Dunny behind Benni and Kalinic/ Di Santo, in a 4-4-2 formation. Both in the same team, Dunn the provider, 1 striker either Kalinic or Di Santo holding the ball up, and Benni to finish. Diouf down the right, Bert behind Dunny and Pedersen down the left.

I think the only team that plays with an attacking midfielder behind a front two is Chelsea, and that's because they've got the best selection of central midfielders to choose from to protect behind.

Other Premier League teams don't play that way, we'd get absolutely murdered doing it. I'm not saying Dunn can't play a midfield four, but it wouldn't be in a position anything like what he's been playing at the moment. If anything it would have to be a deep-lying play maker role, because he doesn't have the legs to support both attack and defence.

Of course it's one sided, it's a British team against a foreign team. Why would it be neutral?

Cracking goal from Babel.

Preferably I would like to see a midfield on Dunn, Emerton, N'Zonzi and Reid, with Dunn having a free role from the left and the other three having the legs to cover the rest of the midfield.

I was thinking something similar, especially if Givet is playing at left back because we all know he's great defensively but won't venture forward much. If we played Emerton left-of-centre he would have the legs to cover that area if needs be as well.

Chimbonda Nelsen Samba Givet

............ N'Zonzi Emerton

.. Diouf .... McCarthy ... Dunn

................ Di Santo

Something like that? It's worth a try I think.

http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/tm_method=full%26objectID=21788988%26siteID=93463-name_page.html

No quotes or anything though. I wonder if it's one of Nicko's?

Another nail in Allardyce's coffin if he does this.

It depends who he managed to bring in, obviously it would be to create space on the wage bill for a new arrival. I'd happily swap McCarthy for a quality central midfielder.

Cardozo destroying them. Wish we had gone for him in the summer...

We probably would have done if we could have afforded him, Kalinic was right on the limit of our budget and Cardozo would have cost a hell of a lot more than that.

In Manchester with the family last night and wanted something quick and good before going to see Michael McCintyre.

Very brave Paul, running the risk of bringing up your nice meal all over the theatre.

Dunn in the centre of a 4-4-2 would be totally different to the Dunn we're seeing now though. Teams who play 4-4-2 don't play with attacking midfielders in the centre, it's usually a holding player and a box-to-box player. Asking Dunn to do either would either result in him breaking down again or just playing poorly.

Dunn playing behind Di Santo is probably the one area of the team that is working at the moment, I don't see why people think we need to change it.

Benni should be playing up front as one of a pair, because as things stand, he is our best striker. Dunn should be in central midfield as part of a 4. If he no longer has the "engine" to do that job without the added protection of two CMs behind him, then he should take a cameo role as a 30 minute 2nd half sub.

Dunn is easily our best player at the moment, and his performances are far better than anything McCarthy has produced for years, yet you'd reduce him to 30 minute cameos to include Benni? I don't follow the logic at all.

Cool. Thanks for the info, fingers crossed then

Reading the match reports, it seems like he's starting regularly but not scoring many at all, despite some high scoring games. In fact I haven't found another goal, so he might still only have one. Sounds like he's involved quite a lot though, he's won a few penalties and free-kicks with bits of skill that have resulted in goals.

He's certainly not taking the league by storm or anything though unfortunately.

Super Matt Jansen is yet to play a game for Leigh according to Wiki.

Don't believe everything you read on Wiki, that just means no-one has been arsed to update it. He plays on a regular basis, he has scored at least one goal (probably more). I haven't checked Leigh's website for a while though so I'm not sure how he's been doing recently.

More Rovers-related things in Gray's blog.

He has named his best XI from players he has played with, Friedel and Tugay are included. He actually goes on to describe Tugay as the best player he's ever played with, and includes a little story which confirms his infamous smoking habit (if it even needed confirming).

Interesting that he has Yorke on the bench given that I think they only time he played with him was during his stay here.

No, you are talking about the old Fiorentina, this is ACF Fiorentina.

They purchased the naming rights and everything about the club including shirt design. This club has essentially been around since about 2002 and started in Serie C2 and has gained promotion every year.

Well...kind of. They were put in the fourth tier and won promotion, but completely skipped the third tier and went into Serie B.

Isn't Italian football great?

Well that's the thing...I haven't seen that many recently. [rec] was the last one I saw that made me scared. I don't know whether that's a good example though.

Has anyone got any recommendations for genuinely scary films?

By that I mean ones that really get into your head and frighten you...not things like Saw or ones that just rely on moments that make you jump.

Nicko reporting Zura moving to Boro

I think this is a terrible move. I really rate Zura and believe we need him as back-up.

I honestly think we can do without his 8 appearances per season, the money saved on wages will be far more important. He seems to make mistakes whenever he plays nowadays as well.

With Samba, Nelsen, Givet and Chimbonda all here, it would take a pretty terrible injury crisis for him to get a look in. Jacobsen looks like he could play there in an emergency too.

Someone keep an eye on cocker-Oasis have split!

Thank f*** for that!

Mourinho upsets the muslims....

Of all the headlines you've ever written AESF, this is definitely my favourite.

Sorry lol

Anyway Delphic are playing the Manchester Academy on the 18th september, should be a good-un!

That place is too big for my liking, from what I've read about their live shows, a lot will go missing from playing in a big place. I really wish I'd been at the Night & Day gig, it sounded amazing. It'll be a very rigid set playing as support for orbital, no raves in the basement there I suspect.

Do you know the sort of range of ages (beyond the 24 you mention) they could be now? Wendel could be the one at Bordeaux but he is 27 now, good player though. Link

I'm pretty sure it was an U16 game, although I think officially called 'England Schoolboys'. 27 is definitely too old, unfortunately. The oldest player I've been able to find in that England side is 25 and the youngest 24, so I would assume the same applies to the Brazilians. It's possible they could be younger if they were a wonderkid, but definitely not older.

Ciaran Donelly, what did happen to him??

England captain I believe for most of his school boy life, we really missed a trick there.

I honestly thought he was going to be brilliant. England Schoolboys used to be on TV a fair bit back then, I used to watch them whenever they were on. I even went to a game at the Stadium of Light to see England play Brazil, I managed to dig out the line-up from that day:

England: Pidgeley, Welsh, McKie, Schumacher (capt), Johnson, Taylor, Westcarr, Beck (Bell 62), Samba, Donnelly, Lambu

Brazil: Marcelo, Ferdandes, Wendel (capt), Wescley, Alberoni, Bruno (Vinicius 62), Leandro, Tavares, Marcio, Ricardo, Rafael

Donnelly was brilliant that day. Interesting to see how many of those have actually forged top flight careers though. Glen Johnson is the only one who has become a regular top flight player. I thought the Taylor might have been Steven, but it's Kris. None of the others have gone on to be regular Premier League footballers, and Donnelly isn't the only one to slip into obscurity. It's very odd how players can go from being the best in their position in the country for their age to not being good enough for the football league.

Does anyone recognise any of the Brazilian names? Bear in mind they'll be about 24 now, I know many Brazilian players tend to share the same name.

Love this song.

Been meaning to see them for a while, they played as part of that Manchester International Festival thing, it was only £3 in but a friend had put on a mini festival so I was there instead.

Sounds like they put on a great show, I heard after they played the Night & Day Café about a year ago, the gig ended up turning into an impromptu rave. Just looking at their tour dates and it seems they're playing bigger venues now (supporting Orbital by the looks of it) which is a real shame, I think I've missed the boat on seeing them in an intimate venue.

One of incredibly few people who managed to be a genuinely successful manager whilst being a very warm human being too. RIP Bobby.

There's a good deal on for vegetarians (or people just fancying something different) at the moment.

Greens in Didsbury Manchester (run by TV celebrity chef Simon Rimmer) is offering 3 courses plus a glass of wine for a little over £15 on Sundays and Mondays. I've been there before and the food was amazing, the mains are usually about £11.95 so it's an excellent offer.

Look who's coming back to the Premier League. I wonder if he'll be able to stick it away from home for longer this time? I hope he gets the loudest booing of any player at Ewood this year.

Edit: Apologies, I have just noticed this in another thread.