tmonkey

1) Todays game proved that if we get a big man in next season, we're f*****. Expect tons of long balls and s*** performances like we had today. Just look at how downhill Martins' game went when we reverted to route 1 in the second half, and itll be alot worse if Owen is playing because he sure as hell doesnt benefit from donkey football. Please, Roeder, move on and give up this obsession with an aerial replacement for Shearer, we dont need a big lump of a forward to score from headers as Martins has a massive leap with the ability to head well and Owen is deadly with headers. What we badly need is a creative playmaker up front, a replacement for Beardo, able to create using skill, technique and flair, able to hold onto the ball, link up well, and also score occassionally. Thats not Dyer, who despite being a good link man puts too much pressure on goals coming from the lone striker or elsewhere. We need a Gudjohnsen or Tevez type. 2) Its also pretty damn blatant that we have no ability on the ball without Dyer or Emre where it matters most - in the middle. The impact these two players make to our style of play just puts our others "footballers" to shame, we're clueless without them. Butt, Milner, Zog, Duff, Parker, all good at different aspects of the game, but none of them have the ability to hold onto the ball and dictate play like Dyer and Emre can. Dyer has proven to be an utter crock, and the same for Emre albeit to a lesser extent - we need at least one more technically good footballer in the squad, with Nobby now being a defender. 3) The Butt Parker central midfield needs to be put down like a badly wounded horse. Absolutely no on-the-ball presence in that partnership, both players are strong defensive players but poor going forward, and when playing together they become clueless, getting in each others' way. The Liverpool game was a one off because it was a game in which they had to defend, today we needed to attack and pass the ball around and as a partnership there were simply inadequate. Sidwell HAS to be brought in next summer, his passing and drive is alot stronger than either of these players, and one of Parker or Butt has to make way for him. My vote goes with shunting Butt out, which is harsh but imo it needs to be done purely because of his age (33 next Jan), as well as the fact that in current form, wed almost certainly get a few interested parties willing to purchase him, when a year later we most likely wont have that option.

Given - Good, solid when he needed to be, could do nowt about a quality free kick. Taylor - Average, imo showed he has relatively decent technical ability for a central defender. Onyewu - Average, but alot of poor passing. No mistakes defensively, but at the same time doesnt do much else. Bramble - Poor, might look good in the recovery tackle, but shit at marking. Booted the ball more times then he passed it. Huntington - Poor, plays as though his left foot doesnt exist, and cannot pass. Nobby - Poor, is finished as a right winger as he no longer makes any impact there. Parker - Poor, not sure what he was supposed to be doing, contributed nothing to the team. Butt - Average, good defensively but as per his natural game, nowt on the ball. Duff - Poor, showed one instance of his old self when he beat his man (skill or fluke, not sure) and crossed well, other than that, usual crap of pretending to take players on and passing it to the fullback. Sibierski - Poor, only contribution was defensively, but in terms of the job he was supposed to be doing, he was shiite. Martins - Average, great first half where he was carrying the attack on his own, but unable to do anything in the second when the team fell apart Subs: NZog - Poor, but expected, he had an excuse having just returned from a long layoff. Milner - Poor, showed some urgency but no quality, and what the hell was he doing with that golden chance to put a good cross in. Carroll - Not on the pitch for long enough.

Mourinho is going to whine like mad about this.

Does anyone remember this from the summer? Would be suprised if Mr Roeder does anything but set his sights on West Ham's "star" players this summer. Expecting at least one player from West Ham to be signed, although apart from Tevez and maybe Ashton for a reasonable fee (£5m max, bearing in mind hes a bit of a crock) I hope we dont bother with any of that lot.

Hes most likely a better centreback than anything we have at the club too, despite being a midget. Certainly looked a good centreback in the plenty of games hes played there for ManU.

Depends on what we believe is more likely. Are we more likely to get a former class player who is currently a shadow of his old self back to his best, or are we more likely to develop a promising young talent into a class player? The latter for me, so I would go with Zog.

I certainly agree that he's not an instinctive striker like Michael Owen, and will never be in Owen's league in that respect, but that's why I think a simple command like 'get to the near post' would be so effective. And I'm sure that's one simple thing that could be worked on in drills. A striker doesn't need to be that type of player, but I think he would score a lot more goals if he developed that part of his game a bit. We've got players who can get to the byline and get a lot of crosses in. Most of the time we have no-one attacking the near post, which makes them far easier to defend. Even if the ball doesn't go to the near post a quick runner getting across there can distract defenders and pull them out of position. He's far too stationary in the box in my opinion. Our whole team is too stationary when we attack. We don't try and pull defences out of shape. But I think this is why so many of us are creaming ourselves over the thought of Owen and Martins up front together. Owen is up there with the likes of Van Nistelrooy and Crespo when it comes to playing the near post, hell do all the scavaging and be looking to get all the poachers goals inside the box, whilst Martins hangs around the edge of the penalty box looking for the cut back (which hes clearly been coached at Inter imo, alot of his goals come from that type of play) and is the big threat outside the box. Its exactly what you want in a partnership, neither player doing the same thing but both being equally dangerous. Spells goals galore to me. If we could add a genuine playmaker to this, a Beardo or similar, someone with quality on the ball as well as creativity and the ability to chip in with 10+ goals (ie good striking cover for Owen too, and not Dyer), then wed have an attack that could probably carry us to a top 4 position, because wed bury most of the average and poor sides in the Premiership.

Havent we beaten Pool 3-4 seasons running now at home in the Premiership? We beat them under Souness, so it cant count for much. Same with beating Chelsea at home these past few seasons. It also needs to be remembered that despite Fenerbahce being shit on the day, they still outplayed us pretty easily, and our goal came more against the run of play than anything. Like many of our wins this season, they had the chances to score against us, and failed. I think/hope well beat AZ, but if theyre organised and well drilled with competent players in all positions, theyve got a massive advantage over us.

So the Chelsea title winning players are/were shiite? Same form for them as for us.

Wow, great minds really do think alike.

1) The standard of keeping is pretty high. Given is class, but to other clubs hes not worth 10-15mill more than Van der Sar, or Lehman, or Cudiccini, or Jaaskelainen, or Friedel, etc. Most top clubs wont pay big money, whether transfer fee or wages, for a keeper who is slightly, or only considerably, better than what they can get for cheap, whereas title winning forwards with huge amounts of ability are extremely hard to come by, and hence they can command significantly higher wages/fees. 2) Because forward play is more than just scoring goals. Forwards who regularly miss sitters and have limited ability or simply arent very good do in fact get slagged off, they become a laughing stock and get shipped out to Championship sides, like Ade Akinbiyi. Other forwards, who regularly miss good chances (but not sitters), like Bellamy, bring alot to the team's attacking play, so naturally they dont get slagged off. Defenders like Bramble, who consistenly make mistakes get slagged off because its alot easier to concede a cheap goal than it is to score one, especially when the majority of other sides dont have defenders like Bramble, they have average but consistent ones. 3) There arent many good team goals in the Premiership these days. Only Arsenal and to a lesser extent ManU tend to score them, but even then theyre not very common at all as their good team moves regularly break down. The Argentina goal in the world cup proves that a great team move is more highly valued than a spectacular shot.

Hes good for his age and talented, but as the original poster says, alot of our moves that break down are due to poor play by him. Hes very hit and miss, and its this - not his "lack of pace", that will contribute to him not getting a callup to the England squad. As mentioned elsewhere, if we honestly want to challenge for top 4, we need a core squad full of players of Nobby, Emre and Dyer's technical abilities, players who ensure we "play" as opposed to "try hard", whilst the Milners and Butts (and Martins?) - players with alot they can bring to the side, but often inconsistent general play - need to be additions to that core squad. More Gudjohnsens than Ashtons. If we can get more players in like that, Milner will be nothing but a quality weapon for us, and thats if he doesnt improve the consistency in his general play.

Luque most likely wont play well tonight. No different to Shearer under Gullitt, if a player is treated like shit by his manager, and hes suffering from bad form and a confidence crisis at the same time, its nailed on that the player isnt going to put in a good shift, no matter who the opposition are.

Any difference between that, and say, Martins' assist to set up Butt down at Spurs a month ago? Martins pass split the Spurs defence. Bellamy's was a simple pass across the 6 yard box, good control though. Decent setup, but the way Andy Gray wanked over it was just plain silly.

This happens every single season though. Last season's CL winners tend to do utter shit once they get to the knock out stages, its inexplicable.

Meh Reina, what a dodgey keeper. Comes to punch two crosses, punches air both times.

Saviola through on goal again, fails to score. Barca need Eto'o.

2-1, shocking by Barca.

Saviola unlucky, brilliant skill.

Ameobi as backup, Babayaro as backup.

To be fair, the Ameobi/Kluivert + Shearer partnerships were utterly woeful, whereas Bellamy was by far the most dangerous forward we had. In fact, when he was playing up front, he was our only attacking threat in open play. Bellamy was/is good, and he knows it, like any top player hes arrogant and believes hes the best, so to shunt him out wide on the wing for forwards who were doing utter shiite, especially the undroppable Shearer, would have been nothing but insulting. Him playing on the wings hurt his game, he was basically rendered ineffective, whilst the other forwards were being useless, so it was nothing but counter productive to the team and the player to play him in that position. Bellamy up front was miles better, both individually and for the team, regardless of who was on the wings.

Spot on. We already have Steven Taylor for the future, its not as though we're in desperate need to inject some youth to an aging back line. To top it off, Taylor is probably the best centreback at the club, yet the youngest in terms of first team centrebacks - surely at his current age he should be learning from a decent/good, experienced pro, rather than having to cover for his senior partners? Woody/Rio + Radebe, Terry + Desailly/Gallas, Carragher + Hyppia, King + Naybet, Toure + Campbell, etc - its not something cast in iron that these players have learnt from the more experienced ones (Naybet wasnt exactly that good himself), but it must have helped these players to be playing alongside some decent/good experienced centrebacks.

Much rather we got him than Ashton. Nugent reminds me of Robbie Keane at Watford. Not the best player in the world, but small and springy without being too small, fast without being pacey, able to dribble in tight situations without being a great dribbler, and generally a smart forward, although he isnt a genius. Would be a good 3rd choice striker for next season at a reasonable price (4-5mill?) - is young, English (ie no adaptability problems), afaik isnt a crock, knows how to score, and is very likely to improve. In an ideal world, wed sign someone like Gudjohnsen or Tevez to bring some quality playmaking up front for us, players the likes of Owen and Martins could work off, but the next step down would be to get good backup in with the potential to become a regularly rotated squad forward. Someone like Nugent might be a gamble, but its alot less than other, more expensive ones.

Has to be the defence for me. We need to ensure the likes of Carr, Bramble and Ramage are either sold, or only get into the team as emergency backup. With the current squad, theyre going to get tons of games. Soon as Nobby or Babayaro get injured, the standard of our defence plummets considerably because vastly inferior players are drafted into the first team, players who consistently let us down and who are, being brutally honest, lucky to be playing at Premiership level. The only defenders we should be definately looking to keep are, for me: Nobby - first choice RB Taylor - first choice CB Onyewu - squad CB if he impresses, first choice CB if hes really impressive Edgar - future Huntington - future Sell/discard/make reserve: Carr - shiite Babayaro - regularly injured, regular liability Ramage - shiite Bramble - always a liability Moore - who? Bernard - who? Onyewu - if he turns out shiite The way I see it, we need to add one decent/good centreback with pace and experience, and one big money left back who is of proven quality and will sort out our left back position for the next half decade or two. Spend big on Baines or Bale, and someone like Distin or Andrade for centreback, then at least well have a solid foundation to build on for next season. Baines would be my big money target next summer, and I hope Wigan go down to force his availability. Hes a class act at left back, hes defensively sound/intelligent, has good technique on the ball, good distribution, and is a big threat because of his shooting power from set pieces and from range.

Ashton is very similar to Owen in that they are both injury prone. Harsh, he's had a broken ankle and thats it. Regularly injured for West Ham since signing for them. The next Big Dunc imo.