Ronaldo

just to clarify I was refering to that ridiculous article

I agree with most of that, but you surely cannot have your best defender at LB when Liverpool's attack comes straight down the middle. Swap Bassong for Taylor and get Carroll in there

what a load of nonsense

our best central defender once again at LB, honestly, what do you people take?

I heard the bit about the car like i think the guy's a fucking embarassment btw and it's sad that we have to employ somelike like that to create a half-decent atmosphere which quickly became a non-atmosphere

Yesterday he had a chance through on goal & was key in setting up Viduka for a similar chance. He also linked up play quite a few times, though first half he was to deep for me. Think you're one of the few saying no passion/no graft. Please explain why you think Owen is our top scorer this season/last season & who you'd replace him with/why. Owen is doing nothing, so it's not hard to find a replacement. Carroll or Lovenkrands should have started in his place yesterday, not that i'm massive fans of either, but one will work hard and frighten defenders with pace and the other will at least rough up the less physically capable defenders in the league - Sol Campbell an obvious exception to this. as a footnote to all those who are so confident that Owen is more of a goal threat than the lad, Carroll has scored 3 goals since Owen's last.

Id go for the guy who can score goals using magical mind powers, but we dont have that either so we'll have to stick with guy #1 wont we. Owen should stay in the team yes. However when people start talking baout him going to Arsenal or Man U next season I just find such things perplexing. The thought of Wenger playing Owen ahead of the likes of Adebayor, Van Persie, Eduardo ... I mean come on! Still debatable, depends really on the ability of the team. It could be argued that if you're a side that passes nicely, Owen is more likely to get more chances as his movement is better than Adebayors. Not something we could compare unless Owen was in a side as capable as Arsenal really. now you're just talking absolute nonsense, he'd get nowhere near an attack like Arsenal's

The question HAS to be, what have seen of Owen recently, ie in the last 8 games or so, to suggest that he'll be effective for the remainder of the season we've seen fuck all, no goals, no passion, no graft, nowt. After every game most of us are saying the same thing, Owen did nowt, it might have been better had he not started. Surely it's now more of a gamble to play him from that start than not to

Barca would roll over Arsenal with half their team on glue to be honest

Surely it's best for you if Chelsea make the final

come on Chelsea. Think they'll get through like, Drogba should be far too much for Barca's somewhat diminutive defence

will you blame him in 4 games?

Beckford

Carroll should start this one imo, just the type that Carragher might struggle with

9 good games under Keegan, 7 good games under Souness. 16 effective games in 4 years leading people to believe that Owen will 'come good eventually' absolutely pathetic. People dont want to admit that it's the patches with goals that are the exception, not the rule

Far too many people on here ignoring the fact even Michael Owen at his best gives you little else but goals The same people will come out with nonsense like '1 in 3 is pretty good' when it clearly isn't for such a player

2 singles for the night £2 on Drogba first scorer at 8/1 £10 Chelsea to win at 5/1

I'd agree with that. He looks like he wants the ball and wants to try things. Definitely one of our better players last night. We struggled to find a shape last night, and the longer the game on, the more ragged we became. A lot of people have pinned their hopes on 4-3-3 with Owen in a free role, but the players didn't seem to have much confidence in it last night. Owen is good at drifting into scoring positions from deep, but he doesn't create anything for his team-mates, which is a major part of what you expect from someone in that free role. He fluffed the one chance he had, which Martins was in a position to get anyway. It's like playing with 10 men, but unlike last season, the other 10 are short of form and confidence and we're not getting away with it. My major concern at the time of Shearer's appointment was that he would stick with Owen no matter what, and unfortunately I think it's a mistake that's going to scupper what chance we had of staying up. Agree with your point about Duff. Could well be putting himself in the shop window for next season mind. Re: Owen, I'd drop him big style. I would have played Martins behind Viduka and Carroll last night. Martins playing deep, with his pace, would have pulled the Portsmouth defence completely out of shape. Owen playing there totally nullified any attacking threat we had. Not only is he low on confidence, but he is weak as a weak streak of piss and won't shoot from range. He takes a full working week to turn and his play is rushed. Shearer should listen to his own words me thinks. He says Owen isn't scoring because we're not creating much for him i.e. not creating incisive chances to put the ball on a plate for him. Well then big Al, if we're creating nowt then keep Owen off the pitch and play someone who will bust a gut to make something out of nothing. themanupstairs knows the score, why the f*** doesn't Shearer?

player of the month for March

Duff represents everything wrong with the club, overhyped, overpaid, past his best, a serial blame shifter and basically a ineffective tosser of a footballer. Oh, and a cheat who's incredibly shit at cheating

because he's the club captain and was a good player 5 years ago

Resentment and complacency run through that team and it's easy to see why Bassong earns (at best) a tenth of what Owen does and a seventh of what Duff and Smith pull in. Says it all to be honest

Go with the guy who takes £100,00 a week from the club. The guy who is supposedly our captain. The guy who is invisible all game and then doesn't score the chances he supposedly always scores. The guy who comes to training in a helicopter because he'd rather not live in the area. The guy who is always injured or not match fit. The guy who has no left foot, who cannot score from outside the box and who cannot generate the force of a feather on the ball when he shoots. The guy who never wanted to be here in the first place and can't help but remind us everytime he is on the pitch it seems. Go with that guy ... is that 1 goal in 15 now for the goal machine? Looking forward to his last game already

we wouldn't be 18th in the table with Grant, no fucking chance whatsoever

Smith and Duff didn't half have a go at him tonight for not supporting the attack like, Duff in particular was screaming and shouting for a while