's a striker/wide midfielder. It would be an interesting experiment - to employ Carra for a match in Kuyt's position and see if we could notice any difference (I not sure we'd want to try it the other way round though!).

Our cunning plan is to play absolutely rubbish but just do enough to eke out results for the first five games of the season (yes, we'll be rubbish vs. Villa too, and win it with a jammy deflected goal in the 87th minute). It's all to lull the mancs into a false sense of security, which we will then ruthlessly dispel with an astonishing display of breathtaking attacking football when we play them in a few weeks time.

Yes.

It's when you realise that the same comments will be posted by certain posters after every single match where we either don't play well, or don't win (or - heaven forbid - both at the same time)... then you will be able to feel your will to live start draining away. It's like Groundhog Day without the comedy or the happy ending. "It's going to be cold, it's going to be grey, and it's going to last you for the rest of your life".

From what (little) I've seen of Riera, he reminds me a bit of the player he'll be replacing in the squad - Harry Kewell. Can use both feet but very obviously prefers his left. He's a bit taller and he's faster than Kewell (or at least faster than Kewell could manage in the last few seasons).

It's called 'facebook' apparently.

One think I noticed, given that it was an away game - Dossena was up the other end of the pitch much more often than I remember seeing either of our full backs during away matches last season.

Is Ryan Flynn in the first team squad this season?

I think I'm starting to see a glimmer of Rafa's master plan. Keane scored against us last season - we sign Keane. Downing scored against us last season - we're linked to Downing. Cole usually scores against us (although I don't think he managed it last season?) - now we're linked to Cole as well. And Riise has been sold. So if we sign everyone who scores against us (and sell Riise) we'll stop conceding goals and the league will be ours! Genius. Expect links to Fabregas soon

(Wrote this a few days ago, but the transfer thread got closed and a new one started while I was writing it and there was a pointed note in the new thread about 'keeping on topic'. It probably belongs in here anyway!) There's been some comments about Xabi maybe not being so good at the 'pass and move' stuff. I'm always suprised when the 'ground covered during a match' stats are shown. Xabi is nearly always in the top two of our players. It never seems to me that he does that much running around, but he often covers more ground than any of our other players during a game. I really rate Xabi. Given time and space he's probably the best long range passer of the ball in the Premier League - that's proper 'genius' level passing we're talking about. The problem is - if he's denied that time and space he gets demoted to being 'merely' a very good central midfielder... who lacks a yard a pace. I don't think there's much point in arguing against this, he does lack acceleration (in particular), and even his top speed is not that impressive. (Side note - I think this is one of the reasons why he has become a good passer of the ball - he's not going to beat someone with a change of pace and he's too slow to effectively dribble, so he makes the ball do the work instead.) Xabi has good positional sense, is tough as hell, and works his nads off during a game to make up for his lask of speed off the mark. Up until the end of last season I was always worried when Xabi got injured. We had a horrible habit of collectively forgetting how to pass the ball when Xabi wasn't there to glue it all together (cast your minds back to just how badly we played most of the time when Gerrard and Masch were together in central midfield last season. The Gerrard + Sissoko game? I'm not going there... shudder). However, my worries declined a bit with the emergence of Lucas during the season. Finally we had another central midfielder who could just keep things ticking over and make sure our passing game didn't fall apart if Xabi wasn't available. So now the prospect of losing Xabi doesn't fill me with as much concern as it used to. We already have a capable deputy in Lucas - and if on top of that we replace Xabi with a player like Barry I will be content. There's been some talk on other threads about getting the fullbacks bombing on more this season. I think what Rafa has said about the purchase of Dossena and Degen clearly indicates that this is the plan. One of the key things about pushing the fullbacks on in a 4231 formation is that one of the 2 deeper midfielders will often drop in to cover an attacking fullback when required. I think Barry - having been a left fullback himself for a few seasons, and being primarily left footed as well as well as bit quicker off the mark - will be better at this than Xabi, and will give our left fullback more freedom to attack. This is one of the reasons why I think Barry is being so sought after by Rafa. And some thoughts on Xabi/Masch: I think it's possible to play Masch and Xabi together as the two in our 4231. They are both very good players. I don't think either of them contributes enough in the final third of the pitch but it's certainly workable and I would be comfortable I saw us lining up like this. I do however think we'd get more out of the system if one of the '2' was able to contribute more going forward, and was able to make runs from deep and get past the 3 to make an extra man up front on occasion. I think Rafa believes Barry is the guy for this role. I think we also already have a midfielder who can do this in Lucas (who was a bit off the pace at times last season, hopefully his fitness will improve this season and he'll be more used to the speed of the league). If Barry doesn't come, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Lucas getting quite a lot of starts, alongside either Masch or Xabi. Although I'm sure they will play together a fair bit, I think Xabi and Masch will be effectively competing for the holding midfielder role most of the time.

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But... but... but... we just bought the 28 year old Robbie Keane for more money and gave him a four year contract...? Where's the sense in this argument? Oh hang on, there isn't any... If this is the real reason for the delay (big IF), they might actually be right.

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I suggest GW Grapevine

I think all we really need to do is to close out games where we are leading. We drew six games last season having been ahead, 5 of these at home (Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Villa and Wigan) and one away (Arsenal). That's 12 points 'dropped' - which would have been enough to win the league. Which is also why I think our most important recent 'signings' could well turn out to be Skrtel and the return from injury of Agger.

Most of Lucas' passing is one touch as well, which speeds up our game.

Oh the grand old Don Rafa He bought Pennant Jermaine He bought him when he was on the up And then sold him off again And when he was up he wasn't up And when he was down he was down And when he was only half way up He got arrested and sent down