Stewart Downing - West Hahahaham player

[Pablo]

Disagree. Hodgson would've slagged him off and said he was ****ing wank. Maybe blamed him for being 7th in the league. Clearly Kenny is trying to give the hapless Downing a lift. Good management IMO, even if buying him was disastrous.

Absolute polar opposite of the type of thing Hodgson would have said, Odemwinge is a perfect recent example.

[Shaggy]

As manager no matter what you really think, you should paint your players in a positive light to the press, insulting them is just idiotic (or in Roy's case, self serving).

Ferguson's done it for years even if it makes him look really ridiculous.

[peekay]

Disagree. Hodgson would've slagged him off and said he was ****ing wank. Maybe blamed him for being 7th in the league. Clearly Kenny is trying to give the hapless Downing a lift. Good management IMO, even if buying him was disastrous.

True about the first part. I was wrong. I had forgotten the Dodge's ability to shift the blame on to players. I was comparing the quote to some of Hodgson's quotes on defending the indefensible. Like after being outperformed by Everton "I think it was a very good second-half performance. I am refusing to accept it was a bad team performance."

As for the second part, I really hope it is great management and it works starting with today's game. However I just don't see it happening.

[Mostar]

Disagree. Hodgson would've slagged him off and said he was ****ing wank. Maybe blamed him for being 7th in the league. Clearly Kenny is trying to give the hapless Downing a lift. Good management IMO, even if buying him was disastrous.

Hodge would put you down even more and affect your confidence even further with some ridiculous remark and then try to put a positive spin on it in his silly "inspiring" way when the damage is already done.

I hate that cunt.

[Shaggy]

Downing sang this for his "initiation" at his first training session

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49klxPex-k"]Dion And The Belmonts - Runaround sue - YouTube[/ame]

[little dave hedgehog]

good song and i can strangely imagine him singing it as well.

[baitman]

did downing cover himself in glory, or gravy?

[Chrono]

He was actually very good yesterday. Hopefully he keeps on playing like he did in this match.

[Lecter]

He was actually very good yesterday. Hopefully he keeps on playing like he did in this match.

He worked hard off the ball

Wasnt that impressed when he was on the ball

[fah-q]

Worked hard and a couple of times he appeared to have the confidence to go past a player or two but then retreated back into his shell a bit. But generally a much better performance from him.

[Zapater]

I didn't really notice anything different from him, the only difference was that we managed to get him the ball in better positions. He didn't do anything to suggest he is a player that we can maybe count on to create chances or score goals

[Exiled_red]

I thought he was better yesterday, I don't know if that was because he was on the left.

[Roboklopp]

Aye thought he was much better yesterday- that spacky shot aside. At the very least, he looked "lively" () & gave their defence something to think about.

[Lents]

He had one of his best games yesterday for us. Someone needs to be in his ear every single day at training and tell him he has the ability to and pace to beat and man and ping crosses in, like he was doing to Zabaleta last night.
When he was up against Richards he didn't fancy it quite so much but someone needs to be telling him he's better than he thinks he is.

[the rev leeroy brown]

first time downing actually looked a 17 mill player last night. attacked the full backs, had the confidence to dribble and run at players - not great by any means but a hell of an improvement last night. hopefully he keeps it up over the next couple games