tmonkey

Bale looked a good player against ManU. A slightly faster version of Gareth Barry almost.

Id like to see us give Owen a runout as as the central striker in this 4-3-3 system. The logic behind this is that Viduka isnt playing well as a target man, most of the time hes getting beaten to the ball or ends up fouling defenders, whilst when a good cross or ball into the box is played, hes often too slow or lacks the movement to make use of it. Hes good with the ball at feet, but then so to an extent is Owen, whilst Owen's movement is far superior to that of Viduka's. Hence, if Viduka is failing to do what he's in the team to do, the loss with regards to good targetman play would be minimal if we were to switch to Owen, whilst wed be maximising our chances of converting goalscoring opportunities. Maybe its not worth trying Owen in that position until Barton and Emre are back in midfield, considering how poor the current central midfield trio have been once on the ball and hence the need to use a physical targetman to compensate, but I hope its in Allardyce's thoughts, because Owen has played as a lone forward in the past for Liverpool, and considering the service the likes of Milner, NZogbia, etc, are providing (albeit inconsistently), service which should in theory increase with central midfielders who are more adept at creating chances (and who knows, maybe this system will see the revival of Duff later on in the season), Owen is our best bet of making best use of that service, whereas Viduka doesnt seem to be equipped for it.

Because we dont know who they are or anything else about them, nor do we have anything to relate - even then, many of us probably would want to pay our respects. This is a football forum, a professional footballer for a top team has just died completely out of the blue and in a situation where many of us can relate to (on the pitch) - hence why theres a thread where people want to pay their respects regardless of its value.

This shouldnt be happening to a professional athlete. A sad day. RIP.

We dont have one, and noone on our books is good enough to get to that level - we have mainly average, above average, and at best, a few good players playing for us, but thats about it. Even those with potential, mainly Zog and Milner, are highly unlikely to get to the level of being a top class standout player at the higher end of Premiership football. We need to buy someone for this role - its a shame that Tevez has gone as he'd have been ideal, but maybe someone like Diego if he could be persuaded to come here and we could find the funds next summer. Someone who has a great deal of ability and class in his play, who we could build the team around, a player who can drag an "average" or workmanlike team up towards being "good" on a consistent basis. Its definately something we need and well worth spending big on, because adding solid, average-to-good players might improve the squad and reduce glaring weaknesses that weve had in previous seasons, but it wouldnt give us an upper hand over teams like City, Villa, Portsmouth, West Ham, etc, clubs who are similarly snapping up decent players for moderate prices without having any truly top class attacking/creative players themselves.

Other than Smith or Butt for Emre, I'd agree with that. Not convinced by Emre. Some will blame the managers etc for his poor showings so far, I prefer to blame the player. Simply having someone in the middle of the park who can control and distribute a ball with skill and finesse can make a massive difference in some games, and whatever his weaknesses, Emre is strong in this area. Only place where he really needs to convince is in staying fit, because for the most part, hes been one of our better players when he has played for us, one of those "when he plays well, the team plays well" players. How many of his poor games in the past have coincided with the entire team playing poorly and often bypassing the central midfield? I would say practically most of them. Unless were talking about an anchorman or similarly defensive slot, Emre is a better central midfielder than Butt, Smith, and probably Geremi, who himself may well be our best anchorman.

Hed have to be mad to sign a new contract with Arsenal sniffing around though.

See that's the interesting thing though, he doesn't mention the 4-4-2 and neither does he solely mention playing alongside another striker. He just talks about being played as an out and out striker even if it means being a lone striker. This is why I started talking about him being the out and out striker in the 4-3-3. I'm just interested to know if people think this might work. Taking into account the other players we have. Dont think it would work, because we dont have the players to afford him as the lone forward. If we were Barcelona, and Owen were to be playing the same role as Eto'o for example, hed probably excel because the rest of the team is great at keeping possession, building up play, and creating chances, whilst Owen could concentrate on making his runs and getting on the end of chances. This team under Allardyce's system, however, will most likely need that lone striker to be doing the much of the possession and build up work. We'll be playing it up to the lone striker first, and then things go from there.

Playing as a right sided forward in a 4-3-3 wouldnt stop him getting into the box and scoring goals. A reluctance to play in that position, however, would.

There's a £10 'connection' charge. Crafty buggers. Not advertised anywhere, cant see it on their website which is pretty poor anyway. I guess this "connection" fee is charged every time you sign up for their service. Was hoping to cancel for the "lean" months when theyll be showing few/no NUFC games and just subscribe again later on, but clearly that plan goes out the window. Which means theyve sucked me in for most of the season, since theres little point in cancelling during lean months. Crafty buggers.

Why do Setanta charge £19.99 in the first month? Signed up for Setanta Sports over the phone a day before the Villa game, just seen my bill and its £10 more than advertised, which has pissed me off a bit as I wasnt informed about it.

Hope it goes through, Butt needs the competition.

Anelka is the considerably better player. Martins is younger, faster, and has more raw ability than Anelka, but is also a poor footballer in the way he plays the game and uses his attributes. Definately Anelka at this point in time, although it would be great if we could sign one and keep the other.

Diego for me, since Riquelme is an impossibility within this realm of extremely unlikely dream transfers. More ability on the ball than Van der Vaart, more guile in his play.

Hate to say it, but thought Reo Coker had a smashing game today. Very quick and powerful on the counter attack, some solid passing at times, and battled well in midfield - if his name were Appiah or similar and he werent a bling boy more of us would have drooled over that performance (slight exaggeration only). We were lucky today. We had a few half chances, but they had the real chances or had created the right situations to bury us, but merely messed things up at the death. Particularly Agbonlahor.

Hes not shit. Hes just not "good" at anything bar throwing himself into tackles and working hard. And even then, he walks an extremely tight rope - gives away some dangerous free kicks in silly positions, and is pretty reckless with many of his tackles. Ill be suprised if he manages to go an entire season without a red card or two and at least a dozen yellows.

Ive always wanted Dyer out in recent seasons, purely because of a combiation of his injury proneness, a lack of a natural position, and of course a petulant attitude that clearly spills onto the pitch at times. However, theres no doubting for me that Dyer is a considerably better footballer with far more talent on the ball than Smith. A lack of end product doesnt negate this - its frustrating, but having the ability to run with pace whilst still controlling the ball can make a big difference against plenty of teams that cant handle that ability, and end product, or lack of, doesnt show the value of such an attribute. Of course, Smith has other valuable attributes that Dyer lacks, but ultimately a team full of good footballers will always finish higher in the table imo than a team full of hard working tough tacklers, and so if Smith is the direct replacement for Dyer, I think weve lost more than we've gained (although theres the issue of Dyer's injury record, but from a theoretical point of view, its a loss for me).

Villa were an impressively solid outfit, good combination of high work rate, defensive strength, and pace. Im sure Allardyce fully well knows we need to play alot better than that, but the biggest problem he has is that this is not yet his team complete. Some of the players hes inherited simply arent suited to playing the system and formation that he prefers, and theres absolutely nothing that he can do about that in such a short space of time.

I disagree totally about Martins. He'd completely disappeared from the game in the second half. He looked knackered after 60mins. As did Milner, who struggled to run for the last 20 minutes.

Good luck to Dyer, its a shame that his injuries were the main reason for his NUFC career no doubt being remembered as a waste of talent/potential, but its great that weve finally moved on most of the dead wood. Owen and Emre now need to prove their worth to us over the course of this season and put their injury problems to rest, otherwise we should cut our losses ala Dyer and look at alternatives that Allardyce will no doubt make better use of.

Lord, we give thanks for the Shepherd you have blessed unto us, for the Good Shepherd hast done no wrong. Only the Shepherd who has guided us to the true Path is exalted in virtue. The Path that He hath walked shall not be blighted with falsehoods and rumour, for His truth is our truth. Harken! The Good Shepherd doth not take kindly to the squabbling of minions. Wo behold lest you feel His wrath and Greggs becomes no more.

Maybe hes a tad too overweight, and combined with his playing style, it puts a huge toll on the small bones in his feet. Shame hes picked this injury up, really wanted to see what ManU would be like with Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo in the same team.

Great article/interview which youll never get in a tabloid rag.

With regards to the central midfield, our options are: Barton - box to box all around player, good technical ability, goals from midfield. Geremi - leader, strong, and consistently good at everything he does. Smith - battler with high effort and work rates, solid technique. Emre - playmaker with good work rate, good technical ability. Butt - Strong defensive midfielder, great at covering the defence. What an excellent midfield selection we have, the best by far in a long time in terms of depth and variety. Every one of those players brings something different to the table, all of them adequate at Premiership level at the very least. I hope Allardyce will be picking the right team for the right match, as opposed to having a set first team selection. For example, against a weaker team at St James', we should go for the better attacking players who have more ability on the ball, maybe a midfield 3 of Emre Geremi Barton, whereas away from home or against stronger sides, a midfield selection that includes Smith and/or Butt would be alot better. Owen needs to be benched and rotated. Treat him the same way Madrid did, a bench player with starts here and there, because thats the best way to keep him fit whilst still making good use of him.

He was our best right back last season because our two other right backs, Miguel and Dani Alves, did not perform as well as Nobby.