TRon

With Lovenkrands and Viduka being close to availability again, this formation is looking pretty tempting again. Chuck Andy Carroll into the mix and it's clear we have our best assets up front when we are firing. The wing back formation is good for the players we have as well, we should go with one of these IMO.

This man is a born leader.

now then toonlass............shades of Gazza, Waddle and Beardsley here, wouldn't you agree ? Hasn't happened for a number of years, wouldn't you agree ? Losing Shay isn't even close to losing any of those three. Those guys were the equivalent of Rooney, outrageously talented players at their peak that come along once in a decade in England. Given is a fine 33 yr old shot stopper who doesn't command his penalty area. He was a great keeper for us but he wasn't anywhere near as good as our hero worship led him to believe. It all went to his head in the end, and now I look forward to the prospect of seeing Krul or Forster show their class when they get their chance while he walks the slums of Manchester.

I bet he's gutted to find out that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence. City are doing shit and he's playing in Manchester where his club are considered 2nd fiddle to Man U.

Martins has a groin injury, I doubt he'll be playing. Viduka will most probably start on the bench.

I really don't want to hear from him and it's obvious the fact he is still talking about us shows he realises what a great club he left.

just to pour some cold piss on this carroll scored 2 goals in the reserves and shearer played shola instead of him next game edgar got a game through injury only as far as i can see and carroll came on against stoke 'cause shola was on the brink of being arrested he was so bad what i want to see is shearer recognise that duff, smith, butt & shola are simply fucking terrible and THEY are the ones who should only be played as a last resort - a great manager will find a solution, i hope he can 'cause i've said all along if our future remains in the hands of said "established" players we'll go down and i stand by that does anyone truly believe shearer will take owen off and give ranger a run out 'cause he's performing in the reserves? i'm so sick of reactive management at NUFC - it's time for some proactivity man ffs instead of giving the first teamers a "red hot poker" by threatening their place take the fucking place from them first and make them fight for it, alls half of them care about is money anyways so maybe they'd make an effort if appearance fees came under question play the bairns man If this was two months ago I'd agree with you 100% but you have to factor in the situation we are in. Not many people would chuck a bunch of kids into a relegation battle where one bad result could be a disaster. Shearer might be playing youngsters because he's got no choice but I get the impression both he and Dowie are very keen on pushing the development of the kids much quicker than previously.

Liverpool don't just cross the ball far more effectively they also manouvre the ball into the final third of the pitch far better through good passing and movement so they are in a good position to get those crosses in as well. That's our biggest problem. We have awful midfielders who have trouble passing wind never mind the ball.

It might not be a major factor, but I love Shearer's message to the youngsters and the reserve squad that they can win a first team spot right NOW if they play well enough in the reserves. Not only does this give the likes of Carroll, Ranger and Edgar massive incentive, it also shoves a red hot poker right up the arses of a few first teamers who are getting away with anonymous performances week in week out.

In a nutshell, against a team that has movement and pace in midfield we don't really stand much of a chance. Said earlier that with such sluggish midfielders our best bet might be to do a Stoke and go for the physical approach. That should suit the likes of Ryan, Nolan and butt as they won't have to run and pass much. Just stick Andy Carroll up front and make sure we wing plenty of crosses in.

I've a feeling they'd be our best bet right now if they were chucked in at the deep end.

Sorry mate, while I appreciate Shola isn't as bad as some here like to make out, Carroll is a real goal threat in the air whereas Shola isn't called 50p head for no reason.

This game is like most games against Spurs, it could easily end in a win, loss or a draw. Except we won't lose, so that leaves us with at least a point IMO.

Carroll directed two great headers at goal neither of which were easy but he could easily have scored twice in the space of 5 mins. I can't remember Shola scoring two headers in the space of 5 yrs. That's the difference.

30 yr old carrying injuries and you can get back what you paid............only a bad decision when shearer got injured. That was one of Shepherd's better decisions if looked at objectively.

Yes greg, stick the tampon back in and breathe slowly. If you are going to throw a hissy fit over Spurs being mentioned as favourites at least don't follow it up by saying you'd be "overjoyed with a point".

Souness instead of anyone else.

It's a loaded question anyway. Like asking who would win a 100 meter race between Martins and Owen, or who would create more chances for the team during 90mins.

It would be ironic if both were injured and a Nile Ranger/Andy Carroll partnership fired us to safety in their absence

Colo is giving himself more problems than any striker is going to ATM.

Both were abysmal against Stoke so it's difficult to pin much hope on either really. To be fair to Guthrie he was coming back from injury and was the only midfielder to try to put his foot on the ball. And even if he wanted to play football it's very difficult when Butt and Nolan don't want to show for the ball. I've still got faith in Guthrie, he hasn't done a lot wrong in what must be proving a very difficult season for him considering his lack of experience. I like Guthrie as a player, don't get me wrong. Unlike Nolan, he's got some natural ability and actually looks like he's fit enough to play the game at this level and he has good ability on the ball. He does tend to hide in some games and doesn't look to take charge which is what he needs to work on if he doesn't want to be seen as a Liverpool reject all his life. It's up to him.

We have only played football worth watching under two managers in my time watching Newcastle, SBR and Keegan. As you must know I am no Keeganite but whatever the rights and wrongs of his latest stint as manager, this was the closest we have come to playing passing football again in ages. Compare the footy we were playing at the beginning of the season to the travesty we served up against Stoke and it was light years apart. And this relates to the question of his motivations for coming back and then leaving again... how exactly? My post was related to the topic as a whole, I only quoted your post because it mentioned Keegan.

he was our best midfielder out of a bad bunch He didn't want the ball enough and hid for large periods of the game. Disappointing.

Both were abysmal against Stoke so it's difficult to pin much hope on either really.

More power to the young guns, looks like they are more up for it than some of our big name perma-crock strikers