tmonkey

Krul - 7 - Didn't have much to do, but was very good at claiming crosses. Good save for that offside effort from Cole I think it was. Simpson - 4 - Dogshit with a few decent tackles added to the mix. Didn't get close to their winger or fullback all game, absolutely everything West Ham did came from Simpson's area of the pitch. Lost possession constantly too. Coloccini - 6 - Decent performance, though he looked a bit weak and easily turned by his man when the ball came in over the top. Shades of his first season in the Premiership. Williamson - 7 - Good in the air, decent all round. Enrique - 8 - West Ham got absolutely nothing out of him for the entire game. Good going forward. Barton - 7 - Not a right winger, and left Simpson a bit exposed at times. But given that he was played out of position, he did pretty well for us. Quality assist too. Nolan - 6 - Decent goal, very little else and looked really slow. During the warmup however, he was the only one tucking his chances away competently, so no suprise to see him score. Tiote - 8 - Another excellent performance, though with two or three sloppy touches. So quick to close players down, and so effective at getting the block in. Jonas - 8 - Frustrating crossing/shooting, but he is just a fantastic outlet for us. It's class seeing him marked so tightly, yet still bringing us forward at will almost. Ameobi - 3 - Dogshit. Can't believe how lazy and complacent he was off the ball today. Doesn't get lower than 3 because of a few handy interceptions. Carroll - 7 - Caused them problems all day long. There were some absolutely blatant pushes on him that a ref with bollocks would have awarded a penalty or two for. Needs to sort his balance, positioning and runs out though. Didn't see anyone being brought on so no idea who the subs were. Out of interest, what were the West Ham fans throwing after our second goal went in? Bunch of dickheads that lot in the corner were.

When's the last time we had a 0-0? We're due one. We need to win this though, as our home form looks pathetic. It might just be our away form that keeps us up this year.

See Butt, N. I can see where you're coming from, but at the same time I have to disagree as it sells Barton a bit short. Put simply, for me there's a huge gap in ability between Barton and Butt. Barton is able to play the ball around on the deck and link up with teammtes in decent playmaking fashion almost (sort of like a player who might make Spain's D team for example), meaning he can dictate our play at times. He can also find teammates with decent through balls that he seems to be better at hitting from deep (if Carroll and co could finish better, he'd have 2-3 assists by now). Therefore those spells or periods in a match where his performance levels slump and he starts struggling to hit a barn door with a banjo are, for me, tolerable, because it comes from a decent footballer who is trying to force the issue and who does have the ability to create or control the midfield. For example, the Villa and Everton games were examples of Barton on a good day, alot of our attacking play went through him. Butt on the other hand was just a gash footballer (on the ball) from day one. Occassionally he might hit a decent crossfield pass in say one out of ten attempts, but for the most part he was downright s*** on the ball, especially in our relegation season. With him, there was no saving grace, and the only decent spells of form he had with us was when he was allowed to be anonymous on the ball and could just focus on his defensive duties (specifically when playing alongside Emre whilst Parker was ill, and also in the Keegan diamond formation when Barton/Geremi took on the responsibility of passing the ball around). So although he, like Barton, didn't hide and wasn't afraid to try to force the issue, the downside with him was that he lacked the ability to create chances or control the midfield, and therefore he was a much bigger hindrance on a more regular basis for us.

Barton is one of our better players due to the confidence he has in his ability, the ability he occassionally shows, and the fact that he isn't scared to pass the ball forwards and attempt a through ball. Unfortunately, these traits often make him one of our poorer performers at times, as he gets overconfident too often and becomes sloppy in possession, doesn't show his ability often enough, and can give the ball away frequently and cheaply when he's constantly spraying it forwards when the pass isn't on. He's still a much better option to have than Nolan, Smith and Guthrie though imo. Unless Guthrie has turned over a new leaf after his season in the Championship (possible), I think we'd miss something if Barton weren't in the side, as the rest of our midfield options to partner Tiote tend to hide too much as they're essentially cowardly on the ball.

Bale > Shearer.

Hobbit falls over after a decent run through the Spurs defence.

If Crouch could actually head the ball well...

Zanetti is 37 years old and still an awesome player.

Redknapp for England!

Brazil 1970 3, Spurs 0.

Same. Will be like Figo to Madrid all over again.

Looks like that may be the case: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premiership/5million-will-trigger-wayne-rooneyrsquos-release-from-manchester-united-14980288.html

Will he be available for the West Ham game?

I think so, yes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_capital#Fashion_Capitals_Rankings_.282010.29

She's an ex-Spice Girl who already had a successful international career in music, as well as dipping her toes (again successfully) in fashion/modelling/etc with some top designers wanting her to model/work with them/etc etc. Going to Spain/America won't have done any harm to her or her ambitions, in fact there's often been this notion that she's pretty much had a part to play in those moves as she wanted to live somewhere more glamorous than Manchester (Madrid/LA are top 10 fashion capitals). Not sure the same is the case for Mrs Rooney. Outside of these shores she's a nobody - her work is with brands like OK Magazine and Asda. Not sure some if these UK retailers will be willing to use her in their campaigns if she's not even living her anymore. Naturally this is all based on next to nothing, but at a guess, you'd think this might be an issue that crops up if Wayne has to decide between Man City, Chelsea, Madrid or Milan.

Smacks of agents pulling the strings behind the scenes. Probably getting all frothy at the mouth thinking of the fees they'll be pocketing and brown envelopes they'll be receiving if he moves for £50m+ (not that's he worth that in current form) to someone like Man City or Madrid. To be fair, it probably wouldn't take much to turn his head. As others have said, Fergie isn't getting any younger, and the team is clearly a notch or two below the quality of previous sides - it'll drop even further once Giggs and Scholes decide to call it a day - so with his stock being extremely high still, now is the time to make a move and get a big, ridiculous contract that'll have him laughing his way to the bank the rest of his life (more so than he already does). I'd be suprised if he moved abroad though. His wife has a career as a B-list low-grade celebrity here, would she really want to leave that all behind for a cheating charva who wants to play some football in Spain/Italy? If she says yes, then there's no problem. But if she says no, their kid automatically says no, so unless he couldn't care less about the both of them, his hands will pretty much be tied.

No, but at the same time he does look a little bit pants when he has taken to the field. There does look to be a half-decent footballer in him at times, but that's only when he's not looking like a headless chicken. Personally think that he's either s*** and we were conned (backdoor Wise/Llambias deal to appease agents?), or that we've ruined him by breaking him mentally after treating him like he was radioactive turd, so even if he had the potential he'll never be a decent/good player for us anyway (kinda like Hugo Viana). I have no idea how he did on loan at R.Santander last season, but his stats are 23 games (7 starts, 16 sub appearances), 3 goals, which isn't exactly earth shattering for someone touted to be a promising La Liga frontman at the time of us signing him.

Personally dislike the Enrique-Jonas partnership. It's good having them link up like that, but increasingly with Jonas it feels as though he can't be bothered to go forward anymore (off the ball especially), so instead he's just loitering in the middle third of the wing playing as some sort of playmaker who's sole job is to encourage the fullback to get forward. If he drives forward like he did against Stoke on top of linking up with Enrique, then it's a different matter - i.e. Jonas has to start down the left. If he plays like he has done this season, I'd just forget the partnership as I think Enrique is good enough to attack without needing a babysitter in front of him.

Awesome winger prior to his injury in '95/96.

Valencia ManU is about as interesting as Newcastle Stoke. Without the goals too.

Out of interest, how was Routledge today by comparison? One or two decent moments under pressure but s*** on the whole. Fair enough...dunno why, but I think Routledge is getting off very easy compared to Jonas given that he's also shown zero crossing ability or any real threat (beyond attacking space - which is why he sometimes looks alright when he's dribbling near the half-way line) since our return to the Premiership. I think we're in a bit of unexpected trouble regarding our wingers. At the start of the season, I thought that was one of our stronger points - two half-decent, pacey wingers who can take players on for fun, and once in a while can put a good cross in or score the odd goal - with central midfield being our weak point due to the lack of pace, passing, tackling, athleticism, strength, etc. It looks like the opposite is the case now, in that we've got a pair of wingers who can't hit a barn door at this level and frequently lose the ball cheaply (with Ben Arfa clearly not being a winger at all), but a central midfield that due to the signing of Tiote and Barton's relatively improved form has the mixture of everything we need to form a decent team. What compounds matters is that in Andy Carroll we've got someone who could well thrive in a team with deadly crossers. Yet absolutely noone is putting a good ball into the box, aside from maybe Jose Enrique. Perch's crossing has been beyond hopeless to the extent that his crossing ability is not even worth contemplating, Routledge floats them in at around 2 mph with alarming accuracy in terms of finding an opposition centreback's head, and Jonas can whip them in low but because of his two golf-club feet being ont he end of his two left feet it's absolute pot luck if it ends up reaching one of our players (and even if it does it's usually behind everyone anyway).

Out of interest, how was Routledge today by comparison?

Was class the way he bombed forward again unexpectedly.

This thread title should be "Kevin Nolan: Untouchable?" until Hughton drops him or has the balls to actually sub him off in a game where he's clearly being useless and/or is gassed out. It's exactly what we had when Allardyce was being a dick and was refusing to drop or subsitute Alan Smith (something like 28 consecutive Premiership starts iirc, with no goals, before Keegan came in and dropped him).

He did absolutely nothing in the first half too save step up to take a penalty that someone else won. The entire game passed him by today. It's beyond criminal that others are getting subbed off whilst he plays 90 minutes.