TRon

His energy,work rate and creativiyt in the middle would help us no end. Duff Barton Guthrie Zogbia Jonas Martins In a team which lacks goals the central midfielder playing furthest forward needs to chip in. That's why Barton or Owen need to play there for me. Jonas record doesn't suggest he'll get enough.

Love the way you write half a page listing all of Martins faults but at the end grudgingly admit we still need him

I don't really see what he's said wrong tbh. Why knock the guy for wanting to be here? He said from the start that he took the job with the view that if he got results it might lead to some sort of offer if not from us then another club. As far as I'm concerned though he is an interim manager only. If the club isn't going to get sold we should look to make a full time appointment. The sensible decision would be to bring back Keegan and ship out Wise and Llambias.

I don't know, does this post from you have anything to do with th topic originally intended ? Why not do a survey, and see how many posts don't deviate in any way whatsoever from the topic title ? It seems to me that this particular one moved slightly quite a while ago. Most threads do in fact Put it back on track if it bothers you ? So what do you think the longer JK stays?

Do the last few contributions on this thread have anything to do with the topic originally intended?

I would have respected Sir Bobby a lot more if he'd told Fat Fred to f*** off and that he wouldn't accept players bought and sold behind his back. Look where his 'love of the club' got him. Humiliatingly sacked. 2 things with this - at the end of the day he did right by the club and we know what a bad decision it was to sack him so his stubborness was justified. The other more interesting point is how Shepherds role has been renedered less significant....its exactly the same thing that has happened here, maybe even worse but the outcry is 20 times worse and i cant fathom why. The timing of the sacking was wrong, yes. But he should have went during the summer of 2004. Totally agreed. At a time we knew Robson was on his way the next year anyway, and at a time where we were on a par with Liverpool, still not a million miles behind Chelsea, but way ahead of Spurs, Liverpool sacked Houllier and got Benitez, Chelsea sacked Ranieri and got Mourinho, while Spurs appointed Santini, but more importantly, got Martin Jol in too. We clung on to Robson when we should have been doing the same thing, sacked him at a stupid time, and then got Souness. The crucial aspect of that was we sacked Bobby without having a suitable replacement lined up unlike the other far more successful and better run teams you mention there. I still have no understanding of how things worked at Newcastle under Shepherd. His son handling transfers, Souness and the Pinar Zahavi/Willie McKay agents links...police raids on Shepherd's home. Paying £17m for Owen when the asking price was £12m. Strange stuff tbh.

Makes that free-kick even more of a sickener now because we'd have been level with them now. I still reckon we'll be comfortably ahead of them, and better come the next derby and we'll win it easily. So do I. He who laughs last laughs longest as they say...

This.

I see the Mackems lost. What a come down. What a difference a few days makes eh?

Shola is anything but impressive in the air, he gets his head up and the ball just bounces off in any direction. As for his knockdowns, I'd hold out more hope of getting 6 numbers on the lottery than I would at guessing 6 times where the ball would go after coming in to contact with his head. Absolutely. I'm amazed how many people keep harping about picking up Shola's flick ons as if anyone has a clue which way they'll skew off the top of his head.

One thing about Duff, he doesn't give away possession of the ball in a hurry. This is partly because he takes less risks and goes for the easy sideways passes after a run, whereas Charlie usually looks to deliver a telling pass or cross but often runs into trouble or holds the ball too long. Neither is really what the team is looking for.

I think the sensible thing would be for Ashley to sell at a lower price and get a deal done. If he still can't sell we could look at it again.

We've got 3 left wingers in Jonas, Duff and Zog, for me it's simple first choice left winger should get the left spot. Both Duff and Zog are capable of playing wide right although I would prefer a right-footed player there.

Don't really see the point in keep switching between Enrique and Bassong. It would make more sense to give Enrique a decent run and explain exactly what is expected, defensively and attacking wise.

Yes but I also see him roughing up defenders, winning some aerial battles, showing some nifty footwork and passing, scoring two goals and winning a pen. That's the Shola package good and bad.

is Milner likely to be starting? I know he was fairly shit on his full debut for Villa.

Probably got something to do with Xisco's signing being connected with Keegan's walk out. Sad state of affairs if he's going to kop a lod of shite without being given a fair chance.

I would have thought we would be up for this one, but it's never easy telling if some of these players will turn up on the day. We need to go in with an attitude that it's a home game and the aim is to turn them over, not worry about what they will do to us.

Martins was on his bike when the flick ons landed anywhere in his vicinity. Did you actually see Shola try to head them in his direction because I didn't. He won a lot of balls in the air and fair play to him for that, but you can't expect Martins to know where each ball is going to drop.

Not bad as a pair yesterday but didn't really dominate the midfield as much as I would have expected. Not sure if that was because WBA had an extra man in midfield and because we sat too deep for a lot of the match. I expected to see Barton in the opposition box a lot more as well. I would like to get another look but I would imagine Butt will be back for the Villa match.

To be fair to him on the goal he was tracking the run of the player then the ball was played inside of him and he couldn't change his run in time. if it had been taylor ? At least Coloccini was marking his man even if he got done by the pass. For the first goal, Taylor left his striker, ended up stranded in no man's land, and the lad he'd stopped marking scored the goal. Andy Gray pointed it out at the time.

f*** me are you f***ing real? your going on about people having a go at xisco then your blasting shola when he had a good game??? I don't rate shola but you can't knock the lad for the way he played last night? he won nearly every ball in the air & held it up well.. Martins was s*** last night never read one knock on by shola I think it was the right decision to take him off.. Imo How can you read any knock on by Shola seeing as they just bounce off his head in random speed and direction? A canny few of them knock on's went straight forward, martins was stood still for 90% of them.. I don't think martins is 100% fit yet but his reading of the game & overall link up last night was pish.. Martins was poor last night but I defy any striker to get on the end of knock ons that land 10 yards away. At least Shola is winning headers these days, that's a start.

His running and close control opened up a lot of good situations though. Quite often he was putting runners in the clear who then didn't deliver a final ball.

Fuck me are you fucking real? your going on about people having a go at xisco then your blasting shola when he had a good game??? I don't rate shola but you can't knock the lad for the way he played last night? he won nearly every ball in the air & held it up well.. Martins was shit last night never read one knock on by shola I think it was the right decision to take him off.. Imo How can you read any knock on by Shola seeing as they just bounce off his head in random speed and direction?

This,I cant believe that people on here are still slating him I thought he was poor last night, gave the ball away for their goal and failed to look up and see a runner in space to his left on 3 occassions. Lots of effort though. Went on a couple of decent runs for a change and worked hard. His end product was dismal though and he doesn't look convincing for me. Two matches in a row now he's got into good position and shot tamely straight to the keeper at waist height. Powder puff stuff, Duff.