Sing Up The South Stand

I think Bayern Munich would be a good outside bet, considering 2013/2014 is 20 years since the European run!

The reason I say that is he didn''t play for the U21s at Newcastle the other day. It could merely be due to the distance, although you''d think they''d want him to play another. Or are they working hard in training to get him back for Villa?

He got a 7 game ban in Holland for doing similar

What I don''t understand is people saying there''d rather us be in League 1 or the Championship if we are playing attacking football. Problem with that is, if we play successful attacking football we will inevitably end up in the Premiership. As we did. Which leads to the same problem, unless people would rather get relegated again? Or if we were playing attacking football in League 1 or the Championship and stayed there our attacking style probably wouldn''t be working! As others have said, if we are playing now in 3 years time we will be like Stoke. However I am confident if we are still in the Prem then we won''t be. Our problem is last year our gung-ho style meant we had loads of chances so the attackers scored more goals, this year the true ability of our forward line is being shown. If we stay up - and I''m confident we will - I think we''ll start to see the attacking side of the team improve in quality, as we have the defence this season (despite no strength in depth)

gets..

First Wazzock... We put a few crosses in the box today and do most weeks just no-one gests on the end of them

Canaryfan - I think you''ll find that United''s 2nd, 3rd and 4th goals came after we had gone more attacking, with Kamara and E Bennett coming on! I agree though, I rate Forbesy higher than McVeigh!

ICF - if I remember correctly, Blackburn had a certain Mark Bunn in goal that day!

To be fair I''ve seen him many times in the South Stand, I think he is a fan.

It''s amazing what difference a penalty makes in a game, and I''m not sure Villa would have won without it. A bit like penalties helped us draw at Upton Park and win at White Hart Lane... Oh wait...

Equally though, people will have said Spurs was one of those ones we were going to lose - yet we didn''t. We''ve lost to some poor teams this season, beaten some great ones (including 1 team who have only lost 4 games all season). So it wouldn''t surprise me if we got something from Everton (United at OT might be a bit too far). Also since we played them, Southampton have only gained 2 more points than us, so they are hardly in great form! (We are on 13 they are on 15). Yes I can understands being unsure of us beating them, but they are hardly better than Newcastle and Fulham, so no reason why we can''t at least avoid defeat - but hopefully we can win.

I think the crucial thing is get this season out the way, pay off the last significant bit of debt and then next season we can spend a lot more money on the team than now. It will be easier for Hughton to improve the quality of the whole team - including the attack, and that will enable us to play a bit better.

That''s the thing, Salopian. Our meteoric rise has meant we''ve had to overhaul the squad once after winning League 1 and again after getting to the Premiership. Swansea won promotion to the Championship in 2008, so had three seasons at that level to build up their squad. Also, you have to remember is they only pay a peppercorn rent on their stadium, so the vast majority of their money has been able to go on football. We are still paying off a stand built 9 years ago. If we stay up this year, I think Salopian is right, we will start to match them, as we will be virtually debt free. Swansea were lucky with Michu, getting someone so good for that price. If it wasn''t for him I think we would be a bit closer.

Baldyboy - I think at full strength our defence has been better than last season. When we''ve not been at full strength it''s not. We''ve conceded 26 goals in 6 games, 14 in the other 19!

I''m sure we did try the diamond last season, but it generally failed.

It''s probably not that easy to just get rid of them.

"Lamberts attacking nature - its too much" If Paul Lambert was still here, I think there would be a similar post about him. I don''t think we would have done as well as we did last season with him. In fact, I think part of the reason he quit was because he felt he''d taken us as far as he could. Including 2 cup wins, there was a spell last season where we won 6 out of 8 (losing and drawing the other 2), culminating in a 3-2 at Swansea. Then starting with the cup defeat to Leicester, we lost 8 out of our last 14 games, winning only 3. The bubble had begun to burst. It''s no surprise he hasn''t been able to do much with Villa, a) they have a poor squad, and b) other manages had worked out how Lambert sets out his teams. If he was here, I don''t think we''d quite be doing as bad as Villa but still wouldn''t be doing great. Therefore, I can see fans would have been getting frustrated with his ''all out attack'' approach and wanting us to be more defensive. In fact even last season some were calling for that. Now we are, it''s not enough. I agree with others who say it is the right way to play. We are work in progress, and tightening up is a better way of avoiding defeat. It probably won''t be as thrilling as it was with Lambert, but I do think that if we survive this season, Hughton will focus more on the attack with transfers. We have sorted out the defence, whatever people say. Conceded 26 goals in 6 games, and 14 goals in the other 18. We certainly need to strengthen there but not significantly. So that bit is sorted. Next move is the attack. We still have a lot of Championship quality midfielders and attackers, if we stay up this season we will see some being moved on and the quality of our attack improving. Then next season we''ll hopefully be able to be more clinical and Hughton will look less defensive.

He seems to me to be comfortable with both feet.

Ruddy''s not bad at saving pens either, but yes!

To be fair, Bennett only came on on the left due to Pilkington''s injury and Snodgrass making the right midfield spot his own. I don''t think Hughton wanted to do that.

Thing is Salopian, even though I agree that not having someone prepared to run towards the goal does influence how many we get, there have been a few clear cut ones that we haven''t been given!

I remember just before we signed Andrew Surman someone put a similar post... So you never know - although I would be surprised.

I don''t know quite how Holt going down easily means we don''t get penalties, when at least two I am aware of were Morison at Spurs, Kane at West Ham. If we''d got them we''d probably have 4 more points.

It does help, but some of the ones we haven''t had have been so blatant I doubt the pace would have made a difference!

Seems to be just a money making exercise, with odds influenced by the number of bets, like most....