Scolari needs some new forward thinking

IN THE interview after the Southend debacle, Phil Scolari wondered why we did not score one of the 15 chances we had — just a thought, but could it have been anything to do with leaving the highest scorer in the league on the bench?

Of course we shouldn’t need the Premier League’s top scorer to overcome a club over 50 places below us but we are so sorely lacking in all other departments that we need any advantage we have.

As the minutes ticked away and the tie was not secured, my eye kept wandering over to the dug-out. Initially it was to see if Scolari was conversing with Anelka as a pre-cursor to him coming on. Not only was it evident that this was not happening, but Phil cut rather a lonely figure — mostly standing alone neither shouting instructions nor discussing alternative tactics (or anything) with his number two and/or Wilkins.