Theregulars

Think Big TRon's line-up has some potential in it. It won't happen though. Keegan was brought here to play attacking, simple 4-4-2 football. Same as last week: if Smith's in, I'm not watching. Those dancing cuddly things in Dave's avatar would offer more.

Reports that Alan Oliver is restricted by the normal boundaries of time and space are wide of the mark. The word I hear is that next he's considering space travel.

Not even putting up a team because we all know who's going to play - Barton not being available = Smith and Butt in midfield and someone else up front. Same as ever: if we play the same kind of team, we lose. Be interesting to see if their big guns play with a big match against Inter no Tuesday but even their subs should cream us the way we've been playing/the poor team we offer every week. Is Emre fit? I think if he is Keegan might actually play him, which means we might stand a bit of a chance. Nonetheless, I expect the bleached gormless one to play a full 90 minutes and to contribute nothing but sideways/backwards passing, a booking and no shots on goal. Owen is just going to end the match depressed when he realises how far his career has nosedived.

Good times!

While we're at it that Mourinho is pretty canny, like.

The saddest thing is no matter how much this kind of common sense complaining goes on, he's starting every game for the rest of the season.

If Emre is injured, the following:

Harper

Beye Faye Cacapa Enrique

Milner Geremi N'Zogbia Duff

Owen Martins

Introduce Carroll/Viduka at some stage.

However, we will see the same line up as against Man United and will likely see a similar scoreline.

Spot on. If Keegan wants to play this attacking, creative and entertainers-of-old football, he is shooting himself in the foot by picking the wrong players every week. What he wants is clearly not feesible with Barton, Smith and Butt. I'm reserving judgement until Viduka, Emre and Martins are fully fit and have a good run in the side - although a large part of me is concerned this won't happen, either due to persistent injury/a teeth-grindingly frustrating belief among club officials that the 3 aforementioned players are worthy of the shirt.

If I see any of Smith, Butt or Barton in starting line-up I'm not watching, simple as.

The most frustrating thing about this whole situation is that it means that N'Zogbia is being played at LB, seen as second choice to Duff, which is only going to increase his resolve to disappear to a good team in the summer. We always seem to pick players on reputation, not form. Duff has not had any hint of form since he signed for us, Zoggy has been immense this season. It seems so simple to anybody with a brain cell or two therefore he plays ahead of Duff. But not at Newcastle, where Alan "he was great at Leeds" Smith, Michael "He used to be mint" Owen, Nicky "He's won things with United" Butt and Joey "the real star for City" all feature on a weekly basis. If KK started picking players on form I think he might be pleasantly surprised.

Even if he is the only fit striker he still shouldn't play. I just can't see how somebody who contributes absolutely nothing except negative attributes makes it into the team week in, week out and plays the full 90 minutes each go. The only thing that I hear in his favour is that "he gives 100%". I've given up hoping he won't play for us, he's just like an annoying floater that won't be flushed down the toilet, no matter how many attempts. You know what I'm talking about.

In a vat of acid? On a weak rope bridge over a live volcano?

JUST GET HIM AWAY FROM MY TEAM FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

When I saw his ugly face in the starting line-up for Saturday I turned off the TV. We are never going to win a match with him on the pitch, he's just shit. End of.

- Uniting the current squad and backroom staff till the end of the season, restoring morale and confidence

 

- Getting the team to score regularly from open play

 

- Avoiding relegation

 

- Dealing with fan frustrations and expectations

 

- Identifying correct transfer targets that will transform the squad

 

- Replacing the current so-called key players like Given, Butt and Owen

 

- Assuming we dont have that much cash to burn figuring how to get the most out of limited or underperforming players like Milner, Geremi and Barton

 

- Keeping N'Zogbia

 

The fact that you'd rather replace Given and Owen than replace Geremi or Barton provides ample enough evidence of a totally different understanding of the problem at Newcastle that I nearly didn't bother replying.  My more argumentative personality won out.  The simple fact is, the strikers and keepers are not the problem.  The horrific clusterf*** that is the midfield is the glaring problem.  That is where money needs spent and quality needs to be brought in.  Replacing Given and/or Harper won't help the defence nearly so much as getting them some protection and assistance from a decent midfield.  Nor would replacing a striker of Owen's quality (or of Martins' or even Viduka's quality) alleviate the problem of a midfield that can not retain possession nor deliver a consistently decent ball in to the forwards. 

 

Keegan's hardest task?  That would be sorting out the central issue first -- the midfield -- without having brought in any new players in January (not that that is precisely his fault, imo).  Only when the midfield is sorted can or should a decent assessment of the other positions be undertaken.  A talented midfield can make a whole team look fairly good, whilst a very poor midfield makes the rest of the team look sh*** as well. 

 

Also -- if you grant them nothing else, at least neither Shay Given  nor Michael Owen are half-likely to end up in prison in the next few months.  Rather have players like Given and Owen than players like Barton.  Hell, even Nicky Butt at least doesn't miss training and matches because he's in gaol/up on charges of assault.  I'd even rather have Butt than Barton -- but maybe I'm just a bit bias against a lad who can't seem to keep out of any sort of trouble for more than a fortnight.  One time is a bad mistake.  Twice is troubling.  This many problems is evidence of a character flaw that no club wants or needs and especially not a club with more than enough troubles ON the pitch.  For now, Newcastle are stuck with Barton (as the CM position is the weakest) but he needs replacing over the summer.  Assuming there is anyone buying, of course, but personally, the sooner NUFC are shot of his problems the better.

*cough* Emre *cough*.

Top post, spot on in my opinion. Our midfield offers insufficient/inadequate defensive protection and just as little going forward. Don't think the wingers are too bad, Zoggy is mint, Milner is consistently one of our better players and Duff's looking decent, just think Butt/Barton/Smith/Geremi deployed in central midfield this season have been woeful. Faye and Emre vs. Man U please.

Surprised Alan Smith wasn't nominated for being a "fantastic leader", "100% committed" or "courageous". He'd certainly get my vote.

I'd be a tad peeved if I was a good young defender and saw us shipping goals galore and getting beaten every week and I wasn't even really being considered. It's the same thing with Andy Carroll, he must be thinking if Smith gets picked week in week out despite contributing nothing, what do I have to do?

Think youngsters can always be a good option as they are an unknown quantity, fight and are hungry, unlike most of our first team players. Would give Edgar a go at left-back/centre-back in place of Cacapa for one or two games, just to see how he does.

What's wrong with having other teams you're interested in? I support Newcastle, but I also follow Barcelona as I have a house there and spend months there every year, andf follow Charlton as they are the team nearest where I live, and Crystal Palace as they were my school's team and helped us out with coaching and stuff. Nothing wrong with hoping teams for which you have an affinity do well. I also hope the teams that my family support do well etc... doesn't mean I'm a defector.

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.

 

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.