TRon

Happy to see you're still not doling out lectures on why it would have been silly to buy in the Jan window. I didn't lecture anybody, just said that we shouldn't buy unless we can get the right players. No point in buying Robbie Savage to replace Butt is there?

Parker wasn't and isn't the answer.

The midfield lacked pace or athleticism. Take Butt out and replace with Faye and I think we'd have looked a lot better. Duff looked lively but was isolated because geriatrics like Butt couldn't keep up.

Emre isn't strong or fast either, but at least he's cute enough to hold the ball and pass well under pressure. Butt is a liability with his lack of composure and as he's not quick enough to get his foot in he's not much use as a ball winner either. The clear weak link in the side today and one of the reasons the midfield can't function.

If Middlesborough's midfielders are too strong and fast for Butt to keep pace, he is liable to be destroyed by Man U and Villa. Get Faye in there till the Summer then we need a quality holding midfielder.

Agreed.

Butt cost us that game today. He was outmuscled by Boro's faster, stronger players, and his lack of ability to hold the ball led to their goal.

Hopefully Viduka will strike a dagger through Slaven's heart by scoring the winner. If he is playing?? He was talking about being involved in one of the papers yesterday FWIW.

Hopefully Viduka will strike a dagger through Slaven's heart by scoring the winner.

Good move Wisey

The more we see of Ramos's organisation, the more we realise where we might have been now if Jol had gone at the start of the season. The best Spurs performance I've seen in years, everyone leaner, fitter, playing with a purpose, extremely optimistic about the future. Unlike most on the Spurs' forums, I thought Clattenburg did well, as you say, it could have got well out of hand with a different ref. I thought Nani was fortunate to stay on the pitch but, apart from that, no real complaints. We got pulverised for 20 minutes by the best attacking team of the big 4 and very nearly held out. A lot to be encouraged by. Personally I'm pleased to see Jenas doing so well, as he got a load of stick here especially from HTL who laughably compared him unfavourably to that donkey Lee Bowyer. What a fucking joke.

1) Gus Hiddink wouldn't have come. 2) His record against English teams doesn't suggest any great tactical awareness. Wasn't it his Dutch team that were shafted by Venables' Christmas tree formation?

Ron Liddle: Sums up the southern press in a nutshell. Support the 'boro because they are no threat and have a shit fan base which means they can never be a big club. Well Ron, today your fiendish dreams will be crushed because boro are going down

He'll probably flop and we'll be stuck with him. I don't understand any of this, tbh. From the start, Allardyce said that Rozehnal was going to be bedded in slowly, and I'm sure Rozehnal knew that, but because we were in the shit (i.e. Ben Haim didn't come and Faye took his time, etc.) he had to play from the off. However, he's still not up to PL standard, so fuck knows why he's bleating about not getting games. The whole thing's insane to me. I don't think he'll flop, Italian football should suit him quite well.

Found wanting of what exactly? Trophies and glory aren't guaranteed no matter how much money you throw around, it still has to be spent wisely. Juande Ramos could be the biggest tactical genius in the world, but he still needed a Woodgate to make that defence look any good. Let's be clear about this, Keegan isn't taking over a successful club, he's taking over one that's struggling to finish in the top half. If we are challenging for Europe next season he'll have gone a lot further than many before him.

This is the biggest game of the season so far in some ways. The next couple of games are tough so we need 3pts from this one. Keegan will learn a lot about his players tomorrow.

Yes, we need to clone Faye and play Faye Mk II in defence, releasing Faye MkI further upfield.

Things are panning out pretty much how I thought other than the Bolton game. I think it was a clever move to sack Allardyce so swiftly and decisively. This now gives Keegan a good window in which to assess the squad and make the big moves in the summer which will see us launch a serious assault for a Eoropen place for the first time since SBR was last here. That much I am confident we will achieve, and that's not to be sniffed at for starters.

I wouldn't argue with that much like. I think logically most managers would pick Butt and Emre/Barton but in some games you just have to say bollocks to protectiong the back four. If we want to score goals we need to create chances and we wont create chances until we have players like Emre and Barton on the pitch. Normally i wouldn't advise it but lets double our chances by playing two players in the middle who know how to run a game of football. If we have to, we can play one of them a little deeper. However, i fully expect to see Butt and Emre start the match and i'm by no means against that. It goes against conventional wisdom, but Keegan is one manager who in the past has picked a midfield with no defensive midfielder. During our title-charge season we went 12 points clear with mostly Lee Clark in a holding role, Batty was brought in during the run in. Whether you could do that these days I'm not sure, but I'd far rather see that approach than the twin defensive midfielder approach used by Souness and Allardyce. Ideally I'd like to see Faye and Emre given a crack together. Faye's physical presence would dovetail nicely with Emre's flair in theory at least.

Watching the Arse mauling City should put our poor games against them in perspective. Should be a big confidence booster for our lads.

He'll have wound the doom merchants and sceptics up again with his focused and determined resolve to take Newcastle back towards the top 4. Crooks: "it'll be much harder this time, the game has changed according to Alex Ferguson" Keegan: "that's what they'd like you to think..."

He hasn't done a lot wrong, but he could have done a hell of a lot more. He could have bust a gut making it clear he'd love to be no 2 effectively being the next boss of Newcastle. Or alternatively he could say he doesn't want the job yet as he's happy at the beeb.

I think it was clear some time back that Shearer wasn't going to take a minor role. The no 2 job was the best option but if he didn't want that, why would he want anything less?

Looks like Keegan is starting to twig