Craigy_f - (Are you) feeling a tad more confident after beating the Ukraine?
What’s your take on Lampard being booed? Are there any other instances like that which you can recall? Do you pay attention to stats in football? Do you read any print media on football?

Bobby – I will not feel confident until there are enough points to finish in the top two. However, the win against Ukraine does guarantee that Scotland will go into the Italy game with a chance of qualifying. As for Lampard being booed – I can’t understand how supposed fans can boo one of their own players.

The same thing happened to Gary McAllister playing for Scotland. A few decades ago it wasn’t unusual for Old Firm players to get bad treatment from the other side of the divide. In terms of the stats question is yes. I do most of my daily reading electronically. 

D Powell22 - Has anyone heard of any clubs that are interested in Jozy Altidore? I know he is turning 18 at the end of this year. Is he going to play for a European team next?

Bobby – With his physique and talent I can guarantee that there are a lot of European teams watching him. However, I don’t think it is a slam dunk that he will be off to Europe next year. I also don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing either.

Therealrico - Derek Rae feels South American needs to revamp their WC qualification process. While I do think that Fifa's rankings are fairly BS, I think that the WC and Euro Cup qualifiers need to be revamped using the Fifa rankings. For example all the minnows of Europe or South America I think should have to play a pre qualifier. With countries like the Faroe Islands, San Marino, and so forth having to play in a qualifier to determine who get to go to the next level. Similar to what they do in the champs leagues with teams from places like Wales. This would put less strain on countries like France, or Italy, who have players playing way too many games as it is. What do you guys think?

Bobby – I think the upside of the present South American qualification system has been missed. First of all they are playing games while European countries are either playing WC or Euro qualifiers. In fact South American countries are playing fewer games than European countries as they don’t play a qualifying tournament for the Copa America.

South American countries will play 18-20 games; European countries will play a minimum of 24 games between the two qualifying tournaments.  That’s an average of 33% fewer games played by South American countries if you exclude the possibility of a play-off round.

Since South America went to the 18 game qualifying round the gap between top and bottom has narrowed considerably.  For example you referenced the minnows of COMNEBOL - who would these minnows be? I can’t think of one South American country that wouldn’t finish in the top four in CONCACAF. You also have to consider that the 18 game format guarantees as far as it is humanly possible that the best 4 (or 5) countries from South America reach the WC finals.

Before the 18 game format it was a case of only 4 or 6 games which significantly increased the chances that a good team would pay a hefty price for an off day.

Finally do you really think if there were less WC qualifying games that the clubs would not simply pick up the slack?

Djnima - 1. Do you think management is the problem at Spurs? I think Jol should go. However Spurs seem to have a problem more with defending rather than management. They rely too much on King and he is always injured.
2. Pls post a new pic on the website without your glasses.
3. Have you seen Fifa 08? Are you into video games?
4. Where do you see Mourinho popping up this season? AC? Inter?

Bobby –1. What is your definition of management? If you are talking about the board then the answer is yes. 2. I don’t have one. 3. No, and no. Jeremy is the guy you want for video games. I’m from a different generation. I'd do just about anything before playing video games. 4. You might not see him popping up any place if all the bigger sides play reasonably well until spring. 

Ringo - I say bring back pitches like the old Baseball Ground, Derby. Two months into the season and not a blade of grass left and ankle deep mud. Now THAT was football!
I`m planning on watching tomorrow`s Georgia/Scotland game, but I`m not sure which team to root for, could you help me out?

Bobby – Was it at the Baseball ground that Brian Clough perfected his love of over watering? The pitch always seemed to be a mud bath. If I was you, I would support the team with the most surnames beginning with the initial M. 

CIAO - What do make of Donadoni as Italy's coach so far?
 
Bobby – Inconclusive. Italy’s position is a product of a poor start right after the WC last summer. I don’t think you can blame Donadoni for that. However, if Italy fail to qualify then the excuses will count for nothing and he will be gone.

MeanSucka - What do you think of John Terry's sudden knee injury ahead of the Russia match? I'm sure it will give more fuel to the whole "plastic pitch" fire, no? I can't believe some people are comparing Field Turf - which is relatively new to the Astroturf fields of the 80's and 70's. That's pretty bad journalism, isn't it?

Bobby – Terry’s knee was a problem before he got any place close to a “plastic pitch”. Blaming his knee locking on the Moscow pitch? You might as well every other injury on grass surfaces. Newer artificial surfaces versus what we had 20 years ago was the point I made on Monday’s show - it is not an apples to apples comparison.

CIAO - Do you think any of the clubs fighting for CL glory need to bring in any additional players? Are any of the Ajax player cup tied? Do you think Huntelaar will make his long awaited move to a bigger club in January?

Bobby – It very tough to find players that are not cup tied so any “winter” signings tend to play in domestic leagues and allow the players they have replaced to be rested for the European games. Ajax players – if they played – are cup-tied. There were a few posters that were telling me a few months ago that Huntelaar was sure to go to a big club last summer – it did not happen and it may not happen in January either.

Gegz - Don't you think that Ever Banega should be included in the Argentina line-up as he may be the long-term replacement for Riquelme? And don't you think at times Tevez tends to overdo it a bit?

Bobby – I don’t see Banega as a long term replacement for Riquelme – he has a very different style. Having Riquelme in the side dictates that Argentina plays through him – otherwise he doesn’t bring very much to the team.

Banega brings a bit of everything with him - more like a Redondo. Tevez’s strength is his desire and his ability to run at defenders – he would not be the same player if you asked him to do anything different.

Craig_f - The plonker and his mate on Fox are talking about Premier League games outside England, either in the US or Asia. Kind of a mirror of what the NFL is doing with the Giants Dolphins at Wembley.

Bobby – I have no idea why anyone would suggest taking Premier league games outside of England. There is no business case to be made for a move like that. The NFL does it because they need to try and develop an overseas market for their product. That is not a problem for the Premiership. It sounds as if someone may have come up with an answer before making sure that they understand the problem. And to top it off I can only imagine the sanctioning and jurisdictional issues that something like that would create.

I will put up a midweek European Championship qualifying post on Wednesday morning.