Magic Lamps

If we do not score it is only a matter of how late we will concede the equaliser.

With the ref's energetic help, the tides are turning.

So far this season misses as these have cost us dearly.

oscar u dick, pass to torres, even he would have converted that.

and now its handball exact same situation as first half when a reading player did not get punished, oscar does get now. That is bias.

haha yeah his 25 goals this season have carried us to so many trophies. We are blossoming right now, thanks to mata

finally. nice time to score, nice goal, one can take mata off now.

they simply allow a.cole the space to shoot cos they know he will blast it.

Torres shot=throw-in we simply got no quality either.

no pace, no width in this team whatsoever.

do we even got a full bench?

Reading are so shite and we get nothing together.

loooooooooooool yossi benayoun is warming up. he will be useless in this game. Rather the kind of game malouda could be useful provided he does not always try to shoot on the sidenetting.

ref giving all the tight ones against us. another abysmal performance by the officials, but no one seems to notice. They are all used to it.

great fk, cahill should do better

McAnus such a dick

torres trip to that bullshit defender also was not intentional, still foul. fuck it. these refs would always undermine rules to give us disadvantage.

not intentional my ass. he beat the ball to the ground with his forearm, oc that is handball

oh mata.... Lamps long balls the only whisper of a threat so far. very boring game.

classic epl refereeing, ref unable to distinguish a throw-in of a goal kick why does cole shoot from there????

appreciate the extra effort and running, ivanovic puts in to help the offense

agree 4-3-3 is the best usually but at the moment we are fucked anyway cos we got no DM, so a 4-1-2-1-2 with the midfielders interchanging in some way would be adequate. But it is feckless as we all know we got no tactical plan B and Rafa will continue with a 4-2-3-1. the problem is u have to play one out of Marin, Bertrand, Torres. I bet we will lineup this: ---------Turnbull------- Azpi--Iva---Terry---cole -------Lamps-Rami oscar----Mata-----Bertrand -----------Ba------------------

Nice thread, decent time to ponder that issue. Let's assess what we got, a clueless board, an average and unpopular manager, a vastly talented skeleton of a squad, drained of experience, relying on 3 weakish, young, inconsistent AMs that still are to win a big match for us, serious issues in key positions, the "press" and probably half of europe having a feud with us, an immensely rich, supportive but very authoritive and interfering, impatient owner, an army of more or less quality players out on loan and a world class academy full of great talents that are still to come through Fuck the manager and the press, we as a club are a global brand, got enough capital and surely the potential to become the strongest team in the world within a decade. The problem is that we do not have authorities in the board that really have clue, most are business men and maybe fans but no true blues and surely no football men, well many big clubs have worked without for decades but still there was something extra : la masia at Barca, corruption and the government allowing the club slush funds at Real and Bayern, political power and a competent manager in charge since the last ice age aso. Our factor of consistency have been individual achievements, Jose, RDM in the short term, Lampard, drogba, Terry, Cech in the long term have carried the club, compensating the managers and the boards flaws. Now the latter has decided to get rid of them we are in deep trouble, cos there is no basis of success nothing the club can cling on footballing wise. We cant sign young players and tell them they are the replacments, we have to ease them in, if we manage to fix our squad and are able to maintain the spirit that made us big, we are fine and will return as strong as ever but the indicated shotgun approach will simply aggravate everything. Our last decade of success is worth nothing. Success is like a building, you have to maintain the pillars until u got new ones that are esqually strong, but when you remove the old ones and got no replacements it will crush and you have to build out of the ruins. Right now our building is faltering, our future is in the balance.

well your right, forgot he is only 19, different situation then. We can get more than 70 game sper season, 35 each is about as much as a player should play anyway. Cech picks up injuries allt he time and we do not now if he will last as long as some hope. We can not allow a talent of the cenntury like Courtois go to waste. Cech is past his peak already, even though he might have some world class years in him yet, we will not have a squad competing for CL+PL anyway, given our policies will continue.

Not surprised Gonalons has developed so much. all down to Lyons new policy, after they won 7 league titles in a row with a world team in which heavy sums where invested but many players did not make much of their potential after joining them e.g. Gomis, Gourcuff, they invested into their own youth and have some great prospects. @Rmpr I agrre but have to add Gonalons surely is a leader in spite of his age, but no de Rossi/Alonso for sure. We are a bit too desperate for quality DMs cos there are no ones in our team and not many more available for a reasonable price, but I'd still say, sign a Etxebewhateves/Cabye type and a Capoue/Gonalons/Diame player and we will be fine if we also keeps lamps. Or bring in a big name who can actually replace him. Young, hungry players are fine, but remember, when abramovic revolutions began, we had players like Makelele and Veron around, who showed Lamps the way. There are qualities you only can gain, by playing a decade on the highest level and we shall not let these qualities go away without replacing them. We either fork out big money for a 30 year old worldclass midfielder and hope it works out long enough and eases the transition, or we have to keep lamps and the new, low-profile signings enable us to limit his defensive duties and use him more effectively. The problem is our squad is so stretched, of course our mdifield looks shit. Once we had Makelele, Ballack and Lamps, then also deco, belletti, essien and Meireles, all even though not world class every game and not necessarily starting all the time they still contribute much to the team, share their experience and give younger players composure and concentration due to their sheer presence. You can not start Lamps every game or build a team around him, we have to build it for our next generation, but when you bring in lamps when you need a goal or start him in CM in a big game next to s.o. like gonalons or capoue and he will be a lethal weapon. We need big names and experience to ease the transition but at first we need players to build a new squad and I do not see anyone as Capoue or Gonalons coming out of the youth, so i'd say sign one of them and he will bolster our squad, give us the mobile, solid, strong and passing DM we are still missing which also allows us to use our other options better. Ramires-Lamps partnership lacks tackling and cover, lamps-mikel lacks running and mobility, mikel-ramires lacks passing and tactics but Capoue/Gonalons combined with any of the three is almost complete.