Howaythelads

Please tell me you're taking the piss. No. I like the look of him when Ive seen him, but how can he be rated highly when he basically hasn't played? £6.7m was it? I'd like to see him starting, especially as he cost that much and is our only LB in the squad. I'm totally in the camp that wants him starting, and Zoggy in midfield. But, so far Enrique has barely played, hence the low rating. You shouldn't have given him a rating at all. That's the point. It's too early for threads like this. Simple as that, really.

Agree with this. The whole weekly Milner bashing thing is frankly getting quite boring. He is without doubt the midfielder most likely to create an opportunity and when he whipped one from the touchline into Barton who was 5 yds out, Barton couldn't put it away. Unless he sets up 3 goals every game, the Duff fan club will be onto him. mackems.gif

It does, in the most important statistic of them all, which is why he shouldn't be anywhere near one of our forward positions either... mackems.gif Not sure why I'm bothering to reply to you, but did you read what I posted or did you just fail to grasp the meaning? You said, "it does." Well, what does? Tell me. Imo, individual statistics aren't that important. What is really important is the TEAM. If the general play is consistently good enough and effective enough you will do ok overall, the team will win matches and will climb the table. If certain individuals appear to have 'ace' statistics but the overall TEAM play is shit and ineffective, the TEAM will do nowt. A recent and good example being the much raved about Parker, who is apparently a "great player" according to many of the stats people on here because he had the highest number of completed passes while at Newcastle. mackems.gif Carry on basing everything on newspaper statistics if that's what you prefer but I'll make up my mind by watching football matches. Ta

Do you really think Sammy is going to go back 442 or that is going to play 433 with only one of the front 3 a forward/striker. either way, Duff's in the team if we play 4-3-3 he's certainly going to be there, was class there for Chelsea and with Allardyce's preference for N'zogbia as LB he's also gonna start when we play 4-4-2 I wouldn't mind seeing Duff on the right and Zog on the left. The only reason FS is using Zog at LB is because Enrique has so far shown to be struggling in this league. Zog is pretty much wasted there, his attacking threat is obvious. It's early days for Enrique, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us in for another LB who is able to go straight into the team. In that case, I really disagree with FS. Zoggy has not shown that he's a better defender than Enrique. That's a laughable agreement (if it's the one Sam's making). Enrique looks more accomplished playing there than Zoggy does atm. We're also wasting Zog's attacking abilities and putting ourselves at risk because he's liable to giving the ball away carelessly. When he's further up the midfield it's alright to take those kind of risks but it's unacceptable for our LB to try to take on 3 players every time he receives the ball. Enrique has to play just because we end up having more attacking options and actually, in my opinion, become better defensively. Agree with this - don't understand all the Enrique knocking, but understand even less why Allardyce spent 6m on him and then plays Zog at LB ; Enrique CAN make it, in my view but he won't unless he is allowed to play - he hasn't made THAT many bad mistakes, can pass the ball properly , and is one of the few players who kept Arteta quiet; AND he's only 21 and just come into the Prem. Has made a far better start than the likes of Viana and Maric did... The lad NEEDS to play - we aren't going anywhere this season and he won't cost us any more points than we would lose if he wasn't in the side. Where's the "Enrique knocking" you're on about? It's an observation that he's not settled, but that's not knocking him as it's hardly a surprise given his age and the overall state of the team he's come into.

Whey hey, football manager..... At least some common sense is now appearing as some people have realised Smith can't be judged as a midfielder. He obviously shouldn't be judged on goals scored either. The fact is the team has looked better in almost every game where he's played as a striker, inidicating he must be doing something for the team. I realise this can't show up in statistics though, so that's some people well and truly knackered when it comes to judging a footballer. Anyway, it's too early for a thread like this.

You obviously weren't watching us play, then. We were not on the right track, we had been on the right track but had left it 18 months earlier, which is when Robson should have been nicely moved to one side. He was sacked too late. You still annoy the piss out of me with your arrogance that it was Robsons time to go after only 3 years in caharge, and by whom? There was NOBODY of quality to come in and take over, again the majority of fans think they deserve better than a top 3 finish and champions league football. People on this forum, people booing in the stadium, scum like dyer and bellamy got SBR the sack. Name one successful club in the EPL that has a different manager every 3 years? Exactly, still no answer after all this time.

In fact we badly need to bring a couple of players in during January to sort out the almost complete lack of creativity in the side.

Do you really think Sammy is going to go back 442 or that is going to play 433 with only one of the front 3 a forward/striker. either way, Duff's in the team if we play 4-3-3 he's certainly going to be there, was class there for Chelsea and with Allardyce's preference for N'zogbia as LB he's also gonna start when we play 4-4-2 I wouldn't mind seeing Duff on the right and Zog on the left. The only reason FS is using Zog at LB is because Enrique has so far shown to be struggling in this league. Zog is pretty much wasted there, his attacking threat is obvious. It's early days for Enrique, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us in for another LB who is able to go straight into the team.

When we play 433 I would imagine Sam will always have at least 2 strikers/forward in the front 3. I cant see Owen being played in a 4-3-3 system. I think SA will go 4-4-2 and have 2 wide players. Has anyone read SA article in Zoo magazine?? He says something about not actually playing a 433 and so cant understnad the criticism of the system wen its not always being played. Also says that he's aware that the squad at full strength is best suited to 442. Well that's a revelation, like.

Decent enough squad player.

Well I am auld, man.

You obviously weren't watching us play, then. We were not on the right track, we had been on the right track but had left it 18 months earlier, which is when Robson should have been nicely moved to one side. He was sacked too late. You still annoy the piss out of me with your arrogance that it was Robsons time to go after only 3 years in caharge, and by whom? There was NOBODY of quality to come in and take over, again the majority of fans think they deserve better than a top 3 finish and champions league football. People on this forum, people booing in the stadium, scum like dyer and bellamy got SBR the sack. Name one successful club in the EPL that has a different manager every 3 years? Top use of smilie there. The big pink gay is woefully underused these days. Aye. It's been months since I felt the urge....

You obviously weren't watching us play, then. We were not on the right track, we had been on the right track but had left it 18 months earlier, which is when Robson should have been nicely moved to one side. He was sacked too late. You still annoy the piss out of me with your arrogance that it was Robsons time to go after only 3 years in caharge, and by whom? There was NOBODY of quality to come in and take over, again the majority of fans think they deserve better than a top 3 finish and champions league football. People on this forum, people booing in the stadium, scum like dyer and bellamy got SBR the sack. Name one successful club in the EPL that has a different manager every 3 years?

You obviously weren't watching us play, then. We were not on the right track, we had been on the right track but had left it 18 months earlier, which is when Robson should have been nicely moved to one side. He was sacked too late.

The problems can be traced back to Robson not being able to control wankers like Dyer and others. Harsh, but true. I blame the players (and generally society, because..oh bollocks, can't be arsed) for being arseholes but Robson can't escape without taking some (major) responsibiltiy given his position within the club. Robson's inability to control the arseholes is what caused the travesty of appointing the incompetent souness. After saying that, I've nowt but respect for Robson. Great manager. Very unlucky to have suffered wankers like Dyer.

Another good game but that won't mean owt to the stats crowd. He didn't score a goal so he's obviously shite.

Seriously though, Dave. I've said for years he's a decent player and that all he needs is a good run up front. If he gets that run people who are a bit on the fence will get the chance to properly make their minds up about him. It will be even better if FS would be positive and introduce some creativity into the team, I'm not holding my breath on that one though. He's the most negative manager we've had since Jack Charlton imo. Those who relentlessly slag Smith and have already made up their mind he's shit have come to that conclusion based on duff information and negative bias, this just has to be true because Smith's never had a proper run up front other than in the early part of his career when he looked decent. People either don't know that, don't want to acknowledge it or are unable to recognise that he has the attributes. Some nut a few weeks ago even said that if Smith's really a striker he should therefore score plenty of goals as a midfielder. With that kind of logic some people aren't worth convincing that Smiith's worth a chance. Others are even comparing him with Parker. :laugh: I'll shut up about him now and just let him do his stuff on the pitch, which I'm confident he will do if FS uses him correctly.

Nah, he's a decent player.

Toure sought out Smith after the match to congratulate him. Whilst agreeing with the comment about his goal-scoring ability to describe last night's performance as simply that of 'a hard working battler' seems ungenerous, not to say lacking in appreciation. ...but predictable. From some.

Why not just roll out your ridiculous mandate that a striker must score 20 goals a season or he is shit? There are some people who will never be happy with him no matter what he does and you're one of them. If he reached your mandatory 20 goals you'd still find something to moan about. It's been clear from discussions about Smith in the past that this is your criteria for judging him irrespective of where he's been used in a team so before you laugh at others posting in this thread you should consider how that makes you appear to others. It would be a good thing to cut out posting shite and try something based on fact or even on common sense for a change. Cheers

Thats not the point though is it? He was talking about the home fans. They are very very different to the away support in every conceivable way. Ohme is trying to explain that Barton was using the crowd as a reason for the decline in performance, our away form shows that we're the problem not the fans. So when are you going to start putting in performances that look professional as opposed to pub standard?

Half the problem is that he seems to like his CM to sit deep. THe MF and the forwards are disconnected most of the match. In a way i agree with ollie mort (chairman's son?), he should be given longer than January. We do have 6 winnable games by the end of Jan so expect us to have 30+ points by then. The way things are going we don't have any winnable games, Chez.

You make your own luck, Dave.

Sorry mate, but true supporters will SUPPORT the team through thick and thin. If you can't bring yourself to do that the club won't mind losing your "support" in favour of the "fucking idiots" who do support the club properly.