Well, after a long lay off im back to add my two cents. I cannot believe we did not sign a midfield partner for Ferguson, but on the whole the aquisitions of MGP and Boothroyd are good. How I would like to see us lineup on Saturday: While Barry is arguably wasted in the holding role we now appear to have little choice but to play him there. Tugay needs more space than he will get at Newcastle and Douglas is an appalling passer of the ball. Matteo is required in defence. If Thompson is injured (is he fit?) then Tugay can be drafted in reluctantly or even De Pedro, providing he has improved his condition, could be given a central playmaking role. One thing seems likely, our success this season may well depend upon Ferguson becoming more tenacious in the tackle as it appears he will be left to fight this front virtually single handed. I dont think we will win this one: 2-1 Newcastle.

As far as I can see there are really only two options for the team: The first option is infinately preferable as much as would like to see Emerton actually try to be a full back (what the hell was he doing on saturday)? I also have to register my disgust that Souness puts Gresko in midfield after spending a whole bloody season last year playing just about every other guy apart from him there. Lunacy. We need a central midfielder desperately and I fear our Grame might of lost the plot. Nonetheless. 2-1 Rovers.

Well, if we are playing "what I wish the starting team was irrespective of what Souness will actually pick"I would plump for: If Yorke is putting his back into it he might represent a better bet than Gallagher due to his experience, but Gallaghers movement is very important for a formation like this to work. I would rather see someone like Carrick come in and take Matteo's spot. Emerton and Gray would flourish on the overlap, allowed freedom by Matteo's deep role.

Dead set starters for West Brom, if fit (I dont see how anyone can really argue with this, its not my personal opinion, but who Souness will certainly chose): Friedel, Amoruso, Matteo, Gray, Niell (if the Finnan stuff is not true) Ferguson, De Pedro, Emerton, Stead, Dickov (although Yorke appears to be making a bizarre late run). That is ten out of the eleven. There are two alternatives for the final member of the team: 1-Matteo is played in midfield and either Short or Johansson are brought in at the back (as Moore is in Greece). 2- Matteo is played in defence and one out of Thompson or, far more likely, Tugay partners Ferguson in midfield. The only thing that is going to upset this is injuries, the signing of a good central midfielder (please!) or a striker who has the pedigree to displace Dickov/Yorke (Our interest in Tellec makes this unlikely).

All you Sven haters should be careful what you wish for. I would hazard that most of you are not frigid presbytarian types who actually care about who Eriksson sleeps with. Rather you are frustrated at his negative, boring tactics and upset that he didnt deliver the european championship on a platter (we were on paper not any better than fourth favourites, and thats stretching it, give him a break). The most likely alternative is Steven 'boring boring 451 boring never attack whats a winger we might try and hit you on the break' McClaren. Eriksson diamon could suddenly appear the epitomy of flair football. Think before you jump.....

Seems to confirm that Jansen and Yorke have swapped in the pecking order. I would say that in this season at least two youngsters need to be given a chance in the first team, carling cup at the least- even if it is as subtitues. The academy is our greatest asset and we need to show confidence in our best produce even if it is only to create fees for these players to transfer to lower league clubs. He cant play any worse than Reid, tugay (in a few of his games) and Douglas.

The sad fact of the matter is they print it because people read it. The editors dont give a hoot about these celebs, they just know it sells newspapers. Sacking England managers does seem slightly different though, the press like feeling they have an effect on a sport they slavishly follow. Also a sacking story, you gessed it, sells more newspapers.

Souness prefers two holding central midfielders - like Arsenal play (Edu and Vieira), so as that the team is less susceptible to counter-attacks. It's worked quite well if you think how Arsenal have struggled against us and they are one of the best counter-attacking teams in Europe. So I doubt that Ferguson will be playing a box-to-box, all action role. But I agree that the Thommo-Fergie midfield partnership does appear defensively weak and certainly struggles in the height department. Well, as I said in my post above, I do see the similarities between the style of players we have and Arsenal's and I dont deny we like to play with two players who can tackle in the middle (Tugay is an exception). However, Viera is a box to box midfielder in that he gets to the edge of the area and scores goals. Gilberto Silver does that too, they share the responsibility. The two seperate threads are getting a bit confused, but if we did have Carrick and Ferguson then they would operate in a similar manner. One dropping back and one moving toward the box. If you watch Arsenal Gilberto and VIera do not BOTH sit on the halfway line, one always goes forward when they have the ball..

Well the big problem is more that Thompson will drift too far forward and Barry will be left isolated. He also isnt a flitcroft or a Nicky Butt type of tackler either (although I suppose he is better than Tugay in a challenge) so he needs to be helped out like Tugay would of been. Sure Barry, is good at long passes and neat on the ball but he is not in Tugay's class (when the turk was in his pomp) in that respect. The fact of the matter is that a Thompson Ferguson combination denies both of them some of their best attributes. Thommo oppertunities at running at the defence are limited (plus I have major questions about how well he could distribute the ball from the middle, he seems more 'head down' than 'head up') and Ferguson has to shoulder huge responsibilities as a work horse. Ferguson has the potential to be nearly as good as Gerrard in the box to box stakes, why limit him?

Then again you wanted Sturrock, and he's not exactly burning up the Prem. Yeah, I was wondering actually what you thought of Southampton's purchase of Mr Crouch. They already had several good strikers yet he went out and bought a guy whos main asset is his height lacking the technique of othe stretch armstrongs such as Stead. Sturrock seems to be intent on turning Southampton into a team of work horses that makes Rovers look like Brazil. Our Greame does value a bit of skill (Tugay, Stead, Cole, Yorke, Gallagher, De Pedro, Ferguson) he just wants commitment wih it. Tactical naieveity is your bludgeon for Souness but Sturrock does not seem to be particularly well equippe in that department either.

He is as narrow as a thin man on slim fast. He has a bag of tricks and a wicked cross and an excellent range of passing but he just dosnt like going to the corner flag, I guess that is just a result of a lack of pace. If he is going to play as a winger he will need to go to the touchline before he receives the ball which causes all kinds problems in balanceing the left hand side. He played narrow for Spain and for Sociedad. Sort of similar to a left sided Beckham in that respect.

A bit like Ljungberg then? Works hard etc but isn't a traditional wide midfielder. I would say that we might have a bit of a problem here- De Pedro, Thompson and certainly Emerton (if he is in the midfield, as a full back I think he can overlap better) will all play narrow this season. Not neccesarily a bad thing, Arsenal play that way with Pires and Ljungberg. On the other hand Arsenal make up the space on the flanks by the full backs bombing up the picth and a striker (in their case Henry) pulling wide. Actually I do not see why we cannot adopt that ourselves. Im not saying we are can do it as well as Arsenal, but we have the personnel to make a decent crack of it: Gallagher has a stunning range of movement up front, if you watch him during a game he runs the channels better than any player I have seen in the Prem bar the master Henry. He gets right to the touch line on both sides. Stead leads the line and holds the ball up for the attacking triumvate of Ferguson, De Pedro and Thompson with the option to lay it wide to Gallagher. None of three midfielders are actually expected to get to the touch line instead trying to make runs through the middle, slide passes for the strikers to chase or whip in crosses. Additional width is provided by the fullbacks, Gray and Emerton, one of whom starts a run as the strikers are holding the ball. The full back on the opposite side of the pitch to Gallagher should make the run. Both (IMHO) have a decent cross and enough about them to seriously worry the opposing wide players about doubling up. Matteo acts as a defensive shield to compensate for the gallavanting of a fullback and allow Ferguson to get forward. I would rather see someone like Carrick, but you cant win them all. I would like to cliam ownership of this one but I think Wenger has it copyrighted. We do have the players to make a decent crack of it though, better than perhaps any other style of play. It would work. The beauty of it is that if we want to close the game down it is a very tight formation if we sit back. The fact of the matter is none of our wide midfielders actually play wide so if we want width it will have to come from the strikers and the fullbacks.

Three interesting points from that article: 1. The obvious Yorke situation. If he does decide to work for us that can only be a good thing. He had a better season than Cole in 02/03 but was terrible last season- could well profit from having Stead willing to pull defenders apart. Also is perhaps at his best playing just behind the strikers in a 4312. On the other hand a renaissance could be short lived. It is a huge thing to remotivate yourself and quite often the momentum peters out. Still, if we cant shift him it is to everybodies benefit to give him another shot. 2. Matteo in the midfeild. Souness is obviously thinking about this for WBA, and from what the article said he looked decent. I personally am not particularly keen, I think we shoulld try and sign a young CM- Carrick would be ideal. Question marks hang over his ability to hold the midfield together but he can do that effectively as Dom. Fee would be in the 3 mill range- a lot of cash we have not got I hear you cry but he is young and even if he bombed we should be able to recoup 1.5 mill. If we really have to I suppose Matteo could play there but he is a CD primarily and I cannot see him being an improvement on what we have- which begs the question: 3. What happend to Flitcroft? No mention by anybody recently. Abducted by aliens? Injured? I would like to see him go to finance a move for someone like Carrick but surely if we still have him he should be in the squad. Bizzare....

its on rovers world, but its nearly over anyway...

RadioRovers Yorke starting the game, a bloody shame... (almost score when I was typing, get him off... ) Another thing to worry about, Matteo is playing centre midfield..oh dear oh dear... I am getting a bit concerned by this Matteo in the middle stuff. Yorke is obviously not really looking likely to start in the first team, but the rest of the side do (De Pedro apart obviously). If Thompson was really going to be the partner for Ferguson would he not of featured today rather than yesterday. Hmmmm..... SOuney must be at least thinking of playing Matteo there. Dont do it!

Despite being a wussy pro europe liberal I woudl love to see an Englishman in charge., However Sven has done a decent job, easily comparable to any manager since 66. Fair enough we do not play like Brazil and certainly do not use our full potential but who the else can we put in? Curbishley would get my vote at knifepoint, but if you think it is a certainty that he will be an improvement on Eriksson your deluding yourselves. International tournaments last a tthe most seven games so to win it you need a good slice of luck as well as good management. If Rooney had stayed on the pitch we COULD HAVE (like you could have paid more attention in school) won and in terms of quality players on the pitch Portugal at least matched us. Scolari won the fing world cup so he is obviously competant. Its a game, england do not have a divine right to win everything. If we get knocked out it is not always down to poor management. We cannot just keep on sacking people and while I would like to see someone come in and introduced a confident ttacking system to the side who is actually a dead cert to provide that and not look like a fool like Keegan? Weger is, yet again, the only name in the hat and it dosnt look like he is a real possibility.

Like everything you can sit and accuse big money paymasters pulling strings and devouring the things that we love. The situation with high street shops and the all powerful super markets is exactly the same. But is it really such a huge jump in the imagination to realise that those paymasters are not Sky or Tesco's but us, the public at large. If you want these things to remain as they are (or tiurn into something even better) the people you need to convince are the people themselves.

Actually I would say for a certain type of player I would say Souness is a very attractive type of manager to work with. Those types of player who share the same kind of outlook, grafters like Niell and DIckov fit into that category but so do talented players who put an emphasis hardwork and dedication- such as Ferguson, Thomson, Duff, Friedel and Matteo. Having the softly, softly ego massaging technique is good for the Dunn's, Yorke's but it is a fine balancing act because they can end up holding you to randsom. Ask Keegan about that. The only manager I can think of in the Prem who has a good allround record is the supreme Wenger- even RFW dosnt suffer 'babies' galdly like our Graeme although to be fair he doe seem to have the talent of making stroppy characters bend to his will- although that might be due to the fact he runs the biggest club in world. It is a bot harder oto walk away from. The principle problem for me is that Souness has signed players he must of known there would be problems with (Yorke, Cole, Grabbi), although he seems to of stopped that now. ps. Thinking about it I wonder whether Donnelly's lack of head way might be because of a wrong 'attitude' in Souness' eyes. That would be a shame if it is true. pps. To look at it slightly differently a big question for everybody- who has left Ewood and improved themselves in the Souness era? Duff is the only answer I can come up with and we got loads of cash.

And if Fowler was so supremely good at Leeds, why did he start only 24 games? Terrible fitness and a huge competition for strikers- Viduka, Smith and Keane were all there at the same time. I think Fowler would be a decent signing if he came on a free and took 25k a week.

You know any internet sites where I can make such a bet? www.SportingIndex.com Caution! When you open an account your losses are UNLIMITED. Ie if rovers die in the league and we say get 20pts over the season with a stake of a mere fiver you would lose 26x5- £130. I hjad a look myself and while it sounds like a decent quote, we had an awful season last time and got 44pts, on the other hand I cannot really see us getting more than 52pts. A few injuries and we might hemorrage so be careful with how much you put on.

You can have quite an interesting argument about the concept of 'proven quality' and the way it is used to justify the exorbitant wages pais out to the top bracket of footballers. Sure the very best have talent allied with the right, hopefully, attitude but I think there has been too much emphasis put upon an inate superiority of these individuals over their collegues. The value of confidence should not be underestimated and I would personally say that hordes of talented youngstaers who could flourish into 'stars' fall by the wayside by never being given the backing or lacking the self belief to develop. The footballing world is held to randsom by its own belief that their are only a few who can become the best. I would say that the resources are infinately larger than that, and if more confidence was shown in their abilites then a major problem would be solved. I would admit it is a hard theory to test, but the efforts of Greece this year and teams such as Bayer Leverkusen two years bak which had faith in themselves show 'proven quality' being always superior is at least partly a myth. ps. TND, sorry about that- being a bit cranky.

The Morrocan dude is due to show up next week although he is a different player to the one who was out it Germany. Apparently we cannot sign the Italian due to the revealing of the secret identity. That is something I cannot fathom.

Ahhhh.... I would partially disagree there. Viera does not really play in a holding role- indeed Gilberto was signed to free him of that responsibility. To allow a player to get forward you need to be able to share defensive duties between the two players often in more of a territorial way than tackling and so forth. Both players cannot go forward at the same time and I think the principle problem would be that Thompson ould be the forward player virtually all the time merely due to his nature. Also it is seriously worth considering the impact of having our dave in the centre upon the wide players. If Thompson goes forward not only would Barry have to sit back but both Emerton and De Pedro would be limited in how far up the pitch they wentas Ferguson would need additional protection. However this may actually suit us as our two 'wingers' are not really wingers at all afraid of (As Mr Pringle would put it) the 'touchline monster'. There inclination to tuck in and try and penetrate from deep could well close the midfield enough to allow Thompson freedom. On the other hand this is effectively a Diamond formation..... not pretty most of the time.

If he wants a 5 man midfield the sensible thing would be to play a 3-5-2, as any of our forwards would be lost on their own up top. Having Emerton/Neill/Douglas on one side Gray/Gresko on the other as wing-backs wouldn't be too bad. Matteo, Short, Amo in the middle at the back, could work, useful having two reliable if unspectacular players to cover Amo's mistakes and all or nothing play. I dont think we will be playing five in the middle, we did not sign De Pedro to leave him out. Im really not sure how Graeme can adequately accomodate both Thompson and Ferguson in the middle, it is an interesting conundrum. The only way I can see it working is if Ferguson drops into the deep role and sharpens up his tackling- this is not neccesarily a bad thing as he has a very good range of passing which he can use to pull the strings a la Tugay. ps. Ferguson is not a naturally attacking midfielder- indeed at Rangers he was famed for his affinity for the centre circle, Souness has been trying to get him to be come more "box to box" in his time here.

Amen. You might be an annoying bigoted idiot, but there is the truth.