buzza

Ahhemmm! Didn't read much, he's back in April, please stuff my well thought out words into a large humble pie...

cheap defensive cover for when our africans go AWOL.

Alex, I agree Roz and Cacapa are "sweepers", they like to wait and read the situation before making their defensive decisions, they aren't the aggressive "first to ball" hard hitting central defenders in the mould of Taylor, Terry, Cambell...etc. The ideal scenario for those long lumps upfield is for one of the pairing to always attack these situations (guess who?) and the other to stand off and review the situation, and if needed to "SWEEP UP". The best example of this is cambell and ferdinand at their best or terry and ferdinand, one being very aggressive and first to ball, the other interpreting how the situation will unfold and taking the appropriate measures. I think Cacapa is the better of the two defenders (roz) although I didn't see the howlers against portsmouth... I'd also go for cacapa and taylor in the middle.

aye, if he took a lot of persuasion to join us they would have to offer him something unreal to go down there!!!

Here's my formation with the reasons for aswell: ------------Given------------ (better shot stopper, they are about equal with rest) Beye----Taylor---Rozenthal---Enrique (No other right back, Taylor for height and aggression, Rozy needs another chance, no LB) Milner---Butt---Barton---Zoggy (tougher in the middle and real width on the outside, round pegs in round holes!!) ---------Viduka---Martins---- (rate viduka more than smith) Subs: Harps, smith, Emre, Faye, Carr

We would be idiots not to accept a 10million plus bid from anyone! Just up to owen whether he wants to go or not... Year left on contract, out more than in, not shown great deal of loyalty (opinion) and doesn't fit in with Sams footballing philosophy...

I enjoy reading the waffle in match reportsand think they are normally close to what the masses are thinking, only well articulated! Couldn't really see anything wrong with the Liverpool report. I watched the game on monday on the telly and was very dissapointed. My main faults were the defense all over the place and ball watching so many times, midfield getting the ball and immediately giving it away and finally the players looking lost, not knowing where they should be or what they should be doing. Anyone fancy starting a "positive football" campaign??? Only joking:)

It is normal that the players lose confidence in their manager after a run of bad games, after all they are the one who should be able to deliver a solution to the bad play. Because we aren't in the training sessions every day we can't see if he is doing things to change this run or whether he is stubborn and set in his ways so much that he won't admit they aren't working and refuses to change. This latter option WILL turn the players against him. It's obvious to all of us that playing players out of position won't get the best out of them and that by playing defensively we won't beat many teams, it's as simple as that!!

Well said Tron (see my post in "times comment today"). I also think he is sticking to his guns and won't step back and admit his philosophy isn't working and our players would most probably play better in an attcking formation as we have better forwards and midfielders for attacking than we do for defending e.g. zoggy/duff---Barton---emre---milner -------Viduka/smith---owen /martins.----- Milner---butt--Barton---geremi -------------smith----------- --------Viduka---

I know Sam has his own philosophy on how he wants teams to play and this will obviously take time, players and adaptation from the crowd. Whether he will get this is another matter as we all want to see good flowing football which is not what we are seeing. I wouldn't mind seeing a chelsea-esque 4-3-3 either but... I think that Sam is so confident that his system works that he is shoehorning players into it who really don't fit (milner, zoggy, smith..etc.) e.g. Sam's 4-3-3 I think to get the maximum from our team he would have to play more attacking minded football, simpler tactics (that team understands) as I think we have better players as attacking midfielders/forwards than they are at defending or hanging on to a lead e.g. zoggy --- Barton---emre---milner --------smith/vid---owen/martins----- versus butt---emre---milner smith----viduka---geremi The way to get confidence with players is to win games, the way to win games is solely done by scoring goals, at this moment in time we are playing or lining up in a manner which seems to only want to "not lose" a game and perhaps nick a win if we are lucky. In my opinion we won't gain confidence playing a rigid containing game but we will if we oppose ourselves on the other team and put them on the back foot not us, obviously taking up more defensive positions when they have the ball. The crowd will also sense this and would perhaps not be so bitter if we actually looked like we "could have" won the game when we lose... I like Sam and I think he has taken us forward (methods, facility renovations, innovations, signings) in such a small spacxe of time but I think he is cutting his nose to spite his face at the moment with his inflexibility to team selection and what is best for the team (philosophy).... Come on mate! take a step back and get a perspective...please! Please do not try and shoot down my comments for lack of experience; I play five a side once a week and if I had large teeth and a pigtail my mates would call me Ronaldinho. so there!

I have heard a few rumours (radio in Spain) that the opposition players were on a huge cash bonus to win, abramovich was smiling wasn't he?? Whatever, we were shi*** and didn't deserve to be there anyway, Isreal gave us a false hope before being brought back down to earth again.

I think that we should have Butt and Barton in midfield as Reading are a "big" side and we need some more muscle than what emre will be able to do for us. Bring him on in the second half if things are going well... I would also stick with Geremi on the right as this makes us harder to beat. But I would change zog for Milner on the left as his work rate is far superior and his end product is nearly the same: -------Given--------- Beye---Cacapa--Faye---Enrique Geremi--Barton--Butt---Milner -----Owen ---Martins---- Subs: Roz, Viduka, Emre, Harps, Zogg

Zoggy has proved he is good enough to keep the left wing slot for himself with the few minutes he has had up front this season. Duff has never played well for us and we are all waiting for him to recover his Blackburn form... He will be good competition for zoggy and it will be good to have some pressure on our players. I think we should be looking at buying somebody in Jan for the right wing, not necessarily to replace Milner but somebody to cover that position. We are very short in this area now that Solano and Dyer have left, if milner got injured we would have to put up with smith on the right.....aaaaarrrggghhhh!

------------Given----------- enrique---Taylor--Roz---Beye Zoggy---Butt---Geremi--Milner ------Oba-------Owen------

I think Sam's idea is to instill some confidence by not losing and picking the team, that in his mind, is best suited to play out competitive 0-0 draws or just sneak 1-0 wins. It has backfired and I suppose this game has brought the players backwards rather than forwards. I hope his strikers, more creative players don't get frustrated at the team style and strange selections (as I have) and have faith in Sam's philosophy. It's only one game, I don't think it is time to prejudge just yet, here's a perspective from the other side just in case: -Zoggy can't be moved upfield until Enrique is ready to play, there is no one else to cover either. -Butt and Geremi are our only options until Emre recovers 100%, he got a slight "pull" when playing for turkey, is his head up for it? -Smith out on the right offers more solidity until Zoggy can move into midfield and milner is released. -Ameobi, I have no idea other than this stupid big/little thing?? The only real glaring mistake sam has made is this one, why the funk is Oba not playing! How many goals does he need to score? Without the midfield creating things we need a forward who can do exactly that!!!

very well explained SAK!

London - Fulham, nice traditional ground, shame about the football (watch other teams) Birmingham - Aston Villa. Liverpool - Don't like either... Manchester - Man city Sheffield - Sheff Wed Glasgow - Bigoted shite, train to edinburgh -Hibees Wildcard - Berwick Rangers (just for the sex and danger!)

I'd also go for the above and then bring on Martins for viduka after sixty minutes, irrelevant of the score and if injuries allowed...

Young and abhonloghor (or whatever his name is) were both excellent yesterday against chelsea, played "complete" football and had the upper hand on the wings mnost of the game..

A hell of an improvement on Edgar & Ramage. Squad strengthening, when we hit those injury "crisis" again we should have enough in the tank to get us home!!

I feel Jim Smith would rectify the lack of flair we have at the moment:)

What a wuss! get up Steve!!

Can we get rid of the "keep the fans as tense as possible" clauses from every funcking newcasrle player please!!!!!!!

its actually 442 with smith on right milner on left

Just posted your comments in a letter to Luise Taylor & her lezza mate at guardian HQ in post.. Didn't mention her mate "lez"..