TRon

I wonder how highly rated Deschamps is in Italy right now? I don't think Juventus were too sad to see him go.

Hold on a sec, Allardyce played pretty much the exact same formation and system with all three of those at home to Derby, and he got hammered for it. Keegan would have got hammered for it as well if he'd gone to Derby with a team cowering in fear of defeat. He didn't, he went to Birmingham to win and by the end Birmingham were hanging on for their lives with Martins having to be dragged off the pitch he so badly wanted to do them.

Great post Mick. Really well said.

Seriously, who were the better alternatives at the time? Deschamps? The guy who was going to turn us down because of a lack of French schools in Newcastle? Mark Hughes? His team are doing well lately aren't they? Shearer? Fuck off. Now that would have been a sentimental appointment...and the sentiment would have been only one way. We know with Keegan we'll get a team that will punch their weight eventually. and we know that if it doesn't work out he will walk rather than sit tight holding out for the money like that cunt Souness.

Birmingham away are pretty tough nuts, especially since McLeish took over. Fulham, Sunderland and Reading at home definitely looke the easier fixtures before last night. Mr Hindsight has entered the building I think.

We only need it to work against the worse sides though.

Good point. I thought Viduka should have been replaced, not Martins until the point was made that Viduka was buying us space by holding the ball up the field.

Considering the pressure he's been under I think he's held up really well. I know he looked happier yesterday but it's probably his first opportunity since he got here. A run of tough fixtures, good goals ruled out against 'boro, the Blackburn last minute choker, a freak goal which opened the floodgates at Liverpool..it would have plenty of younger managers reaching for the prozac. Then on top of that you have the press running headlines he's got two games to save his job and the rest of the bullshit printed every day. Yet he still takes it all on the chin and refuses to look for excuses. Even last week he was saying "blame me, don't blame the players". NE5 is right, I wouldn't back against him making all these vultures eat their words. You can bet your botton dollar that Keegan believes he will.

As soon as I saw that line up with three strikers, I thought this is the real Keegan. How many managers would have gone to Birmingham after they'd just tonked Spurs with only three midfielders so they could fit in another striker

Geremi's set pieces were poor last night and his play in general was rusty before the 2nd half. That said, he should still take the set pieces because he's usually good at it.

If we are going to play three strikers, Viduka is obviously going to be one of them. Even without mobility, his touch, hold up play and goal threat will put him ahead of Carroll at the moment.

I think we might do Spurs away as well.

I think that's the key. Foreign players are generally slow to adapt to the Premier, Spaniards especially.

I think after watching so many absolutely dire performances from so many Newcastle players, decent performances are lauded long and loud out of sheer relief.

He's two weeks away from training according to KK, so basically he might as well pack his bags. When did he say that because I seem to remember him saying he would be fit for the Fulham game. It's in today's Chronicle in the story about Shay Given jetting to America.

He's two weeks away from training according to KK, so basically he might as well pack his bags.

If we're going 4-3-3 then that's the team I'd pick. I would prefer 4-4-2 with Zog on the left, but if we can play like we did 2nd half yesterday, I don't mind 4-3-3 either. Especially as Fulham will sit back and defend for dear life.

Spot on there. Enrique looks like he's got some ability on the ball, with a decent midfielder in front of him we could see him turn out ok IMO.

It's another Setanta game which means having to watch McManamans facial contortions again. I swear his face moves in three different directions every time he opens his gob.

Heid like a thrupenny bit! I can't take anyone's opinion on football seriously when they rate him, I really can't. I'm sure someone on TT called him something like Whiteus Bramble or something the other week. At least Bramble was rock solid in between the gaffes. I'm quite surprised how Taylor gets knocked around so easily sometimes.

He's been played on the wing mostly, which doesn't really show him at his best. I think in the end, even Arsenal were tired of having to accomodate him. There was that stuff about him being the centre of everything they tried to do.

Or don't get him and buy someone else...

I don't think it's a good idea buying players who are past their peak, although he's undoubtedly still quality.

The big problem with playing all 3 is the lack of width in the team, it wouldn't be too bad if our fullbacks were better going forward but sadly they're not. I also thought Viduka suffered by not having a midfielder pushing forward that he could lay the ball back to. Agree, just said in the Riise thread that I think both our full-backs could be replaced in the summer. Keegan will want more attack-minded players instead. As for the second point, that's what Barton should have been doing I thought. But he wasn't really at the races getting forward. In the system we played last night I think we'd benefit from having either Emre or N'Zogbia on instead of Geremi or Barton, giving us a better balance with a leftie in midfield. Ideally, if Barton started playing well we could drop Geremi and play Barton and N'Zogbia either side of Butt and encourage them to drive forward and get into wide positions. I think the problem in midfield comes from our fullbacks being poor going forward tbh. If Enrique and Beye could get up and down better then we could have played a midfield triangle with two sat deep and Barton pushing on, instead we had to rely on Barton and Geremi to pull out wide which meant nobody was in the middle to push on. or could it be we are that rubbish defensivly from midfield the full backs don't want to commit as neither of our wide midfielders have the tactical nouse to read a game and try to cover or be in a position to cover.............or dare i say it....the desire to cover ? No, the fullbacks are just poor going forward, you can tell it's just not a natural part of their game. i think they do ok and will do better with confidence,however defending has been the worst part of our game this season so you can't blame them too much for not wanting to move too far away. thought enrique done well last night when he had someone to pass to. I agree with Madras. Playing full back in a 433 is not the easiest thing to do, especially when out of your midfield three, one's legs have gone and one is inexplicably poor, leaving the other one (who also happens to be getting on a bit) almost hopeflessly overrun. Alot of how effective a full back can be going forward depends on how confident he is that if he does push forward, something disasterous is not going to happen in his channel if we lose the ball - in our team I think Whitley Beye and Enrique have good reason to be a bit wary of pushing forward. A couple of times in the first half Enrique was looking for the 1-2 with one of his midfielders (should be Barton's job), but you can see he's not confident he's going to get it back. If he gives it inside to Barton and runs up the line, then Barton loses it (not out of the realms of possibility by any means) we are straight in all sorts of bother. Which is why I thought Enrique had a pretty good game last night. Not much of an outlet for him so in the circumstances a decent shift.

Taylor made about four gaffes in the first half, luckily none of them were punished. Other than that the defence improved considerably as a unit 2nd half.