The College Dropout

No team in the Premiership will qualify for the CL with defenders like Nike & Andy ever again.

Sell.

We must have the least athletic CM's in the Premiership. they are technically shit as well.

Owen is no player to build a team around. At his peak all got 30+league goals. Michael has only ever managed 19. I want Zog to have a full season at left midfield but tbh his end product is lacklustre, he gives the ball away often and runs blindly Baros stylee. Can he be as good as Petrov or Young? I don't know. We need practically a whole new midfield. A RM and a CM at the very least. We need another striker and another central defender and perhaps a right back. We don't have a nucleus of a good squad. The PL is more competitive than the one we finished 3rd/4th/5th in.

Yes - we finished 2nd. And got us to a Cup Final...As for Dalglish, he should never been sacked when he was. Sacked after a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge after he'd just laid the foundations for a very good side (Given, Hamann, Solano, Dabizas, Speed). Sure, he bought a lot of dross, although that was mainly down to the fact he had to sign players just to set up a reserve side again (Serrant, Pinas, Gudjonsson, Brady, Robinson, Coppinger, etc). Aye I fully agree. 4 of the players he signed 10 odd years ago still play top flight football. I always reckoned he would've improved us if we gave him another season or 2.

I reckon the WHOLE team needs rebuilding. A good squad? Not nearly. On paper it doesn't work and in practice we have no rhythm, nothing. Our defence is terrible with one or two exceptions..At the start of the season so were Spurs. Lennon> Milner Malbranque is atleast = to whoever we play on the left Jenas > Barton. Huddlestone/Zokora>Butt The Berbatov/Keane partnership works much better than anything we have and both players stay fit. Bent is better than our 3rd choice striker and Defoe was better than whoever we have. Chimbonda is is probably a little better than one of our standout defenders in Beye. Bale and Kaboul and O'Hara look like they might have something as well.

I never wanted him back. And tbf we have been pummeled 4 times since he arrived. Absolutely raped. No we haven't we weren't pummeled in the first game against Arsenal, also while we were beaten quite easily in the second we were hardly raped, and this is away twice to the top team in the league. Away to Villa, who are now 4th, we were pummeled in the end, Manure, second best in the league also pummeled us. What sort of chance is that to give a manager before jumping on his back with histerical ramblings about how he's useless at everything? Its complete bollocks, when Keegan arrived we had an extremely bad team that's been trained for the past 8 months to boot the ball as high and long as possible, they're confidence was lower then a Smoggy prostitute. Yet apparently some people here expected the same team to go out, play Football, and not get beaten comfortably by 4 of the top 4-5 sides in the league in Keegans first 6 games! No manager in the world could achieve that you f****** maniacs! I never expected much from Keegan. I made threads before he came stating I didn't want him nor Shearer at the helm. I haven't said he's useless but even if I did it would be no knee-jerk response from me. Manure, Arsenal & Villa don't go around thrashing teams every week. Boro are a decent team but we should always beat them at home. They fully deserved the draw and where perhaps unfortunate not to win it. After the first goal in each game each team had ample chances to score more. We couldn't complain if we lost by 2 more goals in every game bar the first Arsenal game.

FFS it's King who's injury record is even worse than Woodgate and Huddlestone who is just a statue! They have good players, so do we. You'd hardly say Tainio, O'hara are players much better than ours right? Their players are better, but they performed well because Ramos know how to make them perform. I totally disagree. Aye King & Woodgate are liabilities and their defence couldn't cope.. but that was the only thing wrong with Spurs, they could score and create plenty but would concede more. We have many more problems. Are Tainio/Huddlestone/O'Hara worse than Butt/Geremi/Barton. For a magnitude of reasons I'd have those 3 instead of ours. Not to say I want us to sign them..because I don't but they are better than the best of us. Managers play a large role of course but I really don't think we have many "good" players at all who can perform anywhere near consistently. I never wanted Keegan in the first place he can hardly polish turd that we have.

Jenas in particular has really performed well in this competition. His "engine" alone makes him twice as good as Nicky Butt. Well I used to say that when we had him but knowledgable pundits like HTL convinced everybody Lee Bowyer was much better. Aye I remembered that. Funny thinking about it now.

I never wanted him back. And tbf we have been pummeled 4 times since he arrived. Absolutely raped.

Milner as good as Lennon? Rarely fit Owen/Viduka...inconsistent Martins or Bent/Keane/Berbatov? Jenas is twice as good as Butt and is streaks ahead of Barton. then in the squad you have solid and hungry players Zokora/Tainio/Huddlestone. I'd say Malbranque is better than Duff/Charles. The ONLY thing wrong with Spurs was that they couldn't defend for toffee. I'd start their 3rd choice striker for Newcastle automatically. Their 3rd and 4th choice central midfielders would be an improvement on the shit we have.. atleast they can run and aren't complete nutters.

Fuck off! Fat Boy in goal apart..I'd have nearly all of their first team players traded for ours. We need to rebuild the same way they did when Arnesen and Jol (and that fat French guy aswell) first came, by signing young talent and taking a gamble on young players from lower divisions. It'll take 2 years atleast to compete with teams in the top 8/9 in the Premiership.

Jenas in particular has really performed well in this competition. His "engine" alone makes him twice as good as Nicky Butt.

Grant fucked up by keeping Mikel on the pitch and withdrawing Essien. Joe Cole should've started as well.

Overall I've felt today King & Woodgate have often been on different pages.

So true. Sibs also worked pretty well with Martins.. Smith hasn't done anything with any of his strike partners.

Heskey is twice the player of Alan Smith and I say this with full sincerity. He does everything Smith does but better.

Spurs & Everton and the like have built good teams from a few established players but mostly from lower ranked clubs. Roughly half of both sides starting XI have come-up from the Championship. There are players out there in the lower divisions that can do a good job (Chimbonda, Cahill). Why can't we sign the next Aaron Lennon or Lescott?

Tevez & Rooney can ran faster than anyone in our first team bar 2 players. When they get into a good position or a yard of space they will not be caught.. same can't be said for Mr. Owen.

Nothing knee-jerk about it.

42pts!? Fuk me, what we've give for 42pts for this season. Anyone see us getting more than that? Nope. We'll need around 7 points less.

Aye... looked abit of a TKO/Michael Owen patch work kind of deal.

I don't think it takes a physio to realise one of the reasons why his leg is so fucked is because his foot was rooted squarely on the ground. For months people have been saying an injury like this would come if those types of challenges continued and the player being tackled leg was standing/rooted.

When you: 1.Lunge 2. Have your studs showing 3. Come in high This is what happens if the player has his foot in a certain position. He obviously never meant to break his leg but when you commit such a tackle at such an early stage you're looking to send a message.

He got an assist today and all.