chicago_shearer

I'm not an anti-American by any means, but I'm not joking or exagerrating when I say this: most Americans pick their favourite "soccer" team based on the colours of the shirt and success on the pitch. They make the average Man Utd bandwagoner look loyal. They think Landon Donovan is world class, that Beckham is a great footballer and that Chelsea are a historically a succesful club. No offence to the women on this board, but chatting with an American about football is like trying to explain it to your girlfriend. They just miss the point entirely.

Our defending is so poor, we don't deserve to be as high as 9th. I'll be very surprised and pleased if we maintain a place in the top half.

I have a friend who knows the son of the new US national team boss and apparently has the e-mail addresses of Onyewu and a few of the other yanks abroad. So I'm looking forward to becoming an ITK very shortly. 8)

And thats from the official site I wish our official site were that honest.

Boumsong. I thought he'd be the one to sort out the defence, but turns out he was one of the worst ever.

I could care less about Carew at the moment. I'm more angry about other clubs signing defenders we desperately need when Roeder keeps telling us there is no one available.

So fairly decent 26 year old left-back with Premiership experience goes to Blackburn for a mere 1.2 million. God buying players is harrrrrd isn't it Roeder?

Ayala who? Transfer windows weren't invented to sign defenders. Stop talking bollocks and lets get back to speculating about which 15-20 mil striker we are going to sign next.

Yes, and I would think he still is. The ever reliable Wikipedia says he is 5ft 11in. I've always heard he's shorter than you'd expect. Looks over 6ft on TV.

I hope this is rubbish, because bidding for Bent would be such a waste of time. They will want a) probably more than we have to spend and b) certainly more than we can afford given the priorities of the squad. Not every transfer window has to mean spending millions on a flashy new striker. Martins, Owen, Ameobi, Sibierski & Dyer might not be the best strikeforce in Europe, but it isn't bad. Are people just not noticing that we have no defenders and maybe two fit midfielders? And that the ones we do have rarely play well when the can be bothered to play at all?

In a word, typical. It would be nice if a couple of the multimillionaires with twisted ankles and poorly knees could show up for the replay instead of filling the squad with adolescents. If its not too much to ask.

In my opinion: 4 injuries to players who we really miss in the team. N'Zogbia, Duff, Butt, Owen. (Plus a suspension to Parker.) 4 injuries to players who would be useful in a full squad but aren't good enough to miss. Harper, Ramage, Moore, Ameobi. And 4 injuries to players we are better off without. Carr, Bernard (without evidence to the contrary), Babayaro, Bramble. This injury "crisis" is only slightly worse than most teams at this point in the season if you factor in the fact that only 4 are really noteable absentees. A better question than "why does this keep happening" would be "why didn't we improve the squad this summer?" We went into the season with a past-it right-back with no cover and a mistake prone injury prone left-back with a token fan appeasement signing (Bernard) as his cover. Zero money spent. This was entirely predictable.

Dyer on the bench. He's played a lot of games this month and seemed to tire in the second half of the Man U match. Put Sibierski in more of a midfield role and give Carroll a debut up front with Martins. -----------------Given----------------- Solano--Taylor--Huntington--Edgar Milner---Sibierski--Emre----O'Brien -----------Carroll---Martins----------- Bench: Harper, Gate, Dyer, Troisi, Pattison

Milner for me. He will play for England very soon I suspect.

If we knew what to do with a lead, we could have had 3 points there.

Edgar is God.

I'd rather not have Butt playing against Man Utd anyway.

If Nicky Shorey can nick a goal and make it 7-0 it would be great for my fantasy team. Come on Reading.

I bet Pardew is having a good laugh.

Fulham v Watford Manchester City v Everton Middlesbrough v Sheffield United Portsmouth v Tottenham Reading v West Ham Wigan v Blackburn Hope we manage something this afternoon because it looks like we could drop a few places.

Unfortunetly, the caption is probably already there. "Newcastle United's Training Session for Man Utd Visit". :roll:

No offence to Huntington or Edgar but the fact that we are here at New Years with reserve teenagers Huntington and/or Edgar set to square off against Rooney, Ronaldo etc. is a f***ing ridiculous state of affairs for a Premiership club. It's bad enough that wasters like Carr and Babayaro are first choice, but the fact that we bought absolutely NO COVER this summer does not reflect well on the club. They dug this f***ing hole and if we get twatted tomorrow they should take the blame along with the players. This is what happens when you piss away a transfer window looking for a striker and ignore the fact that our defence is - on its very best day - average.

No Duff. So 18 year old reservist centre-half in at left back against probably the most in form player in the Premiership then? :happy: :happy: :thup:

I'd like Bale or Baines and it would be nice to have someone with Premiership experience, but I doubt we have the kind of money necessary to get a young, quality English defender. Bale will probably go for close to 10 mil after all the hype. At best we could get Upson - who is overpriced and probably overrated. Luque is probably a big asset this January - surely we can find some Spanish club that still rates him, needs a striker and would be willing to do an exchange.

-----------------Given------------------- ---------Taylor--Huntington----------- Solano-------------------------------Duff ------------Parker---Butt--------------- Milner------------------------------Emre ----------Le Sib-------Oba--------------- Subs: Pav, Edgar, Pattison, Dyer, Carroll As well as Dyer has played so far, I'd keep him on the bench. He's played a lot over Christmas, and we know his record. If we manage to keep it close in the second half, he would be more useful coming on for Emre or Milner and giving us an actual option to change the game. Please no 4-5-1 Roeder, please. We all know Taylor, Huntington, Ramage etc. will hoof it long so at least give us a chance by playing Sibbers. If Duff isn't fit I don't know what I'd do at left back. Maybe ask Emre to play there. Putting Huntington or Edgar as our full backs against Ronaldo will be just embarassing.