TRon

A couple of half decent results and Keegan is already badgering the board in public about giving Michael Owen a new contract. I'd say the spark is back and itching to ignite come the summer. Keegan's looking more and more like his old self and as always, his team is starting to reflect it.

Drogba misses a few, but I'd say the other two were fairly clinical. More to the point, all three are capable of making their own chances, and of creating things for team mates, to a far higher degree than Owen. If a striker is gaining his place up front as a specialist finisher, then his conversion rate is more important. Isn't that argument redundant now seeing as Owen is playing deeper and playing as a link man?

The only drawback to his game is that he doesn't get beyond the winger so far, but he's a good defender, which is after all the first priority. He's got good skill as well so if he's still first choice next season I think we'll see him really come on.

I'd agree with this. Against the weaker teams this formation has worked great because they will give us the ball back quite regulary so no need to press all over the pitch. The better teams have fast competitive midfielders which will probably over-run us if we have only three midfielders in there. What I would say is that Owen has shown just what a clever footballer he is and there's definitely a role for him in a Beardsley role, i.e. a striker who plays off the main front man. Could see him working with Viduka obviously, but also I'm now convinced an Owen/Martins strike partnership could work.

Harsh imo, after a shaky first few minutes looked pretty good in general play yesterday showing some nice skill and neat touches, Fulham had no answer for him. I thought he did ok. Nowt special. He did well when he latched onto the excellent long pass from Enrique in the first half but other than that he didn't do a lot. Summed it up pretty well. Provided a possible threat with his pace but never actually did much with it, although his team play was better than it can be. Didn't giver the ball away, and stuck out wide quite dutifully.

I was amazed how many started filing out before the whistle as well. Such an important win and for some reason I expected everyone would stay to applaud the team off.

We're only getting showers so no problems. One minute it's blizzard conditions, next bright sunshine.

I guess it could be argued but the debate would end once the men in white coats arrived to take you away. Also what is with the '' around local hero? It like your having a dig becasue he was from Newcastle. I think you are mentally fatigued after your long board wars with NE5, take a week or 2 off & regroup your thoughts TRon. I don't really want to take this into a different direction and turn it into a Shearer debate, I just don't rate Shearer types as highly as I rate Players with the ability to make things happen, which is why I mentioned Waddle, Beardsley and Gascoigne. I was gutted when all three of those left, whereas Shearer for me was at his peak just before he arrived at Newcastle. At Southampton and Blackburn before his injuries he seemed to have an explosiveness which wasn't there once he signed for us. He seemed far easier to mark in free play which limited our options a bit.

While Shearer is in the lead for this honour, it could also be argued that he was our worst signing. We were a team heading for the stars, from the 2nd division to challenging for the title. Once our 'local hero' arrived it pretty much went downhill. In my lifetime, I've seen a few good local players, Beardsley, Waddle and Gascoigne. All three wee much better for Newcastle than Shearer ever was.

Keegan had been hinting at including Viduka for a week before the game which sort of blows that theory out of the water. The fact he included Martins as well probably took a few people by surprise, but it was a resounding success in the end. Keegan dropped two players with no end product and replaced them with goal-scorers. Butt, Barton and Geremi were used as a fairly defensive midfield to allow us to do this. If Keegan was as impulsive and careless as some would think, he would probably have included N'Zogbia in that line up.

I'd like KK to set a target for Barton to score a certain number of goals. The guys got it in him he just seems to have lost all his confidence in his attacking play. At home against a piss poor fulham side should be perfect. For a player who is competing with Alan Smith for the record of least attempts on goal during an entire season, setting a goals target might be asking a bit much. How about setting a target for entering the opposition penalty area X amount of times?

Yeah, don't knock Glen Roeder. He successfully scouted and poached Matty Pisshead Pattison under everyone's noses during his time here.

I think Fulham have to go for the win though, even if that's a bit out of character for the cautious Hodgson. A draw is a worse result for them than it is for us. I still think they'll play defensively knowing Hodgson. Maybe not as defensively as Bolton but looking to catch us on the break.

Too right. As far as I'm concerned I feel much more confident we'll get goals with both starting. I'll bet not that many Premier defences are all that confident at the prospect of facing them. Martins is a handful, and Owen's so hard to track.

There's a danger this could turn into another Bolton type game, where we go in on the back of a decent performance and then get frustrated by an ultra defensive line up. The difference this time hopefully, is the triple strike force might provide the firepower that Duff and Smith couldn't. 2-1 for me and that'll do nicely.

Agree with this tbh. He's not that great to start with, when you add that to the fact the twat is never available, I'd say he's highly expendable.

In other words, whatever happens, appointing him was the right thing to do. If he succeeds, he's a genius, if he fails, it's someone else's fault. Easy fodder this for NE5. Like you say, if Keegan succeeds, he's right. If Keegan fails, he'll claim he's right about our new board. Aye, as a general rule of thumb on Planet NE5, if The Magnificent Shepherd is in charge, anything that goes wrong is someone else's fault. But if someone else is in charge, everything is their fault.

Nail on the head. If we are going to buy another LB then he has to be exceptional as far as I'm concerned, or an outstanding prospect, although Ben Tozer would probably fall into that category. There's no point in buying an 'ok' left back when we have one who looks like he might be better than that already here.

It sounds daft but people keep going on about Owen offers nothing apart from goals, yet against Birmingham he was almost linking the midfield to the attack when he dropped deeper, while still providing a goal threat. Just what we've been missing recently.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. What a fucking knob.

Pound for pound, Andy Cole IMO. We had him at his peak, I don't believe that about Shearer. I think our football declined after Shearer arrived if I'm honest, although it wasn't down to him individually, just the balance of the team wasn't the same.

I'm going to be pedantic and say not for an entire decade as he was pretty ineffective those last couple of seasons. I can't agree with that, even in his last couple of years where his ability was fading (which is a fair enough point I reckon), he was instrumental to the club, the fans and in the players we signed. I reckon we could have been deep in the mire well before now if he hadn't lasted so long. Held us back at times due to his influence behind the scenes iyam. Especially when Kluivert/Bellamy was definitely the way forward at the time. Kluivert?! Shearer was more nimble than Kluivert even sitting on Doctor Richard Steadman's operating table. Of course he was. Shearer was quick, nimble and skilful, whereas Kluivert was a tough, uncompromising typical English centre forward.

Andy Cole. Pound for pound, best by a mile.

Good point. Let's drop Viduka and Martins and bring back Duff and Smith.

Yes - they are conceding 4 goals a game pretty regularly. What masterful tactical awareness