TRon

That's what I would go for. My midfield three would be Jonas, Butt and Guthrie. I wouldn't allow Nolan into St James park if it was up to me.

My bad...he is definitely right-footed. I just had it stuck in my head that he played this glorious long pass against Fulham last season and it was his left foot. I think it helped that Oba was able to pull wide left as well, that might be how Shearer will look to work it.

There has to be a left footer in the three man midfield surely? Barton did that job under Keegan and Geremi likewise on the right. It gives it a nice balance. Barton's right footed though? It's as close to last season as you're gonna get with the players that are currently in favour. I'm pretty sure that Barton is left footed tbh. I saw him knocking some lovely passes from out wide in that spell last year.

There has to be a left footer in the three man midfield surely? Barton did that job under Keegan and Geremi likewise on the right. It gives it a nice balance.

At our club I don't even think the prices would stop us filling the ground, but there needs to be something to watch. Get a few decent players in who can actually run and pass, score a few goals now and then...is it really too much to ask?

It not just here and I wonder if people are falling out of love with football a little bit. At Newcastle people don't get to see much football anyway, hardly surprising they are thinking twice about stumping up hard earned cash for the privelege of watching a bunch of second rate cloggers massacre the game.

Too many important players missing for this one. Barton and Martins are huge doubts and we still don't know about Enrique. I don't like saying it, but the players we have available are either not good enough or lack the bottle to win a do or die battle. I think we are in trouble.

Doesn't look like Martins, Viduka or Barton are going to be fit in the proper sense of the word by Monday so I rate our chances at only 50/50 now...and that's being generous.

If you dont shoot you cant score - Johan Cruyff absolutely. You are talking to the biggest hindsight queen on the internet now though In hindsight, using terms like hindsight and cherry-picking all the time after hearing them for the first time just looks like hindsight...and cherry-picking.

As opposed to who ...? Guthrie Barton Jonas Owen Viduka Martins ? Not bad but I wouldn't want either Guthrie or Jonas to be responsible for the supply lines in a 4-3-3.

As opposed to who ...? The oldest person on the planet of the oldest people in the oldest universe in the oldest multiverse...in the eye of god. no idea then?

As opposed to who ...?

Absolutely spot on. If you'd said a fortnight ago we needed Smith or Geremi back................. It might have been suggested more than a fortnight ago to be fair.

Just read that Martins is going to be used as an impact sub because he definitely needs surgery on his groin. If he's not going to be fit enough for our last 5 games I think it's going to be hard to win 3 games. If Lovenkrands is close to a return that could be enough to keep us in there.

I am specifically talking about using Geremi in the 4-3-3 where he did well last season. Even in a 4-4-2 he did ok against Man U alongside Smith recently, I think he is being written off because of his "lack of legs", but I don't think Nolan is much better in this regard.

I think that's a misconception. Butt and Nolan aren't any quicker and don't do any more running. Geremi might run out of gas a bit quicker (debateable) but in a 4-3-3 he wouldn't need to run as much.

I think a football brain is exactly what he HAS got and what other midfielders that we have preferred are missing. Really? I beg to disagree. Plus he feels that he has to take every free kick and corner and you know that he will either hit the first man or sky the ball over the bar. Whereas Ryan Taylor and Duff are providing superb dead ball delivieries? I realise we are attempting to polish turds here but seeing as a collection of turds is all we have to choose from we probably need to look at each option carefully. If you don't like geremi as an option you can make a case for an alternative who will provide more?

I think a football brain is exactly what he HAS got and what other midfielders that we have preferred are missing.

But we are going to have to choose one grade of dogshit and Geremi so far has been under the radar. I think it's worth discussing.

Personally I think we should have made more use of him even if it was just for 45 mins a game. He passes much better than Butt or Nolan, has far better close control and offers a genuine threat from his final delivery. Obviously he's too slow and doesn't have a great engine but do Butt or Nolan have those qualities? If Barton is fit we should go back to the same 4-3-3 line up Keegan used last season IMO. Butt as the anchor with Geremi and Barton providing the quality passing either side.

Watching Pompey yesterday it was uncomfortably obvious that they might not have much goal threat but they pass the ball around much better than us. I think this is also the case with 'boro and Fulham. I just can't see us getting the wins unless we switch to 4-3-3, or get rid of Butt or Nolan. Or both.

He tried Beye at centre back and that was successful. Easy to forget the plusses when the results go wrong.

One less team to worry as promotion rivals about if we get relegated.

We should also be asking ourselves if the midfielders aren't crap, why would we even be contemplating a 4-3-3 line up with two forwards who are blatantly unfit? Sadly the best spell of passing of the day against Spurs happened when Viduka, Martins and Owen dropped deep and knocked it about between themselves.

I agree with you. Amdy Faye wasn't a very good footballer but he was at least fit enough to compete at this level. We have had a problem for a couple of years now with Nicky Butt, who if he was the only immobile midfielder in there you could get away with it, but if you surround him with similarly slow players you are asking to get over-run. The pairing of Butt and Nolan is as bad as I''ve seen. Nolan is probably less mobile than Butt and he has much worse technique. It's like watching a middle aged man trying to have a kick about after having a few bevvies at his local.