dumps

QPR tend to either be easy for us or awkwardly difficult. As long as we give a solid performance as we have done recently we should be fine. a change or two in the starting 11 may also be wise. I'm expecting a solid perofrmance and a convincing win in this game, but i can easily see us slipping up if we under estimate them or the players go out with low motivation. It will be really useful to have Frank on the pitch in a game like this to keep everyone fired up.

I dont think anybody can complain at this singing. Sturridge out for 12mill and Ba in for 7mill. its a bargain in my eyes and its a great replacement. and to be honest he can give us more than Torres can. its a steal! It's good buisenss - assuming its all true of course! I can't say ive followed him. The only things ive seen of him is the odd game and the stuff on MOTD. Question: has he played in the europa league this season? and if so does that mean he cannot playi n hte europa league for us?

I expect to see some big players rested today. which shall not be good for my Fantasy team! I hope it doesn't get changed around too much. Would love to see Luiz in DM again. if he does start in DM today, we can be sure that is his new position! we should slaughter them today, though if Rafa does rest some players, I can see it being a slow win. Or we may still slaughter them, depends how motivated and hungry the players are! Happy Christmas to everyone for yesterday as well.

50% penalty conversion???? #RafaOut Seriously though, shows how damaging to morale an early goal can be to young minds. I think that was hte main thing for us here, Villa were poor, and after a run of good games they were in high morale, that early goal destroyed that and they became the team you'd expect if you saw it on paper... We were sublime though. could have had another 4 or 5 if it wasnt for Guzman. once we got going it was all good. Great to see some vintage Lampard. really good game. Still can't ignore that our passing was bad at the start for about 20minutes. and that this villa team were very bad. that early goal was key. good performance from everyone. lovely ball by Piazon as well for the Ramires goal. Shame he missed the penalty, that run deserved a goal. Really hard to chose MOTM, was a really good performance from everyone. But I'd give it to Luiz, just because he did well, closed down everyone, tried (and in a few cases succeeded!) some killer balls. hopefully that now becomes his primary position and CB a secondary position. lets keep this up!

Had 6-0 and a Torres FGS. Never been so annoyed to see us score so many!

I agree. I watched the majority of the game yesterday and didn't think he played as well as he has done. It was one of his worse games for WBA. However he did make the odd run, he did provide some crosses, and he was in space sometimes with no delivery. BUT it was not a good performance. Important well executed header though. but that is what you'd expect from a 19 year old. I think overall so far on his loan he has done exceptionally well. I look forward to him being part of our team in the future.

I want to see Lampard start behind Torres today. maybe start Mata from the bench. Lamps and Rami in Pivot = no clean sheet. Its not the fact they arent the best defensive players, its that they mis lead our own CB's causing us to allow them to run throug us. I think his could be a good game to start Luiz in that pivot role again. Im not placing any bets on this game till i see the lineup. this could be a 6-0 win, a 1-1 or a 1-0 loss.

Romelu has said on Facebook and Twitter that he does not want to return to Chelsea in January and is happy to stay at WB: "I’d like to stay here for the rest of the season and there’s no question about that !!!" fair enough, but not sure saying it publically like that was the best thing! I look forward to seeing who we buy in Jan.

Such a shame. This bit of buisness is going to haunt us for seasons to come. What i want to happen (but won't): we bring back Lukaku, and play him like west brom have (super sub/starts every now and then). he's a good player, and yes he's only 19, but he's better than Torres... and what better way to develop a player than to play him in the team he will be playing with in the long term... Another thing: We buy Falcao. gooood. Sell Torres, if not he can just put up with the reduction in game time. if we do sell Torres we should get Walcott or someone else half decent on the cheap. OR we try to buy Falcao, fail, dont recall Lukaku and panic buy an average striker for 50m. Danny deserves gametime, but its a shame he couldnt be happy in the role he was in. (he needed ot make some sub appearances and some more starts though, the lack of game time he got was unbelievable, especially with the form of Torres...)

I just read through pages 1 - 3 of this thread! it does make me chuckle, I reccomend you do it for teh lulz. I agree with those saying Torres can't play with another striker. TBH though i dont think it'll make adifference because at the moment when we attack we attack in numbers... I also think a new main superstar striker (falcao) will only be bought if Torres is sold. if we have 2 strikers that expect to play every game, one will get upset (torres and drogba).

Striker and holding midfielder coming our way by the looks of things. anybody think we will be seeing some of our loaned out players returning??? Im thinking KDB and Lukaku.... dont know if we have the power to recall them, but it'll be cheaper and leave us some money to spend big on 1 or 2 decent names instead of spending big on 3 or 4 good players.

Looks like he's 99% certain of joining Liverpool. I think its a shame he'll be leaving without being given a clear run of games. However, atleast we can be 100% sure we will be buying strikers in January. Also, I think, and hope Lukaku will have more of a future at Chelsea. I just hope Lukaku doesnt end up like Sturridge. I can see Sturridge scoring a few goals against us as well which is going to annoy me. I can also see him having a couple of top class seasons in a year or two's time.

So annoying, I really wanted us to win that. I think we changed too much from the game against Monterry. I don't think Moses should have started either. Torres missed some sitters. Hazard and Mata were quieter today. to be fair, Corinthians did well tactically to stop us. I think Rafa kind of went for hte right tactic, he knew we wouldnt have to worry about our defence too much which is why i think he started Rambo and Lamps together with no mikel. Thats hte main thing for me, I dont think Lamps should have started in that role, he should have played just behind the striker, and Oscar should have started for Moses in that holding role. I think we had the wrong line up, and Corinthians were very well prepared. We didnt take our chances and we suffered. Im interested to see what Cahill was sent off for. The cameras didnt seem to pick it up, looked like after hte challenge the corithians player slapped Cahill in the back of the head, then you didn't see the rest. Also, our past 2 games everyone has been sucking Torres off, now everyone wnats him dead again. Yeah he did miss some FUCKING SITTERS THAT MY NAN WOULD HAVE PUT AWAY but theres no need to turn on him so harshly. Summary: the tactics could have worked, but we had the wrong line up, Corinthians were well organised in terms of breaking us down when they defended.

they were lieing as well! me and my dad left just after Luiz' freekick - 85th minute - (due to travel problems you mentioned) and we went to fulham broadway, and we were going westbound and they said we should be ok. so we went down.... there were no delays. if anyhting Eastbound trains were running more often than the westbound ones! so what ever it was got sorted pretty fast, they told everyone to go to Earls Court when fulham broadway was infact running fine...

I was there tonight, and despite a couple of boos for rafa at the start, the crowd was fantastic. loudest I've heard it in a while. Obvs went a but quiet once news of jueventus (cunts) got round. Was a really important win in my eyes. We needed that for the players and the fans. Nords were pretty bad to be fair, but least we wanted to attack and we were more dynamic. Was funny/good to see luiz in midfield. He was full of confidence tonight as well, he had a great game. Wasn't that special but having him there makes our defence solid. and takes the pressure off him when he wants to go for a run. Maybe won't see much of him there, but its good to know its an option. Torres actually tried for the full 90 tonight even when we were trying to lower the tempo to save energy! Hazard looked like the hazard we saw at the start of the season. Very enjoyable game imo! Europa league: I personally am annoyed we havent qualified for the champions league, but now we are in The europa league, I think its a great chance for our youngsters and fringe players to prove themselves and gain some European experience. So I'm more than happy to be in it and genuinely look forward to watching the games. Hopefully we start to be more positive as a club and get some decent results in the next few games

On en route to the bridge. The main thing I want tonight is a positive atmosphere. I want a big dominant win. I want shakthar to nail juve, and then we can win the champions league with our fairy tale starting in the group stage this time

Just out of curiosity, does anybody think we are going to spend big this January? and if so, can you seeing it be large amounts on 1 or 2 players, or spread out amongst 5 or 6 players? The Falcao rumours have died down (however im sure they will spark up again in January) and everyone seems to think we need a new DM so do people think we will splash out and top quality striker and top quality DM or are we just going to get an average DM and couple of average strikers and maybe a youngish CB...

Really think we could do with him at the moment.

appologies if this has been posted already but this guy has made a video of Kev's highlights. Some of the stuff is from the Genk days which youve prob seen, but plenty from Werder. theres also a part 2 which you'll find in the related videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIWvOe0FmKQ

I read that Essien has returned from his loan at Madrid due to injury. is this true? anybody know anythign about the injury and if he is going to return to Madrid once he is fit or will he be staying? I think he would fit in well to the way Rafa plays.

I would happily like to see a new striker come in at January and Lukaku to stay at west brom. I have been watching Lukaku at west brom and his improvement is rapid. he still has a lot to do and i think after his loan spell at west brom has finished he should go out on loan for another half season or maybe full season to either west brom or a different club where he will be guarenteed to start every game in the premier league. He's still young and looking very promising. My only worry si that we manage to keep him. Say we buy someone crazy in January like Falcao and we buy another average young striker as well for cover, i can see Lukaku wanting to run off to another club. if we lose him i will be gutted. Would love to see a compilation video of Romelu at WB. all his highlights and some of his bad parts because from what ive seen, the good movements are way more frequent than the bad!

Cant see Danny and Suarez getting on at Liverpool. Mind you Danny seems not really get on with anyone when he's on the pitch. He apparently is requesting that he is only played through the middle, if thats the case i dont see him being in a better position than he is here. Suarez will always be chosen ahead of Sturridge, He's got a better chance getting time on the pitch here because Torres is playing worse compared to Suarez and its just a matter of time before torres is dropped. If he is sold, at least we can be certain of us buying a new striker. recalling Lukaku is an option, but i think he needs a bit more experience before he is ready to lead us.

This is the game that has hte potential to reboot our season. I expect us to smash them. we are better than them all over the pitch. we won 4-0 away from home against them. this will and should be no less than a 3-0 win. a comfortable dominant win. and hopefully Shakthar have too much pride and nail Juventus, and we will qualify, if we smash the Nords and we qualify confidence will be replenished. I really hope the fans have got over it now. the fans are having a huge contribution to our recent failures, we need to all get behind the club so we can bring back this season. I'm going to this game tomorrow and I for one will not have any part in any negative booing or chants, im fully behind the club and i want to win games again!

Im nominating Leif. Mainly for his creation of the physical and mental health thread. i think its a great idea and its a shame it has died down, but amongst his other inputs, I just liked that idea and thought he deserved a mention here - anybody trying to promote good health and well being is a hero in my books. This is my first ever nomination, I havent been very active this month, tried to avoid it with all the stuff thats going on at the club and it has actually changed my opinion of some people in here after reading some peoples reactions! I can totally see why Peace and Rmpr are getting the votes. just thought I'd throw something new in the mixer.

decent first half. second half was shocking. Torres was shocking (accept for hte assist, fair play). Moses was great, Mata was great andAzpi was great. we just fell apart in the second half. it was shocking. I think a new shape and formation should be tested out. Maybe Rafa was right about hte fitness of the squad. god knows whats going on, but it needs to be sorted out ASAP. Nords SHOULD be an easy game, its a chance for us to get back on form and build some confidence. however i think the fans have it in their power to destroy it. if we go there booing the team, we could lose that game too.