James

Arsenal can get away with it based on not only their excellent scouting system finding the right players, but also because every year, they have a decent shot at three other competitions. You are right though about the quality of reserve and youth games being very poor, providing no real motivation orexperience for the younger players. I suggested another solution to this problem several months ago: Today, there is no reason why we should limit our reserve youth games to fixtures against the amateurs of Newcastle Blue Star. Travel is cheap, and we could take our players off to anywhere in Europe. What would be good is if the domestic reserve and youth leagues were replaced with leagues formed from the best setups from England/Scotland/France/Spain/Holland/Italy/Germany. Initially, each division is determined from the best three teams from each country in terms of training facilities, quality of coaches, number of youth internationals BUT NOT the success or wealth of the first team. Subsequent promotions and relegations are then determined by the best and worst from each country in the league, rather than the teams at the top and bottom of the league.

12 weeks rather than 6-8 weeks then.

When it comes down to the attributes of reflexes and shot stopping, Given is one of the best in the world. His handling, positioning and agility are also good, but not world class, and he has a pretty good jump that compensates for his lack of height. However, when it comes to communication, kicking, decision making, presense, throwing, one-on-ones, command of area and teamwork, Given is one of the worst in the league. And there are Conference players better at saving penalties. Of these substandard attributes, Harper is certainly better at all bar kicking. Fact is that Given is a Hollywood keeper with plenty of style and little substance, who in a prima donna fashion, seems more concerned about his individual performance rather than the performance of the team as a whole. Such a keeper may have been helpful behind a shoddy defensive unit, but our unit has improved, and the importance of shot stopping ability diminishes when compared with other attributes, and he is thus no longer an indispensable player at the club.

That builds us up for massive dissappointment if we don't win though.

Today confirms that Newcastle are the 5th best English team in Europe. They may as well give us an automatic place in the competition every season.

Given Dida's form when it comes to CL incidents, is it too unlikely that AC Milan hire people to pretend to be other fans, and then cause troublewhenresults aren'g going in Milan's favour?[/conspiracy]

a) Some players aren't motivated for reserve games. b) A team is only as good as its weakest link.

NUFC4, Thread titles need to remain informative, and must not look like they have been written by an illiterate two year old. Thanks.

I'm convinced Martin Jol is actually Mihir Bose.

It's quite baffling! I actually can't believe what I am hearing and seeing right now. We dont quite know what you are seeing or hearing to be honest

Unlucky. One point away at Spurs is generally considered a good result. Dissappointing, but it is better for you than it is for them.

What to? Englands Gerrard breaks leg Once the title is changed it may as well be deleted. i was kidding JAMES always fucks around with my misleading titles and it pisses me off I'm so priveliged that you think I'm so important that you have to spell my name with CAPITAL LETTERS.

I agree with the sentiment, but I'm sure many fans will be looking at Manchester City thinking that they've fixed things quickly, so why didn't we? That is wrong of course, as they already had a solid spine to their team.

He was poor today. Not only did he waste possession but he was a headless chicken, went to ground to easily, and was often out of position.

I'd say it was a slightly below-par performance considering we were away at a team that never loses at home, with only one player (Butt) really disappointing. Its not the complete shambles that others are making it out to be.

Given - two good saves, two bad cock-ups - 5 Beye - did little wrong - 6 Rozehnal - Defended pretty well - 7 Taylor - Outpaced and outwitted - 5 N'Zogbia - Terrible defender - 5 Geremi - Won the ball back a lot, but passed sloppily. Got an assist though - 6 Butt - Absolutely woeful for the first 70 mins, but did ok after that. Elano ate him for breakfast. - 4 Smith - Passed, tackled and harried well, and had some good touches in the final third - 7 Milner - Harried well, and tried his best to create. Let down by others wayward passing - 6 Martins - Scored, but could have used his pace a lot better - 6 Viduka - Clearly a class above the rest of our players, but we didn't get him on the ball enough - 6 Enrique - Made no real difference Faye - ditto Emre - Looked lively I dont think we were that bad. Manchester City were immense and I reckon they are the best challengers for the top 4 this season as long as they maintain fitness and consistency. Elano is better than Kinkladze, Benarbia and Berkovic combined.

Allardyce has just said on Sky Sports that it wasn't a hernia, just a danger of one, so a long term absence has been avoided. He is in contention for Everton if his midweek op goes well. Apparently its an incredible surgeon who got Shearer recovered from a hernia in seven days.

One other thing is that our defence like to get the ball down and spend some time on the ball. We've had problems against Derby and West Ham when this wasn't allowed. I think that this time though, they are going to get the time they need.

The key battles for this game could be: Taylor/Faye vs Mpenza Rozehnal and Geremi vs Elano Smith and Beye vs Petrov Butt vs Johnson N'Zogbia and Milner vs Ireland and Corluka Martins vs Richards and Garrido Viduka vs Dunne and Hamann In bold are the battles we may win, and in italics are the battles we could lose out on. I'm going for a 1-1 draw with goals for Johnson and Geremi (penalty)

Manchester City have their own injury problems, and I think we need to be wary of a very attacking 4411 formation. We need a brick in defence to deal with Mpenza, but the midfielder in the hole is one for the more continental defensive players to deal with. thus it is a shared job for Rozehnal and Geremi. I think we are in trouble if we are forced into a Faye-Taylor partnership. Manchester City probably do have the brightest and most talented midfield we have faced so far this season, and today is for a tough and wizened trio of midfielders to deal with the Premier League inexperience of Elano, Johnson and Petrov. Thus, Butt, Geremi and Smith should all play. Right wing is Manchester City's weak point at this moment with Stephen Ireland, so I would persist with N'Zogbia at left back - although I don't rate him defensively, I feel there will be little pressure at that side of the pitch, giving him a licence to get forward. Milner, Martins and Viduka then pick themselves as the only other attacking players available. So do we play 442 or 433? Tough call, but I'd play 433 as Manchester City's midfield seems to be pretty compact.

I dreamt last night that due to a fixture mess-up, we had to play Manchester United twice on the same day. Our strongest team beat their strongest 1-0 in the first game. And in the second game, our weaker team beat their strongest 4-0, with Fergie not trusting his weaker players despite the fresher legs.

Rozehnal is a slight doubt today, dependent on whether Baby Rozehnal decides to pop his head out two days ahead of schedule.

Didn't Cushing get a small amount to spend on transfers if a scout came in with a recommendation on a good young player? Weren't the signings of N'Zogbia, Krul and Danquah his own personal business?

In the end of the day, would rather go out now than later on. Will be hoping Arsenal win this (and the league)

I'd rather we got someone better in and people stopped trying to kid themselves that this lad is anything special. Seriously, there are people that think that this kid is a TOP talent. It's f****** ludicrous. Not having a go at you btw Dave, it just astounds me when I watch this kid play, the reputation he has with some of our fans. Were his 17 goals last seasona fluke then? Playing alongside Sibierski and Dyer? God gove me strength. You go and have a look over the goals he has scored for Newcastle and come back and tell me he can't finish. His situation reminds me of Adebayor's situation at Arsenal. All my friends who support Arsenal kept telling me he was crap and just like Shola and I kept telling them he just needed to play regularly and I would happily swap Shola for him anyday. They always laughed at me about it. This season they're wetting themselves over him the twats. Pisses me off something propa. I don't need to hear about the conversations you have with your mates at the back of the special bus tbh. Funny guy. I just don't like fickle people. Had either Drogba or Adebayor come to Newcastle you would have been the sort to run them out after their first season. Both similar players to Martins. Speed, athletic ability and power, but not the best touch or awareness. Surround them with the right players and play them often enough and they will be very productive though. Simple as that. We have no choice but to play Martins everygame now. Let's see what happens with him playing alongside Viduka regularly then. We'll talk about this again in aaround four weeks. So now he's as good as Drogba or Adebayor, it's just that he's playing with the wrong team mates? By the way, Adebayor's touch pisses all over Martins'. Please don't embarrass yourself by trying to say that Adebayor and Drogba "don't have the best touch or awareness" in an attempt to defend Martins. You really must be illiterate. Get a fuckin degree man! Can you read? I think he's got a fuckin degree man!