madras

for truth that happened in roy of the rovers,created a riot and was always a plausable scenario...life imitates comic

Where he f***** up was replacing him with Luque. He replaced Bellamy with Owen tbf. so he didn''t replace shearer ? (knowing shearer needed replacing)

Where he f***** up was replacing him with Luque. thats right,any other decent forward and we'd have been ok

Hope not - we'll all be dead by 2011 (or two years earlier if I'm in charge) shit..that's all we need,another doomsdayite fundamentalist. shit language that puts "fun" in "fundamentalism" (almost gets off with it by putting "mentalism" in there)

Pavarotti dies and goes up to heaven. When he gets there, the first person he bumps into is Princess Diana. He goes over to her, and says "Hi, Di, you're looking like a healthy spirit....oh, and jesus that's a hell of a big halo you have! I hope I've led a good enough life to have a halo as big as yours!" Then, there's an awkward pause. Diana looks f****** fuming with Pavarotti. Finally, she opens her mouth, and says, "f*** off you fat f****** piece of s***, it's not a f****** halo, its a steering wheel". Will that do you? Off-topic, but.... old old old....it was originally about the queen mother dying and meeting the postponer of the liverpool game

souness was right to kick out bellamy

Yes, that's a good spot. ssshhhhhh ! we should have maybe pm'd these thoughts in light of whom we are talking about

to be fair yesterday was his worst defensivly and he doesnt normally get caught out that much but he is no defender Not to that extent, but he's had some bad lapses in a number of matches this season. aye i think his defensive lapses could be worked on enough as a midfielder but he hasn't enough defensive nouse about him to make a (dare i say iy) "proper" defender

barton

to be fair yesterday was his worst defensivly and he doesnt normally get caught out that much but he is no defender

That is precisely the reason why Sam has decided to use him as a left back. Just because he does well attacking from defence does not mean that he'd be even more effective if pushed further forward. Zoggy's assets are his pace, his acceleration and his change of direction. If given time and space, he can use those assets. Unfortunately his touch on the ball is not great, and if he receives the ball under pressure in a tight area, as wingers usually have to do, he more often than not loses it. This becomes even more obvious on the occasions when he gets shifted into the centre, when he looks completely lost and unable to retain or use the ball constructively. are we forgetting that he's not very good defensivly (even in midfield his defensive capabilities are poor...i hope they come with experience) which is a bit of a bugger for a player playing in a defensive position. now i like an attacking full back, brought up watching alan kennedy and irving nattrass me was,but they could defend aswell and the attacking bit was a bonus.

against nurses though yeah, nurses that happen to play for Jarra Roofing they "happen" to play for jarra roofing...not just "play" for jarra roofing. trying to convince me with your tricky word play eh ? well i'm having none of it. it's well known the nurses play rugby

against nurses though

not if it'll take 5 years to get us to where bolton were

be wary with defenders as how many would be able to adapt to not running straight through the back of forwards..baresi was a great shout mind. re brummies nostalgia post.........76 euro champs was probably the first tournament i really took in and as you say the crackly phone line commentary,the good east european teams,the constant klaxon horns from the crowd,the way the black and white patched football skidded along the ground into the net. rouned off with the coolest moment in football..panenkas penalty in the shoot out.

agreed. very good news if true, would like to see him given some much needed funds in january, creative midfielder is a must Even if he is given funds its gonna be very hard to get quality players in, most clubs wont let their best players go half way throu the season. some do...woddgate,evra,vidic

they were,i think only regis would have cut it today and even then not at as high a standard. any more, i was thinking maybe steve coppell

That's when most good players are at their best tbf not when in the defensive positions

there is a slight debate in another thread about managers/players from the past, wether they could survive in todays game. i know it's not realistic as had duncan edwards been born in 1977 he'd have been used to the football of that day...so it's just a bit of fun. which players from the past ( pre premiership).as they were then would have survived had they been transported through time to todays game ?. for me..... beckenbauer cruyff bobby charlton pele and malcolm macdonald probably some more but they are off the top of my head.

During the period that they have all had stable managers, yes. Theres no point tracing back throught their respective histoy's because that doesnt illustrate the specifics of my point. Of course, nufc have been more successful over a course of the premiership, but all our notbale success has occured with long term stable managers. but all those clubs saw almost immediate improvment. in nufc's case would robson have still been in place had he took us down and we'd performed worse than guillits team. ?

he's only our best player when on the ball (and even then it's only been the last couple of games).still, as a defender he lacks most defensive qualities

i have the feeling that the only thing keeping allardyce in a job is the awkward stage of the season it is for getting a new man in.

So you think you are a better judge than one Brian Clough then do you !?? Because, as I keep telling you, that is EXACTLY what Clough said football was - a simple game made complicated by Buffoons... If you get the players playing in a system they are comfortable with , AND to their strengths, they will do the business PROVIDED they have a modicum of ability. Clough did not take 20 games to make an impact at Derby and everywhere he went he took John McGovern with him ..one day, a NE journalist, Doug Weatherall, asked Clough why he always signed McGovern, as none of the Press guys could see anything in him - Clough replied ' that's why YOU are a journalist, and I am a MANAGER, Doug..!!' John Robertson, now coach to O'Neill at Villa, never got on well with Clough, but he would run through a brick wall for him because Clough let him PLAY TO HIS STRENGTHS as a left-winger...do you think Cloughie would have played N'Zogbia at LB, because I don't....I once saw him bollocking a player in training because the guy was a striker and he was taking corners - Clough said ' I didn't pay 1m for you to mess around taking corners, I paid it so you could score goals- GET IN THE MIDDLE !' No messing about with positional changes for BC..!! To be fair, he was pissed at the time. He was a great manager but football in his day compared to today is a whole new ball game. it's not complicated the way man utd play. Fergie would disagree. pretty sure fergie would get the basics right and you're almost there How anyone can think football is a simple game is beyond me, it's a complex sport involving many variables. watch man utd and arsenal play...pass and move.give the man on the ball options and have your team drilled to be able to second guess what his team mates will do. get in the players that do this best. basic man utd blueprint. for what it's worth i don't think ferguson is that tactically astute but better than everyone else at the basics I used to think that about Fergie but you don't build new teams that go on to succeed as regularly as he does without having a good grasp of tactics. He's a prime example of an old school manager adapting to a new game and his sides have shown that from their basic 4-4-2 of the early 90s to their many systems and formations today. Yes Man Utd's core principles are basic, but there is nothing basic about their game. If it were that easy every team going would play good football. They don't because it's the hardest game to play and the hardest to succeed with. it doesn't matter really about their formations as they are fluid (in the pass and move style). would the man utd plan work if they couldn't get the best players to execute it?. they can execute while others can't because a) they have and keep getting the best players to do it b) a manager who drills in a work ethic aswell as basic skills we'll never agree on this

if we always played players in their "right" positions we'd never have got steve howey to centre half,rob lee to central midfield,barry venison to ventre half then centre midfield. it's a matter of learning when you get it wrong.

i have a feeling that with n'zogbia being raped inside today he'll not be left back on weds. he can drop duff back to the bench claiming so many games so quick after so long out...i see n'zogbia wide left...more of a shock, martins and owen up front,push on and lots of low balls to run/come on to