craig

I am pretty sure I read that as part of his release from Hearts it was agreed that he couldn't play with another team till Jan 1 - and he also had a gag order in place.

Can't play with anyone till Jan 1 buba so I will take the bet !!

Cracking strike from Essien, I have to say. However, Taylor's still wins it for me - Essien's is played nicely into his path, he does have to change his stride pattern but when you consider that Taylor's dropped from about 20 ft in the air, he had someone closing him down and he simply had to lash at it first-time I still would choose Taylor's. Have to admit though that Essien's is a screamer.

I am looking forward to seeing Essien's goal now (although as a gooner I shouldn't be)

If Essien's was better then it must have been some goal (havent seen it yet) because what Taylor did is nigh on unbelievable. To score from that distance is one thing but to do it on the volley, without a prior touch, when the ball has just spun up from a tackle, is an incredible finish. I rate Taylor's goal a better goal than Beckham's from inside his own half because of the way Tylor took it on the volley first-time.

What do we expect from the Record though ? That player rating is a joke !! Why ? He played for 15 mins and gets 0 out of 10. Every other week I bet players come on for the last 2 mins and they get 3 out of 10 - yet Sebo gets 0 - even in missing the chances he must have contributed more than a guy playing the last 2 mins. The ratings don't mean anything anyway !

Fair points Pete - the only thing that I would say is that it IS fair to criticise his performance against Falkirk last week but there are 10 others that should also take the same criticism last week.

Ferguson has been, arguably, our best performer over the last month and one of the very few that gives a shit about our team and our club. Take him out and out goes the heart of the team (and I was one of the ones early in the season calling for him to be dropped) - but on current form if you dropped him you would be dropping your best in-form player. The problem with your line-up Gribz is you still don't have a midfield - Buffel and Sionko on the flanks means we would have a 4-2-4 formation as they are both more attack-minded than balanced and, in both cases, they offer zero protection for their respective full-backs. Lets also not forget that we started the season (4-6 weeks ?) with Hemdani and Clement and, aside from the first couple of games, it could hardly be called flowing football.

If you pick 3 teams it is a treble AND an accumulator. Accumulator basically means that you are betting on ALL your teams to win. But the term "accumulator" is usually used when you have 4 or more teams (for 2 you just use double and for 3 you just use treble). Gribz, you really ARE a glutton for punishment - Charlton AGAIN ?? And now that you are betting ON Wigan, watch Watford win that game !! Bud, you need to, at some point, realise that the more often you bet on Charlton the more often your coupon will be down..... I am just on the gg's today.

I agree Barry but to counter that it may also be that PLG wanted to be the best and, therefore, wanted to improve everything at the one time. Hopefully he can see that he needs to take a step back and improve the basics - the job he inherited required building from the ground up methodically. Looks like he felt he could just improve everything in one blow.

That is a fair point - I wish that we had 10 others on the park that had the same desire and determination to do well for our club as Sebo so obviously has. It is just a shame that right now he seems to be lacking quality and/or confidence - but he now gets his chance to shine and, hopefully, he will do so and make it difficult for PLG to drop him. I am one of the ones that has given Boyd a bit of a hard time - but my only complaint with Boyd is that he is just not even involved unless he scores - if he could be more involved he would be an automatic starter for me - but maybe what he needs is someone up beside him to take the physical battles off him...... Sebo ? I just dont think the lone striker with 3 supporting AM's works for Boyd or, for that matter, the club !

The thing I find worrying though is that in all that both of you fine gents have said about Sebo having "all" the attributes..... not ONE of those attributes mentioned was "finishing". Sorry boys, and I hope I am wrong, but his finishing has been absolutely terrible when he has had playing time and, IMO, last time I looked one of the major attributes of being a striker was finishing. He has power, he has pace, he has strength - but does he have the finishing, the touch or the positional sense for him to make a difference ? I doubt it myself but hope I am wrong and you are both right !!

Already a thread on this alan, just a few below this thread.

He isn't commanding in the air either (you don't actually see him win that many headers), and is too slow for that position too Miss Q. However, he couldn't be any worse than what we are seeing just now.

I think that looks like a good starting 11 cal -sadly I fear it is no more than wishful thinking.

I agree Ian. Re sorting out the defensive prioblems I just don't know how he goes about that when new players can't be signed just now. Yes, he works with them on the training pitches and I am sure he is - but if they aren't listening or they can't adapt then what else can PLG do ??? I do think he is too stubborn to stick with the formation - it is obviously not working when we haven't won even 50% of our SPL games. He needs to change it to a 4-4-2 - get back to basics and when we are winning whilst playing well and cruising in 2nd THAT is the time to tinker.

I still would give him one more season, swinging the axe after a year isn't going to help IMO - lack of stability and you then have another manager brought in with a shoe-string budget again no doubt which doesn't help things at all

I agree, I don't think he dived - you could tell after he went past Schwarzer that he actually tried to dig the ball out from under his feet so he could score.

I agree Mike. I don't think we have the luxury of trying to find "the next big thing". Right now we lack a commanding, aggressive CB - Pressley may not be everyone's type of player but he is both of those things. And the bonus is that with him being frozen out at Hearts I think we could get him on the cheap - I think that, in the short-term, this is a win-win for us. We don't have much money and we bring in a guy that gives us a bit of what we need at the same time as not spending a bunch of money. I would take Pressley as a short-term measure.

Depends on if you have the money available to pay for a top dollar plumber

nokiss, are you Eck in disguise ? Are we having Fletcher at RB or Whittaker up front ?

And did you not bet on the team playing Luton ?

I hope Bolton get a couple of goals Gribz - Reading really are a surprise package though !

Fulham and Hearts not looking too good Ian.

3-0, was it Silva with the 2nd pen too ?