James

Another corner.

Sounds like Milner and Duff are feeling pretty nifty today.

Smith over.

Unlucky. Positive start.

COME ON!!!!!!

I'm not annoyed with the fact that Zoggy isn't in midfield. He hasn't been great over the past few weeks and, as someone else mentioned, there may be non-footballing reasons for his being dropped. I'm just incredibly frustrated that Barton and Butt start together with Smith up front. I accept that at least one/two of those has to play owing to the shortage in numbers. On current form I would say Barton has been the worst of the three, but I'm frustrated beyond words that, no matter how much they underperform they continue to warrant selection. KK could be bold and go for Carroll who has looked bright, or Kazenga Lua Lua, moving Milner into the centre but instead it seems to be a case of same s*** different day. Not really the right environment to be starting youngsters in. They may make the difference though, surely starting Carroll would provide scope for more options up top rather than Smith The club have a responsibility to look after and develop young players. Starting Carroll would just destroy his confidence if things went wrong.

Sorted.

Anyone else having problems getting onto the live commentary from Newcastle World?

I'm not annoyed with the fact that Zoggy isn't in midfield. He hasn't been great over the past few weeks and, as someone else mentioned, there may be non-footballing reasons for his being dropped. I'm just incredibly frustrated that Barton and Butt start together with Smith up front. I accept that at least one/two of those has to play owing to the shortage in numbers. On current form I would say Barton has been the worst of the three, but I'm frustrated beyond words that, no matter how much they underperform they continue to warrant selection. KK could be bold and go for Carroll who has looked bright, or Kazenga Lua Lua, moving Milner into the centre but instead it seems to be a case of same shit different day. Not really the right environment to be starting youngsters in.

^Post to remember, just in case^

Newcastle 4 - 2 Blackburn Parky, James, Lovejoy and Johnnypd to score for us, SUPERTOON and Harry-Norway for Blackburn.

NUFC: Harper; Beye, Faye, Taylor, Enrique; Milner, Butt, Barton, Duff; Smith, Owen. Subs: Forster, Cacapa, N'Zogbia, Carroll, Martins. BRFC: Friedel; Ooijer, Samba, Khizanishvili, Warnock; Bentley, Emerton, Reid, Gamst; Santa Cruz, McCarthy. Subs: Brown, Mokoena, Tugay, Derbyshire, Roberts. Post match reaction can be found from here: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=50538.msg1225260#msg1225260 PLEASE DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES REQUEST OR PROVIDE LINKS TO ILLEGAL STREAMS. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL BE BANNED* *See http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=19161.0 for more information

Geremi is the only sensible alternative to Butt and Barton, but I'm not sure Keegan sees him as a CM. Martins has been out for quite a while makes sense to play him from the bench. N'Zogbia has played like a poor man's Kieron Dyer for the past two seasons.

People forget that over half of Oba's goals last season came against paper mache teams and cardboard cut-out defences. In the Premier League where it really matterred it was, as Bobyule says, Dyer was the man who really made the difference.

Martins doesn't even know what sport he plays judging from one of the training photos here: http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~1253743,00.html

Taylor is borderline atrocious. Always looks liable to give-away a freekick. Smith... shit Duff... totally ineffective Smith = options and late on determination Duff = attacking alternative, plus clever player to have on when defending a lead. Taylor = headless chicken mode helps him throw himself in the way of everything, while not compromising the defensive unit as the four proper defenders remainon the pitch. Would also make a very good attacking substitution if we needed a goal.

With regards to him not being on the bench, I'm pretty sure that when they have the necessary players available, most managers limited to five substitutes tend to go for a keeper, a centre back, a central midfielder, a winger and a striker. You rarely see a full back on the bench as they don't offer the same tactical options that other players do.

Harper Taylor Emre Smith Martins Duff Faye will be a subs bench that most Premier League managers will envy next season.

Seeing how he developed into a centre half in later years, I'd put him in the Maldini bracket.

I know how this thread is going to end. 95th minute in the final game of the season. Score is 0-0. If Newcastle can't convert this corner, they are going down. Emre swings in the corner. Taylor gets his head to the ball and it rattles off the underside of the crossbar. Ball lands at Smith's feet, and his toe poke is blocked on the line. Ball falls to Shola who tries a backheel but misses andthe ball rolls outside of the area to Nicky Butt who hits a terrible shot going well wide. Except the ball deflects off Smith's arse and into the back of the net for his only goal of the season. Newcastle are saved, everyone celebrates. Keegan runs on to the pitch with an expression of joy, Terry Mac is suffocated by a Derek Wright bear hug. The offside flag is raised. Smith was offside. Newcastle have been relegated.

Like I said before about him, he is truly world class at blocking shots. Trouble is, you only need someone that is good at that when the team is under the cosh, and I don't really want to see us under the cosh all the time. None of his other attributes are better than average right now, actually I lie, he is also better than many defenders in front of goal, but that's probably it. I don't particularly remember Carragher being much better at 22, so there is still hope, but I don't want to see him starting on a regular basis, but a squad role with the chance to play fairly regularly alongside a top CB may help him develop. I think Taylor would be a very effective player to have on the bench though, as he could come on for a striker when we are trying to defend a lead, we'd keep the original defensive unit intact, but use Taylor as a defensive 'headless chicken' to try and close everything down. Also, if we were chasing a game, he could be used as an emergency striker off the bench, and then slot back into defence if and when we get the score back to how we want it.

I did Jiu Jitsu once, so I know the moves.

http://www.nufc.com/2007-08html/2007-10-27reading-a.html

I thought I noticed something about Duff on Saturday. At Chelsea, after a couple of shoulder injuries, he went to martial arts classes in an attempt to learn how to land more softly and hopefully prevent more shoulder injuries. Well on Saturday, he would be running pretty swiftly, arms moving and all that, but whenever someone got near him, would reduce his arm movement, and drag his left arm across his body, and such a movement means that if an opponent clatterred into him, he would be able to quickly bend his elbow and roll onto his shoulder rather than land on it. Nothing wrong with trying to avoid injuries, but restricting his arm movement is not going to help him beat his man and get to the byline.

That stat isn't particularly good on its own, and is only there cos people asked for it. A better way to look would be to rank number of victories when playing in player's best position, and compare it to the ranking of number of defeats when playing in the same circumstances. Victories: Geremi 7 Butt 6 Rozehnal 5 Cacapa 5 Beye 5 N'Zogbia 4 Milner 4 Martins 4 Given 4 Viduka 4 Smith 3 Owen 3 Harper 3 Taylor 2 Enrique 2 Faye 2 Barton 1 Carr 1 Emre 1 Ameobi 1 Duff 0 Ramage 0 Defeats: Given 11 Butt 11 Milner 10 Beye 9 Taylor 8 Cacapa 7 Owen 7 Duff 7 Faye 7 Martins 6 Barton 5 Smith 5 Enrique 4 Rozehnal 4 Geremi 4 Viduka 4 Carr 3 Harper 3 Emre 2 N'Zogbia 2 Ameobi 2 Ramage 0 Together, we can't really see the effect of the likes of Butt, Cacapa and Beye as they've played through the good and bad in their best position. We can observe some big changes in ranking. A lot down from victories to defeats shows that we have been losing when they aren't playing in their best position, and a lot upwards from victories to defeats means that losses seem to come when they have come into the team. Comparing these rankings seems to put Geremi, Harper, Viduka and N'Zogbia in good light, while not looking so good for Given, Taylor, and Duff.