ohmelads

Tbf it's mostly just people on here trying to appear cynical and clever. Talk to people in town and the vast majority will tell you they're happy for him. The criticism of Taylor on here is over the top, it really is.

Tbh mate you come across as very typical of the Sky Sports middle class prawn sandwich fan yourself. What's the matter, don't want to be assosciated with the riff raff? Sounds like you should be watching it at home, on Sky Sports.

You had better be f*cking joking.

He has to understand the fans' frustration, the club's record signing for £16M, one of the biggest names in English football, and he barely plays in two years yet seemingly rushes back from injury when England come calling. I suspect he'd have left given the chance, but I won't hold that against him because I believe he's a professional who will always give 100% on the pitch. I just hope he answers his critics on the pitch, if he does that he'll get the praise he deserves, you can be sure of that.

Agree 100% with all that.

Maybe not, but by the time Woodgate and Ferdinand were 19 it was fairly obvious that they were exceptional. Both had full caps at that age too. To be fair in recent years it's been very difficult for any young centre back to get anywhere near the England side, even Carragher has struggled to get a game and has retired early as a result. Some players respond well to an England call up, others like Jenas feel they've "made it" as someone said earlier and become very complacent. Taylor, ever since he came into the Newcastle side, has been overcompetitive and desperate to succeed, determined to nail down a place in the team with every performance. I think a taste of action with the England team will only give him more encouragement to keep going, and will be a great experience for him as well.

Agree with your sentiments. Some people don't seem to like Taylor because of his character, but I'd much rather see a player so desperate to win every game he plays in than someone like Jenas. If Taylor is inexperienced it's because at times he is overcompetitive, but I've seen far worse attributes in players of his age. With a better defence around him, better midfield in front of him, better management and now England recognition, this is the season for him to step up to the next level. He strikes me as a lot more determined than the likes of Jenas, I think this is great news for him and for us.

I think this game could see Enrique, Cacapa and any other new signings (Faye?) getting their first starts for us. I don't see them getting a start tomorrow or away to Boro (barring injuries), so this game seems like a perfect opportunity for them to get off to a winning start, a very winnable game shall we say at home, followed by another home fixture to Wigan. Seems like the perfect time, they should be around full fitness by then.

Most people know he'd rather be wearing a black and white one given half a chance. I know, I don't have anything against him personally, but while he's a mackem I hope everything goes wrong for him on the pitch.

I find it impossible to wish Chopra well while he's wearing a red and white shirt.

No idea of the statistics but I'd say far more shocks happen when a big team is away from home. I'm usually grateful for any home draw, even against the big teams, as I always see it as a chance to put them out on our ground rather than play them in a neutral venue or even at theirs later in the tournament. My attitude is usually if we lose a game like this we simply don't deserve to be in the tournament. We'll need to put out a decent team, but I think there's room for a few fringe players with a strong bench.

Don't see the need for a scoreboard, football is a low scoring game, is it really so difficult to keep track of the score?

Not the easiest out there, but it's at home. I'd have taken that.

Refs tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the major teams because if they don't give the decision and they're found to be wrong the media backlash is even worse. I think it becomes a natural reaction to err on the side of caution and give stuff the way of the 'big team'. Not just in this country or even this sport. Can you imagine Chelsea, Liverpool or Man Utd were denied a blatant pen in the last minute because the ref had doubts, the ref would take a hammering in the media and his reputation would suffer. It's a lot easier to give decisions the way of the big guns and be called one or two names for that, because it dies down a lot quicker. The same goes for big players too. We still talk about Shearer being sent off by Rennie for doing nothing wrong. If that had been a lesser player, who would still talk about it? Or even remember which ref had given it? (Of course, you do get one or two refs who seem to enjoy sending off big names). If we got ourselves among the top 4 clubs in this league consistently over 5 or 10 years we would see more of these decisions and 'benefit of the doubt' coming our way too.

In response to the comments on Milner, I personally think he's looked very dangerous in pre-season and notched up another assist against Bolton. I'd be happy enough with him as a first choice winger, because I think he's been slowly but surely getting better and better ever since that loan spell at Villa. His crossing has improved ten-fold since he arrived at the club and his decision making is a lot better. He's picking the sensible options now, getting crosses in early. Remember how he would try to repeatedly skin his marker and lose the ball without getting a cross in? Or float crosses in that were easy for the keeper or tough to meet with any real power? Now he just beats his man and puts the ball with pace into the danger area, much more no-nonsense stuff from him. He's also taking more shots on goal and his movement to find space out wide is better. I do think we need an alternative option to him though, someone to change a game if we find ourselves lacking that spark or we're struggling to break down a stubborn defence.

Emre tries to get stuck in but he simply isn't a natural ball winner and that certainly shouldn't be his primary duty in the team. As part of a three man midfield under a sensible manager I think he'll be given more creative license and told to play a bit further up the field, operating in that area of the field between the opposition's midfield and defence where players are hard to pick up. I remember when Souness described him as a defensive midfielder and thought Parker should be doing the attacking. It was only when Butt and Emre played side by side that we saw Emre playing further up the pitch and the team looked so much more balanced and creative. More common sense like that and an injury free season and who knows.

I think those who talk about pace have a fair point, I don't think we have any genuine pace down that right hand side, and weaker teams who come to sit back and frustrate us will be happy about that. We've got enough senior players to fill any holes that appear but in terms of changing a game it is usually forwards and wingers that you look to and wide right I don't see a lot. We look stable enough to handle injuries this time around, but in terms of teams looking at our bench going "sh*t" I think it's only up front that we have those kind of options. I think we need a winger with pace, a right back, and a centre back. If the wage bill really is a problem, then someone like Belletti could act as a compromise, with Faye coming in and covering midfield and defence. In other words, I'd be happy enough with Faye and Belletti coming in for Dyer and Solano. Ideally though a quick, specialist right winger would give us an alternative to Milner without having to shuffle things around.

We want the easiest team going, at home, so we can rest as many first-team players as possible and give the younger/fringe players a chance. Morecambe at home or something like that. Looking at that list there's a few teams who could give us a tough away game.

While we need another body in midfield imo, Smith and Barton can and have played wide-right on many occasions. I see what you're getting at, it's not the end of the world if we had to play Smith there for a game or two, but the idea is hopefully to be stronger after selling Dyer & Solano than we were before and I'm not sure that'll happen. I accept that the wage bill needs to be reduced and I think one solution might be a player like Belletti, a right back who, in emergencies (if say Geremi and Milner are crocked) can go right wing and still give us width and the option of playing 4-4-2.

I actually reckon Dyer will be a decent signing for them if he stays fit. That's a big IF, but I rate his chances of staying fit higher than I did, say, 12 months ago. I'm not too fussed at losing him and while I'd be gutted at losing Solano, I could handle that one too, provided a quality right-sided replacement comes in. Without those two we'll just have Milner, and Geremi if we shift him across, leaving our wide right options for a 4-4-2 pretty limited indeed. With Duff crocked for another three months on the left hand side, we only have Zoggy there too, so an injury to him would leave us switching Milner across (or Luque, if he stays). And Carr is our only natural right back and quite injury prone, so we may need to play someone like Geremi there, further robbing us of right wing options. I think it'll be addressed, but I can't say I'm happy about this until it is. Losing two quality players this late in a transfer window is never ideal, and we will probably be a bit ripped off as we try to replace them. No club wants to sell good players in the last two weeks of August, they're buggered finding a replacement, not to mention time is running out for ourselves.

Think he mentioned that Emre is in his plans not long after he took the job. Can't remember the exact quotes. I think he could have a big part to play in a 4-3-3, keen to see how Allardyce will use him.

Alves when he signs for Chelsea. Of those made so far, Malouda looks the business.

Think it's all wait and see at the moment. I reckon there's concrete interest in him given his quotes, the media's claims and our need for a right back, potentially one able to cover right wing with Dyer and now Solano likely to be out the door. But given Belletti's not pushing for an exit and Barca aren't desperate to sell, it could be tricky. They'll want a sizeable fee and he'll want big wages as 'Sport' is saying, and given his age and the time it might take for him to adapt, we might not reach an agreement.

were not panicking, on his day he can be a great player. I think you need to get real, we only bought him as back up because Faubert is injured when he is back dyer will be keeping our bench warm. Very expensive bench warmer tbh.

I wouldn't say Dyer and Bellamy did nothing for Newcastle, they were key to us getting among the Champions League places and going on a pretty decent Champions League run. West Ham will be trying to get the best out of them obviously, and in Dyer's case keep him fit. It's a big ask but clubs like West Ham need to take some risks if they want to move up the table quickly. They should be looking at their defence as well mind, it still looks shocking.