Eddie

He's a very good player, I think people forget that he is only 22. You'd be jealous of any other international side if they had him and you'd worship him if he played for Blackburn. He's got a temper, but he actually seems like a decent person when you see him interviewed and things. The problem is that the culture in modern day football almost encourages the bad traits that you see in him and others.

No, but if you look at him overall it is still good. He hasn't been great this season, but he hasn't had many games. If in 5-10 games the poor form is still there then it is a problem. Every player, no matter how good, will have bad patches. So far he's had 5-10 badish games, some better in there and some quite poor, but it's unfair to then simply dismiss what he achieved last season.

As the second top goalscorer last year surely that makes him the second most consistent striker in the league?

Oh no sorry, you're right. I'm sure the man is very insecure and reads this board every day hoping that we say nice things about him.

I very much doubt that he could be seriously concerned by a topic on an internet messageboard. Anyway, if he were I think he would at least take the time to read it and he would see that despite some recent criticism no one is actually calling for him to go. He's probably the third or fourth most popular manager (at his club that is) in the premier league. I'm sure he's aware of that.

Difference is though alan that they were only in a group game. I know even the great sides go out early in competitions sometimes, but to go out at this stage against that quality of a side is really horrible.

I just don't see it. That would have been a huge increase and a stupid move for a player of his age. On top of that you have to consider that everytime a contract is discussed the figure 40k is usually said to make the player one, if not the, highest paid player at the club. I just think it is a mistake somewhere.

We discussed this when news about the new contact first broke and I just can't believe it. I don't know whether there has been some confusion over how much he earns over the course of his contract, NZ dollars, US dollars or whatever, but we surely can't be paying him that much.

He had a spell like this last season too. I think when he feels we aren't playing well he drops back to try and become more involved in the play, which actually just means that he can't be where he should be and it hurts us. As soon as our game starts flowing like it did towards the end of last season he pushes further up the pitch.

Roberts deserves it. He had a good run at the end of last season and has done well when he has come on this year. He really deserves his chance.

I think Benni is an easy target. It makes everyone feel better to say that because of him we aren't scoring goals and aren't maintaining pressure. The real problem is that we aren't doing enough with the ball and we aren't creating chances. We don't seem to know what we are doing and we can't even play to our own strengths. Benni missed a chance today that he normally would have taken, although it wasn't exactly easy, so in some respects he is to blame, but that doesn't explain the following 80 or so minutes where we were pretty much hopeless.

Just saw 28 weeks later (things can take a while to come out in France), have to say it wasn't good. The first one was great, but this was just a movie where everything that could go wrong did go wrong and I never really enjoy that unless it is very, very clever. A real let-down after the first one.

What odds would the doubters give me on Benni scoring this weekend then?

Yep, that's the problem. You couldn't tell Benni he'd been dropped because of poor form and not drop MGP and Bentley at the same time. Can we really afford to do that? I think all three deserve a little bit of time now to show what they are made of, then drop them if they don't start performing. Hard to call Bruno Berner a mistake. He's a back-up left back who's never had a real chance to show us what he can do. To my mind the only really poorish signing Hughes has made is Ooijer. I think he's a good player, but at his age that was not a good price.

I'd still stick with him for one game more. I would be very clear to several players that their place was up for grabs now, I think a few of our big players have underperformed in almost every game so far (Benni, MGP and Bentley).

If someone could actually find how much ground Benni covers in the average game I think a lot of you would be surprised.

I was happy, but he wasn't my first choice. I really wanted Strachan or O'Neill, but things have worked out well so I have no complaints. I also wouldn't have minded had Dowie got the job.

Cultures are different and so are races and sometimes stereotypes are pretty much correct. Having said that, the vast majority are simply the product of ignorance. If you want to say that generally Asians are usually shorter, blacks are usually faster or any other stereotype that can be backed up by clear proof then that is fine. What I don't think is acceptable is someone saying that "blacks usually work less hard", "you can't trust Eastern Europeans". I will do as much to defend those people as I do to defend some stereotypes that are widely held concerning British people. There is a difference between recognising the fact that cultures and races have differences and holding some ignorant belief that you then use to judge them all.

I wasn't trying to pick an arguement, but I don't think that anyone saying that racial stereotypes are somewhat correct and a natural justified human condition doesn't deserve much of a response in my opinion. I actually find his post to be extremely ignorant and potentially insulting.

Even by your standards that is a stupid post.

Who cares? The man scores goals, tons of them. That is the point of football. We will not get any bonus points because of the fact that our striker covered x number of miles in the game. He is obviously doing something well, damn well. He finished second top goalscorer in his first season in the premiership (has that ever been done before?), he's won a UEFA Cup, Champions League amongst other things. If one of your essential criteria for a striker is really to cover tons of pointless ground then I suggest you watch football at a lower level. If Benni played for any other team we would be amazingly jealous and wonder how a player of his quality had been bought for so little. Even if United or Chelsea had brought him in for tons we would still admire him as a footballer, but because he plays for us and doesn't do everything as perfectly as you might want you have to bring up a particular part of his game whenever he has an off day (or simply doesn't score). Most of you are blind to the runs and tracking back that he does. I've often been impressed by the amount of work he has put in only to come on here and see the boring old rubbish thrown out about him. If Derbyshire, Dunn or Santa Cruz put in a mile it is worshiped from every area, I think Benni would have to sprint for 90 minutes in order to get some of you to really appreciate it. If he were really doing something wrong I think someone like Mark Hughes would probably point it out, afterall he knows a thing or two about playing up front. He seems to think Benni is a pretty good player, so do the rest of the team, the rest of the league, the other managers and the other fans.

Come off it. This has nothing to do with colour or where the players are from. People pick particular players who they then very easily become critical of after a bad game (Emerton and even Bentley being a prime example in previous seasons). Benni isn't overly popular because of what he has said and how he has acted, whilst the fact that he doesn't run around like a headless chicken leads to people saying that his lack of "effort" is a result of the fact that he doesn't want to be here. I'm not saying that he deserves all of the flack he gets, I'm one of his biggest fans, but to say it is because of a colour stereotype is a pretty lazy and easy analysis that just insults the people making the statements. As for the Scottish thing, maybe if sportsman like Andy Murray didn't put in so much effort making sure everyone is aware that they are Scottish and not English then the whole of the British Isles would be a bit more supportive.

In my opinion that is the first time we've ever really seen Benni play badly. He's not done things before in games, but he really had an off day against Chelsea. Let's not overreact. Every player has bad days, things didn't work for him and leave it like that. Just because he's a player so many of you love to slate means that as soon as he hasn't scored in a game he's in danger of being dropped, the fact that he now has had a bad game means he should probably be sold.

I'm sure he can afford one.

Most certainly yes. £5.5 million for a player who has had the few years that he has was a brilliant piece of business. It would be great to think that we could have kept him and avoided that, but I don't think we could have. Part of him maturing and becoming the player he seems to be now is the time he spent at Birmingham. For me he wouldn't have it in him to put in all the running and effort that he does now unless he knew how bad footballing life could be. He's now not just the local boy done good who can do whatever he wants, he has to put in the effort just like everyone else.