Yorkie

You are the most pessimistic fan ever. Tottenham won't come throught cuz they are shite one good season woopty doo. Tottenham have a good team and are lethal at home. They've also got a game in hand and will be level on points with us if they win it. They've got the basis of an excellent squad at White Hart Lane and i fully anticipate them to come through. I'm not being pescimistic really. That's a good four or five places higher than where i put us at the start of the season. Finishing 9th is a realistic view; we've been saying for two or three weeks how shit our football has been, one good result isn't going to make me go all "we iz da best." If you know what i mean. With the squad and the manager we have, and being in a transitional period, finishing ninth would be a creditable outcome that i'd be reasonably happy with.

I can definitely see the likes of Spurs, Everton, us applying. Infact all the teams that are umming and ahhing in terms of European qualification might apply. UEFA Cup qualification is touch and go this year, it really is.

Probably finish something like this: 5. Bolton Wanderers ..... nailed on in my opinion 6. Tottenham Hotspur ..... they'll come through at the right time 7. Everton 8. Reading 9. Newcastle United 10. Portsmouth Portsmouth really aren't that good. They've started to slip up and they'll finish the season like Wigan did. Man Utd and Liverpool are both completely out of the way, and we've got Arsenal and Chelsea left to play only once. Both at home. We HAVE to be the teams we have to beat, and we'll do well. But i still fear for us...

Yep!!

Wrong. Right about the FA Cup bit... wrong abuot the Intertoto bit. It doesn't work like that. Two years ago we qualified for the Intertoto from 14th position. Us and Crystal Palace applied, i think.

Wrong.

There's no specific place for the Intertoto Cup. Premier Division clubs APPLY to take part. Say two Premier Division clubs apply, the team who finished highest in the league go through. Like Newcastle and Bolton last season. In terms of automatic qualification to the UEFA Cup from the league (IE 6th place opens up), the Carling Cup winners must already be guaranteed a place in Europe anyway (like Man Utd last season).

Out of respect to Anna Nicolle Smith apparently.

Ah right. Good to hear. Nobby always comes across as everybody's best friend actually.

Whassat?

So was it a penalty then?

He can't

And Spurs nowhere to be seen.

Fantastic, come on.

Hopefully he can re-discover his form of last season. He was a bit stop-start before he got injured this season, but that's largely down the the amount of games he didn't start, and i can imagine the mental affect of having an unwarranted competitor for left-wing was pretty harsh on him. Looking forward to seeing Zoggy come back!

Spurs leading. That's just great.

Would love to see us go in for him. I do think we'll be after a new centre-midfielder in the summer, or atleast we ought to be. Not a priority i know, but Emre is injury prone, Butt's getting on, Parker is enigmatic and Dyer is ineffective from midfield. Would love Sidwell.

He's not inept, though.

Slight alteration there.

If the World Cup was tomorrow and we had a fully fit England to choose from... Goalkeepers 1. David James 13. Paul Robinson 23. Ben Foster I never really was a fan of David James when he was in the England set-up. However, i feel that the criticism of him is maybe harsh, even down to him being dropped, considering how let-off Paul Robinson has been for his incompetence. The two of them should both go, followed by Ben Foster, who has been excellent this season and will be one of the Premiership's best in a few years to come. Defenders 2. Micah Richards 22. Gary Neville 5. John Terry 6. Rio Ferdinand 12. Jonathan Woodgate 14. Ledley King 3. Ashley Cole 15. Jamie Carragher I think the most striking omission from this defense list, is that there is no immediate second left-back. I feel that we do not need one, that one likely to be Wayne Bridge, if it means including five centre-backs of that quality. Jamie Carragher is very versatile aswell, and i think Richards is capable of playing on the left so it adds up. Midfielders 7. Aaron Lennon 16. James Milner 4. Steven Gerrard 8. Owen Hargreaves 17. Frank Lampard 18. Paul Scholes 11. Joe Cole 19. Gareth Barry Yes i'd agree with you HTL, Paul Scholes back in there, purely based on this season's performances. He has been simply excellent for Man Utd, having recreated some of his best form of the early deceade/nineties. I was against bringing him back earlier on, but i'd really love it. His passing ability, linking the forwards, spreading the play - is second to none. Simple as. James Milner being the other surprise inclusion, but for me, there's arguably been no better English right-winger in the league this season. He's better than SWP and more appropriate than Beckham anyway. Bringing Beckham back would be suicidal. He wasn't good enough when he was last playing for the team - what do you think he'll be like after 6 months of turmoil perched on the bench? Pointless. Strikers 9. Wayne Rooney 10. Michael Owen 20. Peter Crouch 21. Andy Johnson Rooney is England when he plays to be perfectly honest - he gives us that extra added quality, it's as simple as that. We're a far worse team without him. Owen, world class striker. Peter Crouch - good impact player. Andy Johnson - better than Defoe. Defoe's never done it in an England shirt, and he is far too inconsistent. He does absolutely nothing from the bench, whereas i think Johnson probably will. Starting Line-Up James Richards --- Terry --- Ferdinand --- A Cole Lennon --- Gerrard --- Hargreaves --- J Cole Rooney --- Owen I'm sick to death of seeing Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard in the same team as each other - one of them has to be dropped, it's as simple as that. We have to think about England, and England's success, not the egos of two of the country's most inflated and wealthy players. Lampard will spit his dummy out, but he's been monumentally shit for England for ages and he's got the wrong attitude. And i feel Gerrard brings more to a team anyway. His range of passing ability is far better and he knows his duties. Neville is too slow and cannot bomb forward like he used to. I think we are holding back our wingers by playing Gary Neville, whereas Richards is sublime at bombing forward and he also offers a goal threat. He's got far more going for him than Neville. Also, you look at some of the goals we conceded in the World Cup last year - we were shite from set pieces. Gary Neville's lack of height and sheer headless-chickenness that he often possesses, is not going to help. Richards meanwhile is tall and is good with his head. Lennon and Joe Cole, both players who are excellent at beating their men, getting into the box, and offering a goal threat from various areas. Rooney/Owen, unarguable. England have got a cracking team if it's played correctly.

Matchday, IE line-ups/tactics/in-game decisions, are where he mostly falls down in my opinion, as i've pointed out in my previous posts. Probably another reason, or maybe THE reason, for why he's a really good coach and not a great manager. In most other categories, he does a good job. The transfer window was shambolic but that's an accumulation of things, not just the manager's 'ineptness'.

So now you have been converted from a Roeder basher to a Roeder lover? Apologies in advance if I am oversimplifying things. Aye you are wrong so i'll accept your apology. I'm neither really. I don't particularly love him and i don't particularly hate him. I'm indifferent, as i was as soon as we appointed him. I'm not a huge fan of his but i think we should stick with him for the time being. I've bashed him and i've praised him. Probably more bashing than praising, but the things to bash stand out more. As all bad things do in football.

Their loss, our gain tbh. Won't happen anyway.

I have to say that i was getting frustrated that Dyer wasn't being withdrawn. Not only because we need him, but he was clearly fucked. First half he was good, second half we was knackered. How McClaren couldn't spot that is crazy, and yet another reason why he's a shit cunt.

1. At the start of the season what were your expectations, and are things going as you expected? I initially expected a similar turn-out to last season, brinking on the Top 6 if not being there. But then, that was before the summer transfer window shambles. With the 'squad' that Roeder had 'built', i was expecting nothing more than mid-table mediocrity, so yes - things are going as expected. 2. Who's been your best performer this season? I'd go for James Milner. He has been the most consistent and has possibly been the most improved as the season has progressed. He is really on top form at the moment, now that he is scoring goals aswell as providing them. Dyer, since he has returned, has been great for the team and great for Martins. Oba is scoring goals a plenty and Nobby has been a relevtaion at right-back, but Milner for me. 3. And your worst/most disappointing? Damien Duff, simply because so much was expected of him to start with. He has simply looked like a has-been at his very worst, whenever he has played for us. He has played one decent game for us, and that was with him at left-back. Duff's been utterly useless in the Premier League for us this season. Bramble has been disappointing aswell after the promise, false of course - as usual, that he showed at the end of last season. Duff for definite, though. 4. You had a quiet January transfer window, if you were the manager, who would you have tried to sign? There wasn't a lot out there in our price region. Everyone wanted a left-back but there was simply no one on the market. A striker would have been handy, and i would have liked an Andy Cole or a Robbie Fowler or a Lomana Lua Lua on loan until the end of the season. A player like that, Cole preferably, who wouldn't be spectacular but would do a job. Cole is simply a natural goalscorer and i was disappointed to hear that we had rejected him. 5. What are your best and worst memories of our previous meetings? The latter of the 4-3s being my worst memory, although i wasn't really old enough to experience it properly. I hear explanations of the treacherous experience from the likes of my dad and my grandads. Again, using the same method of experience, the Cole hattrick in the 3-0 win early nineties was great. When we beat you 1-0 in the 02/03 season, that really signalled that we really were one of the big four, so that was nice. 6. Do you have any favourite/best chants (and perhaps any that require an explanation)?, and 7. What's the banter like between Newcastle and Liverpool fans at St James, would you say that the 2 sets of fans get on? Pass. 8. In the summer, Liverpool and Newcastle are told to swap 3 first team regulars, who would you send to Liverpool, and who would you like from us? I'd get rid of Carr, Bramble and Sibierski. Bringing in Carragher, Agger and Crouch. 9. Liverpool have become the lastest club to gain new owners, Newcastle have been mentioned as well as a likely candiate for a takeover. How do you feel about these take-overs by foreign owners, and would you like to see it happen at Newcastle? Get Freddy out, to sum up. 10. Care to predict Mr Roeder’s starting line up for the game? Harper Solano --- Onyewu --- Bramble --- Taylor Milner --- Parker --- Butt --- Duff Martins --- Dyer 11. And finally, let’s have your score predictions for the game: Newcastle 0-2 Liverpool