Begbie

When was the last time Martins was a goal threat??? The last game for nigeria? But when was the last time owen was a goal threat against a premiership side? :rolleyes: I'm not talking about Owen though; I'm talking about the fact that Oba isn't actually a goal threat. We need better than both Martins and Owen tbh. PS, Owen had a good goal against Man United disallowed, as well as missing a one on one. That's 2 goal threats only 2 games ago I think Martins is a great prospect, and under Big Sam he was used wrong. He playd mostly on the right side, and it looked like the players wasnt allowed to shot from long range, something i believe is/was martins biggest strengt. Get in a striker who can play up front with Martins. We need a type like Van Nistleroy, and I think it would be a great partnership. Btw: isnt Martins our lead goalscorer this season?

do'h!

When was the last time Martins was a goal threat??? The last game for nigeria? But when was the last time owen was a goal threat against a premiership side? :rolleyes:

I would Welcome Woody back, a great player. But 7M is a bit much for a crooked player, if he can stay injury free he would be worth the money, but that wont happend

Owen over Martins. Actually looks like a footballer. Martins just looks like some fast lad hoyed onto a pitch. Doesnt seem to have any clue as to what runs to make, where to position himself etc. Owen looks like a midget who is paid to walk around in the pitch, and he doesnt excatcly, walk in to great positions either. Has he even had a shot on goal in his last 3-4 Premiership games? - U can add the FA cup game now against Arsenal as well. Martins Has the ability to become a great player,and has much more to his game than owen has. Owen was a GREAT player, and looks like he will become the most overpaid crooked player since Winston Bogarde was in chelsea.

Think its time to take off Taylor, after he misstime that header in the first half, he hasnt looked confident. Get in Rozy to calm down the back four. I hope he gives Carroll a run, Owen has been shite mostly of the game, and we need some hight up front.

To all the Owen fans, what does he really give to the team now? What is his strengts(im not talking about owen in the past, but owen today, the 2008 owen). When was the last time Owen scored in the Premiership, I cant remember really. Lets take a look of Owen 2008 and his attributes. - Pace: He doesnt have much pace left in him. - Finnisher: he isnt a class finnisher(he has always been overrated imo as a finnisher. When he had pace he had to have 10 chances to score one goal, but he had the pace to make himself 10 chances). Can he even score from distance, does he have a long shot foot? - Heading: He is a decent header, and that is maby his stronges attribute in his game today. - Dribbling: He isnt a good dribbler, and doesnt often try to dribbel past the last man, when he does he often/always looses the ball. - He is very much a one footed striker. - Position: Many ppl say he is great to get in position, but why isnt he more involved in the game then? Has he such a brilliant footballbrain, that no one can read how he is running? - IMO to find the right space u have to have movement a lure the back line to get into position, Owen doesnt have this. - Age: He doesnt have the age on his right side, and we should sell him while we maybe can get 10M for him. - First touch: He has an decent first touch if he gets it on his right foot. Take away the name OWEN and most of you people would have a go at him. If it was Shola Ameobi who layed like owen has done for us, ppl would have cried out for him to be sold. Martins 2008 and his Attributes: - Pace: He has lots of pace. - Finnisher: an ok finnisher, can imporve much here. - Heading: He is actually decent on his head, can challange big strikers cause he can jump very high - Can use both foots - Positioning: Very bad, and need serious coaching on this. - Age: he is only 23, and has the future ahead of him. Selling him now would be a stupid move. - First Touch: He needs to practice his first touch, and with the right coaching he will master this. And i think if he gets his confidence back, his first touch will improve. So for me I would pick Martins any day over Owen. Tbh i think I would pick Smith over Owen too.

Keegan had to be either a brilliant coach or a brain surgeon to do this. But he is neither. Anyway, are the people saying that Martins can learn to resolve his obvious deficits by good coaching the same who thought Bramble could overcome his concentration blackouts? The usual I-support-a-17Million£-super-goal-machine-which-is-always-injured-and-a-f******-mercenary comment. Bored with them... Your problem. I am not actually supporting Owen with my comment, but rather questioning where the belief that Martins can improve his game is coming from, because all this leg-humping is really boring me as well. Btw - It's the transfer window, shouldn't you make up fake transfer news for "entertainment"? Why on earth shouldnt a 23 year old be able to improve his game? Tbf to the lad, he has the talent to become great(and dont start with the ameobi was a talent for 8 years etc etc). Martins has deadly pace, he can shoot hard with both his feets, so why shouldnt he be able with the right coaching to get a better first touch, and with games get his confidence back? -Some players when out allready saying King Kev is givin them cofidence by beeing who he is, sitting down with each one of them before the game and saying what he expects from them...

I wud love to have him here till the end of the season. Play him as a backup striker/winger, because we need as much class as we can get right now.

We should sell Owen as soon as possible. Like someone said, it seems like he has lost his hunger for the game, and it doesnt help that he is getting slower than Shearer was in his last season, atleast Shearer was a class finnisher(Owen isnt a class finnsiher, he is decent). I would take Martins any day,especially in a 4-4-2 system. Martins is the future, he has the pace and have to learn how to use it. If anything I think Keegan is the man who will get the best out of him. Martins have a killer shot, if he shoots more he will score more and gain confidence. If it was 5 years ago, I would pick Owen over Martins, but not today or in the future.

Lets stop buying players who is on their way down, lets buy players who is gonna be a star instead. Im a Norwegian, and I dont want Riise, IMO he is shite. Btw: I'm from norway and i dont know a single norwegian who would support nufc if riise came here. Even Liverpool fans up here dont like him...

Dont remember if we released him, but he is still on our official homepage

Keep: Given and Krul Enrique, Baye, Faye, Taylor, Cacapa, and Rozenhal. Zoggy, Milner and lett Butt finnish his career here, and become a coach here after his playingdays. Martins get rid off: Harper isnt getting any younger, and we need to let our youngsters get experience. Carr, Ramage, and Babayaro Emre, Duff, Barton, Geremi, Owen, Viduka, Smith and Ameobi Buy: Cover for Beye and Enrique. Hole new midfield, Priority should be a creative and a defensive midfielder(PS! The defensive midfielder needs to know how to pass the ball) 1 topp class striker, and two real talented ones(no ameobi talent).

I dont know how to feel, its just crazy I hope he doesnt ruin his great reputation, and that he can finnish what he startet the last time, and lift a trophy here. Would love him to beat Man Utd at the finnish line :smitten: But i cant see that happening...

Jose Pekerman is the only one who comes to my mind.

Best Game: Beating Bolton 3-1 on the opening day of the season. It gave me so much hope for what was comming. Best Signing: Habib Beye and Faye atm. Great signings like many of you allready said. Enrique is a player i think will become great. Worst Game: Losing 1-0 away to Derby. I was gonna bet money on Derby not winning a game this season, and they tok 4/6 points against us this season Worst Signing: Barton is the worst signing. I hoped he was gonna be our Gerrard, but he is gonna be more like Mean Machine Parting thoughts: It was time for him to quit,he wasnt up to the job. If he had taken it 1-3 years ago I think he would have been the man to get us in to top 4. But it seems like he has lost his motivation for the game, and wasnt the authority he needed to be. He wasnt so "big" afterall.

Would love to see Pekerman here But cant see that happening

I think it was the right decision, but the wrong time maybe. The problem for me is, Big Sam didnt seem motivated enough. For me it seemed like he had lost the player group, and many of the fans(maybe the majority). So it was no way back, unless he got a new team to work with, and with his comment that he would trust the players not to get him sacked(or what he said), didnt do things any better. I thought Big Sam was an authority figure like Alex Ferguson or Fabio Capello, but here at our club he didnt seem like a big enough person. Chris Mort and Mike Ashley seems like two smart persons, and I can think they sacked him without having a plan about it(atleast i hope so =) I just hope they get it right now, its time to get an authority figure, a Big name manager who can attract players himself, a manager like Benitez, Mourinho etc. We can only wait and see, but just won 2 of 15 games isnt good enough when you play as shite football as we have done. Good Luck to Big Sam(and maybe his early retirement), and good luck to Mort and Ashley to find the right manager.

Florent Malouda went out and said: "“Training sessions here are terrifying. They are just like matches, and you go flat out. During the actual games it is as though everybody’s brains are switched off. People play by instinct, spontaneously, in the way they did when they first discovered football.”" http://lyon.theoffside.com/player-news-and-rumors/florent-malouda-is-not-impressed-by-chelsea.html Maybe there is something wrong with our training session, cause our players doesnt play by instinct. I think we our biggest problem is that we lack a game plan, we have no attacking play. We just shoot the ball forward and hope for the strikers to do something with it. If we had attacking play, our midfielder could pick out players, I think our strikers would score more goals.

What do you mean by a free role? To me he needs to be told exactly what to do, and if it was down to me I'd have him playing on the shoulder of the last defender. I wouldn't tell him to play where he wants. Although he looks like that's what he is doing at times. When I say free role, i mean he can move over the hole pitch up front, not just down the wings or in the middle(and it isnt just a Football Manager Phrase. But whenever ppl dont agree in here, they just say stop play football manager, its getting old). But like ppl say, he need seriously coaching too. Does he genuinely strike you as having the intelligence to take up good positions if he was told to play where he wants? He seems totally ill-suited to such a role to me as he takes up such poor positions (starting positions and anticipatory runs etc.). Actually he does to me, you dont need to be a rocket scientist to play football. Martins is more of a working striker for me, a player who can score goals from long range, and need to start doing this. He isnt like Owen who is class in getting behind the defenders, so why play him like that? We need to get the best out of him, and a free role would suit him imo.

What do you mean by a free role? To me he needs to be told exactly what to do, and if it was down to me I'd have him playing on the shoulder of the last defender. I wouldn't tell him to play where he wants. Although he looks like that's what he is doing at times. When I say free role, i mean he can move over the hole pitch up front, not just down the wings or in the middle(and it isnt just a Football Manager Phrase. But whenever ppl dont agree in here, they just say stop play football manager, its getting old). But like ppl say, he need seriously coaching too.

Martins has gone backwards since he joined us. When he gets the ball in a decent position, he is always stopping it, instead of going forward. It seems like he lack confidence, and has become aware of his first touch. Big Sam really need to adress the problem with Martins, and like Skrige said I think he needs a free role up front. He alse need to shoot more, he seems afraid to shoot these days...

Many people are screaming for a new back four, but if we got nesta, rio ferdinan etc back there. Would that solve our problem? My answer would be no. We need midfield players who can pass the ball, keep possesion(if we have possession the other team wont score, cause we have the ball. Isnt that logic? ), be creative, can score from long range, has lots of pace, and can help out the back four. To score more goals, should we just keep buying strikers? We still need midfield players who can feed them the ball, not those long balls from defence, cause they are so easily for the other team to deal with. I would love for us to get Bentley, but i think he would be priced to high. But we should find a much simular player to him, or a new ronaldo type of player. Im not a scout, but if Big Sam has such a huge network out there, its time to use it now.We need central attacking midfielders also, and we need a box to box player.

I say, Buy 3 attacking creativ players. And one of them should now how to score from distances, someone like Juninho in Lyon. We also need players who has lots of pace and can run with the ball. Remember attacking is the best defence!

I agree with most of what you are saying. But saying that we dont have blamed the players is wrong. Just look at Bramble, Dyer, Robert, recently Cacapa and even milner , those are just a few players that we have blamed. I think one of our problem is, that we have to get behind the team even more when its going bad, instead of just booing everyone. But at the end of the day, it is the manager who picks the players, buy and sell , pick the tactics etc. So he is the person to blame, and his job to be questioned first. I like Big Sam, and much of his training methods and stuff, but his tactics are shite, and it seems like he is loosing the dressingroom and the players arent motivated. I would love to move him into becomming the first DOF for us, and get a GREAT manager to take over our team.