greydos

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.

I can't believe some of the views in this thread. Amazing. We may not have got a result against bolton at home, but the intent we played with was miles better than under sam. SA would have had us sat in our own half, long-ballin it to ameobi, and seeing it come back on us, and they would have penned us in as we would have no attacking intent, and eventually broken us down for a goal. Our retaining of possession yesterday was, whilst not being perfect, miles better than anything we have seen in the last year. Enrique was decent yesterday too. Did well with clearances, dropped his right shoulder and beat his man on a couple of occassions and passed it reasonably well. He didn't have many options but used those he had open to him in neat triangles. The worst player yesterday by far was Ameobi who, even though he has been out for a long time, does not have any ounce of vision in him whatsoever, and if he did, he wouldn't have the physical ability to pull off the pass/shot/cross that he sees. Roz did well playing out of position. He didn't get forward but that wasn't his job. His job was to prevent the bolton midfield 3 running through the middle of us and shooting at goal, an bolton didn't have much joy down the middle all match (admittedly partly because they didn't really try to put anything together down the middle). He won some good headers, and sprayed some nice passes. That's all you can ask of a CB come DM. the intent is there on the pitch, now we just need the acknowledgement and time from the fans.

The year either side of world cup 2002 i would have said duff was one of the best wingers in the world. I can't think of 10 wingers at the time who were playing better, so he makes top 10 for me.

If we're talking dream tickets that may be realistic (slightly) and fit in with what the chairman has said, then Houllier as manager to the end of the season and then as DOF with Scolari as manager after the Euros sounds good to me. Scolari wants to play the correct type of football, his teams also have good defence. He has experience, but not of the premiership (and not of club euro) but Houllier could give him all the help he needs without stifling scolari's tactical ideas. If we had this combination managing us, i think there would be some genuine looks of fear and envy throughout the premiership. It would be like the sudden intake of breath when one sees a dark sillhouette of a man walking up their stairs at night time with a knife-like shape in his hands, only to find that their husband/son has come home late with a half-empty can and a newspaper. (in other words, fear of unknown potential, suspected to be possibly devastating!)

mackems.gif mackems.gif mackems.gif mackems.gif mackems.gif mackems.gif I'm not sure whether to laugh at TM's childish discovery or Mark Viduka apparently getting read to lose his 'sprinting virginity'. Dash my a*** lol

But McClaren appears to be a very remote prospect after Newcastle owner Mike Ashley quipped last month that the former Boro manager was "there with the ex-wife on the 'Do not get a Christmas card' list". Gotta love that from Mike Ashley, quality stuff. (from article on bbc sport website btw)

James wins best gag by far!! But... concerning your ratings: geremi better than butt; owen better than martins; and ramage on a 4 when his performances merit a 3 plus lengthy spells on the sidelines injured can lose you points, so really he should be around the '0' level. That is all

We don't do those at Newcastle. What about at Stoke? :razz:

Skim read the thread so sorry if some points repeated (they probably will be), but for me: - Play with more adventure. Teams like Fulham see Derby, Sunderland etc as matches they have to win to stay up, and so go to those 'relegation 6-pointer' matches looking for a win. Why do NUFC turn up for a draw? - SA to come out and explain his tactics and aims. There's no use him just saying the fans are wrong and that he will win in spite of us. He needs to talk to us, explain to us his aims, give us a chance to buy into his ideas, giving us a greater chance of uniting behind him and having a joint 'f*** the media' outlook when they have a go at us. - More emphasis on the technical abilities of our players. Passing and movement at a higher tempo, as opposed to chasing, harrying and pressing being the highest priority. - Pick the team based on form. If smith plays crap, drop him. If Steve Harper plays well, keep him. - Acknowledge and admit his own shortcomings. I'm sick of hearing how he is a 'top man in his field'. All the top men in my field (law) have major awards and commendations as recognition of their work. SA has won s**** all!

I was going to start a new thread for this, but thought it pointless, so i'll do it here. Let's list all the positive changes that sam has made to this club. I'll start: 1. isn't letting shola ameobi near the first team 2. got rid of bramble, babayaro, sibierski moore et al 3. brought in some decent signings given our financial situation and reputation (i.e. cacapa, faye, enrique, geremi, viduka) 4. Released Albert Luque, one of the few players who is ideally suited to the left side of a 433, meaning we could play the natural born left winger james milner there (if luque never left, we would not have realised milner's true position) 5. tried to convert nobby solano into a holding midfield player, after circa 14 professional years as a right sided midfielder who can fill in at left back 6. bought alan smith, a fighter and a leader who embodies the manager's spirit out on the pitch 7. brought a top class fitness plan, that wowed the fans pre-season with heart rate monitors on the players in austria, and has already proved its success with late wins over birmingham and fulham (ignoring the fact that assist for both late goals came from substitutes) 8. Training emphasis on fitness and stamina, which everyone in the professional world knew needed sorting at newcastle 9. rugby-style microphone technology, so he can control the action from up in the stands in the first half 10. saved costs in ball boys, as they are not needed as much cause the fans up in the stands get to throw the ball back onto the pitch more, due to our scientific percentages tactics 11. made an effort to win the fans over, telling them that he understands their frustration, and that we will understand his forward-thinking genius when his contract is over and we see the club is moving forward (though i'm not sure if that will be due to the fact he is leaving, or the fact that he'll have improved us). Anybody else care to throw some positives in? This regime is far from dead i tell thee!!

I don't think SA is necessarily a bad manager, but he needs to adjust his mentality fast or he's going to lose newcastle united's supporters, board, and job! Simple as. At the start of this season i posted along the lines of SA's mentality is not right for newcastle: he doesn't want to dominate games and dominate the football. i also asked if he brought any tactical positives to the job, as in my eyes he was little more than a footballing clive woodward, employing fancy dan science techniques and countless other coaches to do the job for him, whilst sitting in an overseeing role. for me, he's not showed the slightest bit of tactical nous, and absolutely no desire to play football (whether good or bad). He simply wants the team to participate

I think SBR was trying to illustrate that some strikers find it harder to convert chances from both flanks when they are in position not that some strikers don't keep up with the move etc. It's because it requires different body positioning, just like shooting with the left foot is more difficult because the right leg is often not used as the standing leg and so is not well placed or braced, getting the body in the correct position for headers from the left may be more difficult for some strikers. I don't think owen counts as favouring the right more than the left as he converts any chance he gets. We just don't make many chances, regardless of from the left or the right

By glitter you mean... trophies... right?? Well i'll take that! Isn't that what all of us on this forum desire?

by the way, attempted pedantry is pretty sad YG