steve_69

That has the makings of a half decent team. No sign of the three stooges

Should he play in the centre of defence or the centre of midfield though? I don't like the idea of Cacapa playing CB against Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, Nani etc. He'll get fucking murdered, but if Nicky Butt plays CM he'll just keep giving the ball back to them.

Seal-tastic defender and signing from Bolton, Abdoullaye Faye, is well and truly back in the fold at SJP after being given a ringing endorsement by King Kev. Having been absent at the Cup on Nations for the best part of the month, the big fella has been a massive miss as Cacapa has failed to deal with the sorts of physical presence thrown up by Adebayor, Harewood and co. Faye is of course "Stronger" than the Brazilian, something noted by KK: "I am delighted to have Abdoulaye back. I have been very impressed with both him and Habib Beye. They both played a part in Senegal`s tournament and now have a role to play here. As far as Abdoulaye is concerned, he is a very good professional and he`s done a very good job here. He`s a big lad and we certainly need some height in the team at the moment. But it`s not only his height, he has great experience as well."

Maybe Keane will think he can tame him

If we scored more goals in the first half we wouldn't shite our pants when the opposition scores one after the break. We've got no chance of doing that with Alan Smith on the pitch. The fact that he hasn't scored since he's been here, despite playing almost every game, should be evidence enough that he isn't a potent goal scorer. Get two goal-scoring strikers on the pitch, get the ball to them over the top, through the middle or from the wings and let's try and score more than one a game. I'm not blaming our plight solely on Alan Smith but he's certainly one of the reasons we're not scoring many goals.

I personally rate Taylor very highly. To compare him to Bramble is just ridiculous. Brown has played 7 (i think) more seasons of Premier League football than Taylor plus several Champions League campaigns, and he's played alongside some world class defenders so it stands to reason that he'd be a better player. But there's not a gulf of difference in their ability and that's what worries me. Taylor's mistakes are generally down to inexperience and over-exhuberance, Brown doesn't have that excuse.

Personally i'd rather see us buy young up-and-coming players for backup positions. IMO fringe players should not be footballers of a slightly poorer standard than our first teamers. They should be less experienced players who are learning their trade with a view to making the first team place their own in time, ala. Arsenal. Example - Clichy was understudy to Ashley Cole for a few seasons, learnt his trade and then stepped into his shoes when he left. I want to see us signing younger players (19-23) for the first team fringe, not 28 year old ManUre rejects.

considering Brown only knows how to kick a ball to the opposition, I wouldn't touch him. We've got enough of those already.

But we have seen what he is capable of. I think Oba is the kind of player that will thrive under Keegan. He'll tell him to run at defenders, use his pace and hit shots from outside the box - the things that made him so dangerous when we first signed him.

Fat Sam broke our Oba. Keegan will fix him!

Yep.

I think the problem with that is some of Man Utd squad players look better than they actually are because of the players around them eg. Brown, O'Shea, Fletcher etc. I reckon if Fergie is prepared to let them go without too much of a fight we should steer clear

Aye that Gillespie was s***. He wasn't an established first team player at United when we got him and we had bargaining power on our side because Taggart wanted Andy Cole.

I agree with the fact that we have to spend big in order to challenge the league's big hitters, but i don't think people realise how crap the Januray transfer window is for buying players. Why would any of the clubs in the top half of the league agree to let any of their players go when they're challenging for a European spot? Firstly their European challenge will probably falter if they sell their best players, and secondly they won't have time to get in a decent quality replacement. Purely hypothetical, but what would you rather NUFC did if we were in Blackburn's position in the league? Sell N'Zogbia because we were offered well over the odds for him in January or keep him because we'd stand a better chance of qualifying for Europe with him in the side? Again hpothetical, but let's say Keegan has been given a £50m transfer kitty to spend between now and the summer. We offer Blackburn £25m for Bentley in Jan and they agree to let him go. For some money related reason he also agrees to the transfer. We've paid £10m over the odds for a player just so we could bring him in now rather than wait until the summer, and reduced our summer transfer budget by half. If we were on the verge of Champions League qualification then sure, go crazy and buy Bentley, Drogba, Kakadinho etc. because it might be the difference between 4th and 5th place, but when all we're trying to do is retain our Premier League status it's not worth pissing the money away unecessarily. The fact is that we should not be in the position we are in with our squad. We are easily good enough to stay in this league, and should realistical be challenging for a top 10 position. But bad management, crap team selections and poor confidence have left us in the mess we find ourselves in. Keegan has rightly entrusted the players we have with the task of keeping us in the league rather than blowing a load of his transfer budget on players who aren't good enough for our first team.

No, you're absolutely spot on, mate. Saw both games and mixed them up somehow. So, he was the only ManU player giving service to the Citeh players... Am I drunk, FFS. Thanks anyway, teacher. :-) Meh! I think what we're both trying to say is that Wes Brown is rubbish.

I get it now........you're Swiss. I thought you were talking about the Man City v. Man Utd game so i was wondering why you were referring to Man City as 'us' when you're name is Swiss<b>MAG</b> FFS! Apologies for being a dumbass!

Even worse on Sunday. <b>He had an absolute stinker. Was the only one who gave service to our players... (ours included) Hands off!!!</b> Me no comprende!

3 months of this stuff normally does my head in, <b>do we really want to go in for 6 people?</b> Definitely! More than 6 preferably. Our current squad is gash and needs a complete overhall. We need to sign at least 4 new midfielders, a backup left back, a backup right back and probably another striker.

Wes Brown was the worst player on the pitch for England when we played Switzerland. He just looked completely lost. I'm not convinced he'd be an improvement on what we have, and i'd steer clear of former Man Utd players altogether if i was Keegan.

I like this! I'd rather have bridge than Shorey but the rest is good, and quite realistic. I'd also add Bentley to the list. Leave Wes Brown alone. He's not good enough

It still would've left us with the shower of shite midfield we have now so it makes no fucking difference. Our defenders aren't that bad. The problem is that our midfield can't hold onto the ball and can't turn defence into attack. Allardyce made no mention of midfield targets he missed out on which suggests he was happy with what he had. That in itself proves what a complete arse he is

He's an angry, violent little cunt. He's been here approximately 7 months and in that time he's physical assaulted a Sunderland player, been involved in an off-the-ball incident with a Villa Player and spent time in jail for violent & threatening behaviour and alleged assault. In 7 fucking months! That's more scrapes than most players get into in their whole career. Add to that the cigar stubbing and Dabo bashing at Man City and it all adds up to us having a serial violent offender on our books. We could probably forgive it if he was actually any good but he isn't. Roy Keane was a nasty piece of work but for the most part he channelled his aggression into his football and was a better player for it. Barton is a lost cause as far as i'm concerned. Get rid in the summer!

It was going to come to a point where Allardyce would ask for more money for players. The board obviously didn't want to give him any more because they didn't want him as manager so i don't see what option they had. Give Allardyce another £10m for players in the knowledge that you are going to sack him, Tell him there's no money available and watch him have a tantrum or get rid now and bring someone else in who can lift the players and maybe bring in a couple of new faces. The fact that there wasn't anyone available of the standard we need is not Ashley's fault or Keegan's. It's just a consequence of the shit January transfer window. Even if we had offered way over the odds for Bentley - say £20m they'd probably still have turned the offer down because they're on the verge of qualifying for Europe, and even if they had have accepted Bentley would probably have turned us down because we're fighting relegation. Perhaps we could have brought Giles Barnes in but he's hardly Rivaldo is he. He'd just be another reserve player come the summer when we make a few decent signings. It's infuriating for everyone that we're still stuck with the same useless bunch after the January transfer window, but blaming the new board for that is foolish. They made money available for Keegan but there was no-one available who would've improved the first team. End of!

I don't really care as such balls are useless with our forwards. Viduka prefers balls to feet. Martins and Owen get outmuscled with balls coming from semi-deep wide right as has been witnessed time and time again this season. We need pace on the right with someone getting near the byline so def are facing their own goal...It is in this 'window of uncertaintly' the likes of Owen thrive. You should have just said that instead of being deliberately obtuse in the first place then. I was toying with him. I feel so used.

YOu can't hit Owen and Martins with crosses from deep Sammy fat Allardyce tried it and got sacked for his idiocy. Do you understand the difference between a long ball and a cross from deep? Do you understand the differance with Owen when def have to turn and run toward their own goal or see a ball coming in from in front of them albeit slightly from the side?? I appreciate the value of both, which is why i suggested moving someone more attacking with a better chance of playing a through ball ie. Milner to the centre, while playing someone with better crossing ability on the right hand-side of midfield. Are you suggesting we scrap crossing altogether?