Hoshke

Etherington has a suspected dislocated shoulder and Delap has tweaked his hamstring. Looks like we wont have to move the hoardings pitch-wards anymore!

He has always been deserving of a place in the squad. However, in a squad of predominantly premier league based stars, and with Hoolahan now firmly established as a CAM, they will not build the team around him as he requires. Thus Trapattoni sees no need for him. He plays exclusively in a position that Ireland never use.

[quote user="Felixfan"]I thought Surman was one of our best players yesterday. The midfield was tied up - all of the Wigan attacks came down the flanks mostly through Moses.[/quote] Having gone to the match yesterday, and being forced to pick our worst player, Surman would be my choice. To put the game in context, Wigan offered very little defensively in midfield, and as such Surman should have had plenty of space to string some passes together. To BYAG, Surman did not just misplace one pass, there were three that I can remember vividly, and probably more. As many have noted, Surman is a good passer but offers nothing defensively. I have yet to see him get his socks dirty in a game, and has the tendency to tuck in, leaving Tierney very exposed. Did anayone else notice that 90% of Wigan''s attacks came from the flanks? The simple question is, with most teams in the league playing 442 or an adapted 451, do we think the diamond allows us to protect our fullback effectively? Would we have scored today without Morison pulling out wide?

13th August - Wigan Athletic (A) = 2-1W 21st August - Stoke City (H) = 1-1D 27th August - Chelsea (A) = 3-0L 11th September - West Bromwich Albion (H) = 2-0W 17th September - Bolton (A) = 2-2D WDLWD First 5 games = 8 points highly possible Wigan and West Brom games are highly winnable and could give us a flying start to the season. Thoughts?

No point discussing this. The club have already announced that Holt won''t be sold. Like many have said, his re-sale value is peanuts compared to his value to the team as captain, the focal point of our attack and ambassador to the club. This rumour is the most ridiculous I''ve heard this summer.

[quote user="YellowLittle1"] So based on seeing that one pre season I would say: Ruddy RB: Naughton CB:De Laet CB:Whitbread/Barnett LB: Tierney CDM:Fox RM:Bennett LM:Surman CAM:Wessi FW:Holt FW: Jackson[/quote] I don''t understand why people think Fox provides enough defensive cover in midfield on his own. Teams sliced through us like a hot knife through butter when crofts did not play last season. We conceded more goals than any other team in the top six last year, so imagine the consequences of playing with less defensive cover in a league full of attacking talent. The recently injured quartet of Martin, Crofts, Ward and Vaughan I fear will not be ready for the opening game. Lambert to stick with the diamond: Ruddy RB: Naughton RCB:Barnett LCB:De Laet LB: Tierney CDM:Fox RM:Bennett LM:Johnson CAM:Wessi FW:Holt FW:Jackson

Starting line up> Holt Vaughan Hoolahan Johnson Bennett Crofts Tierney Whitbread Barnett Martin Ruddy Subs: Rudd, Ward, Fox, Surman, Lansbury, Morison, Jackson.

Plus, I would hardly consider Ruddy kicking the ball into Tyson when he could have easily put it into the stands a "freak occurrence". Shocker - a 3rd minute mistake, that could have been easily avoided and could have derailed our promotion bid

quote user="☆alysha "OK I''ll say it, when? Before you even say it the Forest goal was a freak occourance. I''m not saying Ruddy should be dropped and despite a shaky start, he kept us in many a game through the season and like you I don''t blame Ruddy for the Forest goal but in fairness to Hoshke one of the goals we conceeded against Watford, Ruddy should have dealt with, the ball just went straight under his body - this seems to be the case with most of his errors in my opinion and is something of which he needs to work on over the break." Ok "Croft''s No.1 Fan", The second goal conceded against Derby, the Graham goal against Watford and one of the Swansea goals should have been saved. For Bueno''s goal, which nearly handed the momentum back to Cardiff in the promotion race, the shot would have been saved by a better, more agile stopper. It''s a shame but the nature of football fans is that they''re all or nothing when it comes to praise. Nothing is that one dimensional, and from what I have seen, there has been nothing to equal Forster''s save against Tranmere from Ruddy this season. He has been a solid, commanding keeper who has not excelled at this level, and there is no evidence of him excelling prior to Norwich. His spell at Motherwell was uninspiring, according to Everton fans when selling him. He was nothing more than a bench warmer at Goodison. The maxim that every lower league player lambert finds turning to gold will not last in the premier league.

Seems like this thread has been dropped, so i''ll resurrect it. After all, we don''t want to have more than one transfer thread on here do we! Goalkeeper Over the course of the season, Ruddy''s form has transformed from nervous at the beginning of the season, to blindingly confident and then suddenly error prone on the brink of our promotion. When compared against our goal keepers of recent years, I would not consider him one of our best shot stoppers and would struggle in the premier league. Allied to the lack of any experience in backup, we need a talented pro to challenge Ruddy for top spot. In my view Forster, would offer us something different, though lacking in experience of relegation battles. Kieren Westwood has been mentioned but probably not the right level. Verdict: Scott Loach - a quality young keeper with a few years under his belt at a club where youth is celebrated. On the verge of the England squad and a realistic signing at about £2.5m. Defence Our open style this season has meant that our defence has been exposed consistently. I feel an injection of experience is needed at the top level. I think we''ll all agree that Roger Johnson is probably out of our reach this summer, but his defensive partners has performed well. Verdict: Scott Dann maybe also on the pricey side, but how about Liam Ridgewell (highly rated on opta) and Stephen Carr (experienced cover for Martin). Midfield We need steel and width! Fox at the foot of the diamond simply won''t offer enough protection in this league. We haven''t demonstrated this season that we can effectively adapt our system to provide more width if the diamond does not work. Two wingers and a tough tackling, dynamic central midfielder are needed. Verdict: I like the sound of Tamir Cohen, but in light of the impending shake up at Blackburn, I would go for Steven N''Zonzi. A talented midfielder, tough tackler with an eye for a pass who might not be out of reach. On the wings, Eliot Bennett or albert Adomah would offer pacy solutions out wide. Strikers With our captain likely to be a shoo-in up front, we need better targetman backup than Wilbraham and another pacey goalscorer on our books. Verdict: Despite a recent criminal offence, I think a loan move for Nile Ranger would be a good backup option for Holty. A move for CMS would be unwise at the price discussed a couple of months back, I would rather have Danny Graham or Shane Long. Realistically, Nicky Maynard would fit the bill.

I fear Swansea. They have been playing swift passing football just as we have, but have been lethal on the counter attack with Sinclair and Dyer. We have suffered in the last few weeks being pegged back by goals against the run of play (Preston) and counter attacks (Bristol City). There has been a lot of debate about the lack of an in-form striker to share the goalscoring burden with Holt. Luckily, the midfield have chipped in at vital (and often late) moments, but I feel that our inability to kill teams off will come back to haunt us. There is no doubt that with our midfield we will create chances against even the likes of Notts Forest and Swansea on our run-in, but we need to be more clinical in possession. I think the Scunthorpe game could be a difficult one, because they will fight to the death as a team struggling against imminent relegation. They will frustrate us and pressurise the likes of Wes and Fox who have been so crucial to our style of play. The key will be playing more conservatively against Swansea, keeping possession for long periods and being clinical with our chances, because in an open game our defence will suffer at the hands of counter-attacking football. Prediction: 2-1 against Scunny

Ruddy Martin Ward Whitbread Tierney Crofts Fox Lansbury (Pacheco 60) Surman Hoolahan Holt (Vokes 75)