david wheater

[jaffka]

yeah 46k a week in your back pocket makes you best features come to the front.

[HMX]

He's completely and utterly ugly as well, which is high on my list of important qualities in a defender.

But Liverpool's defensive record isn't outstanding!

[Worthy4England]

He spent all half time, I think trying to put the ball into an unguarded net. Without exception, they all missed. He does however owe the Bolton fans in the North Stand, two tartan flasks and one bag of Werthers.

[seanworth]

He spent all half time, I think trying to put the ball into an unguarded net. Without exception, they all missed. He does however owe the Bolton fans in the North Stand, two tartan flasks and one bag of Werthers.

At least we won't have to worry about own goals then.

[officer_dibble]

Lads got to be pushing Knights spot now, surely?

[a1]

Lads got to be pushing Knights spot now, surely?

or cahill's

:/

[Lofthouse Lower]

Knight definitely, Cahill perhaps.

Defence needs a shake-up

[Tombwfc]

Why? Changes for the sake of changes?

Both Cahill and Knight did fairly well from what I saw against Spurs.

[CAPSLOCK]

Anybody listening to our conversation with some Boro fans at Euston on Saturday wouldn't have been overly excited

'He's great with an experienced organiser'

'When Huth left, he went to shit'

[BWFC_Insane]

Why? Changes for the sake of changes?

Both Cahill and Knight did fairly well from what I saw against Spurs.

Aye why change our watertight defence eh?

Why take Knight out for someone who at first look seems to be better than a direct "hoof" downfield.

In fact why ever change anything?

Sorry Tom but we've lost 6 on the bounce away from home, our worst run in 15 years. I'd have thought that merited at least a bit of tinkering in some departments. We've got Wheater, he's going to be here next season, I can't see the harm in having a look now to see how he might do and also to see if he can help us in the shorter term.

I'm not for the whole, everyone is shit lets leave em out stuff, but where we have an alternative such as Wheater surely its worth trying a few things?

[Lofthouse Lower]

Why? Changes for the sake of changes?

Both Cahill and Knight did fairly well from what I saw against Spurs.

Changes to get away from complacency, for one thing. It's alright having competition for places but when that competition just ends up getting splinters in their arse then it's all a bit pointless.

[Worthy4England]

Why? Changes for the sake of changes?

Both Cahill and Knight did fairly well from what I saw against Spurs.

Aye why change our watertight defence eh?

Why take Knight out for someone who at first look seems to be better than a direct "hoof" downfield.

In fact why ever change anything?

Sorry Tom but we've lost 6 on the bounce away from home, our worst run in 15 years. I'd have thought that merited at least a bit of tinkering in some departments. We've got Wheater, he's going to be here next season, I can't see the harm in having a look now to see how he might do and also to see if he can help us in the shorter term.

I'm not for the whole, everyone is shit lets leave em out stuff, but where we have an alternative such as Wheater surely its worth trying a few things?

Without discussing the mertis of playing Wheater etc. for a second, out of that worst run in 15 years, how many other occasions have we played 6 teams in the top 9 away consecutively? That worst run includes the teams in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th all away...Newcastle are 10th - they're next and United away after that, they're 1st. So it could be a run of 8 fairly easily.

Given our results against "teams in the top half", it's probably not surprising.

[BWFC_Insane]

Why? Changes for the sake of changes?

Both Cahill and Knight did fairly well from what I saw against Spurs.

Aye why change our watertight defence eh?

Why take Knight out for someone who at first look seems to be better than a direct "hoof" downfield.

In fact why ever change anything?

Sorry Tom but we've lost 6 on the bounce away from home, our worst run in 15 years. I'd have thought that merited at least a bit of tinkering in some departments. We've got Wheater, he's going to be here next season, I can't see the harm in having a look now to see how he might do and also to see if he can help us in the shorter term.

I'm not for the whole, everyone is shit lets leave em out stuff, but where we have an alternative such as Wheater surely its worth trying a few things?

Without discussing the mertis of playing Wheater etc. for a second, out of that worst run in 15 years, how many other occasions have we played 6 teams in the top 9 away consecutively? That worst run includes the teams in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th all away...Newcastle are 10th - they're next and United away after that, they're 1st. So it could be a run of 8 fairly easily.

Given our results against "teams in the top half", it's probably not surprising.

Absolutely agree.

But equally Liverpool were bottom half when we played them were they not?

Chelsea had not won a game for 2 months or something when we went to Stamford Bridge either.

All I'm saying is away games are always tough but we seem a soft touch on the road at present. Nowt wrong with seeing if we can be a bit of a sterner test for teams IMO!

[thebish]

All I'm saying is away games are always tough but we seem a soft touch on the road at present. Nowt wrong with seeing if we can be a bit of a sterner test for teams IMO!

chelsea was the only tonking - the rest of them we DID give quite a stern test, didn't we?

[BWFC_Insane]

All I'm saying is away games are always tough but we seem a soft touch on the road at present. Nowt wrong with seeing if we can be a bit of a sterner test for teams IMO!

chelsea was the only tonking - the rest of them we DID give quite a stern test, didn't we?

Actually on the road strictly speaking we only lost 1-0 at Chelsea.

Stoke was a good example of a tonking in all but score though. I can't help but feel that with a bit more defensive resilience we'd have had a couple of points out of the last 6 away games, possibly even three. For me we're too easy to create against right now. Perhaps its the system, perhaps changing the back four won't make a difference, but seeing as we're playing 4-4-2 fairly religiously it seems, I'd like to at least see what Wheater brings.

[Worthy4England]

Why? Changes for the sake of changes?

Both Cahill and Knight did fairly well from what I saw against Spurs.

Aye why change our watertight defence eh?

Why take Knight out for someone who at first look seems to be better than a direct "hoof" downfield.

In fact why ever change anything?

Sorry Tom but we've lost 6 on the bounce away from home, our worst run in 15 years. I'd have thought that merited at least a bit of tinkering in some departments. We've got Wheater, he's going to be here next season, I can't see the harm in having a look now to see how he might do and also to see if he can help us in the shorter term.

I'm not for the whole, everyone is shit lets leave em out stuff, but where we have an alternative such as Wheater surely its worth trying a few things?

Without discussing the mertis of playing Wheater etc. for a second, out of that worst run in 15 years, how many other occasions have we played 6 teams in the top 9 away consecutively? That worst run includes the teams in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th all away...Newcastle are 10th - they're next and United away after that, they're 1st. So it could be a run of 8 fairly easily.

Given our results against "teams in the top half", it's probably not surprising.

Absolutely agree.

But equally Liverpool were bottom half when we played them were they not?

Chelsea had not won a game for 2 months or something when we went to Stamford Bridge either.

All I'm saying is away games are always tough but we seem a soft touch on the road at present. Nowt wrong with seeing if we can be a bit of a sterner test for teams IMO!

Liverpool despite their league position have only lost 2 at home, and Chelsea 1. They've drawn 5 between them. I think the "slumps" they're in are fairly relative on that evidence.

Just looking through the tables, this is one of the lowest seasons (at this stage) for home losses in the division. There's been 61 or so this season. Last year was even lower (55) and 2007/8 was 60 at about the same stage. Some of the earlier seasons in the Prem (4 of them) have been over 70 at about this stage of the season.

We're currently 16th in the "away" league, which I suspect might get worse after the next 2 aways. But, we're only one point off tenth - so 50% of the teams have got 11 points or less away this year. We were unlucky to drop 2 points V Everton, we could've grabbed a point on Saturday, we could've grabbed a point at Anfield. Those would've put us 7th/8th on away form.

[malcd1]

Anybody listening to our conversation with some Boro fans at Euston on Saturday wouldn't have been overly excited

'He's great with an experienced organiser'

'When Huth left, he went to shit'

I have lurked on one of Boro's forum sites. There were quite a lot saying exactly the same thing about last season where he was apparently poor and they would have given him away. But they did say he was back to his best this season and would be sad to see him leave. How good is his best I think we will have to wait and see.

Of course he is still young for a centre half. How many Premiership centre-halves are playing week-in and week-out at 23? I think of many.

[Tombwfc]

Why? Changes for the sake of changes?

Both Cahill and Knight did fairly well from what I saw against Spurs.

Aye why change our watertight defence eh?

Why take Knight out for someone who at first look seems to be better than a direct "hoof" downfield.

In fact why ever change anything?

Sorry Tom but we've lost 6 on the bounce away from home, our worst run in 15 years. I'd have thought that merited at least a bit of tinkering in some departments. We've got Wheater, he's going to be here next season, I can't see the harm in having a look now to see how he might do and also to see if he can help us in the shorter term.

I'm not for the whole, everyone is shit lets leave em out stuff, but where we have an alternative such as Wheater surely its worth trying a few things?

Because as I said, it's a change for the sake of a change. Neither Knight or Cahill are playing particularly badly and Wheater appearing semi-competant is not really reason enough for me. It's not going to influence results in any way. It's not addressing any fundamental problem with the team's tactics or set-up, it's just replacing one decent to good Premiership centre half with another.

As has already been stated, your new favourite stat-of-doom relies heavily on the placement of fixtures. Of the teams we've played in our worst run in 15 years, we lost to all but Stoke last season, and that was hardly a performance for the ages.

[thebish]

Cahill is bigging up the new partnership...

GARY Cahill has backed himself and David Wheater to lock Fulham out of their FA Cup clash on Sunday. Since being paired together for the first time against Everton last weekend because of Zat Knight’s knee injury, the duo have yet to concede a goal - helping Wanderers to two victories in four days.

And although the partnership is only three hours old, Cahill has already seen enough of the £2.2million signing to maintain high hopes of another shut out in West London this weekend.

“Wheats was fantastic when he came on against Everton and at Wigan it was no different,” he said. “I was really impressed. Zat’s absence has given David his chance and he has taken it with both hands. Long may it continue. It’s a different partnership but one I am enjoying. We defended well. We have kept a couple of clean sheets which is pleasing and we hope that continues.”

[plymouth wanderer]

Cahill is bigging up the new partnership...

GARY Cahill has backed himself and David Wheater to lock Fulham out of their FA Cup clash on Sunday. Since being paired together for the first time against Everton last weekend because of Zat Knight’s knee injury, the duo have yet to concede a goal - helping Wanderers to two victories in four days.

And although the partnership is only three hours old, Cahill has already seen enough of the £2.2million signing to maintain high hopes of another shut out in West London this weekend.

“Wheats was fantastic when he came on against Everton and at Wigan it was no different,” he said. “I was really impressed. Zat’s absence has given David his chance and he has taken it with both hands. Long may it continue. It’s a different partnership but one I am enjoying. We defended well. We have kept a couple of clean sheets which is pleasing and we hope that continues.”

bet gaz is fecking relieved