James

I hope that we win because we deserve to and not because the opposition's best players get injured.

Arsene Wenger reckons that England have got their U17's sorted, and that he'd have the majority of the U17's at his academy if he could. Martin Samuel's article is a little behind the times, as Simon Fuller has got the kids off the big pitches. Initially he only got a handful to work with, two of whom were Micah Richards and Theodore Walcott, but the U17's are the first bunch of kids he spent a good deal of time with, so this looks promising. Incidentally, Allardyce once offerred Fuller a job, and although turned down, Fuller has always been one to advise any club that asks for help. No doubt Allardyce will have swapped some notes with him regarding our academy.

Or hold the ANC in the UK.

Talk about living in the past. Duff hasnt even looked as good as NZogbia, let alone "one of the best in the world". Duff today is an average Premiership winger who works hard up and down, has decent technique, doesnt lose the ball easily, but doesnt do much with it either. A more accurate fact would be to state that our key players on paper are "gifted" players who hit their peak 3-5 years ago. Owen (European player of the year), Emre (looked like hed turn into a top draw international and Serie A deep lying midfield playmaker), Duff (top class winger) are all shiite now compared to what they were when a few years younger, and shouldnt be judged on the level they were at a few years ago as opposed to the level that they are at right now. I think thats down to constantly being injured over several years, and the permanent loss of form as a result, and although these players have still retained some of their abilities, enough to show glimpses of shadows of their form selves occassionally, ultimately theyre not what they used to be and are pretty much average Premiership players now. I wouldnt complain if we cashed in on all 3, in fact im hoping for it, hoping that we'll replace them with better players, since that hope is more realistic than living in the hope of them turning back the clock and performing consistently for us. To top it all off, theyre crocks too. I think it is unfair to say that Duff doesn't do very much with the ball, when last season we had no strikers who would attack the six yard line, and that pretty much made all our wingers useless, except Milner as he was pretty good cutting inside.

I thought his trial began on Thursday?

Just seen an interview with Allardyce on Newcastle World. There is a large image of Michael Owen next to the club crest on the tactics board.

Ramage has had more time on the pitch than Fat Pat and has done more damage which takes his score further away from the starting point. Shola has been an average player for us, and has done a few good things. Martins is doing well, but when you consider he hasn't been here long, it is too early to give him a score that would put him alongside the likes of Speed and Lee. So why does Krul have a 5.1 when the only game he's played in he kept a clean sheet and won us the game? Not to mentions Givens low score of 7.5 when it should be about 3212 As you've admitted you are out for an ego trip, I'm not going to bother responding, waste of time.

His injury record is too iffy. We'd need to give him 18 months to see if he can stay fit. he's had a few injuries yes, but before that didn't he go something like 7 years without missing a game? i'm not going to rush to conclusions about givens fitness until its as obvious as the sky is blue that he'll never complete a season again. at the moment he's had one thigh injury and one reacurance of it. I'm talking about Foster. For Given though, its been more than two injuries to the thigh and groin areas, it has been 5 or 6 times this year, missing 28% of the games he has played. How can he miss the games he has played? That's impossible. Sorry games we have played, but you knew that already. Do you ever bother having opinions of your own in real life? Or do you just prefer to make people look stupid to give yourself an ego trip?

Ramage has had more time on the pitch than Fat Pat and has done more damage which takes his score further away from the starting point. Shola has been an average player for us, and has done a few good things. Martins is doing well, but when you consider he hasn't been here long, it is too early to give him a score that would put him alongside the likes of Speed and Lee.

His injury record is too iffy. We'd need to give him 18 months to see if he can stay fit. he's had a few injuries yes, but before that didn't he go something like 7 years without missing a game? i'm not going to rush to conclusions about givens fitness until its as obvious as the sky is blue that he'll never complete a season again. at the moment he's had one thigh injury and one reacurance of it. I'm talking about Foster. For Given though, its been more than two injuries to the thigh and groin areas, it has been 5 or 6 times this year, missing 28% of the games he has played.

His injury record is too iffy. We'd need to give him 18 months to see if he can stay fit.

Beyond tears now.

You goon. He's in the Arsenal end? Was just laughing at him announcing it, and in here. Dave, it was a bad joke. I'm sorry

You goon. He's in the Arsenal end?

Spy or just go on Getty? Depends if they are stupid enough to let their club photographer take pictures of their training match/matchday rehearsal exercise.

We should spy on Livepool to see who their strikers are before picking our defence vs Liverpool. For me: Torres and Voronin = Cacapa and Taylor Torres and Crouch = Cacapa and Rozehnal Torres and Kuyt = Cacapa and Taylor Crouch and Kuyt = Rozehnal and Taylor Crouch and Voronin = Rozehnal and Cacapa Kuyt and Voronin = Taylor and Cacapa. If we dont know, I'd play Cacapa and Taylor. Shame Faye is injured though, would have made selections easier.

Since coming back from the Harewood clash, Given has missed 28% of our competitive games with a groin injury. Not his fault, but that isn't good enough for a first choice goalkeeper in my opinion. The defence need to have a reliable mainstay behind them for almost every match. But Given has not provided that for since the start of 06/07 he has missed just under 50% of our games. Unless he can get those groin problems behind him, he is never going to provide the consistency we need from a keeper, and for that reason alone we should get rid.

Anelka is probably the best shout of a realistic player who can attack the six yard line, which is what I feel we need. He'd be a good partner for Martins too.

I'm not saying Martins usually has poor first touch, but Owen's is better.

Yes, lets ignore what the the professional player says. Lets ignore the decent manager who picks the team. After all, you really know more than they do. So what´s your take on that goal? Was it a shot, in which case what´s Owen got to do with it? Was it a pass, in which case it was either a bad pass or Owen didn´t have the pace to get to it? I agree Gordon probably positioned himself for the way our strikers were set up, but you could argue that everybody inside the box at the time of the pass/shot had an effect on the goal. The only noteworty thing Owen did in the Sunderland match was make a good run on a Harper long ball and miss a chance he could/should (?) have scored for a player of his stature.. In regards to that Owen chance once he had to shift it onto his left foot the chance was gone ... because our world class striker has no left foot! Martins would have hammered it ... might have ended up in row Z but he would have hit it and not passed it to their goalie and it would have had a better chance of going in. That is assuming Martins has the same brilliant first touch control that Owen has, which is extremely debatable. Please refer to his Manchester City goal please ... I could refer to many other occasions in a match when his first touch is dreadful, only such things are unlikely to be shown in highlights packages.

Yes, lets ignore what the the professional player says. Lets ignore the decent manager who picks the team. After all, you really know more than they do. So what´s your take on that goal? Was it a shot, in which case what´s Owen got to do with it? Was it a pass, in which case it was either a bad pass or Owen didn´t have the pace to get to it? I agree Gordon probably positioned himself for the way our strikers were set up, but you could argue that everybody inside the box at the time of the pass/shot had an effect on the goal. The only noteworty thing Owen did in the Sunderland match was make a good run on a Harper long ball and miss a chance he could/should (?) have scored for a player of his stature.. In regards to that Owen chance once he had to shift it onto his left foot the chance was gone ... because our world class striker has no left foot! Martins would have hammered it ... might have ended up in row Z but he would have hit it and not passed it to their goalie and it would have had a better chance of going in. That is assuming Martins has the same brilliant first touch control that Owen has, which is extremely debatable.

Yes, lets ignore what the the professional player says. Lets ignore the decent manager who picks the team. After all, you really know more than they do. So what´s your take on that goal? Was it a shot, in which case what´s Owen got to do with it? Was it a pass, in which case it was either a bad pass or Owen didn´t have the pace to get to it? I agree Gordon probably positioned himself for the way our strikers were set up, but you could argue that everybody inside the box at the time of the pass/shot had an effect on the goal. The only noteworty thing Owen did in the Sunderland match was make a good run on a Harper long ball and miss a chance he could/should (?) have scored for a player of his stature.. As Milner says, and I had said myself before his World Interview, Owen made a very good diagonal run in front of the defenders to the near post which brought Gordon to the near post to make a save, and also brought two defenders towards Owen. Had Owen not made that run, Gordon would not have been so close to the near post, so would have dived outwards to catch the cross, and if he missed, one of the two defenders might have been in a position to clear the ball off the line. Other strikers wouldn't have made that run, or wouldnt have got in front of Sunderland's defence. In that situation, Martins usually stands on the penalty spot. The bit in bold though shows that you don't have much football knowledge to be honest. Milner played a good ball in the box, it was a ball with good odds, he wasn't aiming for anything specific, but he would have known that the likeliest possibilities from that ball were: a) A corner b) A goal by a team mate attacking the goal c) An own goal d) A clearance off the line e) A goal for Milner f) Everyone misses It is extremely stupid to think that it was a bad pass - players dont specifically aim for another player, they take a chance and try to find the area most likely to yield an outcome, and Milner did just that. It is just as stupid to accuse Owen of missing the cross through lack of pace. Owen doesn't know exactly where the ball is going to be delivered, he gambles and takes a chance, but always attacks the goal with his run. Keep playing balls into the right area, and have attackers gambling by attacking the six yard line, and we will score more than if we dont gamble. If one move doesn't pay off, it is not a bad pass or a slow run, its probability. Thus Milner and Owen did what was needed of them, andwe scored. Now we need to work on getting more opportunities for putting those kind of balls into the box. Martins just doesn't gamble. He hovers and waits for a perfect ball which is never going to happen. As Shearer said last season, he will never be a good striker if he never learns to gamble. If we cant rely on Owen, we'll need to find someone else to attack the ball in the box.

Given's a world class shot stopper, but we need the good attributes of Jaaskelainen than we need the good attributes of Given at this moment.

I actually believe that Shola would be better in the Spanish leagues than he can be in the Premiership

My point exactly.. Besides, if a player would `only` contribute by scoring, he would have to score a hell of a lot more than Owen ever did. Van Nistelrooij is a good example. He will not create too much himself, but over the course of his career has consistently scored almost twice as many goals as Owen. We are playing Rolls Royce wages for a very untrustworthy Jaguar (sorry NE5 ).. Matter of fact Owen is only a great finisher inside the box. Outside of it he isn't a threat as his shots from outside the box are rather pathetic. I'm really not sure he would score more goals than martins at themoment at all. I think you'll find that most good teams score most of their goals from inside the box. Long range finishing is a useful ability but should never ever be put ahead of finishing from inside the area. I'd rather have someone who could do both as Martins does. Martins is below average inside the area as he doesn't attack the ball. It can be taught, but until that happens there are so many better players in that department.