A few observations on our next PL opponents......I have to disagree with TH14

[PSRB]

Lukaku - never worth 28m! Poor finisher and not improving

Howard - Awful on crosses and generally not the keeper he was

Lennon - :hehe: gets into great positions and always falls over or picks completely the wrong option

McCarthy and Stones - Quality players, either of whom would improve us

Martinez - errr, I'll stick with AW, if it's all the same

[Luis Anaconda]

three points on now

[Pokster]

[PSRB]

I'll be happy if Martinez doesn't bring on Mirallas until the 82nd minute!

[Luis Anaconda]

Barkely looked out of place on the left-hand side. Seemed a waste there.

One who puzzles me is Besic - looks very good in some games, others, like yesterday he looked completely out of his depth

[Ben.]

infact they actually looked ok defensively, before the inevitable.
Lukaku missing from about 3 yards didn't help their cause either.
McCarthy is very good, he has been a really big miss when injured, not sure he is what we need though, i'd still go all out for Schneiderlin.

[PSRB]

but a certain player we know, said he slowed the game down too much and that's why they couldn't get any momentum going

He also agreed that as good as Barkley was on Thursday, he was as poor yesterday

[Luis Anaconda]

[Ben.]

and hope he flaps it to one of our six players waiting for the cutback on the edge of the box.

[Luis Anaconda]

[Luis Anaconda]

We won a game of One Day Cricket, b - an actual game. Wonders will never cease

[Ben.]

says alot that even at 170 odd for none against Scotland I feared the worst.
I agree with Boycott though, if you were Hales you may as well go home, they clearly don't fancy him for whatever reason.

[Ashberto]

wd the plucky Scotch imo

[Snin]

:-)

[Rich]

Not very pleasing on the eye.

[Ben.]

or Boycott?

[Rich]

[Luis Anaconda]

[Luis Anaconda]

Ballance? Like Hales a young player but one who has had a decent record so far unlike Hales who has disappointed when given the chance. Obviously not Root or Morgan and Taylor has been our best performer recently.

[Rich]

But then I suppose that could be said of the entire England top order.

[Ben.]

it's often more about hand eye cordination than technique.
Trescothick was probably our best ODI batsman without ever actually moving his feet.
McCullum, Warner and Gilchrist as well, when you're that aggressive something will suffer but he has it in him to win a game on his own.
Our problem has always been too many nudgers and nurdlers now we actually have a bloke who can hit the thing to the fence and we don't pick him, at least give him a chance.

[Luis Anaconda]

a few weeks after dropping the previous one anyway. Can't understand Morgan's form - two centuries against Australia in the past year and f**k all against anyone else

[Ben.]

Taylor 4, Root 5, Morgan 6.

If him and Ali get out cheaply then you still have Bell, Taylor and Root to set it up for Morgan and Buttler.

[Red N White Army]

Not that I watch it intently, pyjama cricket holds little interest for me. A mere distraction. Can't believe this is how we are preparing for an Ashes series. Madness.

[Rich]

Quite fancy sitting in Bridgetown while filling myself with Carib.

[Luis Anaconda]

So I woudn't mind that

[Luis Anaconda]

well the World Cup final - I imagine our boys will have a nice rest before then.

Should be a chance to give a couple of new names a run out though. Be interesting to see which of the Yorkshire lads is given a crack at opening with Cook

[Luis Anaconda]

The Kiwis series could be pretty interesting

[Ben.]

talking of which he was telling a story about when England held an evening meeting before playing the West Indies.
At the time Garner was playing with Botham at Somerset so they asked him "how do we score runs off Garner?"

Botham: "you don't, nobody does"

"what about Viv how does he score off him in the nets?"

Botham: "he doesn't score off him either"

Boycott "I'm going to bed".

[Ben.]

Although I think he is my favourite cricketer, including ours.

[Red N White Army]

For this WC, which we are clearly a bit **** at, seems odd imo.

[Luis Anaconda]

completely bottling it moment out of the way early this time

[Luis Anaconda]

Test team. We never really toured the West Indies before this time of year anyhow so there was usually one longish winter break in the cycle

[Rich]