Theregulars

i take this to mean he must motivate the current squad. yes? Motivate, energize, kidnap their families... whatever it takes to get them playing football is what I mean. It's the most difficult task as haven't played properly for so long.

I think playing youngsters is an interesting shout, LuaLua is tempting as he offers pace. Him and Charlie down the wings would at least cause a bit of a fright, but then we lose Milner's skill/crossing etc., so it'sa hard call. In asnwer to the question about what kind of team Man U will play, you can bet it will be the strongest possible as they have slipped behind Arsenal in the title race. That's why they played a limited team in the FA cup and don't think they will play strongest possible XI tonight.

We've got a better chance if we come out and attack, the midfield/defence aren't good enough to absorb prssure/deal with the many attacking threats Man United pose. But we can't go all out attack, then we'll get shafted on the counter. Thus we need to pick a line-up capable of retaining the ball and passing it around and being sensible, not wasting possession like we normally do. Fairly sure, however, that United can deal with both ariel and passingt threats, but think the latter is more likely to work as don't see any of our team winning aerial battles vs. Vidic, Ferdinand and Brown. Therefore I would go for: Given/Harper Beye Taylor Cacapa Enrique Milner/Duff Faye Emre N'Zogbia Owen Viduka Passing ability and players who can work with the ball at their feet, would have Martins in with Owen but looks like he's injured. However, Faye's presence in midfield to add some stability and threat against Scholes,Carrick,Anderson,Hargreaves.. all of these are two good to just plonk two attacking options. Butt is way too slow to deal with any of them and will give the ball away too much, Barton just isn't up to it. Notice the ommission of Alan Smith, because if he plays, we will lose. Key also will be making the most of set pieces when they are available, so Emre should have a big role to play. Just think if we turn up to bruise them into submission in won't work - it does against Arsenal, but I think United are as hard as they are quality so it will be useless. To be frank, though, I don't think we stand a tadpole's chance in a French kitchen of getting anything out of this game whoever we put out onto the field. But in theory United should be a bit knackered from FA cup/Champions League, so if we aim to pass it around, that makes more running for them. Lumping long balls means they can sit there and soak up.

Achieving the kind of football he wants/we need with the under-par squad he has available to him. Once he's done this, wins/relegations should become less of an issue, the media might get off our backs a bit, and he can start on the foundations for next year. I think that's the key issue.

Having those fake locks reattached. In all seriousness, if it's a family matter then that always comes first.

Fact is an a league this money-driven and all that people are going to use whatever advantage they can. Diving is cheating, the cynical hack is cheating. The point is that, in the majority of cases, players know the worst they will get is a booking/state of refereers in this country they'll get away with it. If the FA could appoint a team of officials who weren't complete gobshites then I don't this would be such a big issue. Also, if we would just embrace reality and realise we need video technology, we could also judge better if a player dived/a foul was a cynical hack or more of an attempt at the ball.

If we carry on playing this badly anything's a rip-off to be honest.

Looks like Nick or Rick and surname begins with an H... stumped to be honest. Think I have an old mug at home with the autographs from that era so I'll see if I can match it up for you.

I'd like to see us make a move for Steve Sidwell, think playing regularly he could be the midfield force we lack, or at least good addition to the squad.

Is it mainly because England as a nation can't face our own deficiencies and instead, being a largely xenophobic people, look to the unfamiliar among us to blame for our own problems? It's crap. We harp on about having the best league on Earth and then complain about the prime reason why it is such a good league. If English players were good enough, they'd get in the team, end of. Foreigners make our game better and we love to complain about them while worshipping the likes of Martins, Beye, Emre etc. To be fair we're one of the teams with quite a few Englishmen (Irish isn't too far away either). Just more rubbish being pedalled by The Sun because being English is obviously the best thing in the world and we can do no wrong.

Man U fans may be glory hunters, but Arsenal fans are mainly overpaid yuppie tosspots from North London. Can't wait for the day Wenger leaves and they crumble. I can't pinpoint it but I really abhorr Arsenal, I think it all began with Ian 'Sean is the best footballer in living memory' Wright.

Since Nobby left we've been tat from free-kicks, hoping Emre might weigh in with a few from now until the end of the season.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm........ Vieira? Horrible. Alan Smith. If we can develop it along to have a tosser's XI Tim Cahill could lead the side out on a daily basis, prick.

I hate Arsenal. Their club is a breeding ground for cheating, diving, waving fake yellow cards and all the practices that are wrong with the modern game. Amazing team with a brilliant manager, but hate them. Eboue and Flamini are two of the biggest tossers I've ever seen.

Along with Middlesborough and Wigan one of the most pointless teams in the Premiership. Every time there is a match on TV/ at SJP involving any of these three my heart sinks, because invariably it will be dross. Hope they go down just so someone with any ambition/capable of producing excitement can take their place. Crap.

Gazza was pretty awesome.

Also, at the time, Smith gettig sent off against Man U as I genuinely believed everyone would finally realise what a total and utter bellend he is. That feeling lasted about a week before he played again.

Emre's sending off against Coventry, purely for the fact that the Telegraph described his action as that of a "flying plump pigeon".

Has to play, simple as. His inconsistency is worrying but I'd rather sometimes good sometimes bad than constantly bad (Smith)/mainly injured/uninterested (Viduka). At least things happen with Martins.

A mass clearout is pointless- for years we have suffered from having a small squad, most of the players we have now are good enough to at least make that. Get rid of Smith, Butt, Barton and Rozehnal as they're shit/knackered, maybe Ameobi because it's pointless him rotting away here if he's not going to play, and then build from there. Once we've established a bigger squad and improved first team, people can leave if they're unhappy.

Agree with Yorkie-Geordie - I think it's a key problem that we don't have any dependable player or a few of them who we know will perform week-in, week-out. I guess Milner is one that usually plays pretty well on a regular basis, and maybe Beye, but there aren't really any stand-out candidates, are there? Hopefully Owen could become one and go on a little scoring run, and I'd like Emre to be one but don't think he has the consistency. I think it's key in any team that you have at least one striker, midfielder and defender who you know will perform well week in, week out and that any mistake or bad performance is a blip.

It's been said many times but it can't be avoided: the football Keegan wants isn't feesible with this current crop of grafting, talentless manure than Allardyce bought in. He focused only on the fact we had a reputation of being fragile defensively and thus bought in a lot of crunchers largely short on creative talent - thankful for Beye and possibly Enrique, Viduka in theory if he can ever play a few games on the trot - but the people Keegan puts out can't do what he wants them to. The only way for him to see that Smith etc. are shit is to see them in action, although it worries me he still seems to rate them. When he took over before we were in a much worse position financially, lower down the leagues and on the brink of chaos and he still revolutionised the team and created one in the exact way he wanted. I know it's different now with lots of other teams able to match/better our financial clout, but surely Keegan is such a huge name in football/a persuasive man he'll be able to get some talent in to back his way of playing in the Summer. You can see by what the players have been saying about him what a legend he is etc. that as a manager he's an attractive proposition for a footballer. Don't think we'll buy any superstars but think we'll get some good players. He knows what we need and he's not going to go public slating our current crop as it just won't help. If we can all see how shit Smith, Butt and Barton are I'm sure he can too, he's not an idiot.

Blackburn have a lot of quality players, but more importantly, they are all consistent, seem to stay fit and all play well as a team. As you mentioned, Bentley and McCarthy, left out Santa Cruz, but what about Pedersen, Dunn, Tugay etc.? I agree on paper ours look just as good but if you look at the premiership records of those players and our equivalents, all have played a lot more games, contributed a lot more and fit better into a team ethic. Right now we're a team of individuals who don't play together, which perhaps hints that our siging policy isn't as stringent as it could be. How many unknown players has Mark Hughes plucked out and have become Premiership regulars? N'Zogbia aside, when was the last time we bought someone unheard of/not rated by others who turned out to be a real good deal?

The frustrating thing is that there isn't really much of a way for us to get it through to the management etc. what we think of the likes of Smith, Butt and Barton. Reading recent pieces Keegan seems to think Emre and Viduka are the solution, which is good to hear and why I was dumbstruck to see Smith and Barton in the starting line up against Villa on Sat. If either of them make it into the same side against Man United I'll be pissed off but I'll still cheer the team. It's annoying as I always ring these phone-ins and want to make these points in the vane hope that somebody might hear, but they always allow morons to go and talk about how we should sign Ronaldinho and how Keegan is God. FRUSTRATING.

Given just doesn't look particularly happy to be here at the minute- not surprising with 11 years of playing pretty darn well but still having to experience underachievement every single year. He hasn't been his usual self this year. If he's out for the next few games and Harper performs think Keegan has a tough decision to make.