Cronky

He definitely looks like a good addition to the squad. Whether he's the kind of dominating centre back that we're really looking for - a successor to Woodgate - not so sure yet. I'd definitely keep the Bramble - Onyewu partnership together for a bit yet. You could see their understanding improving as the Liverpool game went on.

Let's not fight. We've beaten a good side. It's the sort of result that the players can really take some confidence from. As others have said, the defence was transformed in the second half. They were a lot more aggressive. It felt like they were committing themselves as individuals more, relying on the fact that their team mates were covering for them. In the first half, it looked like they didn't trust one another enough. We looked the better for Babayaro in there. He's not the greatest, but he's better than a teenage centre back.

His general play. His control, technique, linkup, passing, vision, dribbling, etc, on a consistent basis. Its often poor. Similar to Milner. Good player when hes producing something, but general play can be poor, eg in comparison to the likes of Nobby, Dyer etc. Too many players like this and the team will get nowhere near top 4 imo. Disagree totally. His control, technique and vision are brilliant. His weakness is a lack of pace, but as others have said, linking him with a quick striker could work well. Given that we've already got Oba, I'd sacrifice Owen for him.

The game is changing. We either adapt to the times or get left behind. Sorry - continue to get left behind. Simple as that really.

Normally, the word England means the country, but in this context, it refers to 11 players. One is singular, the other plural. 'England were' feels much more comfortable to me. (Must remember to get a life some time)

1. At the start of the season what where your expectations, and are things going as you expected? I think my prediction was 6th, if we kept Shola fit. Given that the injury situation has been absolutely dire, things have gone a bit better than I would have expected. 2. Who's been your best performer this season? Dyer. He's a completely different player since his injury crisis, as you'd have seen by a much more mature display in an England shirt. 3. And your worst/most disappointing? N'Zogbia (now injured) has been very disappointing. Duff hasn't settled yet. As for worst, we've had to pitch in a lot of youngsters, and Pattison has floundered the most. 4. You had a quiet January transfer window, if you where the manager, who would you have tried to sign? There wasn't any money, so the question's a bit academic. A dominating centre back and a left back are the priorities but who was available? 5. What are your best and worst memories of our previous meetings? Worst - 1-4 in Gullit's first match in charge. I've never quite forgiven Owen for rubbing his hands in that smug way after he scored. Best - 3-0 in the Keegan era. That signalled we'd arrived. 6. Do you have any favourite/best chants (and perhaps any that require an explanation)? Pass. 7. What’s the banter like between Newcastle and Liverpool fans at St James, would you say that the 2 sets of fans get on? Pass. I don't get to home games. 8. In the summer, Liverpool and Newcastle are told to swap 3 first team regulars, who would you send to Liverpool, and who would you like from us? Babayaro, Carr, Ramage to you. Gerrard, Bellamy and Carragher from you. 9. Liverpool have become the lastest club to gain new owners, Newcastle have been mentioned as well as a likely candiate for a takeover. How do you feel about these take-overs by foreign owners, and would you like to see it happen at Newcastle? Yes. Shepherd is a poor Chairman, meddling and out of his depth. I don't care where any new owners come from. 10. Care to predict Mr Roeder’s starting line up for the game? Harper - Solano, Onyewu, Bramble, Taylor - Milner, Butt, Parker, Duff - Dyer, Martins. 11. And finally, let’s have your score predictions for the game: Ummmm.... you're on good form, but we'll be up for this. A draw. Interesting questions, thanks.

I chose Rooney, because I think a player who can be effective in that free role between the advanced striker and the midfield can make a huge difference. And I don't think there's anyone better than Rooney in the role. I cite in evidence how reliant we were on Beardsley and Bellamy. Also the boost that Dyer's return gave to us.

The important factor is there's now a gap between the 10th and the 11th clubs of about £40 million. Effectively, there's two divisions, and we're now in the same division as West Ham etc. A few years ago, we were competing with the top ten clubs. They've now shot well away from us, while others have caught up. In any other line of business, the Board would be under enormous pressure to resign.

What he says. It's way too early to give up on Duff, when the team as a whole is struggling for a pattern. He's not getting the ball in much time or space, and is trying too hard to make something happen in situations when it's not really on.

Crouch has his faults, but at the moment are there better options for the advanced striker position? Defoe? Bent? I also agreed with Lawrenson that he was getting penalised unfairly tonight. Rooney is a withdrawn striker and it's a waste to play him further forward. Basically tonight Dyer showed that he's a more than capable understudy to Rooney in that role. There were a few times when the ball just didn't fall right for us in the box, and we were a bit unlucky to lose. I'm a bit worried about McLaren's judgement though. With all the pressure on England managers, there's a bit of a tendency for them to pick players who the pundits and the press are shouting for at the moment, but who aren't really international class. Normally that effects the manager after a while in the job, but it seems to have happened early with McLaren. Against Croatia, it was Parker. Tonight, it was Barry in midfield. If he's worth a place at all at the level, it's got to be in defence. Does he really have to pick him to find that out?

If Shevchenko is struggling to adjust to the Premiership with Chelsea, he's not going to do any better with us. No deal.

Dyer's doing well. He's been given his normal club role, and that suits him. SWP - great talent. No brains. The obvious problem is there's no-one wide on the left.

Here here. For some reason the obstruction rule gets suspended whenever a defender is blocking an attacker to make sure the ball runs out of play. Often they're nowhere near the ball, but when was the last time you saw a defender penalised for this?

Another incident which seemed curious to me was last season, when Freddie ruled out going for Moyes as our new manager. His reason seemed to be that he had a good relationship with Kenwright, which he didn't want to spoil. Now maybe he didn't want Moyes anyway, but it seemed an odd thing to say. Providing you go through the proper channels, there's nothing wrong with trying to get another club's manager.

Players taking the ball to the corner flag to waste time in the latter stages of a game. It should be classified as time-wasting / ungentlemanly conduct and penalised. That and TV pundits moaning about referees.

I think Roeder's done a decent enough job. The problem is the Chairman, and the way he's cocked up all the major decisions over the last 3 years. We need new ownership to stop us falling behind the likes of Spurs and Villa, but Shepherd is determined to stay on. I think he's got it in his head that once Owen is fit, he'll win trophies for us. The way you've put the dilemma, it's like Roeder and Shepherd's fates have been tied together. I'd like to see Roeder given a chance under a new owner.

Definitely not Chelsea. I think Abramovich and his billions are bad for the game. Arsenal play the most entertaining football, and I'd really like to see that side eventually winning the title, but this year I'm hoping for Man U. Despite his obvious faults, I really admire Ferguson's tenacity and will to win, and if he pulls it off this time, it would top all his other achievements. He and his team have been written off as past it, particularly after Chelsea raised the bar to another level, but he and the other oldies like Scholes and Giggs have risen to the challenge. To have the appetite to raise your game after you've already achieved everything there is to achieve, is quite something.

I'd agree that Roeder got his selection wrong, although usually I find myself agreeing with his decisions. He had a decision to make about which two to play out of Onyewu, Taylor and Bramble, and tried to get out of it by playing all three. It gave us the advantage of aerial power, but really we'd have been better off with Solano's constructive play from full back. But on the other points, Huntington and Edgar look promising, but aren't ready yet. The defence has looked anything but solid in recent weeks. Very rarely does a centre back go through an entire game without a single mistake. It always seems to me that no matter how Bramble performs, if he puts one foot wrong then his entire display is written off. That's regardless of whether the mistake leads to a goal. There are only 2 or 3 centre backs in the entire Premiership who would survive that kind of judgement. Carr seems to have taken over Shola's mantle as the player who gets the 'he'sabsolutelyuseless' treatment. He's not great, but he's not useless either, and he can still do a reasonable job for us. He can't really be blamed for Fulham's second goal, because realistcally 90% of defenders would have been muscled off by Diop's challenge, which would have been called a foul if Fulham had been the away side.

On talent, Gazza had the advantage, but Fabregas will improve year on year, whereas Gazza didn't. Fabregas is an amazing player. I've never seen a teenager play with such calm authority. His decision-making is so advanced.

I think Roeder was worried about our lack of height at set pieces, and made a conservative selection. It backfired, because we then lacked fluency going forward. Normally, I think Roeder's selection decisions are good, but this is one occasion where it looks like he was too negative. As for the second goal, Diop's challenge was the sort that would be called a foul on the continent, but not here. I don't think Carr can be blamed, because he was in the right position and was just shoved away by a stronger player. IMO a barge like that is okay if it's part of the same movement of getting on the ball, but in this case it wasn't.

It's been a scrappy season so far, but there have been some periods of good football, and I think if we can sort the defence out, we've potentially got a very good side on our hands. Assuming our injured players recover, we'll have Owen, Martins, Shola and Dyer as strikers, which gives us some good combination options. Out wide, there's Milner and Duff, with Zoggy and Solano as back up. In the middle - Butt, Parker, and Emre to choose from, with Dyer capable of doing a job there as well. The real problem area is the defence. A lot rides on whether Onyewu can be the centre back we're looking for - decisive, dominating and providing leadership. That can make a big difference to a team. If so, he could combine well with either Bramble or Taylor. And of course behind, we've got either the best or the second best keeper in the Premiership, depending on opinion. Which only leaves full back. I don't think Carr is quite as bad as he's made out to be, and Nobby has done a great job in that position, but we could still do with improving there. Left back is probably the weakest position in the side, and a good replacement may be hard to find. But overall, a couple of decent full backs may be all that stands between us and stepping up to the next level. That, and maybe a central midfield player like Barton, who's simply a bit better than the three we have at the moment. At the moment, we're very reliant on Dyer for our inspiration. It may sound strange to suggest this, on the back of some dodgy performances, but things may be about to get a whole lot better.

In the Premiership, I don't think a striker needs to be good at everything, but there needs to be something in his game that will trouble top defenders. I've never seen that in Chopra.

From the player's point of view, it's a good move. Given our defensive problems, he can be reasonably confident of getting a few games in one of the top leagues. If he does well, he'll get a number of options to choose from. There's no point in going to Chelsea or Man U, to warm the bench.

I'd agree his best position is an advanced one. I'd like to see him tried as one of the wider strikers in a 4-3-3 (which I think is what Souness was intending), but failing that I think he's been very good as the withdrawn striker, in a free role in a 4-4-2. He does okay in midfield, but his passing and crossing lets him down a bit.

What really pisses me off is that a few months ago, when he was under pressure, Shepherd reassured everyone by saying that funds would be available for Roeder in the transfer window. It's never a great idea to advertise the fact that you've got money (it'll drive up the asking prices), and it's completely stupid when the reality is that you're pretty much skint. Basically, Shepherd was putting his own interests before that of the club. To compound that, he had the nerve to say that Sir John Hall's attempts to sell the club were driving up the transfer fees that were being asked. It looks to me like he had no intention of spending, and was laying the ground for the Halls to take the blame.