TyldesleyLatic

I don’t think that there was any can’t be arsed approach but I think that the players have a major psychological problem when it comes to playing United.
They can go behind to anybody else & still put up a fight & either get back into the game or make a decent fist of it, but on virtually every occasion that they go behind against United, they just seem to see it as game over coz they’ll never get back into it & it leads to the kind of Keystone Cops defending that gave them their 2nd & 4th goals.
I went to the game with my Latics mate & a group of Tyldesley Reds & they all said the same that a) they always seem to get a hatful against us & b) that once the first goal goes in they never seem to have to work hard to score any of the others
i was hoping last season’s victory would have banished that particular ghost but after both games against them this season have taken the same depressingly predictable route, obviously not

You are not wrong there TL. Agree with Boyce, Di Santo? worked hard but produced little, Maloney, i’ll take your phrase anonymous.. His passing is a bit like the chuckle brothers sometimes, to you to me to you to me… Not quite at where he was at the back end of last season.
Beausejour – Tried hard but he just isn’t at the races. We channelled a lot of play down that left side on Tuesday and very little came off. Boyce was in acres of space at times and can’t understand why we didn’t pass it out wide to him.

Glad to see though we dinked a couple balls from midfield over the top of the defence for Kone to run onto and it worked. He’s a strong bloke and samlling? Was lucky to stay on the pitch for hauling him down[/quote]

Like I say, all about opinions. I’d agree Maloney hasn’t quite hit the heights of last season but he isn’t the only one

And on Smalling’s challenge – I’ve deleted the game off my sky plus without watching it so I haven’t seen it since I was at the game (& pretty much bang on line in the east stand with where the foul took place). My initial reaction was that it was a caution.
The only way it could have been a sending off was if the challenge was dangerous (which it wasn’t) or if it denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity against a player moving towards goal – Like I say I haven’t seen it since, but whilst it was a foul I thought the ball was already running through to the keeper & so it wasn’t a goal scoring opportunity. At best it seemed 50/50 as to whether Kone would have got to the ball before the keeper which again prevents a red being shown

I first read that in the People about 6-8 weeks ago so assumed it was something most people knew about
The last I read was a couple of weeks back which said that his desire to want to play in some international youth tournament for Chile in January was threatening to scupper the deal.
To be honest if he does come I think he’ll be a “back up” (even when Kone is at the ACN) so can’t really see the point in it

Oh dear, 2.5 year deal …………..with an option!!!

He’ll come in January, be outstanding to the end of the season…then sign for Arsenal week before the start of the 2013-2014 season.

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2012/12/04/3577863/roger-espinoza-preparing-for-wigan-move

When contracts are described a x years with an option, that option is usually referring to an option the club or player has to extend it for a further amount of time – normally if the player makes a specific number of appearances.
I don’t think it means an option say for someone else to put in an amount specific bid for him & they can have him or an option for 1 or both parties to cancel it for any reason e.g. if the player wants a big move

He was taken off because Bobby knew that the next foul he committed (regardless of how bad it was) would have seen him brandished with a 2nd caution & therefore sent off.
As it was, the first caution he got was his 5th of the season so he is suspended for the QPR game – if he’d been sent off (which to be fair he should have been) then he’d also have missed the Norwich & Arsenal games too

As for our defence against QPR, personally I’d like to see Boyce, Lopez & Golobart (if Bobby doesn’t think he’s ready then to be frank he shouldn’t even be on the bench) – I suspect however that he’ll err on the side of caution & go with the back line that finished last night’s game (Beausejour, Lopez & Boyce, with Jones at LWB & Stam at RWB) & to be fair it didn’t do that bad once Bobby went with that last night even though we were a man down.
Personally though, I think that you’re asking for trouble when you start to play players out of position.

I think a clue to how Bobby will go will be if he talks at his presss conference on Thursday about how he’d have no hesitation playing Golobart. If he does that then he won’t play him

EDIT – I have read rumours on the internet this morning however that Alcaraz will be fit for Saturday

I’d agree that Al Habsi has by no means suddenly become a dodgy keeper but ensuring that you clear the ball sufficiently after making a save is a basic part of goalkeeping – Tim Krul had had a similar save to make from (I think) Di Santo when it was still 0-0 & he made damn sure that it didn’t go back into the danger area so it was a poor mistake last night.
To go with a couple in his previous 2 games

For what it’s worth though I think that whilst he should have held Barry’s shot against City last week that led to the 1st goal there was nothing else that he could have done with Balotelli’s first follow up shot than what he actually did