Shak

Oh yes because we've done a fantabulous job of making him feel wanted the last year and a half haven't we? I don't blame him for wanting out, not for one second. And yeah, I can understand the reasoning behind people wanting him gone because of his poor attitude, as thick a viewpoint as I find it to be.

Is the attitude issue not understandable? If Damien Duff was asked to play left back or sit on the bench for two seasons behind Zog, would he not have an attitude issue? Zoggy was f****** garbage last season though. Even when being played in his favourite position. But really, even had he played out of his skin when he did occasionaly get a game under Roeder on the left, do you think there was any chance in hell that he'd keep his place once Duff got back? It was obvious as day that Duff was going to be automatic first-choice once he was signed. In an ideal world your young players would all have fabulous attitudes and just get on with it, but with the way things are these days the club has to make their best young talents happy, because if you don't then someone else will. I'm resigned to him leaving, I've given up at this point in all honesty. But how anyone can't be absolutely sickened by the way we've not even attempted to develop his talent over the last two years is beyond me.

The whole affair sickens me, quite frankly. Whether he goes on to be a really good player or not is still in the balance, but the talent is definitely there more than most of the prospects in our squad. Sir Bobby said of him when he was signed "N'Zogbia could go to the very top with the right coaching and motivation, and I hope it is with Newcastle. I signed him as a teenager and he was one of the most naturally gifted players of that age I'd ever seen." It's baffling to think that two seasons ago a 19-year old kid from a foreign country broke into a very poor Premiership side and scored 6 goals and had 7 assists and by all accounts looked a very promising young left winger, and since then he's scarcely started 10 games in that position in a season and a half. Sulky fucker or not, we failed him as a club miserably. Cheers Roeder, ya fucknut.

Nah man, 4-5-1 with Smith, Geremi and Butt in midfield and Viduka up top on his own. Keep it tight, frustrate them, stop them from playing and then nick a goal from a set-piece. Clearly the way to approach this game. Don't think we're capable of doing that unfortunately. I was taking the piss you silly, silly man.

Nah man, 4-5-1 with Smith, Geremi and Butt in midfield and Viduka up top on his own. Keep it tight, frustrate them, stop them from playing and then nick a goal from a set-piece. Clearly the way to approach this game.

I can imagine he'll be 4th choice, at best, next year. If he's still here at all that is. I'd bet we'll be looking to bring in a really top-class CB, with Faye and Taylor then competing to partner him in the center of defence, with the other being first reserve. Cacapa would be a good presence in the squad and decent in an emergency, experienced and has a cool head. He'd probably be injured when we need him though, mind you.

Can't for the life of me see what Rafa hoped to achieve taking off Babel, his fastest midfield player, and bringing on Benayoun when, clearly, Liverpool's best chance of scoring was catching Man U on the break.

Put the effort in mate... http://www.askthelawguy.info/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ricflair.jpg WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Bodes well for him, and us as a consequence, that he's starting to find ways to be effective other than what he's relied on his whole career. Now that he can't push opposition defences back with just the threat of his pace, he has to find other ways to help the team in build up play, and some of his link-play the last two games has been very tidy. I don't think playing as an attacking midfielder is the way forward for him, but he'll certainly have to become involved in games more than he has most of his career. Been quite impressed with his all-round game the last two matches I must say.

How is that? Not gonna effect my mood in general life all that much tbh, but right now I'm absolutely thrilled. How can you not be, given that not winning today could have meant relegation?

Isolates Birmingham, Bolton and Fulham a bit. Nice. Bolton will be devestated to not have beaten City.

Dave, I believe a 24-hour ban for Brummie is in order.

GET IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not really about consistent, quality delivery though. Only a select few players in the world put in a really good ball more often than not. It's about having the ability to put in a near undefendable ball every so often that makes up for the poor ones. Robert was a prime example of this. The majority of his corners were piss, but you knew that eventually he was going to put one in that was nigh on undefendable and just asking to be nodded home. Emre is like that, to an extent.

I gave up after the paragraph that elbee has highlighted, seems it doesn't improve. What's the gist then?

Would this be a better or worse potential signing than Ronaldinho in your opinion Kaka? Bear in mind you claimed last summer you'd be depressed if we signed Ronaldinho?

Got to say I totally disagree with that. Barton is pretty good defensively but s**** attacking imo. Geremi (usually) has a very good cross and decent pass on him. Geremi is good at retaining the ball, but he rarely does anything overly-fantastic with it. Barton has the ability to pick out a great pass here and there and get forward and join the strikers, even though he's done it fuck all in his time here admittedly.

A lot of people have really bought into the idea that Keegan is nothing more than a cheque-book manager whose teamtalk will consist of little more than "Alright lads, go out and get at them and enjoy yourself." Maybe he's not the greatest tactician of all-time, but he's no mug either, not by any means. I think that in a sense he was exactly what we needed. The club had generally lost the fans to an extent with the previous 3 managers, there needed to be something done. Some people are still tearing into Keegan, a bonafide club legend, now for what's happened so far. Can you imagine what it would have been like if it were Redknapp or Deschamps who'd come in and had a terrible start? I'd expect he'll get significant funds in the summer if we beat the drop, and next year I'd expect us to be an exciting team who'll finish somewhere upper mid-table. Can he take us to the next level? I'm not sure. But he'll leave a hell of a lot easier job for the next guy to take over.

While Geremi played better than Barton on Monday, I reckon Keegan may drop Geremi in favour of N'Zogbia for the Fulham game. Geremi doesn't offer you a lot going forward generally while Barton does, in theory at least. Butt in the holding role with Barton and N'Zogbia either side of him would give us a better natural shape, with Zoggy and Barton encouraged to get into wide areas where possible. Other than that, same team I reckon. Be very surprised if we don't see the 3 strikers again.

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. Did they look like 'pretty tough nuts' to you last night? they have not lost there since november or so i heard yesterday so yes. That doesn't make sense. I'm talking about how they looked last night. You can't just cherry-pick a dodgy 45 minute period to say they're s**** man! Maybe we made them look s****? Is that what you really think? That the quality of our play made them look s****? You reckon they just weren't arsed then or what?

Michael Owen? Bear in mind we signed Owen pre-injury, when he was still a really top class striker. People have a go at NE5 for turning threads into long, cyclical Shepherd guff-fests, and rightfully so because he does. But honestly, what the fuck do people expect with people making posts like this?

Yea, Butt's hatchet job on Larsson was a massive moment in the game tbh and he wasn't booked for it. Horrible challenge, well done Nicky.

Did I see you've released Dixon? Weren't you saying he was as talented as Rooney a while ago? He was, aye. Got my international hopes right up.

How would you have felt if it'd been Duff being brought on for Martins, with the same goal in mind? Anyway, I can see what Keegan was thinking but I'd have left it as it was personally. N'Zogbia played in an extremely advanced position most of the time anyway, so I don't think the move was a defensive one from KK. Just an introduction of fresh legs, hoping for N'Zogbia to produce something. With Martins seemingly playing with a bit of confidence, think he might just have been a better bet. Still, we'd almost certainly have still drawn the game anyway.

The last few minutes seemed to drag, probably because I had visions of us throwing it away like against Blackburn. First time in a long time I never really took notice of the clock during a game. First time in ages I gave myself a sore throat cheering and shouting at the telly too. On reflection, I'm quite ashamed of what I shouted at the TV when Owen missed that chance at the start of the 2nd half.