greydos

There was a 5-10 minute feature on The One Show just now with Myleene Klass in newcastle investigating the Blaydon Races song. She's fit

Take Diarra in a heartbeat

Given Beye Ben Haim Faye Enrique Bentley Barton Modric Owen Berbatov Martins Subs: Harper, Taylor, Shorey, Butt, Viduka

Freshen the team up, Milner starting for Geremi, Emre coming on for JB after 70 with Geremi back in for Milner 1-4 toon

Not sure if it's been posted, Keegan's quotes on sunderland taken from Journal article: “I know some people say, ‘I’d like to see them go down’, but these games are very special. We do not need a strong Sunderland, just one we can beat every week, but we need them in the division.” Quality!

4-2

I thought the really stupid question was "so Kevin, were you happy with the team performance, as you've been working on that for the last few weeks" No s*** he's been working on the team performance, doesn't every manager at every minute of their job? Bint

Geremi's corners were dreadful, however his freekicks were serious quality! Which does suggest that near-post corners were a deliberate tactic of the manager's due to Pompey's strong and tall defence. It didn't come off, but that's fair enough. General with crosses, striker's have to get on the end of whatever ball comes in. A number of times Viduka didn't have the pace/energy/wherewithall to pull 2 yards off campbell and to have a header at it. If he did we'd have had more headers on target and less corners that's for sure!

Will who be remembered? What now?

I'm not going to get all uncivil on you but i could not disagree more re enrique. He seems like he has confidence, as he keeps trying to play the passes, and the amount of times he picks the ball up deep and drops his right shoulder to beat his man tells me he's playing with confidence as if he loses it there we really would be in trouble! 1 v 1 i'm yet to see him get beaten, often he recovers very well too, see once in the 2nd half where Defoe broke free down the right channel and Enrique caught him, put a foot in and then barton collected the lose ball. I for one don't mind losing possession if it's come from a cross. You can't expect every cross into the box to be capitalised on by our forwards, and if you lose possession anywhere, the safest place is in the opposition box as it's furthest from our goal and likely they'll be hemmed in. He's no world beater yet, but he absolutely doesn't have to be. He's 22, and he's first season in a new country not speaking the language. I know if i was in spain i'd make a shabby waitor due to language differences, let alone a premiership quality fullback!

HTT, Diop played right wing today (badly).

I think Owen was deeper today than he has been in previous games, but he HAD to be, as Pompy had Diop and Kranjcar cutting in which would have left us short in midfield on the wrong end of a 4 v 3 mismatch for much of the match. Enrique's passing, yeah he put a couple in touch, but i take the view that Arsene Wenger does with Hleb, let him keep trying because all it takes is one pass to thread the needle an that's a goal. When one assist comes, more will follow. For those who thought Beye could have got forward more, remember we were playing away from home, weren't technically safe yet, and it's better to guarantee you don't give a goal away and hope to nick one, than go all out for a goal and possibly concede one. As to the one poster who said Joey Barton was a better player 5 years ago, what when he was 20? I haven't seen a player with such stamina and determination off the ball as JB, absolutely put himself everywhere and got in the way of some crucial passes that Pompey could have made today. I don't mean interceptions, just placing himself well to cut out options, and holding up a player until Enrique/Butt/Faye could arrive and crowd em out. For me, JB is one of the key players for next season. If he takes a step up again like i think he can, he'll be a true inspiration. Love the guy! (i'm probably on my own in this camp!)

West Ham's transfer strategy is the same as the strategy i use when playing monopoly after the first 2 times round the board: any property available, no matter how good or crappy, i wave my hand in the air and shout "i'll buy it i'll buy it!" with blatant disregard for any use it may have for me at present or in future rounds of the game. Krancjar is nowhere near as good as people are making out. Pompey score so few goals at home, and he is one of (if not their) chief creators in that team. Home is where teams play their best attacking football. He's had about 6 good games this season, and it just so happens that a couple were against England on the BBC.

Viduka Martins Faye Owen Butt Martins would have won it but i just think if he's out, N'zobgia could potentially form the same role of LWF essentially, with a licence to roam. However, Carroll or Smith would not perform Viduka's role as well as Zog could do Martins'.

I think the way Pompey have been set up recently gives us a good chance to get a victory down there, as they've recently lined up: Diop---Diarra---Muntari---Krancjar --------Baros---Defoe Now besides the fact that Baros is s****, it seems to me that the key way to oppose our team is to use width to pin the fullbacks back (certainly Beye) and really stretch our midfield 3. Wide players against us would also utilise drawing in the poorer tackling/tracking skills of Owen in Cm when he chases back, allowing other teams better chance to pass or run through the middle of us. Passing/running through the middle is exactly what Muntari and Diarra are good at, however their wide players are not the type to stay wide. Krancjar is inclined to turn in onto his right foot and try and thread balls, and Diop is a DM playing out of position, and so also comes narrow. Wide players coming narrow should help as they'll automatically be turning into Geremi and Barton, thus clogging up the middle of the pitch. This could allow our fullbacks to utilise the space Diop and Krancjar will leave out wide. Also, Martins plays left side, which is the home of slow-mo Campbell and powder-puff tackling Glen Johnson. Given enough pressure from Martins with a high midfield line supporting so that he knows if he dribbles and loses the ball he's got toon players in close proximity to try and win it back, it may give him the confidence to run at those 2 potential weak links, giving us a lot of scraps and joy to feed off. I personally am optimistic, and say 2-1 to the toon!!

Just got back from the game (via London and a job interview) Habib Beye was obviously awesome, and i love his passion for the club. The Owen goal he almost dropped him over his shoulders, that was right in front of me as i was on the front row at the Leazes end, on the left hand 18 yard line. After the game Habib came out of his way to clap the fans at our side of the goal when all the other players were heading in. He truly is becoming the new nobby for me (in terms of how much i love the guy as a player, not position or style or anything). Barton was immense. I really think he's turned a corner, his sharpness into the tackle, his passing and energy were all first class! Jose Enrique remains a good player, who could be a brilliant one. Reading: toothless, offer very little in open play creativity, even with a nervous 20 year old at the back for us, and a very very skinny Senegalese debutant

I will be there!! Travelling up from Cardiff for this!! i'm slightly worried though...

A Dalglish buy. £4.6m iirc My bad. Just a tired lad trying to defend JE. I like him. Should have just said that and left it there!

Last time Keegan was here he bought Alessandro Pistone, a player very much in the mould of enrique. Tall, supposedly heavy in the tackle, not brilliant going forward, young talent for the future. Hopefully Enrique's here to stay. I like him, and after 5 years at the toon he'll have come on massively and will be able to play a huge part in the toon back 4 for the forseeable future.

Diatta probably had the easiest test ever known to get into a professional club: KK: "here Diatta, we're gonna play you at centre half in this training match. You're marking Alan Smith (sorry 'Smudge'). See if you can keep him from scoring" LD (to himself): "**** me this is a piece of ****! Easiest money i'll ever make!!"

We should have got Leroy Lita in on loan, who has now gone to Charlton... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/charlton_athletic/7278982.stm Decent propsect, would have given us pace and fight till the end of the season

--------Given Carr----Taylor--Cacapa--Enrique -------------Butt Milner-----------Barton---Zoggy ------------Duff -----------------Owen Duff did this behiind Robbie Keane for Ireland in the Korea World cup and looked great. Plus Toure et al are not the type to arge an barge em. Dyer with pace up top troubled them at emirates last year so could work.

Rozehnal wasn't good enough for what? Playing as a DM it's his job to try and break up Bolton's attack not be expected to create everything for us, the job he done was done well and he showed more craft than any of Butt, Smith or Geremi playing in that position, he didn't jump in with sliding tackles or get stuck in because he didn't really need to under the circumstances, his passing was pretty good as his percentage of completed passes shows but if you've got no pace or movement in front of you then I'm not sure what you can do. The way the team was set up there were 3 players expected to create things in Duff, N'Zogbia and Milner and all were below whats expected, it doesn't matter what N'Zogbia done against Stoke it's been obvious when he's played for us in the middle against better opposition he's not suited to CM, Duff and Milner offer little in the way of pace or goal threat so we were stumped, Ameobi was his usual self yet still contributed more than Owen, on the whole our team as a creative force wasn't good enough and Keegan will have to either kick their arses or get better in. Baggio's called it right for me. Sometimes it's a case of players make a pass/cross. Roz's pass was the same as geremi's v man city away, and because martins was quicker than owen, he got onto the end of it and finished it, turning the pass into an assist. Here, owen was too slow to bring the ball down (not to mention he can't use his left foot for first touch of difficult balls like martins can) and therefore it just looked like roz was over-ambitious etc. First and foremost his job was to protect the defence, and protect the defence he did.

Quite interesting. Lends some support to those who felt that Roz did well on Saturday. Made a few really canny passes from distance. He was the least of our worries. Didn't look remotely like a PL central midfielder to me. The same stats could make a case for Shola playing well, which would also be bollocks. It's partly because these stats do not tell us how many passes each player made. If milner attempted 100 passes, and made 41, and shola attempted 15 passes, and made 11, then milner probably had the better more influential game.