Holden

[Wandering Willy]

We might need him at left back as Robbo is one booking away from a 2 game ban that would include the semi final if it fell in the next two games!

Where did you get this from? I thought he was on 7 yellows.

Also, anyone know when the amnesty is - I has heard somewhere it was the 2nd Sunday in April.

According to the official statistics Robinson only has five yellows, serving a ban in January (Liverpool).

That's just for the league Monty. He has 2 in cup competitions by my reckoning, making 7 in total.

Edit: It seems like he should have more!

[Montreal Wanderer]

We might need him at left back as Robbo is one booking away from a 2 game ban that would include the semi final if it fell in the next two games!

Where did you get this from? I thought he was on 7 yellows.

Also, anyone know when the amnesty is - I has heard somewhere it was the 2nd Sunday in April.

According to the official statistics Robinson only has five yellows, serving a ban in January (Liverpool).

That's just for the league Monty. He has 2 in cup competitions by my reckoning, making 7 in total.

Edit: It seems like he should have more!

Correct (I just looked it up) so he he is not one booking away. Good.

SKD is on 8, counting one for England.

[enrdentw]

In Holden's absent and a fit Zat Knight;

Steinnson Knight Wheater Robbo


Elmo Cahill Davies Petrov

Could this work?

[Lord Kangana]

I wouldn't like to be trying it out in an FA Cup semi.

[enrdentw]

I wouldn't like to be trying it out in an FA Cup semi.

Me niether.

When is Knight expected back?

[Lord Kangana]

My understanding is weeks rather than days.

[Wandering Willy]

That's just for the league Monty. He has 2 in cup competitions by my reckoning, making 7 in total.

Edit: It seems like he should have more!

Correct (I just looked it up) so he he is not one booking away. Good.

SKD is on 8, counting one for England.

Good.

Re SKD: The England booking doesn't count. Domestic comps only I believe.

[Armchair Wanderer]

In Holden's absent and a fit Zat Knight;

Steinnson Knight Wheater Robbo


Elmo Cahill Davies Petrov

Could this work?

Wow!

I think I'd rather have Moo there unless I've missed something and he's out. I'm sure either Elmo or Taylor could play in the middle at a push.

Isn't JOB getting back to fitness and then there's JLS. One man's "smallest squad in the (quality) Barclays Premier League" is another man's embarrassment of riches.

[Prufrock]

These percentages look great, but according to those stats we've only played 8 games without Holden this season (which isn't really a representative sample compared to 29 games with him) and the teams we lost to without him are Burnley, City and Liverpool away.

So yeah, he's a loss, but it's nowhere near as drastic as those figures would suggest.

At best Tom we don't know how big a loss it will be. It could well be as "drastic" as those figures suggest because simply we don't know. I mean it could very feasibly be that the whole difference between our season this time and our very consistent 1ppg but ultimately pretty rubbish season last time out.

I think the worry is Coyle wants to play 4-4-2, without Holden IMO we still have lots of good players, but I don't see a 4-4-2 balance there.

Davies and Muamba for me are not good enough together to keep the midfield under control. And Cohen just isn't sharp or clever enough either. Its hard to see where we'll go really. I hope he doesn't use LCY in the centre as for me that takes away his best attributes and also I think he's not really suited to that role.

We're in a little bit of a catch 22 as we've looked good with 2 up front this season and we're struggling to fit all our forwards in anyways, but then we're now struggling in behind that.

Well.... yes, without the ability to see the future, we don't know. Maybe Holden was holding us back all this time and Tamir is going to fire us to Cup glory? Maybe we'll not win a game for 6 months? Maybe Stoke would beat us regardless? Maybe we'll beat Stoke regardless? Maybe LCY will fail a drugs test and we'll be kicked out of the cup? Maybe the stadium will collapse? Maybe, maybe, maybe. There is nothing to say either way, except a fairly ropey set of statistics, why be so unequivocal that we're doomed?

If anything, none of the above scenarios are more ridiculous than the idea that one little pea-headed American single handedly dragged us from 18th to 7th through sheer force of will.

All that I do know for a fact is that if we don't win the Cup outright, 'we'd have won it if Holden was fit' is going to be the new 'we'd have won it if Deano wasn't a useless, slick haired, poncy tw*t'. At least, until Elmander misses an open goal against Stoke...

As for losing the 'midfield battle', Stoke's central midfielders are currently Dean Whitehead and Glenn Whelan.

Don't think Whitehead is playing for em much now. Isn't it that Marc Wilson (who used to play for Pompey and is a decent player) in there?

Wilson has been playing Right back. Middle two has been Delap and one of Whitehead or Whelan for most of the season.

Their XI I'd assume will look something like this:

Sorenson/Begovic

Wilson--Huth---Shawcross---Higginbotham

Pennant---Delap---Whitehead---Etherington

---Jones------Walters---- (assuming Carew is cup tied?)

Their central midfield two are gash. I reckon Rory Delap spends fifteen minutes in front of the mirror every morning telling himself Tony rates him as a footballer. I'm more than just a throw to you, aren't I, Tony?

Whitehead is OK-ish, both are hard working but limited. They won't create much but they will look to shut things down. I think MD is a good choice against them though, given his driving style. The key to stopping Stoke is set pieces, and stopping Etherington and Pennant. Pennant is a bit of a one trick pony, with a cracking cross and not much else, Etherington is very dangerous, pace, strenght, decent cross, can finish, and pops up at the back stick a lot. Not gonna win much in the air against this lot, which means for me we need LCY's clever delivery from the right, not just tossing it into the monster CBs, and we need Elmo up top because they are shite in the channels. If MD is fit we have a decent chance, though without Holden I'd say their slight favourites. Without MD I'd be very concerned.

[Lord Kangana]

In Holden's absent and a fit Zat Knight;

Steinnson Knight Wheater Robbo


Elmo Cahill Davies Petrov

Could this work?

Wow!

I think I'd rather have Moo there unless I've missed something and he's out. I'm sure either Elmo or Taylor could play in the middle at a push.

Isn't JOB getting back to fitness and then there's JLS. One man's "smallest squad in the (quality) Barclays Premier League" is another man's embarrassment of riches.

Just to check I'm not hallucinating, you are inferring that JOB and JLo represent an "embarassment" of riches, right?

Anyway, you forgot to mention Tamir "Cullinan" Cohen.

[officer_dibble]

Pru, I don't think Carew is cup tied, I think he has already played for them in the cup.....good analysis though

Delap is pretty poor as a premier league centre mid these days....the best tactic with him is to get one of our hard nuts (Robbo?) to give him a right good chinese burn in the first few minutes, limiting his throw ins

The other thing they do that worries me is at free kicks which present shooting opportunities (think Wheaters at Brum!), and they send someone like Huth to charge into the wall and practically wrestle a space for the ball to fly under.....not quite sure how you stop that if the ref is going to let it go on.

[CAPSLOCK]

O'Brien is going to join Megson on loan

[Hoboh]

In Holden's absent and a fit Zat Knight;

Steinnson Knight Wheater Robbo


Elmo Cahill Davies Petrov

Could this work?

Wow!

I think I'd rather have Moo there unless I've missed something and he's out. I'm sure either Elmo or Taylor could play in the middle at a push.

Isn't JOB getting back to fitness and then there's JLS. One man's "smallest squad in the (quality) Barclays Premier League" is another man's embarrassment of riches.

We desperate or something? off load from the squad end of this term those two

[BWFC_Insane]

We might need him at left back as Robbo is one booking away from a 2 game ban that would include the semi final if it fell in the next two games!

Where did you get this from? I thought he was on 7 yellows.

Also, anyone know when the amnesty is - I has heard somewhere it was the 2nd Sunday in April.

According to the official statistics Robinson only has five yellows, serving a ban in January (Liverpool).

That's just for the league Monty. He has 2 in cup competitions by my reckoning, making 7 in total.

Edit: It seems like he should have more!

Correct (I just looked it up) so he he is not one booking away. Good.

SKD is on 8, counting one for England.

I suspect those stats are out of date. BBC have Robinson on 8 bookings which I suspect was before Saturdays game, taking him to 9.

I doubt the BN would have been wrong on this sadly.

[P.O.S.]

Hope he lays off these in time for his return to training!

[Lord Kangana]

Is that Klasnic?

[P.O.S.]

Is that Klasnic?

Yeah!

[Montreal Wanderer]

I suspect those stats are out of date. BBC have Robinson on 8 bookings which I suspect was before Saturdays game, taking him to 9.

I doubt the BN would have been wrong on this sadly.

Sky has him as 5 + 2 = 7 - same as official stats, so the BBC's 6 + 2 = 8 must include Saturday I would have thought. I can't answer for the accuracy of BN - no one could.

[jaffka]

Is that Klasnic?

so we have steinsson who can drink 20 plus pints in one go and klasnic who empties sweet shops in one go, what ever next?

[plymouth wanderer]

respect

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/483721235?-11201" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

especially from a fecking rag