A draw against Pompey is a good result - positivity thread

[Shaggy]

If he'd played for an hour, he'd have probably had MORE clear sights of goal and one would've gone in.

Ifs and buts.

[Craig_H]

Ifs and buts.

Oh fecking well do one, you dirty manc

[poorscousertommy]

Percentages, ifs and buts mate.

Not percentages, if's and buts. Rather absolute fact.

Torres, Gerrard and Babel significantly improve our team when playing.

[Craig_H]

Not percentages, if's and buts. Rather absolute fact.

Torres, Gerrard and Babel significantly improve our team when playing.

I was trying to give manc-boy the benefit of the doubt

But yeah, course it's fact. Most things i say tend to be

[Shaggy]

It's fact that we're a better team with Gerrard and Torres in it, but it is in no way a fact that we would've won had they started. THAT is pure ifs and buts.

[poorscousertommy]

but it is in no way a fact that we would've won had they started.

True, but the point is it our chances of winning would have been a higher.

We should be playing our best players every league game.

That's why the mancs, chavs and gooners have won the league. I don't remember seeing Cronaldo, Rooney etc being rested to often last season

[Craig_H]

It's fact that we're a better team with Gerrard and Torres in it, but it is in no way a fact that we would've won had they started. THAT is pure ifs and buts.

No one said it was a fact.

But a BETTER team is far more likely to win, you stubborn fecker

[ningnangnong]

True, but the point is it our chances of winning would have been a higher.

We should be playing our best players every league game.

That's why the mancs, chavs and gooners have won the league. I don't remember seeing Cronaldo, Rooney etc being rested to often last season

[ningnangnong]

No one said it was a fact.

But a BETTER team is far more likely to win, you stubborn fecker

h:

[poorscousertommy]

Points well made ningnangnong

But is a word used in many an argument such as "Ningnangnong could make a good point BUT he resorts to posting **** smileys instead"

[Craig_H]

[Red Chilli]

Ifs and buts.

They are "ifs and buts" because Rafa picked the wrong ****ing team and we'll never know what would have happened with the best XI on the field

[Sir Bob]

It goes without saying that we'll never know had SG & Torres played what the result would have been. however, for me thats not the point. Rafa has gone on record many times saying the league is our priority this season. if this is the case then he should play our strongest team at all times in the league.

rest players for the cups, but not the league, particularly not tough away games. If the league is our no. 1 target he should have started with SG & torres and rested them on tuesday. We must give ourselves the best chance of league success this season and if that means missing out on other cups then so be it.

[Red Chilli]

It goes without saying that we'll never know had SG & Torres played what the result would have been. however, for me thats not the point. Rafa has gone on record many times saying the league is our priority this season. if this is the case then he should play our strongest team at all times in the league.

rest players for the cups, but not the league, particularly not tough away games. If the league is our no. 1 target he should have started with SG & torres and rested them on tuesday. We must give ourselves the best chance of league success this season and if that means missing out on other cups then so be it.

Agree with you 100% Sir Bob

[spider-neil]

loads of people arguing with dj and **** only knows why.

here are some things we KNEW going into this game

a) pompy are no mugs.
we got ONE POINT off them after two games last season, they beat manu last season and drew manu THIS season, if somehow we had a goldfish like memory only this PRESEASON did we fail to beat them. make no mistake it was PATENTLY obvious pompy was going to be one of our most difficult away matches this season.

b) campbell and disten are quick, strong and EXTREMELY good in the air
we went into the game with crouch and voronin. erm see the flaw there?

basically to have a cahnce of coming away with all three points we need as much pace and goal threat as humanly possible, this is the midfield we played
yossi------alonso------momo------pennant

pennant and yossi are unlikely to score (look at their records for past clubs)
momo next goal will arrive with the next ice age, alonso is the holding midfielder so wouldn't get forwards like he did v derby. then you take into acount the lack of pace from midfield so there would be little or no support for crouch (which is exactly what happened) so crouch who was ALWAYS going to struggle v campbell job was made nigh on impossible (still didn't cover himself in glory though with his half arsed attitude)

we needed pace
we needed power
we needed goal threats

now I'm not going to be a hyprocrite and say I would have started gerrard becasue I wouldn't have but at the very LEAST I would have started torres and babel because

a) they are as fast as all ****
b) they are strong
c) they can create something from nothing

they are 20 and 23 respectively you mean to tell me they can't handle 3 games in a week FIVE GAMES into the season?

make no mistake chelsea, aresnal manu will not be dropping many points at home AWAY is where the league will be won (or lost) when you play p'moth/everton/b'burn/bolton/spurs away you need your best or as close to your best to to acheive all three points if we want to win the league and thats whatwe'r talking about not just securing CL qualification then 1 point away just isn't going to cut it.

picking a team deviod of pace and power and match winners is really setting yourself up for a fall. lets be honest here if we were playing manu away gerrard and torres would have started so more than fitness was in rafa's thinking.