TRon

Don't like the look of that. Viduka up front with Owen is an attack with no pace. Shearer was bigging up Lovenkrands during the week so he may come on as a sub at least at some point. At home we should be pressing forward so pace won't be as crucial for the forwards.

I wouldn't argue if that's the line up, most of our best players are in it. If Smith doesn't make it I'd go for Guthrie ahead of Nolan though.

I would have thought Abdoulaye Faye should be up there. We paid £8m more to replace him with Coloccini so in terms of value for money he has to be a steal.

I am pretty sure that he will be given the armband next season, whether we survive or not. Beye just doesn't strike me as being the type to desert a sinking ship and if there's one player who should be exempt from a cull on wages it's him.

He's the only chap i'd have above Shearer right about now (realistically speaking, obviously). I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole after today.

Poetic justice I'd call it.

I don't think Nicky Butt will let us down, it's the strikers and attacking midfielders I'll be watching closely. We have attacking midfielders? When did this happen? Has anyone told Shearer? I'm sure he'd like to know their names so he can add then to the team ahead of the cloggers currently playing there. We have attacking midfielders like Barton and Nolan. Some are better attacking staff at Macdonald's, some are better attacking a pint.

This would be one of the benefits of a salary cap for me. The players earning the truly obscene amounts of money are the players who make the game worth watching. Your Ronaldo's, Kaka's and Messi's earning over 100k doesn't really bother me tbh. It's the slightly above average players that take home thirty or forty grand a week that get on my tits. All in all though I agree that a salary cap is completely unworkable in football. An unusually good post, by your standards at least. I think that's the crux of the problem, clubs that spend beyond their means in an attempt to keep up. Hull's signing Bullard was a prime example, us signing Owen, Luque, Boumsong etc. Is it really the fault of the successful clubs if clubs like ours keep getting it wrong?

Enrique and Taylor as well. our back 5 should be Harper Beye Taylor Basssong Enrique those 5 will fight and put up a shift. as will butt. drop smith, the closer to the wire this gets the more woried i get that he's going to get sent off, although guthrie is like that as well so fuck knows. Guthrie, Butt Duff Viduka Owen Martins and Jonas Gutrhie Butt Duff Owen/Martins/Viduka should both be used at somepoint, not sure which one would be better starting with though. Is Enrique fit for this one? I don't think so, in which case that buggers your team selection quite a bit.

We shouldn't under-estimate the importance of this being at home. I know I wouldn't fancy going to the boro if we needed to win. Will they really be looking forward to coming to St James in a do or die battle?

...and we wonder why all three teams are still in serious relegation trouble.

Unless you think they didnt deserve to win any of those games i dont see the relevance. The point is that its worthless against a side who can stop it from being effective & expose their weaknesses going back the other way. Doesnt matter how impressive it looks. And it is largely chelseas own fault for missing chances i agree with that. But dont think anyone can claim Barca deserved the win for how they play, not a chance in that game. I've seen two of our leading teams play against Barcelona now, and both have basically sat back and tried to stop them playing whether home or away. I don't blame them for that because in an open attacking game I think Barcelona are going to beat most teams. If Barcelona adopt a safety first approach as well we are in for one hell of a boring final though.

I wonder what he looks like when he's not wearing his "Scream" mask? http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrianswall/images/Scream%20Mask.JPG

absolutely, and fair play to chelsea for being the first team to stop them scoring at home this season as i said before i prefer the way the italians and spanish go about defending when that's their gameplan but yeah, fair play to chelsea for that still missing how Barca's defence is so bad and chelsea didn't punish it though Seriously explained this like 5+ times now! Read them. oh no, i read 'em, it paraphrases to "they didn't try because they didn't have to" bollocks, and it doesn't explain the first leg or were they not trying then either at 0-0? Why is that bollocks? if your manager of Chelsea you know the opposition going to throw everything forward, you would like to see open game? Instead of hitting them on the break when they are over exposed ala Man Utd on Tuesday? Why exactly is it bollocks. i agree with what you're saying about the tactical aspect, i.e. don't play on an open game - counter attack definately the way what i'm saying is if barca's defence is/was so bad as you've suggested why didn't a counter attacking game expose this in the way arsenals defence was exposed by man u? (not that man u played counter attack but you see what i mean) i mean in your first line you're basically saying tactically hiddink tacitly accepted barca would beat them in an open game so even in the home leg he set up to stifle them and counter, yet you're calling barca's attack toothless!! i see this as a massive contradiction in terms and it's why we've been slavering on for hours now I said hiddink paid to much respect to them at the nou camp. Today Barca's attack were completely toothless, i mean chasing the game for 80 minutes your one shot on target is the very last. 70% possession and one shot on target. With Eto'o, Messi, Iniesta all these players they are supposed to steamroll through teams and they come up against a good defense and they are completely out of ideas. Especially in the dire situation they were in. going round in circles now mate, 70% possession and one shot tells me chelsea put up a wall and did it very well you seem to see it that Barca weren't good enough in attack we'll never reach an agreement on that, fundamental difference in how we look at things The whole point is surely that if Barca WERE good enough in attack against good enough opposition, they'd have cut through them regardless. Chelsea didnt only put up a wall, they counter attacked. If you consider the goal they had, drogba being 1 on 1, anelka would have been if it were not for a hand ball, he would have been once again had he not tripped over his own heels like a clown. On another day thats 4 clear chances to score theyd have taken, could have been 4-1 and some of you would still be claiming they were playing defensive football. No, they were playing a style of football that was perfectly suited to stifling barca's attack & exposing their weaknesses going back the other way. They were both severely unlucky & crap in different moments. Regardless, Hiddink set it up perfectly & Barca looked nothing special atall. If Barcelona also set up to play a defend and counter attacking game we'll be watching a boring chess match. Why should only their opponents be lauded for safety first tactics?

It's going to be our know how and experience v their youth. For the same reason we'd be too scared to put youngsters into such a big game, I'm hoping their younger players will bottle it. That's the theory anyway.

Pretty big. 24 hours and 6 letters to be precise. And I don't agree with the 2nd bit. It's how many points you get over the course of 38 games, not a few against one of your rivals. Yep, of course thats the truth. Right now however, there are more reasons to suggest we should go down than stay up. Whether they deserve it or not, it looks like the team have yet another lifeline to haul themselves to safety. Knowing this lot they'll use it to hang themselves instead.

I don't think Nicky Butt will let us down, it's the strikers and attacking midfielders I'll be watching closely. Nicky Butt is well, well overdue a good performance that fools people into thinking he is still capable of playi I don't think Nicky Butt will let us down, it's the strikers and attacking midfielders I'll be watching closely. Nicky Butt is well, well overdue a good performance that fools people into thinking he is still capable of playing at this level. If Nicky Butt just does his job as a defensive midfielder that's enough for me in this game. The responsibilty lies with those further forward to spark in this game. We have to win, we can't afford to have any more sterile performances from Owen. Martins, Viduka, Jonas, Nolan, Guthrie or whichever other tosser is supposed to provide or score goals.

I could murder some of the squad. Not sure if that would help or hinder our survival bid though.

at home to liverpool next week. Ok cheers. That's the end of that then.

Yeah it's a hole. Yet that fat cunt Allardyce seemed to think he was doing us a favour by coming to Newcastle.

Are WBA still in with a chance of escaping the drop? They seem to be creeping up on the blind side a bit...

I don't think Nicky Butt will let us down, it's the strikers and attacking midfielders I'll be watching closely.

I can't contemplate the idea we'll fail to win. Otherwise the logical prediction would be a draw.

Strangely enough, I think Alan Shearer would be exactly the type of manager that Barton is going to need if he is to get his career back on the rails. One who won't indulge his retarded antics and will kick his arse when he steps out of line. If Barton really wants to make something of himself he should be begging Shearer to forgive him and let him stay.

Butt is absolutely woeful, pissed me off no end when Kinnear said a while back "for me he's brilliant" and what pisses me off even more is that the f***ing media think he's our best player and we love him. He is the only midfielder who can break up opposition play, he still does this pretty well imo, just the other aspects of his game and his psychical attributes that have gone to cack. Needs replacing in summer but i can see why he is played tbh. I agree with you about the media, never understood that, has been going on the whole time he has been here too. Don't agree with the bolded part myself. He hasn't got an exceptional ability to read the game, his physical attributes are so poor that he can't break it up with sheer force of will and that impacts negatively on his ability to tackle. His ability to break up play has been propagated largely by the media IMO. In my mind, the reason we couldn't get the ball back from Pompey in the last 15 minutes after Butt was substituted was down to the low fitness of players returning from injury coupled with a very hard-working [if not somewhat ineffectual] first 75 minutes. I am anything but a fan of Butt, but no one else looks like playing that defensive role ATM. Guthrie has bottled many big matches for me, despite the fact he's clearly got enough talent to walk into this midfield. I am really worried if he plays against boro he'll miss a few passes then hide for the rest of the game. That's reasonable however we are facing Boro - lowest scorers in the league and hardly renowned for possession football. Giving that winning is a priority and we've been especially toothless of late, with respects to priority: Scoring Goals > Not Conceding. [i know a score-draw is no better than a goalless draw, but I just think we've got more chance of outgunning them at SJP]. Guthrie would be best employed in a defensive midfield role and at home it might well be an option, he clearly isn't ready to dominate as a playmaker yet. To think a week ago we could have had the option of a Guthrie/Barton centre midfield which is what many of have wanted for ages now. It says a lot about Barton that we've gone all season without having the chance to use it.