Alan McCafu

[London Villan]

Out of contract at the end of the season, PANIC!

We'll probably end up offering him new deal...

[The Left Side]

keep it up Alan, you're surprising a lot of us.

[Louzie0]

Always liked AH.
Good game my son, good game.

Well done, clean sheet again!

[pauliewalnuts]

I think the thing is, none of our defence - including Vlaar - are particularly amazing players, but they at least have a bit of experience and seem to know what they are doing.

If you take out the centre halves and put Baker and Clark in, maybe stick Lowton and Bennett as full backs, you probably have a few players who, individually, could improve given time, but their collective lack of nous, for want of a better word, makes us so much more feeble.

There are lots of things we need to improve still, but there's no point working on any of them if we can't defend properly. It may only be two matches, but thus far, we don't just look slightly better at the back, we look significantly improved.

[olaftab]

Thought he did well but needed to do more overlapping for our system to work.

Agreed. He did ok but could have been more productive going forward and left  his station when de Jong receeived a chip over and Guzan made a very good save.

[ozzjim]

I think the thing is, none of our defence - including Vlaar - are particularly amazing players, but they at least have a bit of experience and seem to know what they are doing.

If you take out the centre halves and put Baker and Clark in, maybe stick Lowton and Bennett as full backs, you probably have a few players who, individually, could improve given time, but their collective lack of nous, for want of a better word, makes us so much more feeble.

There are lots of things we need to improve still, but there's no point working on any of them if we can't defend properly. It may only be two matches, but thus far, we don't just look slightly better at the back, we look significantly improved.

Agreed, epitomised by the Senderos booking, which was as calculated a trip as I have ever seen. I initially lambasted him on the match thread but seeing it again he checked the space the lad was going to run into, clearly thought I ain't catching him behind there, take him now.

[Toronto Villa]

Senderos has been exactly what we needed and most importantly Vlaar needed at the back. He hasn't looked taxed in the two games, and granted part of that is that neither opponents have been that great up front. That said, while he'll never be considered the best player ever, he's showing he can play at this level with a good degree of competence.

[peter w]

I actually thought he looked slow yesterday and got caught out of position a few times which led to two good chances for newcastle. Still, we weren't punished so onwards and upwards.

[citizenDJ]

If you take out the centre halves and put Baker and Clark in, maybe stick Lowton and Bennett as full backs...

*shudders*

[Matt Collins]

The thing is, a Lowton Clark baker Bennett back line feels so horrendous now. But we've seen a fair bit of it!

[Tony Erdington]

ill be honest when Baker came on I had a little panic, but as a lot of you've said the additions at the back have helped everyone, if we had a forward yesterday who knows.

[chrisw1]

Agree with much of what has been said.  But stupid thing is Senderos is really no better than Colins.  Just needed a bit of nous in there. How come we could all see that but not Lambert?

[PeterWithesShin]

Agree with much of what has been said.  But stupid thing is Senderos is really no better than Colins.  Just needed a bit of nous in there. How come we could all see that but not Lambert?

He probably could which is why each summer he has signed a CH. What he couldn't know was that the CH he signed last summer would be ruled out for the season 2 weeks after the transfer window closed. And he probably expected more improvement from Clark and Baker as well last season.

[chrisw1]

Yes fair point about Okore.  But disposing of Colin's was probably a mistake in hindsight.

[ozzjim]

After his off field antics with Houllier, I doubt there was much option on Collins.