The Honeymoon is over!

Jeez I cant believe its a month since I blogged, where does the time go.

Well Torres performed exactly as expected at Chelsea against us, other than Maxi's gift in the first couple of minutes he was a non-event. He couldnt hit a cow in the arse with a banjo on the day and that seems to have continued his subsiquent performances for Chelski. He is no longer our problem and good luck to him with his 'Bigger and Better' club.

Just to draw a line of sorts under the Torres affair, the highly respected pundit (by me anyway!) Paul Merson made a statement on Soccer Saturday before our game with Chelski that Torres would comfortably outscore Suarez and Carroll over the next year. So I have created the 'Mersonometer' on the right-hand side to keep score. I will update this after League games if any of the 3 players score. The cut-off date will be the end of next January's window and we shall see if Merson know his onions!

So why is the honeymoon over?I dont mean King Kenny,no I am talking about the players. Since our victory over Chelski, we have turned in 4 Benitez/Hodgson-esque performances. The draw with Wigan, the Europa double header with Sparta Prague and lastly the pathetic dispaly against relegation fodder West Ham. This is not acceptable, we have seen this under the previous 2 clowns where we have 1 excellent result and then dont bother our arses again until the next big game.

Dont understand whats going on in the players heads. We should be equally motivated for every game. Sure, Everton, Manure and Chelski games come in a little higher on the emotion scale but the core requirements to perform to our potential are the same. Our players lack the ability to be consistent. Probably why we are where we are.Hell even Pepe is starting to look a bit dodgy.

On the positive side Meireles is proving to be a gem. Martin Kelly is showing Glen Johnson how to be a rightback, both going forward and defensively. Stevie G is back although he was well below par last week against West Ham it was his 1st game back after a 6 week lay-off. Rumours abound that Carroll will be ready to start tomorrow. That would be a huge boost. Especially in light of the Legions of Doom's defensive issues. Smalling and O'Shea wont relish Suarez and Carroll.

I would play 4-5-1 and do exactly what Chelski did to them.Get in their faces and press,press,press,press. Fletcher ,Scholes ad Carrick dont like that. Our problem is if we have no Meirles and Carroll isn't fit. Lets assume that is where we will be tomorrow, I would go as follows.

Reina
Johnson-Skrtel-Carra-Wilson
Kuyt-Gerrard-Lucas-Spearing-Aurelio
Suarez

Think that gives us a nice balance, Fab can help Danny with Nani if he plays left and if he plays right, Johnson has the pace to keep up. I would go with Spearing rather than Poulsen or Shelvey in the middle of the pitch. Poulsen is useless and Shelvey is not a box-to-box kind of player. Spearing may be short but he works hard and doesn't mind a tackle or five. With the above personnel we can always go to 5-3-2or 4-4-2 without having to sub anyone. If its still tight with 25 to go the throw on Carroll. I wouldnt play Joe Cole, I dont think he is the kind of player for the blood and thunder of tomorrrow. cerrtainly worth a cameo appearance if we are chasing the game of are already 5-0 up!

Obviously the ref will be under pressure after Sith Lord Fergie's rants this week. The man is a hypocritical fool. Neville should have walked twice this season when they were 1-0 down against Stoke and West Brom. They won both those games. Shrek should have walked on Saturday, result they score 4 and he was involved in all of them. So what if Atkinson gave then nothing on Tuesday and didnt send of Luiz. Thats 1 game in a season they havent got the rub of the green. They have 9 points that they possibly wouldn't have got, so losing out on 1 against Chelski isnt a huge loss for them, especially since the Gooners made a mess of their game today.

Perhaps if the geraitic git didnt insult the refs so much he might get more from them. Lets hope we have top drawer performance tomorrow, we will need it. Our goal has to be to finish 6th and hope that one of the top 4 win the FA Cup. Bolton have a pretty easy run-in playing mostly teams in the bottom half of the league, so they will push us hard for that 6th spot.

Come On You Reds!!!

YNWA