CaliMag

Excellent set of results in the Championship for us today. I could not really have asked for better.

Oh right, yeah

Geremi - our former captain - hasn't played in a dog's age. I am thinking... well okay, hoping... that he will surprise us.

I'd add Harper and Krul to that list. It's not so much that they are underrated as that most Premiership keepers are not very good. I forgot Steven Taylor Hes gan to Everton man... where you been?

I'd add Harper and Krul to that list. It's not so much that they are underrated as that most Premiership keepers are not very good.

Carragher is 31 and will soon become a liability. City will keep spending until they win stuff - I am afraid they aren't going anywhere but up.

Your avatar and sig was obsessed with replacing older players with younger ones (ready or not) and we can debate the nuances of replacing Solano with Ambrose too early, but in principle he is right. Liverpool peaked last year and they are becoming an older team. The backbone of that team is Gerrard 29 (and peaked as I said in the Liverpool or Arsenal thread) and Carragher is 31. They have no replacements for them. The two players that did well today are some of thier youngest at 25 (Johnson and Torres). Even Kuyt is 29.

I read a stat on Soccernet that I thought was very interesting: Against Villa, Liverpool lost for the first time in a game where Torres has scored. Before today it read: Won 23 drawn 5 A significant first. Torres and Gerrard make Liverpool win. I would argue that although Gerrard is world-class he is not as good as he was two to three seasons ago. He's peaked. They have a thin squad and they are not spending money like they used to. So dropping down to 5th or 6th I think is possible. Arsenal are now playing a bunch of youngsters that they bought 2 to 4 years ago. Have any of them peaked? Probably not. I can see players like Bendtner, Song-Billong, Fab, Vermaelen and Denilson all getting much much better. I can't see them leaving the top 4 - and I can't see them doing something stupid, like sacking Wenger for not winning anything this year.

Smug bump.

I've never understood this mentality. Sure, there's the consolation of "being able to focus on the league", but by no means can I see it being particularly better if you were knocked out. A premiership team in the 3rd round (if you get through) could for example give you a test to see what sort of level you're at. And besides, a decent cup run will only raise spirits surely. I would agree however to playing some of the younger lads. Normally I would agree with you, these are extenuating circumstances. We have a very small squad (that will probably get smaller) and we have over 40 games ahead of us. If we have a good cup run we'll just have that many more games with more opportunities for injuries and exhaustion (especially for our older players that fade badly when played more than a week in a row - Butt and Geremi). If we had a manager and were bringing in as many players as are leaving then I would be all for winning in all matches... but we don't.

Play the reserve/academy team. We have bigger fish to fry and the sooner we are out of this compo the better. I also don't like the idea of Huddersfield out to prove a point and injuring our players after the last game.

I am thinking we are going to lose this game pretty badly. Players not used to this many games, away from home (London no less) overconfidence, settling in of bad habits from the second have of the Wednesday game, no new players, no off field issues settled, organized and hungry opponents. 3-0 to Palace with Colocini taking a nap second half and one of our midfielders getting sent off.

Sol Campbell won us the 99 FA Cup Semi at Old Trafforf so it wouldn't be the first time he has helped us out. I'd love to have him, S Taylor and Carrol all in the opposition box during corners

So we have Ambrose with a brace, Chopra, Caldwell with an OG... any other former toon players scoring today?

It was Rob Lee. I just tried looking it up on youtube and couldn't find it. I'll take your word for it though. Obviously Lee was pretty good in the air as well, just not on the same level as Speed, Duncan, or Alan IMO. I can't believe that season was 10 years ago.

The only game I got to see live last year was the Blackburn game (commute is a bitch... etc.) and I paid special attention to Xisco because I knew the least about him. He ran and impressed me with his effort, but he seemed aimless and needed direction... which he wasn't getting from Owen who did his usual disgruntled thing or Duff who worked hard that game but tried to do it on his own. Well now we are in the CCC and we don't have time to practice tactics, formation or work on a "plan." We just have to work with what's there and I think Xisco is lacking - which I understand is completely (and unfairly) biased by that Blackburn game (and his limited ther appearances), but I am guessing Houghton, Shearer and Kinnear have all agreed with me to some extent from what they saw in training. Mobility without direction was Martins' biggest weakness and we couldn't fix him... so how are we going to fix Xisco?

Well Merlin to be honest I am just looking at promotion - The Premiership seems a long way off. If we can train Jonas and or Enrique to play on the wings and cross early enough with Carroll knocking it down for an onrushing striker (hopefully someone who can hit the ball hard) maybe we could fool enough of the managers long wnough to get us into a leading position in the table to get promoted. Carroll does win eevrything in the air. He's big and has a leap, we should expliot that. Since this is the CCC and there is no time for elaborate tactics or training we should just get him to specialise IMO. I agree that he seems a better prospect that Shola. But then maybe Shola is peaking right now (right age for that) and will actually work for us at this level (but somehow didn't for Stoke). Shola got his first hat trick - good for him. Shearer's first hattrick was at the age of 18... against Arsenal... in his first game as a starter. Shola will never be great, but I hope he is adequate. I am not familiar enough with the CCC to know if we could overpower most defenses with a Large & Large like we did against Reading, but I am willing to give it a try... seeing as we don't have a choice. For the record I do not think Xisco will come good for us nor do I think we will actually be playing real football (You know... that fancy passing thing you mentioned) this season since it will be based on playing the players we have fit and I would suspect that by November we'll have 4-5 players playing out of position. So I say count on the knock down, play two big lads up front, get Smith and Barton to beat the sh!te of the opposition and lets just play dirty, nasty, ugly tacking long ball and hope for the best.

That being the case... he would not then fit as a partner to either Carrol or Shola.

I should probably just delete this thread already.

After the Reading game I was talking to a mate who was very critical of our attack including the goals scored in open play. His point being that we are never going to get promoted or be a good team without getting behind the defense. He argued that most modern teams that are good (so yeah, we are talking about the top four or five teams of each top leagues in Europe - a bit away from the CCC) have fast paced attacks where the scorer of the ball has gotten behind the defense at pace after working the ball up (no hoofing it or deep crosses to marked targets). I felt that our hands are tied with the squad we have and that we are reverting to the intended ideal of Ruud Gullit of the large and large combination. When Gullit took over he surveyed his assets and decided that with Shearer being the best target man around (before they fell out) he decided to also buy Duncan Ferguson who was probably the second best target man in the league. For all of the talk of Sexy football we actually had a team under Gullit that was ideally suited to the long lob and having Duncan knock it down with Shearer coming int to take it in front of the defence for a shot. It didn't work. Mostly I would argue because of the fact that Duncan was continually crocked, but also with Alan stationary and Gullit's training for the Large & Large combo he was learning bad habits. As SBR said Alan was always playing with his back to defenders getting marked out of the game. When SBR came in he was able to actually use the Large & Large combo effectively only once (again because of Duncan being on the sick list almost continuously until we shipped him back to Everton) and that was the 3-0 win over Man U (Feb 2000). The difference in that game was we had a midfield player that could also win everything in the air (Speed) and we actually won that game by physically overpowering Man United (no small feat considering Jaap Stam was marking Duncan). The first goal was - goal kick to Speed ---> headed ball to Shearer ---> headed ball to Duncan ---> reverse volley from 20 yards. Duncan had one skill that he was sublime at, and that was the knockdown. He won everything in the air and could knock down teh ball to an onrushing attacker. Could Carroll master this skill ocnsidering how good his aerial ability is so far? Could we build a team entirely around the physical presence of Shola and Carroll with Vuckic (also a big lad) and Ranger (ditto) deputising? I am not sure if it will work personally. Reading's defenders were too easily pushed aside. But I am also not sure we have a choice and think we are forced down this path unless we start buying players.

Cutting off nose to spite your face. That is what this and the Duff threads are about. I hate Smith and never wanted him added to our team. I'd love to get rid of 90% of the squad, but if we aren't buying anyone what does this achieve other than making us weaker and less likely to get promoted?

Bocanegra once again fails. I have no idea how he gets picked for the US or Fulham. Terrible. And Ching? C'mon Bradley WTF? A small, short-passer of the ball that lacks a physical presence... against Mexico? And yeah, the ref was always going to be sh!t scared and biased... such is football in North America. The US will just have to beat Mexico again at the WC.

Yessss.

Blatent penaly not called against Mexico. The Ref is sh!t scared.

I really hope Scotland can win this one and get a miracle. Looking forward to the game at Azteca Stadium.