TRon

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.

Fulham are not going to be a pushover, that's for sure. We still haven't won under Keegan, but I think we'll do it.

The second half performance might just have turned the corner for us and given us a platform to stay in the Premier. If people aren't happy about it then fine, carry on moaning if it helps. You need help that's for sure.

Agreed. This isn't to say that Martins is a world beater (neither is he gash) and the same goes for Owen. I know Wullie thinks he's finished, but even a lesser Owen is going to score goals, and he's got the balls to do it when it matters. Start them both from now on. What Martins has to realise is, it's not like last season where he had no competition for his place. This season, he has Owen & Viduka also competing for a place, and as Alex pointed out, it wasn't as if he was brought off early on due to his performance! Everyone knows he played well, but Birmingham had just about held us out, so bringing on N'Zogbia with ten minutes to go and leaving Viduka & Owen up front to try and nick the winner was hardly a bad substitution. I don't have any arguments about that, personally I would have subbed Viduka though. He looked gassed.

Faye had a bad game last night, let's hope it was just a bad day at the office. He's looked our best centre back otherwise. I thought Taylor had a few hairy moments as well but that's to be expected. He really worries me. Nicky Butt for all I've criticised him, was good last night. Stood up to be counted.

Agreed. This isn't to say that Martins is a world beater (neither is he gash) and the same goes for Owen. I know Wullie thinks he's finished, but even a lesser Owen is going to score goals, and he's got the balls to do it when it matters. Start them both from now on.

What I would say, is that Martins has to start, then it should be who plays alongside, that's the question. Said in the other thread, Viduka is the one who is dispensable out of the three strikers.

he does try to beat players but it doesn't come off. Looks way off form at the moment, and I don't think he's that good in any case. He's almost good but doesn't have the speed or skill to quite pull it off.

The three up top looked lop-sided to me. Personally I'd bring Zog in and drop Viduka to the bench. Tough choice, but of the three strikers he looked the least threat and he still doesn't look fit.

I thought Geremi was abysmal in the first half, he stood frozen like a statue for most of it. He was great 2nd half though, not sure if he's got the legs for 90 mins. Best passer in the midfield at the moment. The one thing I'll say in Barton's defence is that he didn't hide. It's actually a surprise when he passes to his own team though.

I know he missed a few passes, but his general confidence looks much higher and yesterday he didn't look like a startled rabbit for a change. Was definitely one of our better players, especially considering he had no real wide man in front of him.