Shak

Duff is a player that, for me, has always had to be 100% fit and sharp to be very effective, as he's not got a lot of tricks or ways to beat a man, so he relies on his quickness over a couple of yards to get himself in space. But when he has that, he's a very dangerous player and I'd be vastly more hopeful of Duff making a consistantly positive impact than I am with Milner. Sam puts a lot of emphasis on fitness, I've said since he was appointed that Duff could be one of the biggest beneficeries of Sam coming in. Fair points, and Duff has been atrocious for us so far and I was one of his biggest critics last year. But is the purpose of a winger not to provide that bit of quality rather than just keep possession and link the play, as Milner does? Duff may lose the ball more often than not, but at least he's trying to get at the other team and ask them questions rather than just playing it safe, linking the play and really not providing much in the way of real problems for the opposition. Ronaldo gives the ball away very regularly, but nobody says boo to him because they know that eventually he's liable to do something brilliant with it. I'd play N'Zogbia down the left ahead of both of them though, personally.

It's obvious they're father and son tbh. I mean they have the exact same posting style, so what other explanation can there be? Obviously a chip off the old block.

It was more the overly-dramatic statements rather than construction, for me anyway. You don't agree that our 'squud will collapse'? Not as such, no.

It was more the overly-dramatic statements rather than construction, for me anyway.

Where's the Christmas hat, man? I just found this new avatar that I simply MUST use, and I possess neither photoshop nor Paint (bizarre as that may seem) so kinda fudged. If anyone feels inspired to help out then that'd be great, but really the imminent collapse of our squad worries me more. Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components, double click Accessories and Utilities, then Accessories, check Paint. Save out.

Where's the Christmas hat, man? I just found this new avatar that I simply MUST use, and I possess neither photoshop nor Paint (bizarre as that may seem) so kinda fudged. If anyone feels inspired to help out then that'd be great, but really the imminent collapse of our squad worries me more.

No, not everything. We still have these threads.

Not true. Owen is a much more intelligent player. He will make better runs and get in better positions. Sure, but what has that got to do with what I said? Him doing those things helps the team, maybe? He's also much better at taking the ball in and moving it onto a teammate than Martins. They're very different in terms of what they offer, against lesser teams I'd want Owen as he'd help us in our build up play much more than Oba. Against better teams you'd have Martins on there in the hope he doe something spectacular on his own, as we'll likely not have enough of the ball in advanced positions for Owen to be effective.

Martins can be abysmal all game but if he gets a goal or two he'll be forgiven. Such is the life of a striker. It's fair enough, but you can both surely see that it severely hurts the team in general on days where Martins doesn't pull out a goal from somewhere, as he contributes pretty much nothing in terms of build-up play for the rest of the team. I'd much prefer a player who scores less goals and can actually play a bit of football and improve the team with what he offers as a whole, rather than a headless chicken who scores the odd wonder goal here and there. Martins still has time to improve, but I'm really not seeing any development in his awareness sadly.

Sums it up well tbh. Still only young though so I'd expect he'll get better at producing against better players as time goes on.

Sound's like a rich man's Milner to me...

Yeah, along with Gerrard, Torres, Lampard, Rooney, Fabregas Difference being, some of these players occasionally do produce top form in big games. Ronaldo never does. Didn't you watch the last World Cup? No, not really. Can't really comment then, can you. Do you understand the difference between a big game and a big tournament? Do you understand that big games come within a big tournament? Yes. I don't personally count Iran, Mexico and Angola as massive tests though, which was who Portugal played in the group stages. Don't recall Ronaldo playing great against England or Holland, two games I did actually see and would classify as big games. Which is my point, not sure what yours is. Really? He can't really play well when he's not playing can he? He did play very good against England and France in the Semi-Final, did you not bother watching Euro 2004 either? The one Portugal got to the final in, the one where Ronaldo was one of the top scorers in the tournament including one in the Semi-Final. That said, it was only a big tournament, wasn't it? I actually missed the entire Euro Championships in 2004 as it happens, was away for the summer. I'm not sure you've quite grasped the concept of a big game yet either. My point is that Ronaldo is, for the overwhelming majority of big games he plays in, not in the least bit outstanding for a player of his abilities. ...and you'd be 100% right. I learned from the best.

Yeah, he's great when everything is going swimmingly for the team. He is usually the main reason things go "swimmingly for the team" Suppose we'll agree to disagree there. I'm more of the opinion that he's a player that, when the team is doing well, he's a devestating weapon to have, one of the best in the world. But he doesn't dictate a game, it's just not his game. The reason he generally doesn't perform in big games is a direct result of this, as the team isn't sufficiently on top to give him the platform to do his thing.

Yeah, along with Gerrard, Torres, Lampard, Rooney, Fabregas Difference being, some of these players occasionally do produce top form in big games. Ronaldo never does. Didn't you watch the last World Cup? No, not really. Can't really comment then, can you. Do you understand the difference between a big game and a big tournament? Do you understand that big games come within a big tournament? Yes. I don't personally count Iran, Mexico and Angola as massive tests though, which was who Portugal played in the group stages. Don't recall Ronaldo playing great against England or Holland, two games I did actually see and would classify as big games. Which is my point, not sure what yours is. Really? He can't really play well when he's not playing can he? He did play very good against England and France in the Semi-Final, did you not bother watching Euro 2004 either? The one Portugal got to the final in, the one where Ronaldo was one of the top scorers in the tournament including one in the Semi-Final. That said, it was only a big tournament, wasn't it? I actually missed the entire Euro Championships in 2004 as it happens, was away for the summer. I'm not sure you've quite grasped the concept of a big game yet either. My point is that Ronaldo is, for the overwhelming majority of big games he plays in, not in the least bit outstanding for a player of his abilities.

Yeah, he's great when everything is going swimmingly for the team.

Yeah, along with Gerrard, Torres, Lampard, Rooney, Fabregas Difference being, some of these players occasionally do produce top form in big games. Ronaldo never does. Didn't you watch the last World Cup? No, not really. Can't really comment then, can you. Do you understand the difference between a big game and a big tournament? Do you understand that big games come within a big tournament? Yes. I don't personally count Iran, Mexico and Angola as massive tests though, which was who Portugal played in the group stages. Don't recall Ronaldo playing great against England or Holland, two games I did actually see and would classify as big games. Which is my point, not sure what yours is.

I don't think a team with Joey Barton playing for them can comment on other teams players being dickheads. My views in no way represent the views of Newcastle United Football Club. I would have thought that was obvious.

Yeah, along with Gerrard, Torres, Lampard, Rooney, Fabregas Difference being, some of these players occasionally do produce top form in big games. Ronaldo never does. Didn't you watch the last World Cup? No, not really. Can't really comment then, can you. Do you understand the difference between a big game and a big tournament?

Yeah, along with Gerrard, Torres, Lampard, Rooney, Fabregas Difference being, some of these players occasionally do produce top form in big games. Ronaldo never does. Didn't you watch the last World Cup? No, not really.

As for Fabregas being a whiny, moany little prick... Arsenal as a team whinge about everything, remember Adebayor against us? An innocous clash with Taylor early on, Taylor walking back by gave him a blatant "Sorry about that mate" look. Rather than just get on about it Adebayor cried for about a full minute to anyone who would listen. Toure is another, pisses and moans about everything. Great team, immensely talented, but an awful bunch of dickheads by and large. A good reflection of their manager tbh.

Yeah, along with Gerrard, Torres, Lampard, Rooney, Fabregas Difference being, some of these players occasionally do produce top form in big games. Ronaldo never does.

That and our left-flank is far more effective than our right and indeed part of the reason why we've been getting more joy in matches of late. Both N'Zogbia and Milner work well together. Milner's work-rate allows N'Zogbia to get forward late on in matches as the cover is there, while N'Zogbia's pace and attacking strengths allows us to pin back the opposition flank which we did against Arsenal who have excellent attacking options down their right. In short I can see every reason why the manager likes having those two down our left, and lets be honest here, until Duff returns and Enrique adjusts fully, we don't have many options do we? It isn't ideal of course but the two are doing OK in their respective roles. Spot on, both of you, which is why i'd keep him there. Yeah, he's wasted a bit at left-back, but finally we've got some continuity and much improved results/performances (Fulham was the only bad performance of the last four, but we're always s**** there and we still won) - so we shouldn't be changing imo. It's not long-term, and like you said earlier HTT, it's improved N'Zogbia as a player anyway. He's definitely a left-winger in the future and i think he'll be a very good one, but there's no need to change a successful formula at this moment in time. Especially against a Derby team which is ripe for the picking. I can see the point, and agree that long term it will improve N'Zogbia a bit in years to come, though not really anywhere near as much as HTT seems to be indicating. But with the current lot of players we have going forward I'm not sure we're massively capable of giving Derby the picking their... ripeness... encourages?? With N'Zogbia further forward I think we'd stand a much better chance of doing that, which is my point. Can see us struggling to score our first goal next week. We've been absolutely rubbish at taking the game to teams this year, Derby will sit back and invite us at them and I'm not sure we'll be able to do so.

I don't see the point in doing something stupid like that at all. Much rather we replaced and got rid of Butt Or how about we just buy someone to compete with Butt and have both of them? Nah Butt will be on massive money, money which could be better spent. If we got someone in there's no way Butt should be staying, he's just too one dimensional. Replacing him and adding some creative midfielders should be our priority. The last thing we need is to replace Butt in the team without also moving him on out of the club So let's say this replacement holding midfielder gets injured, which has been known to happen in football from time to time? What then? We'll have nobody who can play the holding role adequately which Butt, while not a top player at all, can certainly do. We'll get nothing for selling him and we'd then need to bring in two players rather than just one, which will cost at least as much as what we'll have to paty Butt over the next two years or so. Add to that that Butt is a solid professional who knows the kind of mentality a succesful team needs and it's really far more beneficial to keep him than just getting rid because he's not first team. Squad depth ftw?