jep

So would I (and I'm not 100% in any camp either). But the majority of the fans won't, I reckon. And as I said, that will be the case for ANY manager who comes here.

employ who? Does it matter? Any new manager won't be given time to turn things around anyway.

Looked sharp overall. Definitely has the potential to shine in a 4-3-3 formation. Hope to see more of him this season. Good to see I'm not the only drunk person online at this time (I hope!)

I dunno.. Past his best? A bit harsh, perhaps. He's obviously not gonna shine as much as he could before, with a slightly more solid defense infront of him. I can't back this up with numbers or anything, but I feel our defence overall is more solid than it has been with at least the previous two (or even three - including SBR) managers, and thus Given will never have to work as hard as he would have to before. Although, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if his injury has indeed changed him. It was a pretty serious one, and he'll always be likely to 'protect' himself subconsciously because of that, like any other person. It's sad really, cos he has been one of our best players since the SBR era started, clearly.

Something we've been missing for quite a while now. Watching a centreback bomb forward on the counterattack really is marvelous. While obviously nowhere near that sort of quality, I've seen those tendencies in Rozenhal so far. If he could iron out the errors he make - far too often - he could be that player for us, really.

As a traditional left winger, in a 4-4-2, yes. Based on what we've seen of them both in that position. As a left winger/forward in a 4-3-3, who knows? We haven't seen N'Zogbia a whole lot in that position now, have we? Milner's doing fine as it is, if we change it they'll have to adapt to a whole new thing again == more shit performances for the following period of adjustment. I reckon there's a good possibility N'Zogbia will be used in the middle rather than the left, eventually.

You're very welcome, good sir! I think I'll watch that one, actually. Sort of a warmup for the real thing.

Setanta Sports 1, at least. And yeah, kickoff in half an hour or so.

Did anyone see Bolton's goals? Pure fucking comedy, all three of them. Absolutely atrocious defending by Birmingham.

It's not a good thing to do? Why?

I remember the name from Sensible Soccer, as they were the only team to have 4 star players. At least in the version I had. Think he was one of them.

Glyn Hodges, btw. Absolute class on one of the very very early Championship Manager games.

Is that the guy from Benfica? Wikipedia had nowt on the name.

http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=47858.msg1107802#msg1107802 Thieving bastard!

Offtopic; still a 2 on the die Optimistic Nut?

Have to agree with some of this. If anyone should be collecting, it should be Butt really, as he's our anchoring midfielder...? To be honest, I'm not quite sure what role it is Geremi is supposed to play, but he's definitely not 100% comfortable in it. Even though he probably does alot of unnoticed work, as mentioned by HTT, we're crying out for some creativity - something Geremi is not showing. Granted, in away matches I'd expect us to be sitting alot deeper, which is fine. But at home, versus inferior opposition like Derby, we need to take the game to them, and that requires a whole lot more creativity than what's been displayed so far. Too bad Derby is the only (arguably) easy home game in close sight..

From the looks of it, that's what Sam is going for. Building a team capable of grinding out results away from home - which is great, if he succeeds at it.

Aye, cheers! I disagree, to some extent, though. Without Viduka in the side, crosses from the byline - or even from deep - will most likely be wasted, as we don't really have the finishers to pull it off, at least Martins isn't very good at finishing with his head. As it is now, Milner usually cuts in and hits it with the right (iirc), meaning the cross will be more directed towards the goal instead of swinging away from it. All it takes is a little touch to wrong foot the keeper, really. Also, he's more likely to get into a shooting position when playing on the left, which he's good at, and should be encouraged to. That said, none of this really is working as it should, and I do believe we would be more efficient going forward if we had both Zog and Milner on either flank. But I can see how it would be useful to put Milner on the left, as opposed to what seems like the general consensus on here.

This. Can't say rating a player low because he hasn't played enough games makes sense either.

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear the reasoning behind your argument. Not taking the piss, I genuinely want to know what would make our crosses better if they came from the right side of the field (in Milner's case).

Got your wish, Dave!

Oh dear. If we miss this one...

Haha. Fans are sleeping. Boring game indeed!

Why would we want to do that when he clearly is a midfielder and a very good one at that..? Even if Enrique adapts well to the style of english football (not saying he won't), he won't be able to play every single game for a full season, so Allardyce is gonna want someone for backup. No reason N'Zogbia can't fill that role, in addition to being a regular choice for left wing or central midfield.

Must be, I keep confusing him with Geremi. Yeah, me too! I honestly think he's looking just a wee bit more comfortable at left back. Awful positional sense still, though.