For many, there has been a belief that in order to get the most out of Charlie Adam he must be played as part of a three-man midfield, alongside players who will be able to cover for his shortcomings and in doing so allow him to do what he does best—break down tough opponents and create scoring opportunities.

The big win over Blackburn was immensely enjoyable and has lifted the mood in the Gooner camp to a great extent after an eminently forgettable January. A lot has already been said about the match and I don't want to revisit it in detail but there were two goals in that game that caught my eye.

Both the goals started from the back but were scored in a markedly different manner, each a delight in its own way.

The Guardian's chalkboards have been really useful to this site. We spend a lot of time trying to understand the game, understand why things have happened, and the chalkboards always helped us to do this.

Over time you learned to look for different things: how high up the pitch were the two teams' full-backs getting?

It's been awhile since I trawled through the Guardian chalkboards for interesting items. I know, we all missed it.
I remain convinced that Liverpool changed tact in midfield during the interval. The key seemed to be Spearing, more willing to stay in his own half and shield the defense rather than pressing higher up the pitch and leaving gaps.

Against Wolves, Jordan Henderson only misplaced four of his passes from open play for a completion rate topping 90%. He may not have connected on any of his seven attempted crosses, which does rather drag down his overall numbers, but it is nonetheless an impressive statistic. As for how he achieved such a high completion rate, the answer is a fairly simple one: He kept it simple.

Last year in a 2-part "tactical preview" I suggested that the true shape of a "back four" team is actually a "W", taking into consideration the prevalence of the deep-lying central defensive midfielder, who in many applications has become almost a 3rd center back and revised the famous "libero" role of the past.

Here's a little secret: Sometimes we don't know the story that we want to tell, nor how we want to tell it. In some cases our inspiration may even be our own statements. Say, for example, statements on a podcast where both Jeremiah and myself claim that Patrick Ianni gets better and more comfortable as he gets more playing time.

By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Apr 12, 2012) US Soccer Players -- In Thursday's edition, Tony doesn't question the value of Kyle Beckerman and Graham Zusi, asks about goals in this weekend's Houston-Chicago game, and wonders if 'soccer player' needs to be on an executive's resume. How good was Kyle Beckerman this past weekend?

When the full-time whistle blew last Saturday afternoon, it could certainly be said that the Sounders had pulled out a much-deserved 3 points. While far from the most beautiful performance we have seen from the home side, getting the result without either of our "South American connection" of outside mids must certainly be worth something.

I put this blog on hiatus shortly before Christmas last year with the promise of being back in the new year with a clearer idea for the future. This might not be what anyone thinks of as "the new year", but here I am and it's not last year.

I've written and re-written this post countless times, but it always degenerates into a verbose, self-indulgent trip down memory lane.