tmonkey

If some injuries can reduce your pace, then logically, some injuries can increase your pace. Fact. I believe Duff will come back faster than ever. In fact, im willing to bet my house on it.

Newcastle 3 - 1 West Ham Which only strengthens the initial point. Pathetic to go to Derby aiming for a draw.

We could tempt Riquelme here by signing his good mate, Sorin, as well as another Argie, eg Maxi Rodriguez.

Would be a dream come true.

Thought he was a shit player before we signed him, but we should give him a chance since hes here now, and to be fair, his brief partnership with Martins against Everton was the best weve had this season from any strike pairing. If anyone isnt pulling their weight in any way, its most likely Owen, who has done practically nothing for several games now.

Bring back Shepherd. Ashley is fucking useless. To put things in context.

Would be extremely suprised if we are his best option if he does leave. Hes not a great player per se, but hes the type of player top CL teams would want in their squad. I would put a bet on Spain being his next destination, ala Edu.

Drogba is very good targetman forward who is key to Chelsea's formation and system, but as a footballer hes not as talented as Rooney. The big difference for me, however, is that although Rooney tears lower mid table teams apart when hes playing well, in bigger games hes relatively quiet, whereas Drogba might not run riot against avearge or mediocre teams in terms of his own game, but he manages to maintain a consistent level of performance that he carries through to the big games. Rooney will probably improve in this aspect as he gains more experience and learns to handle being targeted by the opposition, but hes not utilising his abilities yet to the extent that Drogba manages on a weekly basis.

Butt needs to be dropped from away games. People complain about Martins' general playing being poor and inconsistent, but Butt can be just as bad, if not worse. And when hes bad, he is truly awful. Good player at home when the opposition sit back and he can pick off the attacking midfielders and mop up, but hes like a headless chicken when we're under pressure away from home, even more so when we just need someone to help maintain possession.

I recall a particular fixture at the Stadium of Light where we were alright... We weren't, like. We were abysmal and got lucky. First half it looked like a Championship side vs a non league side, with us being the latter.

Smith + Martins for me, based on the partnerships weve seen briefly thus far, as in truth that has been the only one which has looked anything like promising enough, where the forwards have actually linked up together and created chances by playing off one another. On top of that, they both complement each other well on paper in terms of abilities (eg, unlike Owen, Martins has the raw pace, strength and shooting power that Smith lacks, whereas Smith's linkup play is better than Owen or Martins' whilst hes more mobile in that role than Viduka). On that note, I really cant see the hype surrounding Viduka and how hes supposedly vital to our first team. So far, hes spent the majority of most games giving away needless free kicks (ala Ameobi), and tussling, tugging, or battling away with defenders in useless positions. Admittedly theres been a few moments of good play, but ultimately hes too slow and immobile for my liking, without being an absolute beast in the air, and most importantly, he doesnt have a Bellamy-esque partner to compensate for such a major weakness as a lack of mobility - without that player to stretch the opposition defence to give Viduka licence to play further up the pitch, hes pretty useless imo, since most of his good play will come too deep to be effective. Hes a good player in his own right, and given enough games, will get goals because of his ability, but unless we go out and sign someone to work off him with pace, someone who will stretch defences and work the flanks by making decent runs (ie not Martins), hes just going to be a bottleneck to the team forming a good enough attack as a unit. Maybe a good option against aerially or physically inferior defenders, eg your Anton Ferdinands (in his case, plain shiite), but starting Viduka week in week out when there are more than a few defenders far stronger than him both on the ground and in the air? Dont think its going to turn out well. Granted he wasnt match fit then, but I suspect we'll be seeing more Mellberg vs Viduka matchups if Viduka becomes a guaranteed starter (if fit).

Scholes is still a class player, in the Premiership anyway, and imo easily the best English central midfielder currently playing the game. He posseses good technical ability, and as a result is good at turning sharply and passing smartly whilst being comfortable in possession. He also has the intelligence and the ability to exploit space and create openings. Rarely loses possession, whilst he can play a killer pass or good through ball to add to the mix, and to top if all off, hes consistent, unlike plenty of other playmakers or attacking midfielders. Hes almost like a Premiership version of Deco. Take Deco, reduce some of the flair, trickery and skill, increase the work rate, aggression and consistency, and you have Scholes. Its amusing how these two players can quite often be considered overrated, yet are the silent heartbeats of arguably the two best footballing sides in Europe.

Keane is a poor man's Bellamy imo. Similar player, but isnt half as fast, doesnt have as good technique, and isnt anywhere near as consistent when it comes to turning a good attacking situation into a goal.

That assessment is spot on - as evinced by the weakish shot against Spurs when given the time and space to run in on goal and pick his spot - and sums up Owen entirely. Strong instinctive finisher, decent finisher otherwise.

Like who? Who is this imaginaery replacement we see who has the same pedigree as martins at such a young age? Played at International level, played at Champion Leagues level, played in UEFA, played in one of the most defensive leagues in Europe coming out with a decent goalscoring record. Someone who can replicate the 20 odd goals Martins has already scored for this club, all in there first season at a new league? Oh yeah, all for 10m....i'd love to know, anyone fancy obliging? Where did I state that his replacement needs to have the same age or experience as him? Two that I can think of are Anelka and Gudjohnsen, both are considerably better footballers, have played for Big Sam before and are established in the Premiership, would probably leave us a tidy profit from any Martins sale, and are players wed probably have a very good chance of landing given their present situations. Their age isnt ideal for the price tag theyd be in, but thats peanuts compared to the benefits of finishing higher up the table, particularly in the long term. Its impossible for any of us to know how different things might be with one player instead of the other - look at the impact Bellamy for example had with us when he was here, compared to the same team with for example Ameobi in it. I think the general rule that holds in most cases is that a player who's basic game is considerably better and more consistent will enable the team to be far more effective as a unit than a player with more talent but a far worse standard of, and consistency in, his general play. It often boils down to a case of possession - when the team plays it forward to Martins and he loses it every other time, then the team will naturally suffer compared to when they play it forward to Gudjohnsen for example and he maintains possession 90% of the time. More team moves, more possession, etc etc. Were not even talking about a key player at all in Martins, he might turn out to be one in the longer term and he may have been last season due to our utter lack of options and squad depth, but right now hes not in our first team if everyone is fit, and he may not even fit in Big Sam's preferred system for all we know. Ive always had the viewpoint that we could replace any of Ferdinand, Shearer, or Owen if we truly wanted to or needed to, and our recent history shows that weve done that without fail - had we missed out on Owen, wed have landed Torres. Had we sold Shearer at the right time, we could have signed Eto'o, who we were linked with heavily at one point - we only missed out on Shepherd's preferred Shaerer replacement, Rooney, because of ManU spending the following summer's transfer budget to finance the move. Therefore, if we can replace even our very best players, why shouldnt we be able to replace Martins, even more so with Ashley's money and Allardyce's knowledge?

If a Premiership club wants him, £17 million minimum. the price paid for Bent, who is inferior to Martins and has less room for improvement. If a foreign club wants him, then £11-13million. Martins is a player who we could replace easily imo, certainly with someone who is a better football player today (and hence more useful at a time when we're trying to break out of the now flooded mid table group), but is also a player who may go on to haunt us if he does improve.

Ive argued beforehand that yes, he may not have rushed back from injury this time, but theres a strong suspicion that hes done so in the past, particularly before the major injuries when minor niggles prevented him from playing for club but not for country. Hes avoided that issue entirely, and attempted to exonerate himself because this time, hes not guilty - so lets forget all the numerous incidents prior to this one and put them down to coincidence. Combined with the attempt to engineer a move in the summer through his agents, you have the reason for all this doubt being cast on him. Its ridiculous to now portray Owen as some sort of victim in this entire matter and his critics as being entirely in the wrong. At the end of the day, Owen has created a situation that only he can fix by playing games for us - nothing else will do. Even if he were to come out and say "I never wanted to leave in the summer, I never asked my agents to engineer a move, I have never rushed back early or played through the pain barrier/carried an injury for England whilst ruling myself out for my club", I would still struggle to believe him, because at the end of the day im judging the situation by what has happened, and not what he says.

Most of them sound right. Its what they say many of us disagree with, or get fed up of, particularly when bias comes into play, that results in us calling them shit commentators - but the likes of Motson have a good voice for commentating. With this female commentator in particular, it simply sounds rubbish. Murray Walker didnt get so far in the commentating world because of what he said, but because of his voice - without that resonating voice that sounded fantastic when excited and in as high a pitch as an engine in full throttle, hed have been nothing. Sue Barker has a great voice for example, and if she was capable of doing live commentry, would make a great football commentator regardless of her gender - but not many women have a voice suitable for commentary, just as few children or teenagers have one either. This female commentator working for the BBC certainly doesnt.

The problem is mainly the midfield, and has been for a long while. No technical ability, no ability to keep the ball and pass it around comfortably, not enough ability on the ball to essentially piss about with it to create space and openings - all the England midfield can do is pass it robotically with minimal technique whilst looking entirely uncomfortable at the same time. Not being able to maintain possession results in wave after wave of pressure, and thats what we see time and time again, not only against technically superior sides, but even against ones that on paper should be completely inferior (Albania, etc), with teams like that regularly matching or outperforming England in all areas except for goals.

Same. Even considering the hype, which gets utterly ridiculous, its still far more entertaining than having a tournament that the nation as a whole has little interest in (eg Olympics). As Dave said, there must be a playoff route into the finals for teams that finish third.

To be fair to Shepherd, I dont think the transfer fee and buy-out clause was a daft idea at all, even though we are probably going to make a massive loss because of it. It was an ambitious transfer for a guaranteed top class player, one that we made because along with several other expensive additions, we had hoped would make us a team that would quality for Europe. The bit where the idiocy comes into play is who they gambled on. If youre going to gamble on a footballer, do so on someone with the injury record and physique that would make the gamble worthwhile. Not on someone who has consistently broken down throughout their career, someone with the physical frame of a schoolboy and who's game inherently involves being chased down by men twice his size, strength and weight. Despite the possible gap in class, had we signed Torres if the Owen deal had fallen through, we may well be in a completely different situation today - more likely a much stronger one, as wed have had a good goalscorer for the past two years playing the majority of games for us, as opposed to having to field the Rossi's and Sibierski's of this world. We finished 7th under Roeder despite having no decent forwards regularly fit (bar an over-the-hill Shearer who was regularly performing poorly in the Premiership at that stage in his career), so we could well have finished in a direct European spot that season with a 20 goal forward in the team, and hence made it more likely that wed have done the same the following season instead of having the likes of Sibierski and Rossi playing regularly (again due to Owen breaking down) - something which would have made that clause negligible. Right idea, good ambition, daft decision making on more than one transfer.

Don't see anything wrong with that Apart from Smith being suspended of course.

Thought Sibierski was piss poor in the Premiership myself - out of his depth at that level, and should never have played anywhere near as many games as he did. In the UEFA, he was useful because some of the teams werent suited to a player like him, but in the Premiership big centre halves were having a field day against him. The reason why I think this has been overlooked is because most people expected Sibierski to be worse than he was, ie complete s***, but in fact he had some ability to hold a ball up, flick it on, and of course an admirable work rate. Still doesnt negate for me the notion that for a Premiership player, he was pretty s***.

Another overrated player is our own Micheal Owen. Hes a quality finisher and when he has a good game, can bury a team, but like the game against Estonia, he can easily be anonymous. Even for us hes had plenty of games where hes done nothing noteworthy at all, and it seems that has been forgotten in all the hype surrounding his return this time around. I would say hes a bit like Dyer. When hes not playing, you miss what he brings to the team - badly in our case due to the lack of quality in the squad overall. Then when he returns, you can see the instant impact a player of his calibre makes to a team like ours. But then, after a run of games, that initial impact dies down, and you start seeing the flaws and realise that hes not that great a footballer on a weekly basis compared to the bigger picture - which is where the aspect of being overrated comes in.

Martins + Smith deserves another start for me, their linkup play was good against Everton, and although Martins is not our best forward, hes got a range of attributes that complements Smith well imo. Bring Owen off the bench in the second half and incorporate him slowly into the team rather than throwing him in because hes our best forward.