ohmelads

Solano has been our player of the season so far in my view. For me he is captain material, he's loved by the fans and seemingly the players too, he has a very good footballing brain and has improved those playing around him. People may talk about Butt (who deserves credit) but I honestly believe Solano has been the reason our defence has improved. Milner needed this goal, he's been coming on a lot this season. Hopefully he can kick on now. Absolutely delighted for Edgar, it sends a message to our young players what can be achieved. A month ago he wouldn't have dreamt of getting in the starting lineup. In the circumstances this is a massive point for us. Perhaps we could have defended better for the goals but Man Utd are the best team in the league right now, scoring left right and centre and are deservedly four points clear of Chelsea. We have two weeks until our next Premiership game so hopefully we can get Duff and Butt back for Tottenham.

Would you rather put Parker at left back or Butt in central defence? It's one or the other. Personally I'd put Parker there and have a proper centre half in the centre, Huntington. Then I'd put Butt in his proper position protecting them. This idea of sticking Hunty out left and Butt in the centre is mental. If we play that we are asking for a beating, it's totally unbalanced. I've got a feeling Roeder will do it though. I also think he'll totally bottle it and play 4-5-1, inviting Man Utd at us. I would go 4-4-2 with everyone in their correct position except for Parker at left back, and have a real go at them. I think attacking them and unsettling them is the only way we will get anything out of this game, we simply don't have the defenders to play catenaccio.

Beattie isn't the type of striker we should be looking at. I think people are excited by the fact he's English, scored 20+ goals a few years back and he's cheap. We shouldn't be buying players based on this criteria, we should be looking at what our teams needs and finding someone who will get the best out of players around him as well as slotting right in. For me, Beattie isn't that man. We need (IMO) someone with a good footballing brain and intelligent link up play, preferably someone strong who can hold the ball up. Sibierski has done his best and has shown what a bit of height and hold up play can bring to our team, but we need better. Crouch does possess some of these qualities but represents poor value for money. There are plenty of lanky bastards who will score a few goals and hold the ball up, Sibierski is proof of that. We need someone in that mould but better basically, a more natural target man.

Why not put Huntington in the centre? And get someone else such as Parker to play left back? That team you've drawn looks incredibly unbalanced. I would put Huntington centre, Parker LB and bring Luque in to the left-wing. Or if Luque isn't an option (Roeder) then put Milner left, Dyer right and Sibs up front. At least that way only one of our players is out of position.

Good article. It is incredible that we achieve the attendances we do, given that most of the people in the stands have never seen the club lift a trophy. As for all this curse talk, please. That's the easy answer and the easy way to look at things, it's just feeling sorry for ourselves. If you genuinely believe we're cursed then why bother following the club? Every year we top the injury table and I can't remember the last time I saw our best 11 on the field, it was probably a few years back under Robson. I'm sure we have all thought at times that there must be an explanation for this. If I thought we were cursed I wouldn't follow the club, that would be madness. It's all about keeping faith in the toon. Our day will come.

Couldn't see Roeder going for someone like Montella.

For me Heinze is one of the best left backs in the world right now, so that seems a pipe dream. But if we have any chance at all we should go all out to get him.

I'm afraid I have to agree with king harry on this one. I'm a Geordie living in Liverpool and haven't noticed any real difference between the two cities. I always think it's quite hypocritical of Newcastle fans to sing about Liverpool slums and scousers getting jobs when the north-east is the poorest region of England with the highest unemployment. Coming from Jarrow it would be ridiculous for me to sing any songs about unemployment. I always feel we're copying the Mancs when we sing those songs. Anfield is one of the poorest areas of Liverpool so a lot of the visiting fans get a bad image of the city. Can you imagine if St James Park was right in the middle of Scotswood or Benwell? I remember a few years back when they were selling houses for 50p in Benwell. Imagine that was all visitors saw of our city? We are lucky enough to have our stadium right in the city centre so the tens of thousands of fans up and down the country don't pass through our slums. Newcastle has seen a revival in recent years but so too has Liverpool and with the Capital of Culture 2008 money coming in that will continue. I disagree with you that it is "much cheaper" to live in Liverpool, again I'd say the two places are quite similar.

I think we'll have to look at one or two loan deals just to pad the squad out. I'm not a big Beattie fan but on loan I'd take him in order to spend more money elsewhere. I don't see Everton loaning to us though, they're still only 6 points ahead of us. If we can't get any from England then we should be looking to the continent. Spurs got Mido on loan from Roma before buying him, I'm sure there are other similar players out there.

It's pointless arguing over what's more important. We need a striker and we need two defenders and if either area goes ignored we are totally buggered. The squad is at breaking point with 5 months of the season left and we're still in three competitions. Where it comes to allocating the most money, I would put it into defence. Good strikers usually cost more than good defenders and it's going to be tough to bring in a quality striker when everyone knows there is a place waiting for Owen when he returns. Not only that but we have potentially two central defenders leaving in the summer as Moore and Bramble are in the last year of their contracts. I don't see Freddy spending much on a left back. He has never paid much attention to the full back positions, we have one right back and one left back in our squad and they cost a combined total of £3m. Before them, our full backs were freebies (Hughes and Bernard) and Griffin cost a mighty £1.5m. I do hope we invest in a proven top quality centre half to play alongside Taylor. Who we could attract I don't know. We could do with a powerful yet composed centre back like Jorge Andrade, someone capable of bringing the ball out of defence. I'm not a fan of this last-gasp Ramage defending where the ball gets punted straight back to the opposition, it's a habit we badly need to get out of (espescially given the lack of height in the team).

Hilarious. They don't know if he spat at one player or racially abused another. Get your rumours right!

I think we were asking for it by changing a winning team and playing people out of position. If it aint broke don't fix it. There is indeed a fine line between winning and losing but we were second best for most of the Bolton game and we lost by three goals today. Watching the Spurs game I thought any half-decent side would have torn our left flank apart that day, as Huntington was left defending two men on numerous occasions. I don't blame the players for this slump. I believe Parker would play anywhere you asked him to, and I'm not sure he'd have wanted the whole team shuffled about to fit him in. But it's the managers decision and on this occasion it is he who must carry the can. He changed the formation at Bolton and benched Emre and today he repeated his mistake of putting Huntington and Emre on the left. The players are giving their all but it doesn't help when half the team are moved into unfamiliar positions and asked to play flowing football. Roeder's only fit left-winger wasn't even in the squad today, there are no excuses. He's happy to play Edgar at right back, Huntington at left back and Emre on the left wing but he can't find space in his squad for Albert Luque. I think there is far more to that than meets the eye and anybody who thinks he's been left out for purely footballing reasons is pretty naive IMO.

I'm not blaming Parker at all. In fact unlike many on here I rate him very highly. He hasn't let us down since he came back, but Roeder has changed the whole team around and made a host of players play out of position. Most importantly he has broken up the most promising central midfield partnership we've had for quite some time. After the Spurs game many of us pointed out that, a good win though it was, there were glaring weaknesses on that left side, with two players (Emre and Huntington) playing out of position. I was annoyed to see Emre and Huntington on the left again today but not surprised to see that they struggled. Unfortunately for Parker, the good player that he is, he came back to find Emre and Butt had formed a winning combination and IMO should have been used elsewhere in the team, perhaps at full back. But it seems his status in the team is too high, as I demonstrated in the first post that he is the only player not to have been shuffled around in recent games.

I don't think Duff or Baba are gonna make this one. Assuming not, I'd go with: ---------------------Given------------------- Solano------Huntington---Taylor------Parker Milner----------Butt-----Emre--------Luque ---------------Dyer----Martins---------- I agree with what John Beresford says. The only way we can win this is to go at them. I have a feeling Roeder will crap himself and go 4-5-1, inviting Man Utd onto us. It would be a very negative thing to do at home, even if it is Man Utd. Reading scored twice at Old Trafford today.

In only our last 3 games (since Parker came back): Martins has played on the left. Emre has played left wing and has been benched. Edgar has made his debut at right-back. Butt has played centre back. Milner has played on the right, on the left and in central midfield. Dyer has played up front, on the right, and in central midfield. During all this the only midfield player who has not been moved once is Scott Parker. That's a hell of a lot of changes to make in 3 games. We've been convincingly beaten in two of them. Before Parker returned and everything went mad, it was all a lot more simple. We had wingers on the wings, forwards up front, a DM in defensive midfield and an AM in attacking midfield. Every week players like Martins, Sibierski, Milner, Emre, Butt and N'Zogbia were playing in the same position, positions they knew. We weren't playing great football (long time since we did that) but we were getting results and climbing up the table. The team kept a decent shape and the defence was also better for it. Enter Parker and suddenly everybody has been shuffled around, players are playing all over the place in unfamiliar positions, the formation has been messed about with and the balance has all gone. We seem to no longer have a left side and players are starting to lose form. We currently have no left-wingers or left-backs, we have a crisis on this left hand side. I would consider Parker for left back and (assuming Duff isn't fit) Luque for left wing. Call me mad, but Huntington and Emre just isn't working, neither look comfortable out there. With Ramage injured we now need Huntington in central defence anyway.

Nowt wrong with talking about it. That's what rumours are about. It'd be a bit boring if we only talked about facts.

It's not so much about giving Luque his chance as it is about having a balanced team without moving your form players all over the place. Emre and Butt have been our form midfielders lately and established a good partnership in Parker's absence. Their reward? Emre is shoved out wide and Butt is shoved in central defence. What's wrong with playing two wingers on the wings, a defensive midfielder and an attacking midfielder, and two pacy forwards. In other words, Luque and Milner on the wings, Butt and Emre in midfield, and Martins and Dyer up front. You have balance, everybody knows their positions, your form players stay in their positions (Emre, Butt, Milner, Dyer, Martins don't need to be moved). Instead, this is what Roeder has done: Emre has been dropped, Dyer has played in three different positions, Edgar has made his debut, Butt has played at centre-back and the whole formation has been changed twice, all to accommodate Parker and avoid playing Luque. Absolute madness. Emre, Butt, Dyer and Martins (our form players) have all had to move position to accommodate this. Roeder must put the team first and if that means dropping Parker and/or playing Luque then so be it.

What are you on about? Duff is injured. Point is he's our last left-sided player. Emre has been dragged out of his position and we are losing games again. Until Duff is back, why not put Emre back with Butt and play Luque left wing. It's only a suggestion. We tried Emre and Milner on the left and we got raped today, so I would think suggestions are welcome at this point.

Why not put Emre back in his rightful position alongside Butt. We were winning games when we did that.

Why are people being told to shut up for suggesting Luque be given a game? We're getting raped down the left, all our left-sided players are injured so somebody suggests we give a £9.5m Spanish international a game there and abuse is hurled at them. Disgraceful. Duff, N'Zogbia and even Babayaro are injured. Emre has struggled there in his last two games, he leaves the left back exposed by drifting inside and never gets up the wing, denying us vital width. With Milner on the right and Dyer up front, Luque is our last left-sided player. Things are so bad that we have to play Huntington, Edgar, Ramage and Pav at the back, and yet people won't even talk about the prospect of playing Luque at left-wing, even though he's our only left winger standing. Get a grip of yourselves.

Roeder is part of the problem, we do better when he hasn't any decisions to make. It's hard to argue with that. He was forced into playing Emre-Butt. He was forced into playing Steven Taylor in central defence. He was forced into playing Solano at right back.

I agree on Solano for captain, said it after the Spurs game. Solano shouldn't just be taking pens, he should be taking the majority of our set-pieces. Bob Moncur on Century has been raging about Emre's deliveries. When they were talking about the prospect of a consolation goal, he said he'd go home happy if we could deliver one set-piece that didn't hit the first man. I don't understand it. Solano has been giving us good set-pieces for years. Suddenly he doesn't take any corners or free-kicks and the inconsistent Emre and Milner are taking them instead.

I agree on Solano for captain, said it after the Spurs game. Solano shouldn't just be taking pens, he should be taking the majority of our set-pieces.

I agree.

Good side tbh. Average side in a poor, wide open league.