buzza

Good article and perhaps that is just what we need. A jose, a vaan gal perhaps or even Klinsmann has that "feel good" aura about him... Sit back, relax and enjoy the spectacle.... can't get better than NUFC!

Look at the past managers and answer the question "do we need a world class manager?": smith ardilles keegan*** dalglish gullit robson*** souness roeder allardice Some sort of pattern there I think...

Guddink, Lippi, Mourinho....yes they kind off "blow off the socks", we do have a billionaire chairman and money does talk...here's hoping!!

great player. doubt he'd come here though

barton off for emre, wouldnt be a bad thing...

what are we playing 442 or 433?

agree, should play up front or not at all because he's teargas when in midfield!

will we be playing: smith butt barton milner viduka martins or butt barton milner smith viduka martins

Heh heh...Hope we get some nice "squad fillers" for christmas, suppose it's the equivalent of some walnuts, an orange and a couple of chocolate mints as our "stocking fillers". Low quality but always well received....

Sounds like, not is...

Here's my girly team: ----------Niemi(blackburn)--------- Gabriel(heinze)---Emanuel(boro)----Claudia (cacapa)---Valeri (man city) Vivien (foe)---Paolo (wanchope)-------Karel (poborsky)-----Lauren (arse) ---------Carrol--------Shola-----

I know it's a bit "off thread" but don't Shola and carrol sound like something out of the "fat slags"... How many other players have girls names?? P.S. I know carrol is his surname...just bored...

Have to agree 100% on this one. Kewell just doesn't have the pace or confidence any more to do what he used to at leeds etc, he's also cack at any sort of defending, Babel on the other hand looks to be a right handfull and doesn't seem averse to putting in a good shift. What is the fat spanish knome up to? (couldn't really care-but salt and wounds...he.he)

When we get Duff back it could make a hell of a difference to our left hand side and we could see jimmy on his "right" side of midfield. I also think duff would be better suited to 4-3-3 as he is quite disciplined and works enough for it to work... Imagine him and zoggy on one side and beye and milner on the other...heaven! With all players fit we could: ---------Given--------- Beye---Faye---Cacapa---Zoggy ----Barton---Butt----emre --Milner-----Owen------Duff Might be a bit attack minded so change emre for geremi or smith...

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.