Gerard Houllier

[sfx412]

It all depends on the defeat, if it is like Sunderland, same tactics as Chelsea no subs etc then he deserves critisim, but if we batter them and they get a lucky goal on the counter then we have still turned it around.

People need to realise we won't win every game, we can't turn on him every time we lose.

I couldn't disagree more. I understand that we won't win every game but if we can't get a result at Wigan we haven't turn anything around.

Winning against City, drawing at Blues, and Chelsea mean nowt then. 1 defeat in the last 4 games, isn't bad, considering the opposition. Many said, before Chelsea we'd lose them all and be relegated by now.

[koreanmeatballs]

Well I can see a change. Gone are the demands to sack him, gone are the complaints about players not wanting to play for him, gone are the talk that he has no clue tactically, gone are the much vaunted kids who got us into the mire, in have come 3 decent signings although I can't really comment on Makoun he does seem to be rated by many, you see little suggestion we are already relegated now, and the performances have got better.

Yes, as I said a few days back, if we do a Chelsea- Sunderland at Wigan, you'd wonder, but then maybe we'll break Utd unbeaten run, who knows. It will be a hard slog, no question, there are still of matters that need sorting, but things have changed, for the better.

Calm down though fella lose tonight and we have the same amount of points as Wigan who are a f**king awful side.

As I said before we have no choice but to support him as the board has. Randy backs him so we have to. There are still people who aren't overly keen on him, personally I think he isn't the right manager for the job but in Randy we trust.

Let's now wait until the end of the season and decide if he has been a success or failure (I thought Randy wouldn't give him the time before) as at this rate every win or loss will be another 5 page debate.

We don't want to look fickle now, do we.

[Ger Regan]

It all depends on the defeat, if it is like Sunderland, same tactics as Chelsea no subs etc then he deserves critisim, but if we batter them and they get a lucky goal on the counter then we have still turned it around.

People need to realise we won't win every game, we can't turn on him every time we lose.

I couldn't disagree more. I understand that we won't win every game but if we can't get a result at Wigan we haven't turn anything around.

Winning against City, drawing at Blues, and Chelsea mean nowt then. 1 defeat in the last 4 games, isn't bad, considering the opposition. Many said, before Chelsea we'd lose them all and be relegated by now.

Many? You sure about that? Or are you, perish the thought, talking shit?

[pauliewalnuts]

It all depends on the defeat, if it is like Sunderland, same tactics as Chelsea no subs etc then he deserves critisim, but if we batter them and they get a lucky goal on the counter then we have still turned it around.

People need to realise we won't win every game, we can't turn on him every time we lose.

I couldn't disagree more. I understand that we won't win every game but if we can't get a result at Wigan we haven't turn anything around.

Winning against City, drawing at Blues, and Chelsea mean nowt then. 1 defeat in the last 4 games, isn't bad, considering the opposition. Many said, before Chelsea we'd lose them all and be relegated by now.

Chelsea and Man City are four points where we expected none.

Unfortunately, Sunderland was zero points where we had a hope of three.

Funny old game etc etc

[sfx412]

It all depends on the defeat, if it is like Sunderland, same tactics as Chelsea no subs etc then he deserves critisim, but if we batter them and they get a lucky goal on the counter then we have still turned it around.

People need to realise we won't win every game, we can't turn on him every time we lose.

I couldn't disagree more. I understand that we won't win every game but if we can't get a result at Wigan we haven't turn anything around.

Winning against City, drawing at Blues, and Chelsea mean nowt then. 1 defeat in the last 4 games, isn't bad, considering the opposition. Many said, before Chelsea we'd lose them all and be relegated by now.

Many? You sure about that? Or are you, perish the thought, talking shit?

If you say so, you seem an expert on the subject

[Concrete John]

It all depends on the defeat, if it is like Sunderland, same tactics as Chelsea no subs etc then he deserves critisim, but if we batter them and they get a lucky goal on the counter then we have still turned it around.

People need to realise we won't win every game, we can't turn on him every time we lose.

Sorry, but any defeat would seriously dent the feel good factor and (hopefully) momentum we've picked up in the lst week.

And yes we can't win everygame, but that's what you say to a Man City fan after Saturday who are used to winning, not to a side like us where the wins are few and far between!

[tremzvillain]

Have to say, after the Anfield farce I wanted him gone, but a few decent performances (I thought we played well against Sunderland) and the excellent signings have turned me around. Fickle.

[El Hurricane]

A virtually full squad to chose from tonight "should" see 3 points.Petrov doesn't need to play the whole game with Makoun free to play.Its up to Houllier to rotate tonight.

[Chris Smith]

A defeat tonight, whatever the manner of it, would be an awful result. All of the optimism and momentum of the last couple of weeks would come to a juddering halt. It wouldn't be the end of the world but it would suggest that we're probably going to be in a relegation fight for the rest of the season.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

A defeat tonight, whatever the manner of it, would be an awful result. All of the optimism and momentum of the last couple of weeks would come to a juddering halt. It wouldn't be the end of the world but it would suggest that we're probably going to be in a relegation fight for the rest of the season.

Agreed.
If we can't dispatch a piss poor Wigan side (minus one of their better players, Caldwell) then that will prove that our problems haven't gone away.

However, I'm expecting a reasonably comfortable win.

[Warren Aspinall]

The trouble with Wigan though is they are so unpredictable. They can get hammered at home to Wolves then beat Arsenal away. A win tonight & we'll be talking about europe a defeat & it's relegation, it's a crazy season.

[TheMitaCopier]

bruce and holloway having a go at our club has created a bit of a siege mentality. This and some shit journalists mis-reporting our club has brought us closer to GH. Then Bent comes, scores, and now we're all together....we'll beat wigan tonight, get something from man utd, then the next 10 games are all teams that are around us in the league......i've got good feelings about the rest of the season

[Villa'Zawg]

It all depends on the defeat, if it is like Sunderland, same tactics as Chelsea no subs etc then he deserves critisim, but if we batter them and they get a lucky goal on the counter then we have still turned it around.

People need to realise we won't win every game, we can't turn on him every time we lose.

I couldn't disagree more. I understand that we won't win every game but if we can't get a result at Wigan we haven't turn anything around.

Winning against City, drawing at Blues, and Chelsea mean nowt then. 1 defeat in the last 4 games, isn't bad, considering the opposition. Many said, before Chelsea we'd lose them all and be relegated by now.

Winning against Man City and drawing at Blues and Chelsea means we have another 5 points. It doesn't mean we have turned a corner any more than taking 6 points from 4 undefeated games in November meant we'd turned the corner.

We'll have turned a corner when we're well clear of the games to points ratio from which teams get relegated. I think the new signings mean we'll get there but we're not there yet.

[Monty]

For those of us who were involved in that "is GH changing our style debate" and thought he was, it's good news from the world of statistics:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thefootballtacticsblog/2011/01/ruthless_chelsea_expose_predic.html .

Third lowest number of long balls attempted, beaten only by 'perfect goal' seekers Arsenal and Man City. If that's not a shift in emphasis from the MON days, I don't know what is.

[KevinGage]

It's positive.

But tippy tap ineffective Mowbray-style possession football in non threatening areas is no solution either (not say we're doing that, mind).

We currently possess three wingers on the books, all three of them decent (even if we are trying to convert one into a second striker). We also have a fair amount of pace throughout the side. When you have that, you should maximise it.

I have no problem with a well timed long pass or long diagonal ball to set our wingers away. If you draw sides in and hit on the counter at pace you have more space to exploit. The defence would need to be more solid than it's been this season, obv.

My problem with MON is that he didn't mix it up enough, if we were ever in our own half and under pressure, the way to deal with it was to nearly always scuff the ball out and play percentages. Rather than showing a bit of composure and trying to work an opening, pull a side apart from deep.

But part of what he implemented was very effective, and we don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We do need to evolve though, and it's doubtful we'd have been able to do that under him.