steve_69

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?

Oh i don't know, Viduka, Owen, Martins

Finally he gets it.

Different manager, different tactics. Give the guy a chance under a decent manager. If Hughes told David Bentley to hoof the ball up field or pass it sideways at every opportunity he'd look s*** as well.

In what way have i lost you? You asked how he was going to get into dangerous positions to put the ball in the box. Well, if he can cross the ball accurately from almost anywhere inside the final third then every position is a potentially dangerous one. N'est pas?

He doesn't have to get to the bi-line to put the ball in the box. Most of his crosses at the ACN were from deep and they were deadly accurate. Beckham's game doesn't rely on pace but he's still the most effective right-sided midfielder in the game

Because he's a superb crosser of the ball. Our strikers are lacking service because Milner and Duff can't cross for shit and our central midfielders don't know how to pass the ball forward. With Geremi on the right and Milner in the centre we address both issues

I didn't suggest him ahead of Beye. I said Beye had been excellent at RB this season and shouldn't be moved. I suggested Geremi play on the right of midfield with Milner moving into the centre next to Faye.

That's a very naive comment Parky. Did you watch the ACN? If you didn't I suggest you get yourself on Youtube pronto!

What you've got to remember is that all of our players were gash under Allardyce with the exceptions of Beye and Faye. Keegan will ask Geremi to do things very differently and we might actually start seeing the player we thought he was before he came here. Owen was absolutely woeful under Allardyce (when he played) but he's scored 3 goals in our last 5 games under Keegan and is starting to show what he can do again. Give Geremi a second chance. Anyone who watched Cameroon's games at the ACN will have seen what the guy is capable of.

Although in principal it makes sense, i think it would be a mistake to play anyone in a role that they are not familiar with if there is a better alternative. I'm talking about Beye here by the way. He's right footed and has been excellent at RB for us this season so i don't see any reason to move him. I think we now have an opportunity to play Milner in the centre as i suggested a couple of weeks back, with Geremi on the right. He's not the quickest but neither is Beckham and he still puts quality crosses into the box. .......................Given Beye.......Taylor.....Cacapa.......Enrique Geremi.....Milner....Faye.....N'Zogbia ................Owen....Martins This gives us a lot of options.

He left Real Madrid to join us. He'd only been there a few months

This is my main concern as well. I thought things would be different under Keegan than they were under Allardyce, but players are still being played out of position and our best players are warming the bench. I realise Keegan needs time to assess the players he has in training but if he doesn't make the right decisions after the two week break then we're fooked. Martins simply has to play.

There's no place for sentiment in our current situation. Butt, Smith, Carr and possibly Barton are useless to us right now. We need Defenders who can defend, strikers who can score or at least have a shot, and midfielders who can pass the ball to feet (preferably of their own teammates). These 4 players need to be removed from the first team immediately otherwise we are in deep shit!

What's the point in signing another striker? The ones we have are good enough with the exception of Alan Smith. The problem is the midfield. It doesn't provide for the strikers and it doesn't protect the defence. We could buy Drogba, Henry, Carew and Benjani and we'd still be shit.

Keegan, if you're reading this drop Butt, Smith and Barton or we're going to get relegated. We have much better options on the bench.

.........................Given Beye......Faye©........Taylor.......Enrique Milner.....Geremi......Emre......N'Zogbia ..............Owen.......Martins Viduka, Ameobi, Cacapa, Carr, Duff, Lua Lua If Keegan doesn't pick something resembling this team for the next few games we'll get nothing. I wouldn't even have Smith and Butt on the bench they've been that shit.

The problem is that Keegan doesn't seem prepared to drop them. 52,000+ people can see that Smith, Butt and Barton are creating problems for us. They offer nothing in attack and their inability to keep or pass the ball is putting constant pressure on our defenders. I fucking hop to God Keegan sees what we're seeing and drops all three of them before it's too late. We now have Faye, Emre and Geremi to bolster the midfield, and Martins and Viduka fit to replace Smith. Drop the cloggers and lets start playing some proper football.

No more players represented by that massive cunt and no more sulking Frenchies please

Alain Goma was the other fella I was trying to think of. Robert and Ginola were the only two I can remember who didn't cause trouble (although Robert could be a bit sulky if asked to track back occasionally).

Distin, Domi, Bernard and now N'Zogbia are 4 that instantly spring to mind but there might have been others as well

How did Dyer engineer a move away? I'm not saying we shouldn't buy foreigners at all, but i do believe we should sign British players if the quality is available for the positions we need to fill. Left wing if a difficult one because other than Downing there aren't any British options who you would say are any good. Fair enough, explore the foreign options. Right wing we could go for SWP, Lennon, Bentley. They might not come but lets test the water first before buying a French alternative. Central midfield we could go for Carrick, Huddlestone, Scott Brown, Gareth Barry, Giles Barnes. Again they might not come but test the water before looking abroad. Given the number of British players we've had the proportion that have rocked the boat or tried to engineer a move elsewhere is minimal. Compare that to the french players we've had and it's a very different story.

I've been thinking for a while that we should concentrate on signing British players. They just seem less inclined to engineer a move away. Or maybe we should just avoid signing French and Spanish players. There's plenty of British talent out there, and although we might have to pay a bit more than we would for a foreign alternative i'm sure we'd see long term benefits.

Although I don't think he was outstanding last night, the fact that we didn't miss Beckham at all is testament to his ability. Whenever SWP or Lennon have played on the right we've been crying out for Beckham to be brought on by half time but Bentley has more intelligence and better technique than both of them, and is no doubt the long term solution. He should be our number one target imo but i doubt we'd get him for anything under £15m

The last few months have made me realise just how average we are as a team. There's no doubt Allardyce should've done better with the players available to him but the sad fact is we are not as good as i thought we were. I still think we're underachieving but top 6 or even top 8 were never realistic goals. Having finally come to terms with this after 4 seasons of insisting otherwise I find myself being more pragmatic about the future. We finally have a manager we all love and who the majority of us believe in, and for that reason he'll get as much time as he needs to turn us into a force to be reckoned with again (from me anyway). Fuck the media! As far as they're concerned we're an easy target and they'll continue to write shit about us even if there's nothing to write about. The important thing is that we stay united, get behind the manager and cheer on team on through thick and thin.