Sven seems to like playing that kind of football though, which doesn't play to our strengths at all. I'm gutted we're replacing him with McClaren though, Allardyce would have been better (even though Boro jammily made the UEFA finals I don't rate him or the job he has done there at all).

I'm not a big fan of Crouch but I think he's been alright so far, he didn't stand a chance in the 2nd half considering people were just lumping high balls to him and he had no-one to head them to...he's got good close control and when he's playing well he can score a few goals...still can't see why we didn't take Bent or Defoe as well though. As for the bad players, I hate to join the Hargreaves bandwagon but I really can't see what he adds to the squad.

I don't think its a good omen that we won, I was just relieved that we did despite playing badly because we never start well, and a mark of good teams is that they win even when they play badly sometimes (eg, Arsenal play gorgeous football and don't win much, whereas often the red filth and Chelsea often have bad games but almost always win).

I still think we will be decent enough when we get going - we're fine from the keeper to the midfield, the main problem will be scoring as we only seem to be able to score from set pieces - hopefully Becks doesn't get injured and now we're in a comfortable position in the group so its less likely that we'll need to rush potato head back.