Shak

Just think, if you'd have got rid of MON after the first 18 games or so, you could be going to Chelsea and hammering them. It's no laughing matter, to let a lead slip away to the former Champions who haven't been beaten at home in over 50 games, is scandalous. If I were Brummie, I'd be down Villa Park now protesting. Get a grip mate.

We could go 4-4-2 with Smith and Viduka up top I guess.

No, 4-3-3!!

Don't really like that team tbh. Nice to see Emre get a start but Smith playing in midfield should negate any good that will do.

I don't think he looks like a particularly good footballer tbh, not the last while anyway. He's graceful, looks very assured on the ball but is he really? Put under any sort of pressure he tends to panic horribly and his distribution is very poor. Bit of a poser, iyam.

It's a traditional thing. All Toon players become better players after spells of absence. If we keep Emre out for a few more weeks, he'll be as good as Elano by the end of Jan. Nobody is saying this, I said myself that long term he's probably not the answer. But can you give me one good reason that Emre doesn't at least deserve a chance to start a few games and see what he can do given how absolutely dreadful our central midfield has been this season?

You're content with our current central midfield then?

In a 4-3-3 you can have one of your midfield trio in a sort of free role, as there are two others in there to do the bulk of the ball-winning. Remember in Roeder's early time as manager he played Emre just off the striker in a sort of 4-4-1-1, the whole show went through him and we played some terrific ball retention football, we just couldn't score because it was Shola up front on his own. We had Bowyer playing as the box-to-box midfielder with someone (can't remember who, Butt presumably?) playing the holding role, and Zoggy and Solano down the flanks. We have the players now to play pretty much the same system, Barton is basically a better version of Bowyer while Viduka is a vast upgrade on Shola. The reason we're absolute shit to watch is because we have nobody in our center midfield with the vision and playmaking abilities to make us anything but an ugly, direct football team.

Ridiculous that he's not been given more games quite frankly. He's not really suited to a 4-4-2 but if we're going 4-3-3 then he's ideal for that system. Why do Smith and Geremi get countless chances to start games in the middle despite playing very poorly for the most part, while Emre gets one start every so often and is then written off as not good enough to start because he doesn't play great? As you say he's inconsistent so he may not be the solution long-term, but right now he's by far our best option if we actually want to have someone who can play it about in the middle of the park. Whether we actually want that is another question though. If he is a confidence player as you say then I'm sure it would do his confidence the world of good to actually get a few starts rather than sit on the bench while Alan Smith flounders about in midfield.

mackems.gif mackems.gif mackems.gif Much as I'm not liking Baggio's new gimmick, I've got to agree with him here. Shocking comment tbh, and I was never that big of a Robert fan.

The point is that if you continue to paper over the cracks then it will lead to the whole lot falling down eventually.

I dropped your present off earlier Dave, no one was in so I put it behind the back gate. Yeah, I dropped your present off earlier too, Dave. You weren't in so I shagged your bird. Ah, I wondered what that dripping was. Nah, that's me. I'm lurking in your attic.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Rozenhal needs to be dropped. And quickly. And by someone who knows how. He and Cacapa together are a shambles, both need a partner who'll do the bulk of the physical work. Cacapa has been generally the better of the two so I'd start him alongside Talyor or Faye. Be great to see Emre get a start, but can't imagine it'll happen.

Agree with what Brummie is saying, but the upcoming fixture list is very, very difficult for the rest of the season and I hope people will be patient enough if things take a fair turn for the worse, which is still entirely possible. As long as we don't get pulled into a relegation fight, I'm happy enough to write the season off in terms of where we finish and try to get things right for next a year. I just hope we start to get some consistency in our play going, hopefully get a cup run going but very little chance of us winning it. We need a couple of top class additions, but I feel we should have a solid enough base being built this season throughout the club in general. With so many changes throughout the club I think we should be content to let all the new men in charge take a bit of time to get settled and try and get things going where they want them. As long as we're not being threatened by relegation, I don't see any sense in upheaving things with our manager. If we're still playing like this in a years time, then Allardyce should be under severe scrutiny, but I would expect we won't be if we give him time.

Funny that. The way people go on here, you would have thought that dropping Geremi would have improved our midfield. Perhaps not. Touche James, touche Agree with Nut, Emre really should be getting a few more chances to start and see if he can get some form going. He's been poor at times, but he's someone who at least looks capable of making something happen and playing the ball about. I remember in Roeder's early time we played a sort of 4-4-1-1 with Emre just off the striker and we played some cracking stuff at times with him in extremely advanced positions, Solano's goal against Everton came in a game with him there. Give him a game playing just off Viduka with a couple of wingers either side, have him the most advanced with Barton and Butt doing the bulk of the work defensively. Whether he'd be good enough there long term I don't know, he's always been very erratic. But he's a clever footballer and would certainly give us something we sorely lack in the final third right now.

If we're going to play 4-3-3/4-5-1 then we need players either side of him who are fast enough to get up and support him quickly, as he's great when he has to play little one-touch stuff and bring other players into the game. I'd love to see Duff on the right and N'Zogbia on the left of Viduka up top, they're fast enough and direct enough to really compliment what Viduka does best. Gives us the gola thrwat that Smith never will also. Can see an arguement for starting Smith away from home, especially given Viduka's fitness levels, but Viduka at home very time.

Over-reliance on analogies somewhat tarnished what was otherwise a very nice post.

It'll be Barton for sure.

Friend of mine is Liverpool fan who has a theory about Benitez. Reckons it's an ego thing and that he rotates them all so that it makes Benitez the focal point, the man who will ultimately be seen as the reason for their success while the players are just part of the succesful system.

Aye, it's impossible to get a Barcelona game on Sky Sports these days. I believe that we'll be looking to add a striker sooner rather than later, but I wouldn't expect it to happen in January and, as has been said, Gudjohnsen definitely isn't the type of striker we need for our system. So he'd be deployed in midfield mostly if he came in I'd bet, and we know Allardyce likes versatility so I wouldn't be surprised if he's a target. Long term our number one target needs to be finding a true focal point striker for the 4-3-3, none of the players in our squad are even close to ideal for it at all.

Must be said, Man U have a large number of players that you just know are absolute dickheads. Ronaldo, Nani, Anderson and Rio Ferdinand in particular just stand out as people that I reckon I'd absolutely hate to have any sort of conversation with.

Nice post. Think 4-3-3 is the way we'll most likely going from now on, and it has been doing us good. Looking forward to getting some better suited players, especially in wide areas. N'Zogbia is being improved I suppose, but I'd just worry about him getting his chance especially when Duff gets back. Think he's perfect for the left sided role in a 4-3-3, I'd just let him off the leash and have him as one of our most attacking players with a LB behind him. If we're mad to splash some cash I think Quaresma could be an ambitious target to play the other side, reckon he'd flourish in the direct style of the Premiership. Other teams could be interested of course, but can't hurt to try in the summer.

Awh, what a lovely thread. Merry Xmas, yeah.

This might explain a few things as to how the big man views the players... No wonder Viduka's on the bench if Sam thought he was the playing s*** as a right midfielder. Thought someone would comment this... Seems I'm the only one who thought it was funny. Forget it, probably just me being messed up... : Do you find your own avatar and sig to be particularly funny, or clever for that matter? If so we may have found the root of the problem.