ohmelads

The first half was boring, it was a nervy game and neither side wanted to overcommit. The second half was entertaining though, scoring settled us down a bit and we played more football along the deck. Obviously when they had to come at us it opened up the game a bit. I've never found Allardyce's teams much fun to watch but I think it would be very harsh to say this was a boring match today.

I don't think he particularly does want to be playing in Liverpool though. He only stayed a couple of years ago (when he pulled out of the Chelsea deal at the last moment) because a gangster (who was slipping his misses one incidently) threatened to 'cap his family if he left (note this can not be substantiated (by myself anyway), but was seemingly common knowledge around Liverpool at the time (I was living/working there and worked with some bloke who used to work at Anfield and claimed to be ITK). Feel free to delete mods if you want, just what I have heard from many different sources. Players get death threats all the time. Like 95% of football rumours this should probably be taken with a pinch of salt. I suspect he was using Chelsea to get a better deal for himself, but who knows?

Noone knows the facts, it's down to your interpretation of events. To me the circumstances suggest he was trying to engineer a move. He made no effort to silence the speculation, despite the obvious effect it would have on the club, the team, the fans and the manager's plans. Allardyce never seemed sure he would stay, so I don't believe his "stubborn silence" story for a minute. He only pledged his future to the club when the clause was due to expire and no bid was forthcoming, which doesn't lend much weight to his claims that he was only silent because he didn't like being told what to do. It doesn't make much difference at the end of the day, but to me it seems pretty obvious that he was trying to engineer a move.

Tbh Your original point though, he's had support from day one and lots of it, more than warranted at times too. People may speak their minds on forums and at the pub but whenever Owen has played for us he's been cheered and supported no end. Very true. I can't think of a single club who would have shown more patience with a striker who had taken so much and given so little and spent the entire summer looking for a move after his side struggled to finish 5 points above relegation without him. He has done nothing to earn adulation here, yet still gets it. What more does he want? We have been suspicious of his motives and fed up with his injuries, but we have supported him every step of the way. For a striker who has given nothing and taken a lot, he can't ask for more from his club or its fans. The rest is up to Owen now, when the dust settles he will be remembered for what he did - or didn't do - on the pitch. It's all up to him.

If we're playing Owen and Martins up front then we need Barton or Emre starting the game. The others have shown they just can't or won't pick a forward pass on a regular basis, or play too deep to make it effective. If the service is good, I'm confident Owen and Martins can perform together, but if we're clipping long balls forward they will struggle to get into the game and will come deeper to get the ball. The key area we can win this game is midfield. The likes of Zokora and Jenas are not great midfielders and can be dominated when they play away from home. If we can outplay them in midfield then maybe we can get balls to Oba and Owen's feet. Do this, and we'll be a strong threat.

At present, N'Zogbia. We only have two fit wingers and most of our good work this season has come through him.

Saw the highlights on MOTD and it does look like Everton were totally robbed. It's not just one or two bad, shocking decisions, but several in the course of a match and all in one side's favour. Remarkable really. Gerrard, as he did at Villa, has dived and conned the referee into a match-changing decision. If this had been the other way round you would never hear the end of it from Benitez. Then again, any manager would find it hard to keep his mouth shut after that refereeing show.

My first thoughts when I read them as well. If I were Sam I'd be showing these comments to the players before the game. Reminds me of a few years ago when Dyer was backing himself in the press to dislodge Scholes from the England team, right before a game with Man Utd. Scholes came out and taught him a lesson in football. Jol really isn't in a position to be making these sorts of comments.

Aye, as .com put it we are the perennial fall guy for any team or striker badly in need. If you need to end your drought, Newcastle are usually a sympathetic side. I'm really hoping we twist the knife on Spurs.

Berbatov is overrated by the press but he's possibly exactly what we need. He's the type of striker who could partner anybody, due to his hold up and link up play. He'd cost a fortune though and despite all these stories, would almost certainly see us as a sideways step.

It might have been a coincidence but Zoggy's problems began when we brought in Duff, an experienced player who instantly displaced him from the team. Wouldn't this be doing exactly the same thing? I couldn't see Riise coming here to warm our bench.

Legend.

Aye, I'd say so as well.

Strongly disagree on that one, pretty much every time I saw Man Utd last season he was pulling all the strings. He is world class IMO.

Prove it. ?? I'm talking about a potential (and pretty likely) scenario where we are sitting with an offer on the table of £6m (or whatever) for a player who has 12 months on his contract and will walk for free when that time expires, after picking up another year of huge wages. We'd be mad not to listen to such an offer. If Owen still hasn't signed a new contract by the summer then it's pretty safe to say he won't, and I doubt we'd be daft enough to turn down an offer like that on the offchance he has a change of heart during his final season. If he hasn't signed a new contract by the summer I'm confident we'll cash in.

My thoughts exactly. Even if we do qualify for Europe and this clause isn't triggered, £6m plus a huge saving on wages would be a tempting offer for a player who wants to leave and will do so for nothing in 12 months. Liverpool accepted 8m in the same situation, and he's an older player with more injury questions around him now, meaning 6m is probably very realistic.

I've always rated him, but a lot of Liverpool fans find him very frustrating and they're the ones who see him week in week out. Now we've gone for Enrique that should be the end of the matter. We've paid £6m for Enrique, even in today's market that's quite a lot for a left back and he comes highly praised by the Villarreal fans who were gutted to lose him. Why would we go and sign a left back now who will restrict his chances of making it here? We could do with cover in that position (Baba obviously has to go), but Riise will expect to play every week and Enrique needs all the experience he can get.

I haven't heard many people say Barry is a better player than Lampard, but I have heard plenty say England look better with Barry alongside Gerrard than Lampard. Those are two different things. Lampard and Gerrard have been tried together for England so many times, and it just does not work. That's been England's problem as long as I can remember (and I'm nudging 40) - always picking the bigger names rather than the ones who perform best. That's why Clemence hung on ahead of Shilton for so long, why John Barnes got 90 odd caps and put in 3 or 4 decent performances at most, and why Lampard and Gerrard were persisted with for so long. Barry has been ignored by the last three England managers, and now he's had his chance, he's taken it. Good luck to the bloke. To suggest that he's somehow gone from being criminally underrated to hugely overrated in the space of a few weeks seems a bit, well, unlikely I haven't suggested he is "hugely overrated", nor was he ever "criminally underrated". But the reaction has not fit the performances. A decent performance for England from a relative newcomer to the side always results in exaggeration and hyperbole, Barry wasn't 'great' and nor were the opposition. I agree with regards to finding the players and a system that works, but it's a bit premature to say Barry is the answer on the back of a few performances, as many in the media have already done.

I agree with the comments about Aaron Lennon. Half an hour at the world cup, coming onto a field of tired players and using his pace to good effect, and suddenly he is the saviour of England. I'd also argue that Gareth Barry, at the moment, is overrated. He is another one who has become the 'saviour of English football' because of a few ordinary performances against ordinary or poor opposition. Always been a decent player, never been anything special. I'd argue that Lampard has become underrated in recent times. People talk about him like he's an average player, it's amazing the power that a few tabloid journalists can have over many people's perceptions. Here's a player who scores for fun in midfield, one of the best teams in Europe struggle without him, yet I'm sure you could find people who will tell you that Gareth Barry is better. The English media love a hero and they love a villain, and right now Barry and Lampard fill those roles.

I firmly believe we got nothing out of the game because we played in that spirit. For too long we've played away from home with fear. Souness tried to combat it head on by playing the likes of Butt and Bowyer together but it didn't work, it's effectively waving a white flag, almost like damage limitation. We need to go to these places believing we can take all the points, a draw should be seen as acceptable. You could see at Man City, they wanted it much more than we did. Both teams got what they deserved. Of course, a number of factors resulted in our defeat, but it gets up my nose the way we play with fear against average teams just because we're away from home. Man City look a decent outfit fair enough, but for every Man City there's a Derby or a Middlesbrough and we've been doing this for years.

To be fair, in this context not a lot has happened in two years with Anelka. Still the same very good player, still a Moody French Bloke, still scores goals. So why has opinion changed so drastically? IIRC I was one of those who wanted him a couple of years back, yet I'd have more reservations now. We were more desperate for a striker back then, and Anelka was a couple of years younger. The situation has changed, let's not pretend otherwise. I'd have him at the right price, but it all depends on who would be leaving to make way and how much of our budget the transfer would eat up. I personally think a right winger is a bigger concern in the January window, but I do believe we have to look at Owen's contract situation and thing about next summer. Trying to point at what people thought two years ago, when we had a different team, a different manager and different needs doesn't achieve anything.[/b[ It points out lack of foresight. It didn't take much, even then, to see Anelka was a step up on what we had. Even in the Shearer / Bellamy years his ability shouldn't have been sniffed at. He is player we could afford to put with, simply due to ability. Bellamy didn't, nor will have, anything like his abilty. Worth the hassle. Going back to messages posted a couple of years ago to point out a "lack of foresight", isn't this just an 'I told you so' attitude? One that still ignores the endless possibilities had we actually signed Anelka, and ignores the fact that our needs then and our needs now are inevitably different. Back then we were desperate for a striker, it was our most pressing need, and I thought Anelka would be worth the hassle myself. Now though the situation has changed and if Martins or Owen were to make way then it wouldn't be such a straight forward decision.

To be fair, in this context not a lot has happened in two years with Anelka. Still the same very good player, still a Moody French Bloke, still scores goals. So why has opinion changed so drastically? IIRC I was one of those who wanted him a couple of years back, yet I'd have more reservations now. We were more desperate for a striker back then, and Anelka was a couple of years younger. The situation has changed, let's not pretend otherwise. I'd have him at the right price, but it all depends on who would be leaving to make way and how much of our budget the transfer would eat up. I personally think a right winger is a bigger concern in the January window, but I do believe we have to look at Owen's contract situation and thing about next summer. Trying to point at what people thought two years ago, when we had a different team, a different manager and different needs doesn't achieve anything.

All fair enough points, but much of that is based on the assumption that he can carry on his form into his thirties, something most strikers struggle with. I'm not sure he's ever been the professional that Larsson is, but he seems to have kept his nose clean since he went to Bolton. For the fee it would take to bring him here, some sort of sacrifices would have to be made, be it Owen, Martins, or Viduka. I don't believe we're a big enough club to bring him in for Shola, we have books to balance and players to keep happy. Right now, I'd have reservations about going in for him, but I could also see a lot of positives. It would all depend on who would be going out the door. I don't believe it is a "no brainer" by any means, he's a superb player but he has had quite a turbulent career and totally flopped at Real Madrid and Fenerbahce where there were high expectations.

Amazing. It might look pretty cheesy but that shows a lot of dedication.

He turns 29 before the season's end though. Considering pace is such a big part of his game, that'd be my main reservation. In terms of his quality, he has been excellent in a poor Bolton side. If he turned out to be Owen's replacement I'd be a bit underwhelmed, and that's not because I want a trophy signing but because of his age.