ElDiablo

Rozehnal and Taylor.

Nope. It's not really surprising that quite a few aren't. Here's the only place i get to talk/read about NUFC with other fans.

There's hard workers plus N'Zogbia (who's not even in midfield currently) and maybe Emre. The team and midfield in particular is in need of some pace and ability to keep the ball. The thing is though the midfield's of the sides mentioned aren't that much better than ours, it's just they have played together for longer and have a set way of playing, whereas it seems ours just go out and see what happens. Hopefully the more they play together the better it will work.

Wasn't the scouse derby labelled the 'friendly derby' or something like that up until a few years ago?

Milwall V Chelsea/West Ham. Shame they don't meet each other anymore. (And no i'm not basing this on Green street or some film)

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2413/bigmikeaq2.th.jpg Theres one I got of him when I was having a pint at half time. He's doing the face!

Enrique tbh. Continutity. N'Zogbia is more valuable in a 4-3-3 imo. I don't see any value in the continuity of playing our most dangerous attacker in defence, when we've a perfectly good LB doing nowt. Viduka in goal for the rest of the season would be continuous but not a lot of use. If we're play 4-4-2, then yeah. If we're playing 4-3-3 - which we really should be after the Blackburn performance (and seeing as we've used that formation in games that we've won), then N'Zogbia fits in nowhere but full-back - he's not worth having in that middle three, that's not his game at all. He's dangerous attacking from deep anyhow. I'd stick Zog in midfield. The 3 of them are interchangeable anyway, sometimes you see Barton on the left, then on the right, in the centre. If he tells Zog just to sit that 10 yards in front of Barton and Butt when we have the ball we have the outlet we've been lacking all season when the defence or Butt has the ball in our half. I'd not be worried about that leaving us a bit exposed because when we don't have the ball Milner is good at tracking back and is generally in line with the midfield at the times we don't have the ball. I'd play something like: -----------Given Beye cacapa Faye (if not Taylor) Enrique -------Barton---Butt---N'Zogbia------ Martins-------Viduka-----Milner---- Bring Smith (up front) and Emre depending on how the result is. Think we'll get a 1-1.

I was more annoyed at the last goal with him, was in no mans land. He tried to narrow the angle by coming out towards mcarthy but Rozehnal was still in the way so what was the point? Then it rebounded back and Tugay just had to pick his spot. Bentley's was closer in and had a lot more pace and whip on it. A bit harsh to compare.

Not on my keyboard.

Watford away would be (selfishly) nice.

1-1 draw, Oba with them equalising and we hang on for the draw.

That will be a great group to watch, shame one will have to go out though.

Yeah Bentley looks better every time I see him. Apart from his goals he played very well as well, whipped some quality balls in.

Even though the front two played well, when it came to where it matters, making intelligent runs and getting into goalscoring positions, they were poor and that imo cost us a point if not 3. Loads of times we got crosses in and Martins and Smith were on the edge of the box on their heels. Their link up play with back to goal was good specially in the first half but they simply didn't get into positions where they will get chances, the goal aside, of course, where everyone was prepared for the ball into the box. There was loads of examples I noticed like when Carr dug that cross out, ffs, I know he wasn't expecting it but either one of them has to run to the near post there and then there's a goal waiting for them, the defender was stood still basically. Obviously Martins and Smith are still getting to know each other so things like this will happen when they think the other will go and vice versa but it's still frustrating to watch. It was one of those games today where you really see the value of Owen, making the little runs and nicking one in the near post. For all the good work Smith and Martins put in they will never have that instinct because their games are built around different things. Overall though it was like a different team was playing, much more fight n that. We closed them down high up the pitch and they couldn't do anything for long parts of the game, we put lots of pressure on them and it was just that sharpness and movement up front we were lacking as I mentioned that stopped us from getting something imo. The only worrying thing for me is as I saw written on here before that the game today was a perfect bounce back with a good performance game. Huge support that put the home lot to shame, an opposition that play the similar sort of game (getting into the oppositions face and ruffing them up way rather than getting it down and playing sort of way) and the absoloute mare last week which gave the players that extra point to prove and show the fans what they can do. It will be very interesting to see if the boys can transfer this over to the next few games or whether that was just a reaction from the humiliating game last week against Liverpool and the Pompey game. It was better but i'm still uneasy about it all, the next few weeks are crucial, we need a similar performance against Arsenal even if we do get done, because we then have two winnable games iirc and we the worst thing we need is to go into those games low on confidence and playing like a team of strangers again.

Well reading this thread it seems we put up a good fight, fair enough. They're a good side, move on.

Viduka simply has to play if fit, he's the most important player in the team imo as he's the only one who can do anything like holding the ball up and linking play. Smith might be alright as a sub for him but Viduka has to start for me.

It's got to be under the floodlights, whatever day it's on, that's what the champions league is about.

How come it is like this with some managers? Every fan and pundit can see something, but the manager just can't? So frustrating! Shit thing is, i thought those days were behind us when we got sam in. is big sam over-thinking it? and then rationalising his cumbersome gameplan? e.g. zoggy plays left back for his country etc... I think so, he over-analyses the opposition and allows that to effect our game. Whereas we should go in trying to play to our strengths first and then try to stifle the opposition from there. But he seems keen to do the opposite.

It's shocking really how EVERYONE seems to be able to see it apart from Sam.

I like Richard Branston, me.

http://i18.tinypic.com/85226n5.gif He's ginger as well to top things off.

:-[

He sounds ideal, how far can he hoof it?

Bad news about Enrique, nothing good can come out of that. It means either Carr or N'Zogbia will replace him I would think.