Northern Monkey

Strong lad, Kevin. Holds the ball up well. Martins would be great running off him, tbh.

I'd rather have Anelka, please. Me too, rather have Anelka over Martins ability wise. ...personally I'd swap any of our strikers for Anelka. Even Mark "He's totoal class him, you'll see, 20 goals a season" Viduka?? Annoyed at not being able to do it about Dyer any more, Northern Monkey now seeks to put words in to peoples mouths about Mark Viduka. Wind it in, soft lad. It was a generalisation about soem of the hysterical shite some people were putting on here about the Viduka and how great they claimed he was, in the face of all historical evidence and common sense. It wasn't a FACT, it was a tongue-in-cheek statement. Get over it.

Possibly frustration at the bad tactics/formation? Or soem of the shit performances?

I'd rather have Anelka, please. Me too, rather have Anelka over Martins ability wise. ...personally I'd swap any of our strikers for Anelka. Even Mark "He's totoal class him, you'll see, 20 goals a season" Viduka??

So are Martins and Viduka in a 433, in fairness.

The story will be bullshit but I'd call it the very definition of naive if people think that Martins wouldn't leave in second if Man U wanted him. this.

Its a damning indictment on our team that your 2 first choice fullbacks, we've never seen play for us! But you're right. Is this our best XI, or what Allardyce will pick? Cos i think there may be a difference at first.

Very true, great players are able to give more to the team than just be a goal poacher. He dosent give anything else, dosent run at players anymore, isnt skillful on the ball, no left foot, not a presence up-front, a very limited footballer and it should have been worked on a long time ago to bring him to life more, he plays like a 33 year old, he's bloody 27. funny, you must have seen him a lot more than me since his long injury lay-off. I thought that when he DID play for us (13 appearances, 2 as sub), he scored 7 goals. Which is top striker-type ratio. Now, unless you have secretly seen him play competitive matches WHEN FIT since then, i think you have some explaining to do.

Fuck knows, but don't worry, there'll be an "ITK" along any time now to make something up for you.

It is pathetic, My mate had to serve a year in prison for pushing someone over. Was it off a tall building, though? Or a bridge? Or a rickety rope bridge over a volcano? Or that monster pit thing in the desert off that Star Wars film in? You know, the one with Jabba the hut in it, and Princess whatsherface in the almost-nudey?

No one. It wasn't a rebuttal, it was a statement. We played a canny few like.

does he tell you EVERYTHING?? You'd think he'd keep some things to himself for his autobiography.

I agree with that assessment...as did Sam apparently. It looked like he got fouled quite a bit and I'm not sure if either Villa center-half was whistled for anything in the entire game. Then when frustration set in he basically gave up. Also, do we have anyone else who can take a corner? Geremi has been weak to say the least in that area so far. Alex will say I am talking s**** about Viduka Geremi's corners were a let too on Saturday, I think he has been okay in the other games, but against Villa they were all over hit. Zoggy tends to under hit his and gets very little height, I suppose Milner will take them if Emre does not play. I think you're the only one who noticed we played a lot of long balls on Saturday, well done Despite his size though, humping it upfield to Viduka doesn't suit him, especially against two centre-halves like Villa have. I can't agree with any of that. There were plenty of balls played into Viduka's feet, but he was so slow off the mark, the centre backs invariably beat him to it. I didn't think the Villa centre backs fouled him any more than is usual in a Premiership game, and once or twice Viduka bought a free kick which he didn't deserve. Shola was far stronger and much more mobile. Viduka strikes me as a lazy trainer who has got by on his talent alone in the last few years. He needs to buck up his ideas or he'll lose his place. You can't agree we played a lot of long balls on Saturday? We played more long balsl than i was comfortable with, but it wasn't ALL long balls by any means. And of the long balls we tried, we had the wrong players at both ends of the pass to do fuck all with them.

I have a question, and i hope someone knows the answer, cos i can't be arsed reading through 8 pages of people arguing about stability and ownership: What do the Icelandics do? I mean by that, where is their money from? Because, frankly, if its not more glamourous/less crap than biscuits, i'm not interested in them owning our club.

Especially if they don't have previous convictions. Luckily for him, Being A Bit Of A Knob is not an offence yet.

My opinion on things, too. We were crying out for at least one of Barton/Emre on Saturday, in place of Butt first and foremost. i thought Butt was better than Geremi. Think you've missed the point a bit here, was referring to the fact that it was a home game against opposition that we should be beating and so it might make sense to take out the midfielder who offers the least going forward, i.e. Nicky Butt. As for the comment itself, Butt did a few more sliding tackles than Geremi, but his passing was useless and he offered nowt going forward at all. There is no need for him to be played at home against the likes of Villa, especially in a role where he doesn't seem to be the archetypal defensive midfielder. I'm not sure what instructions he was under, but to me he didn't seem to be playing either role particularly well and put in a decidedly "Parker" performance. Lots of sliding about and commitment, but killed the tempo of the game whenever he got the ball and his passing was atrocious, both short-range and long-range. He did have a couple of quality moments, as he always does, but that isn't enough to justify his selection in my eyes. People do love graft though, as Baggio keeps saying. Allardyce didn't really have a choice, mind, with the performance at Bolton and the injuries. I thought Butt played the firefighting role well - a role he was forced to play by the tactics we employed, and the inability of his team mates (very much including Geremi) to keep the ball. If we are going off that one performance, Geremi shouldn't get a start before Butt. But we aren't, and we know he'll get played. Just hopefully he'll be in a formation he's actually suited to soon.

Liverpool, Sunderland, Spurs, Boro, Blackburn. Although if i could have just put the Mackems 3 times, and Liverpool twice, i'd have been happy.

My opinion on things, too. We were crying out for at least one of Barton/Emre on Saturday, in place of Butt first and foremost. i thought Butt was better than Geremi.

He'll not get sent down, you think Joey Barton is the kind of lad that will listen to what he is told? if he doesn't. he'll NEVER get a game for us, cos no manager worth their wage is going to pay someone who won't take accept being told what to do.

If your trying tell me that Emre isn't good technically then your off your head. Apart from Nobby noone in a our squad has the abilty on the ball that Emre does. Can't argue on the consistancy side though, spot on. However, i think Allardyce's set up would suit him better and he would have extra fitness and motivation. I don't think he's that great techniclaly. At set pieces he was predominantly poor, and he never created as much as some performances hinted at. I'm not saying he's s****, just that he's a decent player, no more. I think Emre is so gifted it's untrue. He just never seems to find any consistance in his games, especially set pieces. I honestly believe that if Allardyce can get the right combination of that midfield at home we are in for big things. Emre has the abilty to be apart of it. i truly hope so, but i just don't see it. i suppose time will tell, but if he does get his chance, at least there'll be no more excuses if he doesn't do it, because despite my reservations, it's undeniable that Allardyce is a gazillion times the manager Roeder ever was. If Emre fails to produce, only the player can be blamed. If he DOES produce as you think he can, i'll happily eat my (jauntily-tilted) sombrero and admit i was wrong.

If your trying tell me that Emre isn't good technically then your off your head. Apart from Nobby noone in a our squad has the abilty on the ball that Emre does. Can't argue on the consistancy side though, spot on. However, i think Allardyce's set up would suit him better and he would have extra fitness and motivation. I don't think he's that great techniclaly. At set pieces he was predominantly poor, and he never created as much as some performances hinted at. I'm not saying he's shite, just that he's a decent player, no more.

Emre may be the only one on the list who is good enough at this point, but that is not consistent - he disappears far too much, and clearly isn't technically a great player.

Agreed it is silly to say it's all fucked after 2 games. BUT, in exactly the same way, its also stupid to say "we're going ot be top 4/6, we're going to be great" based on the same 2 games.

Wouldn't go that far, but I agree he was poor. God, I thought he was absolutely awesome yesterday, my MOTM by far. Funnier than watching old people eat.

Harper - 7 - did what he had to, and did it well. Carr - 3 - fuck off, you useless cunt. Rozehnal - 7 - looked quality Taylor - 5 - Not his best game, but fewer mistakes than many games last season. N'Zogbia - 6 - not a fullback (although still better than Carr). Milner - 7 - Continuous effort, and some successes, crossing improving. Smith - 4 - Unimpressive. Geremi - 4 - An alarming lack of pace, and some poor passing. Butt - 7 - Firefighting all the time, due to our formation and style of play. Martins - 5 - Not great, to be fare. Never seemed to really push the defence. Viduka - 4 - Another insipid performance. Overall - the formation/style of play was wrong, and that needs sorting out. We were exposed far too often on the wings, and the players we have don't seem suited to that formation, especially up front.