If Sam Doesn't Know His Best Team - Who Does?

"We've been a dominant force at home and that's encouraging, but my biggest concern is the away form.

"It's important the players take everything we're telling them on board.

"We need to become more determined to stop the opposition playing."

I don't question the player's "determination", I think he has a squad who all want to be in the team (with the obvious exceptions who we all know).

Allardyce has this paranoia about clean sheets, which is all very well. If they don't score - you don't get beat.

But as we all saw against Tottenham, his tactics can be frightening. We went 2-0 up and rather than go for the juggular he insisted every man drop deep to be behind the ball, which resulted in the team losing its shape and looking like 11 individuals who didn't know what the hell to do.

Tottenham scored and for ten minutes we could have fallen 3-2 behind, until the penny dropped and he reverted back to 4-4-2 rather than the bizarre 6-3-1.

He claimed Oba Martins and Michael Owen "cannot play together", then had a rethink and now apparently they can.

Steve Harper was his new number one "officially", then he wasn't, after Shay Given played a blinder for Ireland.

Yes, it's never dull listening to Big Sam!