CaliMag

He carried the team today.

I just got back from the so here ar emy addled thoughts on the game... SAF intentionally made his own team work for this victory - I have no idea WTF was going on here but every ball form the keeper and all of their defenders went out wide where they "practiced" thier attacks. Why did Manchester United not attack through our ooohey-ooey center? Geremi has no pace and Smith has no retention or passing ability. Instead they opted to try to run by Raylor who (to be fair) tried his best and Guitierrez who had one of hisbetter games and made most of thier midfilders look like his bitches. If they had started Scholes I would huess it would have been 3-0 by HT - they didn't... why? To prove a point? To handicap themselves? I have no idea. Our side - one of our better games. We lost but I am satisfied that they at least tried and didn't roll over... even when there was dead silence from our support after their winning goal. I don't understand hwo people can slag off Martins. Vidic is THE best defender in the league and without him we would have been dreadful. Gutierrez also played weel adn I am mystified how you could think otherwise. I am all for putting on anotehr striker when we are trailing (Carroll) BUT why take of Raylor when he was doing MUCH more than Geremi? That would have been my sub.

Aboslutely agree.

I think some of you are giving Ferguson too much credit. If he has the opportunity to twist the blade on us, he'll do it. Remember the 6-2 home loss and him pointing his finger up at his strikers telling them that he wanted ANOTHER goal (after 6!). He rested players from the league cup final for OUR game. He will put out a full strength XI and try to run up his goal difference as high as possible and use us as a message to the league. ... at least that is his plan. When our players actually show true spirit and the supporters stay behind the team we get a result here. I don't really care what the score, is but I want thsoe two things - effort and support. If we have them then we have a good chance at minimising the damage. BTW - for me real caring about this game/ showing spirit means treating this as the Derby game on steriods... if you can't beat them by using skill then bashing the f*ck out of them and, if need be, getting carded or even sent off for the cause. I want real determination and anger that would scare and frighten them. Such a small thing to ask and I know I wont get it.

I am agree with babatunde. 1-0 to Internzionale.

We needed a minimum of a point today and we got it. I'd say it still in the hands of those below us whetehr we stay up or not. Specifically smoggies, baggies blackburn and Stoke. I don't think Pompey and Spurs will go down... but then they are horrible and pompey in particular seems in freefall.

We had an insanely good European coefficient as well. Shame we are losing that.

Excellent example of the state of things on here - 90% negative. No one mentions avoiding the drop to the third division, Liam O'B's strike, or Bellamy's last gasp goal in Holland. A pivitol moment for me was Andy OB's headed goal from a corner at Arsenal (December 2001 IIRC) - that was the exact moment for me when SBR's team came together.

I can tell I am completely f*cked up right up rigth now, because those videos make "pyurfect sense man." Many thanks LLLOB for posting.

They don't wear red and they aren't from London so they would be a welcome change. I would love it if they broke up the top four - even more if they won the league next year.

You may not like the phrase but your post is an understatement. If we lose, well ...then its almost certain that we are going down.

This I like.

Not an exaggeration.

Not even in the top ten. And as for us, I think he is a joke - don't get me wrong - but there is just not the same amount of personal distaste there was for Souness and the Dyceman.

And then there is our club which takes this statement to another dimension of difficulty.

Absolutely.

What about Harper indeed. The only true run he has ever had in the team was under Gullit in 1998-1999 and under Robson when Shay was injured and coming back from injury in 2000. The times we have seen Harper he has been pretty good. Gullit prefered him to Shay because his distribution and kicking was better (It is important to note that Gullit didn't rate either and brought in Jon Karelse while trying to offload both. ) - Shay worked very hard on his kicking for the past eight years and does tend to keep the ball as long as possible leaving his options for distribution invariably long. I think Shay became cautious because he has usually been "protected" by terrible defenders and was probably emotionally scarred by the Dion Dublin incident at Villa Park years back. Harper does indeed seem to want to put the ball back in play as soon as possible and is not afraid of playing it short to a fullback ASAP. Harper also seems louder than Shay. For our needs though - a reflexive stop after sloppy defending is of highest importance (because we suck) and unfortunately Shay was probably the best in the League at that skill. Harper has also had more training as an outfield player, and since these are desperate times, he will hopefully do better than Shay when we pull him up for corners in the 90th minute when we are trailing by a goal.

How does one say it? Vuck-ich? If it's the same as Serbocroatian is pronounced like the English words View Kitsch strung together.

I have been thinking the same thing. Our hope for survival rests with him - he is a confidence player so the supporters really need to get behind him in a big way. He needs to have at least three of those "out of nothing" goals he scores in the next few games. This is a six pointer and the rest of the fixtures frighten me.

Part of me thinks we should just have Shearer so he can (most likley) fail spectacularly and we can all move on and get over it. I would have just about anyone over Kinnear. Of recent players only Ketsy and Speed actually have their badges/qualifications in order... and to be honest I would take either of them in a heartbeat to lead us in our current relegation battle because I am just plain desperate.

On a purely monetary level it makes complete sense. Ashley is (supposedly) concerned about the fact that NUFC is losing millions per year (35 million loss last year) and yet he has a massiev office in London headed by a very unpopular person who makes 1.2 million per year. Just firing Wise and closing teh London NUFC office would probably save at least 2 million per year (conservatyive estimate).

It should be pointed out that Viduka, Geremi and Cacapa all came on a free as well so they are going to have inherently high wages.

Smith couldn't save Leeds when he was still a half decent player. No chance of him doing anything for us other than help bankrupt the club.

That's some keen insight there.

Other than signing louder at games and supporting the team there is not a lot we can do. And of course there is a significant portion of people on this Board like myself that live outside of the UK and can't make it to the games. We're even more helpless.