Rich

A good few papers are running the "Ashley return" stories. Suppose we'll see if there's any substance to it. Perhaps he'll give Wise the bullet to appease supporters and then take his seat back at SJP. Plenty will buy it.

He was saying the same in his Friday press conference about the training. Naughty boy.

Keegan must be continuing to leak them inside info if you believe some on here I always felt the information was coming from Wise/those in around Wise, to be honest, as far as the Mail was concerned at least. They were the ones who broke the story about him coming in from Leeds before anybody else and they also had some follow-up stories which seemed to have something of an inside track on the goings-on regarding Jimenez and Vetere, etc.

We were after him when he was at Chelsea, as well, under Roeder I think? Apparently he suddenly became a shit footballer while at Stamford Bridge though. People will learn, someday.

Traore's been playing on the wing for them this season usually. Belhadj and occasionally Pamarot have been the leftbacks. True. Belhadj has looked a very decent player as well. Johnson has been fantastic pretty much every time I've seen them though. He was worse than shite when we were linked with him a few years back if you believed people on here, though!

The Fulham/Reading games are equally jizz-worthy at times.

Am I fuck. We're 17th.

It doesn't really depress me, to be honest, because there's nothing we personally could have done about any of it - you just have to roll with the punches. Take the good and make the most of it when it comes (never forget it, either, like I think I had pretty much done) but be prepared to sit through the bad as well in the hope that those times will come around again. It's what football's all about really. Things can't get much worse than they've been since September, unless we go down of course.

What I still fail to understand though, even moreso after watching all these games, is why people wouldn't want Keegan back again. The man is basically a miracle worker. The belief that these players were playing with 6/7 months ago was incredible, it's like watching an entirely different team.

Stop bringing us down man.

I think that's openly admitted by even the biggest Beye fans. Who has, though?

I'd forgotten things got that good, tbh. Just watched the Chelsea highlights and fucking hell man, how were we not ahead at half-time? Even in the second-half Owen missed another fantastic chance at 1-0 down.

In terms of specialist fullbacks I'd say in terms of getting forward he's not as good as Carr, Hughes & probably on a par with Griffin. Perhaps it is just the way he's being told to play, but if he reaches the half way line he just seems to get rid of it as soon as possible. Disagree with this even more after watching the NUFC TV highlights of last season from Birmingham (a) to Chelsea (h). Enrique is involved plenty up the park and looks absolutely fine, as does Beye. Completely opposite to this season like. My shite memory forgot all of that, to be honest.

Seriously, if people have got NUFC TV accounts, then it's worth reminding yourselves of the brief return of the Entertainers from the Birmingham draw up until half-time Chelsea (h)!

I know it's not fashionable to say it anymore but KK did that imo - Viduka's class, Owen's finishing/positional instinct and Martins' pace, with each one compensating for the others flaws, made a lethal combination. Agree again, in a way you kind of think that in that system theres very little tactics that you need to put in because effectively you're leaving the players to play football and work things out for themselves. I remember the Reading game especially last season when it just seemed like clockwork, you had Beye and Enrique bombing forward because the opposition were s*** scared of our front 3, I still think it would work if you just put that front 3 on the field and told them to just play football, leave the tactics to set pieces and let the full backs bomb forward. The difference that Gutierrez could make in for Geremi would be massive as well, I think. He's as willing as Geremi to help out at both ends of the field and offers something completely different. Geremi was the weak link in that team during open play, for me, mainly due to the demands placed upon him by there being one less man in our midfield. I typed out a reply disagreeing with that there, but then I hit a dilemma. What I was going to say was that Geremis delivery in open play made him worth having and that Id move Jonas to his preferred left wing. But then that moves Charlie out the starting 11, so Id maybe clip Jonas' wings slightly and have him on the right with Charlie on the left. I couldnt put Geremi ahead of NZogbia so aye, in a long winded way I agree, but its definately food for thought I reckon. My first choice 3 would be Jonas - Butt - Barton, but Guthrie could easily slot in for Barton while he's injured. As much as people dislike Butt, I doubt Guthrie/Geremi/Barton could play that role, but I wouldn't be averse to seeing it tried. Got the Fulham (h) 2-0 on now. We should have won that about 5-0!

Watching highlights from the 4-3-3 period last season and dear me, Beye and Enrique in particular look like different players. That formation was so attacking at SJP in particular, you've got Barton and Geremi pushed massively wide and forwards with Enrique/Beye actually overlapping at times, while Butt backs up everything in the centre and the centre-backs are pushed right up. EDIT: Beye and Enrique are actually up simultaneously a fair bit as well at SJP. It's fucking fantastic to watch. The forwards are buzzing all over the place, Martins is always an outlet and there's some great interplay between Viduka and Owen. Wish some fucker would get Kinnear to watch some tapes from last season.

I know it's not fashionable to say it anymore but KK did that imo - Viduka's class, Owen's finishing/positional instinct and Martins' pace, with each one compensating for the others flaws, made a lethal combination. Agree again, in a way you kind of think that in that system theres very little tactics that you need to put in because effectively you're leaving the players to play football and work things out for themselves. I remember the Reading game especially last season when it just seemed like clockwork, you had Beye and Enrique bombing forward because the opposition were shit scared of our front 3, I still think it would work if you just put that front 3 on the field and told them to just play football, leave the tactics to set pieces and let the full backs bomb forward. The difference that Gutierrez could make in for Geremi would be massive as well, I think. He's as willing as Geremi to help out at both ends of the field and offers something completely different. Geremi was the weak link in that team during open play, for me, mainly due to the demands placed upon him by there being one less man in our midfield.

I know it's not fashionable to say it anymore but KK did that imo - Viduka's class, Owen's finishing and Martins' pace, with each one compensating for the others flaws, made a lethal combination. I was going to say that "the" formation never got a proper airing against class opposition, then remembered the last home game of last season against Chelsea where we were unlucky to go into half-time level at 0-0 and then had to replace Viduka at half-time with Alan Smith, which subsequently saw us fall apart and lose all rhythm/shape. The negative of that formation was that it would only work with those three playing it (and particularly Viduka) as there is nobody else in the squad capable of playing those roles. Perhaps Jonas could do Oba's role to a degree, but there's nobody who could do what Owen or Viduka were doing in that formation.

I see the logic, aye. I'm not sure it works that way though. Unless you're just meaning in the speed at which he can get around the pitch anyway (i.e. he can cope better from the start against fresh opposition as he's quicker than most anyway, whereas Geremi doesn't have that luxury and would be better given the advantage of being fresh against tired players).

Exactly the same as me. I've never felt any kind of attachment to Michael Owen for as long as he's been here.

I'd prefer to see Geremi coming off the bench later in the game as I don't think he's got a good 90 minutes in him. Why not bring him off on 60 minutes then for N'Zogbia, to let him run at a tiring backline?

Still kept a clean sheet though and in fairness to Jose he was the one most affected by the fog today as that left-back corner seemed absolutely covered. He'll surely not alter it after another clean sheet. Some people have seriously low opinions of Fat Joe

Did the wingers switch at any point today? I like to see that tactic implemented. See i would as well, but Zogs far too one footed to be anywhere near effective on the right hand side. Noticed a few times Jonas drifiting to the left, i tthink he sees that as his natural position. I'd be inclined to agree, personally. Would really like to see Geremi given another shot in the current team to be honest, especially if we're looking at Viduka/Owen up front.

The 4-3-3: I don't think Kinnear will go with that unless he's forced into it (i.e. we lose more midfielders to injury). Viduka is an automatic selection as far as I'm concerned, because an Owen/Martins partnership will not cut the mustard in this team. It'll be Viduka/Owen with Martins as sub again, most likely, which will be more than a little unfair on Oba.

Did the wingers switch at any point today? I like to see that tactic implemented. Jonas was drifting a fair bit, but at one point Hughton was out yelling at him to get back onto the right. N'Zogbia stayed left, basically, even when Spiderman swung over to his area of the pitch. I think he's severely limited as an out-and-out right winger, but no way has he been poor recently. Still looks an extremely good footballer.