STM

Confirmed where? Guess who wrote in his paper: "Roeder confirmed to me this morning as we jetted off........ Don't give him that glory. Expect huntington,troisi, gate and pattison to start!!

I think it's a coincidence that we have concieded less goals since pearson has arrived. It's more likely that we have conceded less goals due to the fact Carr and Baba have been out. I'm sick of the stick Ramage has been getting even though he is playing out of position. Everytime i have seen him play he's barely put a foot wrong. Yorkie-Geordie couldn't agree more about Bramble. If i could boot him out tommorow i would despite our lack of defenders.

Beatties a good player, i think he would suit our style of play more than Evertons. Everton are more defensively focused and rely alot on counter attacks and 5 men in midfield. If we had Beattie and Martins up front i think you would see a different player. We also like to get crosses in when we are playing well, Beattie would offer a good aerial threat.

No i wouldn't like us to go for him in the summer, as i believe it will take our focus of much needed areas. Should we tie up deals for a couple of defenders and another cheap striker preferably Sibierski the second then we can focus elsewhere.

We have a small as squad as it is without losing one of our best prospects. Whats the point having a football club if your going to sell your better players? The only way i would sell him is if was an offer that we could resist like 5m plus Barry or 10m straight.

I'll be honest i haven't seen alot of him, so i'll trust your judgement on him. However, if someone had told me that Shevchenko wasn't good enough for this league i would have laughed at them in the face. Your right that every transfer is a risk but it's all about minimalising that risk. For me they could probably get Ashton or Bent for 15m, thats 10m less than a foreign player who would represent higher risk. Should it come down to signing foreign players for that type of money talked about Adriano would be my choice. Adriano hasn't been on form for the past couple of years! What are you on about mate? He's shite, overrated and fat. He's a poor man's Ronaldo. Struggled for goals for Inter last year (13 in the league) and did you see his performances for Brazil in the WC? Utter shite. He's overrated and isn't worth more than 12m. FM isn't real life bluebigrazz.gif Woah! Calm your passions lad. I've seen as much of Adriano as i have off Villa, i was going off reputation.

You're preaching to the converted in my case mate. I even started a thread about it months ago. I won't link to it though otherwise melanie will slag me off again.... :winking: That's fair do's. Out of interest, who would be your ideal midfield partnership between Parker, Emre and Butt? Personally, i would go with Parker and Emre, so long as both players stuck to their team role. If it didn't work i see no reason why we couldn't use Butts experiance to to teacher how to play in defensive midfield. Going round in circles, eh. I have no favourites as such but i feel we should be looking long term. I believe parker has not found his true postion as a footballer yet ,he hasn't the ability to be an effective attacking midfielder. I noticed he does that spinning in a circle thing just like Dyer and JJ have done in the past. Believe it or not that it as small problem and i don't think is down to his passing ability but rather his conifidence in it. If our "coaches" had any sense they would work on these things to mould him into a defensive midfielder. He's 26 and should be approaching his prime. Your not wrong but every player can learn. Even wor Al learned a massive amount off SBR when came, in order to adjust his game. You also have to remember that last season was his first full season for along time.

I'll be honest i haven't seen alot of him, so i'll trust your judgement on him. However, if someone had told me that Shevchenko wasn't good enough for this league i would have laughed at them in the face. Your right that every transfer is a risk but it's all about minimalising that risk. For me they could probably get Ashton or Bent for 15m, thats 10m less than a foreign player who would represent higher risk. Should it come down to signing foreign players for that type of money talked about Adriano would be my choice.

You're preaching to the converted in my case mate. I even started a thread about it months ago. I won't link to it though otherwise melanie will slag me off again.... :winking: That's fair do's. Out of interest, who would be your ideal midfield partnership between Parker, Emre and Butt? Personally, i would go with Parker and Emre, so long as both players stuck to their team role. If it didn't work i see no reason why we couldn't use Butts experiance to to teacher how to play in defensive midfield. Going round in circles, eh. I have no favourites as such but i feel we should be looking long term. I believe parker has not found his true postion as a footballer yet ,he hasn't the ability to be an effective attacking midfielder. I noticed he does that spinning in a circle thing just like Dyer and JJ have done in the past. Believe it or not that it as small problem and i don't think is down to his passing ability but rather his conifidence in it. If our "coaches" had any sense they would work on these things to mould him into a defensive midfielder.

Apparently 100m is his buy out price, his actually price is closer to 25m in my eyes. If i were Chelsea i wouldn't go near a spanish player for over 30m. Why can't Chelsea look closer to home and try to sign Ashton or Bent, they would be far less risk than Villa or Torres and probably cheaper.

You're preaching to the converted in my case mate. I even started a thread about it months ago. I won't link to it though otherwise melanie will slag me off again.... :winking: That's fair do's. Out of interest, who would be your ideal midfield partnership between Parker, Emre and Butt? Personally, i would go with Parker and Emre, so long as both players stuck to their team role. If it didn't work i see no reason why we couldn't use Butts experiance to to teacher how to play in defensive midfield.

What annoys me is that every one is speaking like this: Wanker no1: " Emre's shite man!" Wanker no2: "No man Parkers the shit one, we only ever win when he leaves the pitch!" The truth is neither Parker nor Emre are shit, it's about balance in midfield. Picking the players is the easy bit, finding the correct formula is the hardest task. When Butt and Emre have played together we have improved but not becasue of Parkers absence in the talent sense but because Nicky Butt has played in defensive midfield. Where as Parker and Emre were playing on top of each other. I feel should we play Parker in defensive midfield we would have the same outcome.

Ronaldinho or Gerrard? :confused: Ronaldinho's a better passer, shooter and has better ball control. Gerrard's a better leader, tackler and worker. If you were to say, who's the better player? I would be inclined towards Ronaldinho because of his skill and sheer briliance. However, Gerrard is an out an out premiership player and would have more benifit to a premiership club.

I'm not normally so negative but Harewood is way off the standard of striker that i'd want at this football club, mind you i said that about Sibierski. bluewink.gif If we signed him for 1m then he would provide decent back up due to his size, pace and strength but nothing more than that. However, i'd like to thing we were looking elsewhere. 11m? Of course we are going to sign a West Ham reserve for more than we signed a Inter wonderkid!

I think neither Emre or Parker are poor players, infact i think they are of a very high stardard, they just can't play together. It was ok when Roeder played Parker as a DM but ever since he fanied about trying to tun him into an AM, they have looked out of shape. Butt is a worse player than both but he has a refined role which alows Emre to work the opposition. In the long run it is probably worth putting Parker back into DM but if aint broke don't fix it.

Can't really argue with that. I don't believe Martins to be injury prone player, so lets see if he can find his scoring boots. Him and Sibierski might as well get a partnership.

What guts me the most is that Sibierski is over 30. Had we signed him for that price when he was 26 i'd love him but now i feel he can only be a stop gap. Has he signed a two year contract with us? For once Roeder got this transfer spot on. Keep us the good work!

At least we can go there and relax knowing we are through. Lets not do anything rash like fly into challenges or get needless bookings. We should just pass it about and try and find some form. Patterson, Huntington and O'Brien will have a freshness about them, which will not allow the team to do the easy thing and sit back. Combined with Luque who has something to prove we should provide enough. If not we can always bring on Martins, who looked dangerous against pompey. No need to risk Dyer. Given Taylor Bramble Huntington Ramage Butt Patterson Solano O'Brien Le Sib Luque Subs: Harper Carr Emre Martins N'Zogbia Whoever else is fit an eligible

Scottish? Not because they have a different style of play but simply because they aren't good enough.

Simple defender, i'd take him.

So was Borowski..... i believe. Think Neuville was born in Beligium or somewhere different to germany.

Prem: Schmeichel Neville Adams Terry Cole Keane Viera Cantona Giggs Shearer Henry Toon: Given Barton Woodgate Albert Bez Speed Nobby Lee Beardo Ferdinand Shearer

Why not Zoggy left back and Luque on the left wing? I suspect Roeder mite try that as he can play Martins and Sibierski up front!

Why are people comparing Parker and Carrick? Apart from the fact they arte central midfielders they are completely different. Long since he day that a football team was made up of a "typical" defensive midfielder, who's sole job was to break up the oppositions attacks with countless bone crunching tackles ala Keane, Gattuso or Parker in our case. Neither do they have the typical attacking midfielder accompaning him who gets beyond the strikers and general creates all of the teams attacking play i.e Cahill or Scholes. Don't get me wrong this type of play still exists but because of the changing world of football, teams have learned how to play against this set up. These days we are seeing a new sort of Midfielder. One who is a mix of both and generally uses a combination of defensive "positional" play and a passing attacking style. The best examples of this are Patrick Viera, Fabregas and Andrea Pirlo, this is the bracket that Carrick would go in. The problem Alex ferguson is having is the type of player to play along side him. I believe he is un sure whether to play an old fashioned attacking midfielder or the old fashioned defensive midfielder. I think his preference would be to play a Parker or an OWEN HARGREAVES along side him as playing these two types has worked for many other teams Arsenal (Gilberto and Fabregas), Liverpool (Sissoko and Alonso), Milan (Gattuso and Pirlo). However, he doesn't have a natural one, hense his links with Hargreaves. It's my opinion that Carrick would improve vastly alongside a capable defensive midfield tackler such as Hargreaves.

I was happy that we got a fee for Speed, that's the natural reaction when you get rid of a player of his age. He was a great player and a great servent of this club. However, in this game it is important that you keep on top of things and replace important players. We signed Kluivert for free in an attempt to replace Shearer in a transitional period over that attrocious year. What we should have done was kept Speed for one more year or signed a replacement for him a year earlier and had a "transitional season" for him. Getting rid of Speed wasn't the problem...... replacing him was.