Shak

The incident where he nearly took Harper out when he was catching the ball under no pressure wasn't far from being a complete disaster.

Both Faye and Taylor would have benefitted immensely from playing alongside Woodgate. Both need to be carried to an extent, neither seem able to organise the defence at all. Cacapa isn't physically built for the Premiership, or at least not at this point in his career anyway, but it would seem that he alongside one of Faye or Taylor would be the best way to go. Taylor is an accident waiting to happen at the minute though, so Faye should be starting ahead of him.

My current ringtone. You laughing at him or with him? Cos I know what I'm doing.

Yes, you've already mentioned in the other thread that you believe it was the brilliant tactical nouse of Martins that saved us from certain doom last night.

Martins switched into a central position during the first half and Owen dropped deeper when it became clear the original plan wasn't working. Long before the second half. I'm going to credit Keegan, rather than Martins, with the tactical reshuffle personally.

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 Enrique may be on his way in the summer tbh. He'll end up as a good player I reckon, but Keegan I think is going to want full-backs who can really get up and down the flanks and be a threat going forward as much as being solid at the back. Enrique, and indeed Beye, look a bit awkward on the ball and not really ideal for that, can scarcely remeber either of them getting across of any note in last night. Sam Allardyce full-backs if I ever saw them, probably not what we need for the long-term.

He needs to keep letting his hair grow, that's for sure. It makes him look even more electric. I think that with a sharp, in-form Viduka that three-pronged attack could work very nicely. Viduka showed some nice touches but at times hung onto the ball that little bit too long or tried a turn that just didn't come off. Had he been at his very best, we'd have won last night I reckon. Viduka as the focal point of the attack with Martins and Owen working off him should get plenty of outings the rest of the year given the problems with our wingers at the moment. Martins gives you the neccesary pace up front while for Owen playing from deeper might actually be of benefit to him. Did well dropping off and retaining possession last night, and while he's not got the pace to get in behind defences for through balls like he used to, but he still times his runs beautifully and could be tough to pick up drifting in from deep.

No, it's not. But thinking that the problem is that the team are simply not aware that good passing would be beneficial to our chances, an impression you seem to be under, is fairly getting there. Has it entered your mind that just maybe it's not all that easy to open up teams with passing, especially a team like ourselves who lack any real talented playmaker in the middle of the park? It's not simply a case of showing up and saying "And tonight Matthew we're going to be Brazil 1970."

With Milner out and Damien Duff being exposed as an impostor in Premier League football, we didn't have the players necessary to play the 4-4-2 effectively tonight though. This is Allardyce's squad at the end of the day, and Keegan has to put out the best team he can now if we're going to avoid relegation. Sure the system wasn't perfect tonight but it was an eternity better than the psychopathically defensive, negative teams we've been sending out in away games this season under Allardyce. We were actually set up to have a bit of a go and while it wasn't ideally balanced, we did OK at a very difficult place to go. When Keegan can build his own team, you'll see a lot more width. That you can be assured of. will it matter when we're playing stoke? OK, so what do you suggest then? Other than the plan of passing the ball competantly, of course. jesus! if they passed it better, they might find the route to goal? "Alright lads, the problem has been that the last few games we haven't passed the ball very well. So the gameplan today is to pass the ball better, OK?" Problem sorted. might help like... just a suggestion What a waste of 13 minutes that was.

With Milner out and Damien Duff being exposed as an impostor in Premier League football, we didn't have the players necessary to play the 4-4-2 effectively tonight though. This is Allardyce's squad at the end of the day, and Keegan has to put out the best team he can now if we're going to avoid relegation. Sure the system wasn't perfect tonight but it was an eternity better than the psychopathically defensive, negative teams we've been sending out in away games this season under Allardyce. We were actually set up to have a bit of a go and while it wasn't ideally balanced, we did OK at a very difficult place to go. When Keegan can build his own team, you'll see a lot more width. That you can be assured of. will it matter when we're playing stoke? OK, so what do you suggest then? Other than the plan of passing the ball competantly, of course. jesus! if they passed it better, they might find the route to goal? "Alright lads, the problem has been that the last few games we haven't passed the ball very well. So the gameplan today is to pass the ball better, OK?" Problem sorted.

With Milner out and Damien Duff being exposed as an impostor in Premier League football, we didn't have the players necessary to play the 4-4-2 effectively tonight though. This is Allardyce's squad at the end of the day, and Keegan has to put out the best team he can now if we're going to avoid relegation. Sure the system wasn't perfect tonight but it was an eternity better than the psychopathically defensive, negative teams we've been sending out in away games this season under Allardyce. We were actually set up to have a bit of a go and while it wasn't ideally balanced, we did OK at a very difficult place to go. When Keegan can build his own team, you'll see a lot more width. That you can be assured of. will it matter when we're playing stoke? OK, so what do you suggest then? Other than the plan of passing the ball competantly, of course.

With Milner out and Damien Duff being exposed as an impostor in Premier League football, we didn't have the players necessary to play the 4-4-2 effectively tonight though. This is Allardyce's squad at the end of the day, and Keegan has to put out the best team he can now if we're going to avoid relegation. Sure the system wasn't perfect tonight but it was an eternity better than the psychopathically defensive, negative teams we've been sending out in away games this season under Allardyce. We were actually set up to have a bit of a go and while it wasn't ideally balanced, we did OK at a very difficult place to go. When Keegan can build his own team, you'll see a lot more width. That you can be assured of.

Yes, perhaps you're failing to take into account the fact that we are, in general, quite shit. What are you expecting from this lot of players?

Quite pleased with that. One of the very few times this season we've gone behind in a game and not folded completely. As so often has been the case this season, we had to go and take the game to a team. And rather than look hopelessly inept at it, we actually played decent stuff at times and deserved our point. I think the 3 strikers did well considering it was the first time they've gone out as a trio. We started with Martins trying to join in from the left mostly but when it became clear this wasn't working he took a more advanced role and Owen dropped into a much deeper role, almost playing as an attacking midfielder much of the time. Butt was the best of the midfielders IMO, really got into the game very well. Still plays way too many ambitious passes that he simply doesn't have the talent to execute for me, but did his job from a defensive perspective very well. Also was the one who absolutely hatcheted Larsson, taking their best midfielder out of the game, which was handy. Geremi was tidy but his final ball really let him down all game. Barton worked hard but more or less sucked going forward, quite frankly. Still, Birmingham struggled to get a foothold most of the game and these 3 were key in that. If Emre is fit on Saturday I'd have him in for one of Geremi or Barton, would give that middle trio a nicer balance with a natural leftie on that side. That Zarate looks like he could end up being a tidy little player for Birmingham, seen him come on as a sub a couple of times and he's looked decent.

If Emre is fit I'd start him in front of Barton and keep the same team otherwise.

Owen out, leaving Smith and Viduka up front with Oba on the bench, just you watch.

On the plus side, if that's the team, Smith is out. Edit: I think you'll be right, in any case. Though I'd be over the moon if we started Oba instead of Owen.

Stand together, yeah!!

I'm listening to upbeat, motivational type music at the moment in an attempt to generate positive vibes. That 'Fly Into The Danger Zone' song from Top Gun currently being blasted out.

Kevin Keegan. Really? I'd imagine so, apparently Alan Smith usually informs KK what the team will be the night before. So Kev will have known for hours at this point.

I may conduct a feasability study into whether I could set up the TV in the bathroom and watch the game while sitting on the toilet, as that would probably be for the best.

There would be silver linings I suppose, yes. But, on the whole, it'd be a massive setback for the club that could take years to recover from. It's not easy to just bounce back up either. Sure, you get rid of all your dead-wood. But you also lose any promising players you actually want to keep who mightn't fancy the Championship. You're then trying to whip together a brand new team and expect them to instantly be the best in the Championship, or good enough to get promoted anyway. That's not easy, and for all the money we'd have coming up again would be far from certain. There's also the distinct possibility that our BILLIONAIRE owner decides he couldn't be arsed owning a Championship club and sells up, when there's a fair chance he'll invest a fair wedge of cash trying to make us serious contenders if we do stay up. It'll be a disaster, no two ways about it.

I want to see what this team of Keegan's is really made of, one way or the other. Was the performance against Blackburn a flash in the pan, or can we actually stand up and give a good account of ourselves against beatable opposition on a consistant basis? And Birmingham, make no mistake about it, are eminently beatable opposition. If we roll over and die weakly against a team like them, then there's not a whole lot to be said for us quite frankly. It's a massive game. A win and I'd say we'll end up safe. A gutless loss and then I see nothing to suggest we can flick a switch and somehow win our 3 easier home games.

I'll be gutted if we don't at least give Birmingham a real good game. We know we're in a scrap, our last game against a side we had a realistic chance of beating we gave a great account and were very unfortunate to lose. So we should feel we have something to prove and have a bit of confidence we can play OK. If we go out and look dreadful and lose though, then we're deep in it.