He said "we have benni, shabani and Franny but if we could add one or two more than that would be great". Or something similar. You know Sav though-he may've been talking about defenders for all we know!!

On Eurosport last night they interviewed Savage and whilst he didn't think that our lack of goals was a problem, he did say that hopefuly Hughes can bring in one or two more strikers in January.

Delighted that we're through. Its been too long since we did ourselves justice in Europe and finally now we can hold our heads up high. Plus points: Like many thought Ooijer and Micky Gray were quality and I'm pleased that Ooijer is making fools of the people who doubted him. I also thought that Tugay did the simple things well. Negatives: Our attacking in general again. Nobody is doubting McCarthy's quality-but he has to be the least direct striker in the league. When he gets the ball he dwells on it for too long allowing defenders to get back when he should be running straight at goal. As somebody mentioned if we'd had pace up front near the end of the game yesterday we probably would have nicked a goal. Jeffers needs to start ahead of Nonda too. Well done to the fans out there, you did us boys proud! Edit: I agree with joey-their left back is going to be some player. Expect him to be at one of Europe's biggest clubs before too long.

I do agree-we have the strikers and management who any young striker would love to learn off. What i should've said in my previous post was that I was mainly aiming my 'best days behind them' comment at Nonda and Jeffers. I would be very suprised if either rediscovered their form of old-but at least Mark hughes is giving them a fair crack of the whip.

I like the idea of signing another striker. Clearly central midfield has to be Hughes' priority, however I would be suprised if we're not going to strengthen all areas of the team come January. As Eddie said though-if we were to go for a striker then perhaps a younger forward would be preferrable as opposed to another striker whose best days look to be behind him.

Quality-cheers for that Nayef. One goal they missed though-his cracker in our 2-1 win at Southampton about four years ago...God did that ball move!

Probably me not doing enough reading-but how come Tugs has only received a one game ban and Ghally three? Is it because Ghally's was for voilent conduct?

I pretty much agree with your whole post AESF. Our squad depth has obviously been tested to the limit at present due to injuries but other squads too have had injury problems. Take our subs bench against Spurs' (who granted have spent almost more than anyone else in recent years) who could bring on Keane, Berbatov and Murphy despite being depleted by injuries. We currently have no plan B whatsoever. Hughes clearly doesnt't have much faith in Jeffers, Peter and Gally for example being able to grab a goal because he always seems hesitant to throw them on despite our abysmal run and poor form from other players (ie Nonda and MGP). Last season showed how well we did to keep pace with clubs with larger squads at their disposal. Until January it has to be a case of fighting for every point that we can until we get some of our big game players back and hopefuly being able to strengthen all departments-even our strikeforce-if we are to repeat the second halves of the previous two seasons.

Why it has taken everybody except Rovers fans five years to see how good Tugay is I will never know. If Fergie rates him so highly then I'm suprised he didn't go for him a few seasons ago when he outclassed £28 million Seba Veron at OT.

If Hughes were to go after Koumas I'm suprised that he didn't do it when he was having his problems at WBA. After all hughes would know all about the guy.

Of course the Berg one was 100% more puzzling, but I was just likening it to the way that nobody in the whole crowd expected him to get sent off.

I can only repeat what others have said. Awful officiating-absoloutely awful. I do think however that a penalty was probably fair (we would've gone crazy if we'd not been given it) but not in a million years should Tugs have been sent off....It reminded me of Henning Bergs dismissal against Utd all those years ago. So 1-1 (which was probbaly fair) and then Mido goes and hand balls it and we get jack all-where as two weeks ago it wasn't even remotely a pen and Ooijer is adjudged to have handled. I would like to think that refs would give us the benefit of the next 50-50 but I'm not going to hold my breath. As for the game it was pretty poor football from both sides and we only really came alive after Tugs got sent off which is rather strange. What is now certain is that the Fulham match on the 2nd of December becomes a must win-no excuses. They say if your creating chances but not putting them away then you don't have much to worry about (Arsenal)...we're unfortunately doing neither this season which is why we are where we are in the table.

Henchoz over our best performer in recent weeks?!!!!!!!!! As for the game-I said it in the other thread: we will lose. All my mates are Spurs fans and they never let it go when they win, so this is the one game I hate us losing. I'll go with what Left Winger said: Rovers 0 Spurs 1 Robbie Keane

Definitely...they accepted my loan offer from Rovers on FM anyway!! But no seriously I think your right, players such as Obi Mikel and SWP will surely have to leave at least on loan as they appear to be nowhere near the first eleven right now.

A potential Neil replacement Gareth Bale has again been linked away from St Mary's. It would show good ambition from the club if we went for him-but it is obviously dependant on how much he is available for (Teamtalk mention 7million but this is surely some way off) and who goes in for him. Out of the big four I could only see Arsenal possibly needing a left back.

Eurosport said last time that they're definitely showing all of our group games. Lets just hope they don't have technical difficulties for the first 15 minutes this time!

I know Neil's only got 6 months to run on his deal but to me Warnock for Neil is still not fair despite our need for a left back. As FLB just pointed out he's played around 40 games for them and he's almost 25... Whatever people think of Neil he's still one of the best full backs in the prem.

Brum haven't really got much choice in the matter. His contract runs out in June and he's one of their biggest earners. I think the deal would be under £1 million-especially given the risk for any club signing him.

I completely agree about the chances that our team create. But don't Arsenal already own a better version of Nonda in Adebayor?

One 'rumour' website has linked us to David Nugent. After sorting out our defence and midfield I think that we could possibly do with another striker...but I suppose we shouldn't get too greedy.

As of now I'd be dissapointed if we signed him in January-as we did with Bentley last year. I know he's adapting, that were not creating him many chances and that he had a huge injury etc but I'm sure that we could get a better premier league striker than him. Paying 2-4 million (or whatever Roma's asking price would be) would be too much of a gamble judging on how he's performed so far.

Completely agree Rover6. Our ability to turn defence into attack makes us easily one of the least effective teams in the league right now and this is mainly due to our distinct lack of pace.

I would agree with you but for this season. He has came back from the world cup and looks easily the most dangerous player in world football right now. He has pace and just runs and runs at you...something we could do with now. God I hope Sav is back for Spurs. A loss in this game will obviously drag us further near the bottom three and put huge pressure on us to win the 6 pointers following on from this. It's easy for us to say 'oh we should win our next few games after spurs'-but right now every team in the Prem will fancy their chances against us.

I think today summed up Hughes' faith in certain squad players who were on the bench. We needed fresh legs to run at United and maybe Peter aside we had absoloutely eff all to bring off the bench to change the game and Hughes knew it.Our midfield was never going to cope against that quality with the injuries that we have, and as a result our strikers had nothing-but I was unimpressed AGAIN by Benni and Nonda. Special mention for Ooijer though-he was quality and should form a good partnership with Nelsen. 99% of us braced ourselves for defeat today, but again we didn't score and again we could have played all night and not scored. Until we get some of our key players back I can see things getting even worse before they get better-starting with an in form Spurs next weekend.

Yeh me-the commentary is awful and so biased towards Utd it's untrue...George Graham takes the biscuit though "They over achieved last year" and then went on to call us Bolton. We have been utter pants though-when will we stop hoofing the ball to our bewildered strikers?!