Nate

...and Lampard is out with a fractured wrist.

Shearer backs Rooney to find form. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/6500745.stm

Hargreaves was rather surplus to requirements, with Israel posing no attacking threat whatsoever. I would have probaly dropped Lampard and played them both. In the long term, i'd like to see England adopt a 4-3-3 formation: Foster G.Neville Woodgate Terry A.Cole Hargreaves Gerrard J.Cole Lennon Owen Rooney Not much width in midfield, but Neville & Cole aren't exactly shy in getting forward.

Martins' goals have 'won' us 11 points this season, but it's not really that simple. Scoring goals is what he's in the team to do, would you count every crucial save Given has made in points too? Nicky Butt, for me.

...a performance that the team selection deserved, so far.

It's ok. Although, I would have prefered to have kept our current Northern Rock logo in the blue used to trim the collar. The black/white/pink rectangle is ugly.

Nicky Shorey would be significantly cheaper than Bale & Baines, i imagine. He's impressed this season.

Do you honestly think Butt is rash in challenges compared to Parker? I still can't see the argument for playing Parker & Emre; regardless of your opinion on our midfielders individually, the partnership of Butt & Emre has consistently performed better than any we've fielded including the captain.

I'd rather play Edgar than Onyewu, admittedly based on very few performances.

Did you have to? What's wrong with him asking for your opinion on our worst season in the Premiership (recent times), which he cleary states in the first post?

So, do goals against lesser opposition not count anymore? Oba's on about 6 if that's the case.

http://www.toontastic.net/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

Taylor & Huntington were worse, undoubtedly.

I really thought nobody would be thick enough to come out and defend him after that display. Evidently I was wrong.

Seconded, despite expecting it too.

I defy anyone to dispute this now.

Did they? I was virtually told to fuck off last week when i said this would happen. Roeder is utterly, utterly clueless and has proven it once again.

...shame about the starting line-up.

He's certainly one of the most intelligent strikers i've seen, amazing vision. He always appears to try and help other players when they do something wrong too, rather than just shout at them. As someone said, there's not much a trio of Owen, Martins & Berbatov would lack.

I completely agree with the Nut here. I thought they were fairly f****** terrible at SJP and incredibly boring to watch, aye we know you can pass the ball between the defenders and the goalkeeper, well done. Their lack of a right-back was something else I picked up on, one of their centre-halves was always yelling for somebody to track back and cover Duff. They do seem to have pace either side of Arveladze and Dembelele starting will probably make a difference to them, but I'm still confident we'll go through. 2-2 draw or something along those lines, but I favour us to win over them. Hope this doesn't come back to bite me on the tukkus. Op Nut & The Janitor: Just think about the Birmingham game and try rewritting that. Think about the fact that they scored two goals against us, away from home, during what was probaly our best (and their worst) performance of the season too.

Imagine beating them in the final, though.

Quote from Glenn on BBC site. *shudders* Depressing, AZ will have no trouble scoring two. I think we'll need two to progress, nevermind one. if we go through, we HAVE to start at home! Really! Surely it would be an advantage to play the 2nd leg at home?

This is embarrassing, more so that Martins is actually winning.

AZ Alkmaar 3-1 Newcastle Utd Not confident.