Analysis of the goal conceded against Fulham (17/3)

0h so do i windy, so do i!!

laugh - I almost wet myself. bit like saying "I'll take a parachute when I know the wings gonna fall off".

Windy I hope you're correct about that. But this nonsense of £30 m deadline day bids is at best recklessness, at worse it's misleading the fans into thinking they are genuine attempts to sign quality. Remember Rossi and Aguero?? Did DL really think they were going to sign for us, especially then??

i pray for hitler to come back and gas these tight bald bastards

Wow. Please remove your comment kid

i blame avb aswell having no striker is one thing but having a midfield that cant pass is retarded all teams have seen this and are taking advantage that scott parker is bloody garbage i dont think hes got half a braincell yet hes always around the box. y doesnt avb tell him something???? im starting to feel harry was better

spurs will never be great should of said.

We must be realistic about spending money. However, surely we could have afforded the reported £20 m for Damaio. Or we could have tried for Negredo or the other Spanish chap we were supposedly looking at. The problem is that we are constantly linked to every player under the sun but, we never seem to get them. There is a pattern though. Vertongen: £7 m. Bought. Holtby: £1.5m. Bought. Dembelle: Under 10m I think. Bought. Now we get to the issue: Moutinho: reported £20m odd. Couldn't get him in time. Damaio: £20m odd. Couldn't get him for whatever reason, I can't remember. Any player costing more than £10 - £15m seems to create problems. Is Levy so intransigent in his negotiations that he would rather lose out on a player than pay what a club is asking? I do think he is a touch immovable object at times, even if I do sort of understand the need to run the club on a sound financial basis. Another problem, one that is oft seen in the comments throughout the blogs and such, is that we do appear to leave things just a little late to allow for failure. As I see it, Vertongen was done early so why not the other reported attempts to sign the big name players? I'm not one for conspiracy theories but I do sometimes get the feeling that DL tries to sign these players knowing that the complicated nature of their ownership; Damaio, etc etc etc, will result in time running out, thereby looking as if he is trying to get the players but for reasons beyond his control etc etc etc, he was unable to complete the deal in time. As I said "conspiracy Theories" and all that. This business of leaving it to the last minute to try and sign what are clearly not only quality players, but ones which it is obvious to all, except DL of course, that we are in dire need off, has not for the first time, had an impact on our season. It was a fear that if Gareth Bale didn’t score we would begin to lose games. Well Wednesday and today has gone a long way to answer that. The strikers we have are clearly not up to the job. Everyone knew that, so why the Fu#k did we not get a striker in January? I honestly do not feel it is right to blame AVB for the fact that Daniel Levy is averse to spending large amounts of money, even when the lack of expenditure is going to cost us more money in the long run. I think he has been duped by Levy into taking the job with promises that he will be given the resources to compete at the highest level. AVB is no idiot. Why take a job where so much is expected without first believing that he will actually be given the opportunity to succeed. By that I mean he is not going to take on a job where he knows he can never compete due to financial restraints. No! This is a problem created by Daniel Levy. The time has surely come where we either accept we are never going to be genuine contenders, not only for Champions League qualification, but for domestic silverware also. Or, that Daniel Levy gets the chequebook out and backs AVB to allow him to do the job I believe he is quite capable of. I can accept the fact that we do not have the money to contend. I cannot accept being lied to about the ambition of the club’s owners. Finally. Are we going to be a growing ground for talented players just to sell them for a profit? Or are we going to keep players like Gareth Bale at the club? To keep players of his calibre, the club must at least try to match his ambition. If we continue to quibble over a few pounds, we are going to continue to lose out on the top players. The result of that will be the genuine quality players we do have will always have one foot out the door.

There has to be a reason AVB isn't playing Holtby more - and I would go with him being young and people already getting on his back for not being our savior (after a great first couple of appearances). Sometimes, we have to sacrifice the short term for the long term. Having said that, I'd rather see Carroll for Parker in this game and the next ones. Not even sure this would solve our lack of width, though.

Forgive me for not paying too much attention to our defensive line up in a game like this but it did look like Jan was ahead of Benny more often than not. Ultimately the defence looked a mess the whole game, especially when we were chasing the game after the change and as you point out, Naughton was way too far apart from Caulker and the gap was evident on the left throughout the game as well. I agree that Walker should be dropped/rested but Naughton isn't good enough at the moment. Kaboul's return couldn't come soon enough. Carroll was our best player today which says a lot when he was only on for about 25 minutes. Parker was absolutely dreadful and I don't understand how he is immune from being replaced. It should have been Dembele and Carroll from the start and yes perhaps it's about time that Bale returns to the left and Holtby is used in the 'hole' especially with the severe lack of width available to us at the moment. The two strikers once again offered very little but at least Ade showed a bit willing. Unfortunately he is extremely low on confidence and he's never been a power player that's going to physically force his way into form. The crowd need to stop using him as a scapegoat if he's to get out of this rot. Likewise for Defoe. The opinion is obviously divided by fans but I don't care which one plays as long as their heads are up. Fair enough about Dawson, shame he and Aaron miss out on England. They don't deserve that bad luck. Ultimately, AVB has made two experimental selections in the last week when safer options were available and it has cost us. How much it has cost us remains to be seen but there's a lot of homework he needs to do in the next two weeks because at the moment, I'd settle for a point at Swansea which I shouldn't be.

Agree with lots of that, Dan, you talk a lot of sense. What would your line-up be for Swansea?

Line-up for Swansea. Difficult one. In the three occasions we've played them before, we haven't looked comfortable playing our usual game. Looking at the way we started last season's match at the Liberty, a counter attacking approach could be best. We play better when we're patient which is why we've generally been better away from home. Because of how this opens up crucial space for Defoe, I'd be more inclined to choose him over Adebayor but I think we're more reliant on other players to shine at the moment. If fit, I'd go for the following: Lloris Walker Dawson Vertonghen Assou-Ekotto Lennon Carroll (never going to happen - so just assume Parker) Dembele Sigurdsson Bale Defoe If Lennon's injury is more serious, I would put Bale on the left and I don't know what I'd do on the right because Sigurdsson is not suited to that position. Could have really done with Townsend still around especially after the difference against Swansea earlier in the campaign. Thinking about this I am actually beginning to understand the difficulty that AVB has in this area. Without Lennon, we don't function and we have limited alternatives.

I got the feeling that Berbatov sort of declined to celebrate as he felt embarrassed that he scored for a smaller club in a game that mattered little (in terms of league position) against a team he would've preferred to be playing at now. I reckon Levy declined any potential move for him in the summer because I think it was discussed. His agent surely would've approached our representatives about his availability. Obviously the chairman wasn't willing to sacrifice his own pride.

It's a balancing act, some players are not going to liked as much by other managers. Aaron Lennon, Dembele and Vertonghen's good season's are arguably down to AVB's style of management.

Yeah but how much of that deterioration late-on was due to the press speculation about losing Harry Rednapp to the England job - that's the big unknown compared to this season.

Dembele and Verthongen would have been just as good last season, that's not down to avb. Actually has Dembele really been THAT good?

Easier said than done.

Sigurdsson is right footed. I think the poster meant that he more suited to the left side because of how he delivers the ball. An in-swinging style.