toptoon

Agree with andy and Alpal. Feel i need to go a bit further though. I fucking hate these tactics i.e. lets cram the midfield to try and nick a draw against Derby, Reading and sunderland etc could half understand it away at Old Trafford ffs but this tactic is the absolute pits. i know he's trying to make us harder to beat but he's actually making us easier to beat by taking the attacking side out of our game and inviting teams to have a go whilst not offering much in th way of attacking back imo + its horrible to watch for us aswell. If playing 442 please play with milner on the RW and zoggy on the LW as its not like they are crap at tracking back (i.e. Ginola, Robert) they are bloody good at tracking back and will offer us so much more on he wings than our central midfielders do.

Geremi just shades it over Roze for me as Roze could be very good there, where as Geremi is Good there. But i'm not too sure this is th time to be experimenting so i'd at least start with Geremi.

Agreed. They are both fine young wingers but have to be played properly (i.e. Zoggy has to play on the LW) and consistantly too imo. Hopefully Duff can find some form soon, if not flog him and bring someone else in to compete with them.

So Milner hasn't been better than Smith this season on the basis that you refuse to rate Smith as a midfielder even though he's spent the majority of his time in that position here and at his last club? What did you think of Smith on Saturday? Smith was crap on Saturday. Other than being totally unable to accept that Smith isn't a midfielder and so can't be judged as one, what's your point? So how have you formed the opinion that someone saying Milner has been better than Smith this season being worth mackems.gif mackems.gif mackems.gif ? I think Smith was better of the two on Saturday. Both anonymous but Smith has the better haircut. Smith is a far better footballer. Less spots as well. It's hard to tell with all of the make up tbh. Preffer Milner out of the two. Milners not had the bst of starts but he'll get better i'm sure especially if used on the RW. Smith i feel sorry for as his worst display was in a position that he preffers not to play in i.e. RW V Derby and he got slated big time for that although he tried his best. As a CM he's not that good either imo. It comes as no great shock that he was very good up top in his first game there for us. Obviously last game was a complete write off pretty much all round starting from sam's team selection i.e. no emre + Zoggy and Milner on the wrong wings and of course our defence + pompeys superior team set up dominating the midfield.

Smith is goodish up top linking the midfield with the attack, but no where else imo. On Sat It didn't help his cause that Sam plays wingers on the wrong sides and misses out Emre. Also Barton and Butt are overrun/ineffective in the center.

Firstly i'm not massively bothered if we keep owen or not as long as we get a very good replacement. Martins is the future imo and will only get better. Droping him has not done his confidence any good at all. Sam after a good start is chiefly to blame as he has messed up playing for a point and setting us up in a poorly disjointed way. (i.e. no wingers at Derby etc etc) We need more creativity in the midfield so with the players we've got now that means Milner on the RW, Zoggy on the LW and Emre in the CM, If Owen plays, Martins needs to be the striker that drops back into midfield when we haven't got the ball and then making runs forward when we have. Have owen lurking up top. Alternatively sub/drop Owen then Martins up top lurking and Smith dropping back into the midfield as he does link the two very well imo. In Jan (or the end of the season) i'd like to see us sign Berbatov/Ashton/Jones or a quick, good 'Big man' type striker to play with either Martins or Owen. But for now we should play the way i described above imo

Good point, i've changed it now.

Sam 6 - after some seemingly good transfer business and a good start the wheels are startiing to fall off. Shocking tactics against Derby and Reading, he needs to look to attack more rather than trying to keep it tight and hopefully nick something. Look to attack more ffs! Cacapa 6- , early days yet hopefully sat. was just a blip, i hope he will not do a Boumsong on us and fall to pieces. Before Sat looked great. Roze 6- is great on the deck but really needs to work on his strength/heading game. Faye 7 - looks good to me so far. We will need him to mark a few of the 'Big Man' type strikers. Beye 6- too early to judge him but certainly way better than car. Viduka 6- I think is too slow and too easily marked out the game, although will have his token good game now and again i.e. v West Ham. Smith 5 - Good up front but not so great in midfield and 100% not a winger. Barton 5 - Hasn't had a decent game for us yet in the prem all be it through injury. Hopefully will get better though. Enrique 7 - Best of the bunch so far along with Faye imo Geremi 7 - good but could be better.

Agreed i think he will probably be a superb manager. He's the type of manager players want to play for + he's not going to take any shit.

1. Martins - the best signing for me over any other player (within the last three managers). 2. Emre - Too injury prone i agree but fantastic when fit imo 3. Enrique - Too early to judge possibly, but so far think he looks just what we've needed for a long long time at LB. Cacapa - , early days yet hopefully sat. was just a blip, i hope he will not do a Boumsong on us and fall to pieces. Roze - is great on the deck but really needs to work on his strength/heading game. Faye - looks good to me so far. We will need him to mark a few of the 'Big Man' type strikers. Beye - too early to judge him but certainly way better than car. Viduka - I think is too slow and too easily marked out the game, although will have his token good game now and again. Smith - Good up front but not so great in midfield and not a winger. Barton - Hasn't had a decent game for us yet in the prem. Owen - too injury prone and fragile for me, i'm convinced his next injury is just round the corner. After a great start, the wheels have come off for Alladyce, he needs to concentrate more on attacking (like Pompey do) especially against weaker teams like derby and Reading ffs.

The wages are clearly obscene and need to be capped by Fifa worldwide ASAP.

Like this team. Possibly too attacking, but i really really like it as itwould cause them horrendous problems. Martins and Smith would have to come back and help out though at times.

And why did Reading finish above us in the league last season? -OK, we had a terrible season with injuries etc. But in my opinion Reading did better than anyone expected because they didn't compromise how to play. They played their style, and got a good season out of that. With the squad Sam have in command, he should be Boss enough to do the same I agree with that. The thing is your defence is not good enough to try and play a defensive game and eek out a win. Chelsea were able to do it under Mourinho because they had Terry, Carvalho, Cole & Ferreira. Such a strong unit, so difficult to break down. If Reading were up against that type of defensive unit we would have struggled and you could have just nicked a goal and won it like that. Newcastle is a fantastic attacking unit. As proven by home results and the manner of your victories at SJP this season. If your strength is attack and your weakness is defence then surely you got to attack. As the old saying goes. The best form of defence is attack. Readings weakness is defence. So what do we do, we attack you like hell at the Mad Stad. Now if you attacked us back you would have outscored us. I'm pretty sure about that. Pompey outscored us by 7-4. Blackburn outscored us by 4-2. Newcastle would have outscored us with the quality of your forward play. It would have made for an amazing game as well. Thats why I think Big Sam got his tactics badly wrong. I think Big Sam and your defenders were blaming the defeat on a lack of concentration at the back. Thats nonsense. We had lots of chances. Lita could have had a couple. Sonko should have scored. Lita missed from just a couple of yards out. Newcastle had no chances. You needed us to help you out with a goal. If Newcastle were more positive you would have beaten us. Simple as that. It really is that straight forward. Big Sam has got to have a much more positive approach at Sunderland. Is that your next away game. If you attack them hard, you will win. Halford is rubbish by the way. He is slow and prone to mistakes. You can really pummell them down the left wing. !00% agree with Reading fan. Against Derby and Reading its gone horribly horribly wrong and we have not deserved to win, Smith and Emre on the wings FFS Zoggy and Milner are good at getting back but CRUCIALLY offer something going forward too!!! We should be attacking these teams with wingers having a real go at them and trying to outscore them (they are not Man u or Arsenal ffs). This is very worrying and could end up costing him his job as a blind man can see that his tactics away from home are complete and utter shite. Sort it out big sam please, don't be as arrogant and stubborn as Soumess, admit you've got it wrong and change it now!

Even though i'm guessing Shearer probably saved us from relegation rather than Roeder after Soumess. Roeder is the better manager. Souness took a team that had just finished 5th in the league spent 50m+ and nearly got us relegated. Blamed 'ladyluck' 'injuries' anythin except his appalling tactics (i.e. no wingers etc) + when he didn't even have the decency to quit or ever admit even he may just have got a few things wrong, such was the incredible arrogance of the man. I can't stand people that can never admit they are wrong/to blame when they clearly are. Roeder and/or shearer never spent much money, picked up the pieces had just as many injuries as Soumess and completely turned us around saving us from relegation.

I'd stick with 442: Given Beye Cacapa Faye Enrique Milner Geremi Emre Zoggy Owen Martins Subs; Harper, Taylor, Barton, Butt, Smith Everyone is just going to have to work very hard, Martins and/or Owen dropping back into midfield to help out when we do not have the ball, likewise wingers geting back working hard, Milner and Zoggy are very good at getting back and mucking in when we do not have the ball and getting forward when we do. Geremi and Emre are gong to have to work their arses off in midfield too if they can't or don't then replace them with Barton Butt roze etc. If Emre is non effective then bring Barton on. If one of the wingers aren't effective take one off move Martins to the wing and give Smith another go up front (as very impressed the last/only time he played there for us v Everton). However when we do have the ball we need a team that is able to open up the opposition/create and score goals!! If we play without two wingers i fear the worst again. We need potency in our attack!

You may be right and it will be a tough game. However i'd stick with: Given Beye Cacapa Faye Enrique Milner Geremi Emre Zoggy Owen Martins Subs; Harper, Taylor, Barton, Butt, Smith Everyone is just going to have to work very hard, Martins and/or Owen dropping back into midfield to help out when we do not have the ball, likewise wingers geting back working hard, Milner and Zoggy are very capable of getting back and mucking in when we do not have the ball and getting forward when we do. Geremi and Emre are gong to have to work their arses off in midfield too if they can't or don't then replace them. If Emre is non effective then bring Barton on. If one of the wingers aren't effective take one off move Martins to the wing and give Smith another go up front (as very impressed the last/only time he played there for us v Everton). However when we do have the ball we need a team that is able to open up the opposition/create and score goals!! If we play without two wingers i fear the worst again. We need potency in our attack!

Scholes attackig midfielder for me has been the best in recent years.

Got to agree with most of that, although feel a litt sorry for him as we played no wingers v Reading which proved disasterous (sort it out Sam ffs). PLAY WITH WINGERS!!!! i don't know who our best central midfielders are at the moment but we will have to keep on trying different combinations till its right. Its arguably the most important area on the pitch to get right. Barton and Emre would be ideal if we can get them firing on all cylinders. Butt and Emre know each other quite well by now and looked great V Spurs etc. Geremi, Roze and Faye are also strong posibilities to play with either Emre or Barton. One of these combinations should work. Faye in particular is a big strong lad, fiercesome in the tackle and great in the air so combined with Barton away from home could be good, especially if Emre flops/gets injured yet again. However i have no idea what Faye's passing/distribution is like in that role yet maybe a Bolton fan could tell us? Roze is quick, intellegent reader of the game, good passer, tall, and can also get forward well (shooting needs to improve i.e.derby game), however not so great in the tackle as Faye and very suspect in the air as he tends to get pushed of the ball too easily (this could improve though). So yes difficult decision i'd start with Geremi and Emre on Sat but SA might have a different idea as he's see's them in training and knows who is looking sharper etc possibly Barton. If rumours are true he's very keen to bring Edmilson in Jan which could be agreat move 'IF ' we get him.

V Pompey at the moment: Given Beye Cacapa Faye Enrique Milner Geremi Emre Zoggy Owen Martins Subs; Harper, Taylor, Barton, Butt, Smith. Some tough calls to make but we should attack them from the off WITH WINGERS. Butt was very good v spurs then s**** against reading, depends whose looking the sharper out of Butt, Geremi and Barton for the DM role. Butt is very up and down so i'd like to see Geremi or Barton there ideally. Taylor on bench in case Cacapa or Faye mess up. If Milner or Zoggy aren't up to scratch take one of them off and stick Martins on either wing and put Smith up top with Owen.

Not saying we could 100% get him just that we should 100% try to get him. Some reasons why he may consider us. !. Spurs are s*** and he's clearly not happy there. 2. He's refusing to sign a new contract with them. 3. His current contract has only one year left at then end of this season. So spurs may be forced to sell (possibly cheaply) 4. Because he supported us since he was a boy, with Shearer his idol (so we'll bring him in for the talks). 5. Because he has more chance of playing regularly for us than at say at Man u who may or may not want him anyway. I'd also like Ashton but i think he's only fairly recently signed a new contract, it'll cost us a fortune to buy him, plus West Ham don't seem to need the money. I see where you're getting at but here are 2 reasons he won't 1) Its a sidestep 2) Bigger clubs than ours will undoubtedly be interested Pro's and Con's really. My 5 to your 2 though!! (only kidding) Seriously maybe your right, maybe your wrong, time may tell us, neither of us know whats going on in his head. Stranger things have happened eg Owen coming here (well at the time anyway) etc etc. If only Big sam can get his act together and pick a decent side for away games we'd score more points and look an altogether much more atractive option if we were 4-6 points higher up the table. Starting to get pissed off with this shitty idea of defending and aiming for a draw at places like bloody Reading.

This is true and a real shame as he does not need that part to his game. Very questionable character too, not someone i'd probably like. But there's still not a better CF in the prem imo.

Voted Drogba as he's got it all; Skill, pace, height, power, good in the air, picking intellegent passes and even free kicks. It has to be him. his goalscoring record speaks for itself too. He's an awesome CF, always thought so since he destroyed us in the UEFA cup whilst playing for Marseille. Rooney i like alot but he's not playing as an out and striker like Drogba.

Not saying we could 100% get him just that we should 100% try to get him. Some reasons why he may consider us. !. Spurs are shit and he's clearly not happy there. 2. He's refusing to sign a new contract with them. 3. His current contract has only one year left at then end of this season. So spurs may be forced to sell (possibly cheaply) 4. Because he supported us since he was a boy, with Shearer his idol (so we'll bring him in for the talks). 5. Because he has more chance of playing regularly for us than at say at Man u who may or may not want him anyway. I'd also like Ashton but i think he's only fairly recently signed a new contract, it'll cost us a fortune to buy him, plus West Ham don't seem to need the money.

Have to agree with all of that (away from home) and im gutted about it, as if we had attacked Derby and Reading from the off i'm sure we would have got something from these games + as a bonus its a whole lot better to watch. FFS you don't go to Derby and Reading (worst defences in the league) to shut up shop and and praying for a point. Very unpositive defeatist attitude, i hope one of his many highly paid backroom staff point this out to him.

Not really fussed if we signed Crouch or not, i suppose he is a good player who is awkward to play against and would improve our squad. However as others have mentioned it may well encourage us to play the wrong type of football: just hoofing it Crouch bound almost everytime would not be effective at all and hideous to watch when it goes wrong. In Jan or more probably at the end of the season i would like us to try and sign Berbatov and/or Dean Ashton and Edmilson. Team then: Given/Harper Geremi/Beye Cacapa/Taylor Faye/Roze Enrique/Zoggy Milner/Martins Edmilson/Barton Emre/Butt Duff/Zoggy Owen/Martins Berbatov/Smith I've stuck up for shola in the past but its just not happening for him here, loan him out with a recall clause see if he can do it somewhere ese.. Viduka i know alot rate, but i do not and think we need a big man striker who is ALOT more mobile i.e. Ashton or Berbatov ideally, Crouch if not. Butt is very up and down performance wise, i like to see Geremi, Faye, Barton and Roze given a shot at his role. Emre when fit and on form to compete with barton for the more attacking role. If neither ae up for it we need to splash some more cash.