Ronaldo

f*** me.. u21 captain for englands ffs. youre too harsh imo There's an arguement involving James Milner somewhere in there

Good point, people seem to forget just how young Taylor is, i think he'll be class, hopefully now he'll work harder to get his place back in the first team. he's older than bassong. you can use age, settling in, learning the language etc... as an excuse up to a point, but you cant use it indefinately. taylor has some good aspects as a defender, but he has some real weaknesses in his game that were present during his debut and are still present now. its not impossible that he turns out to be a good defender, he does have ability, but at the moment he is a bottom 3 premiership/top6 championship defender in my opinion. if he doesn't improve he'll stay that way and i've seen little from him so far to suggest he's capable of changing. bramble could have been a really good defender if he'd manage to improve on his attributes at 19 into his mid twenties but he didn't. taylor is the same. His age was no concern for me he could be 28 for all it matters, but while he's been n the team he's had no competition so has slumped it happens to some familiarity breeds contempt as they say. In theory this will make or break Steven Taylor at Newcastle. no competition, are you pissed tonight or what mate? Souness - Bramble and Boumsong first choice Roeder - Bramble and Moore then Bramble and Onyewu first choice till last month of the season Allardyce - Faye and Cacapa first choice Keegan - first choice Kinnear - now Bassong and Coloccini first choice since SBR left and Taylor established himself as a first team player, only one of 5 managers has had him as first choice despite the generally woeful options for central defence. He's had s**** competition and still failed to rise to the required level. And still people see him as a good defender Taylor played more games than anyone else in Roeders full season IIRC, but don't let facts stop you talking s**** Taylor was constantly bypassed by Roeder for the CB slots. When fit, Moore and Bramble played ahead of him and when Onyewu arrived he and Bramble played together until Alkmaar (Onyewu was cup tied for the Uefa cup also) please, feel free to argue these facts.

well no, i dont. Taylor's had (going by most opinions) shite competition in the last 4 years yet has only briefly been first choice CB, it's laughable how he's still here. it's a fact to be honest. The only thing you can argue is the ability of his competition. Or do you consider Moore and Onyewu to be good defenders?

a good centre back who's been at fault for no less than 7 goals this season? madness. He's absolutely diabolical and it's funny how people forget it the second he's benched for a few games Every time you post in this thread you mention Taylor. You need to just shag him & get it over with tbh. the thread is about Taylor

Good point, people seem to forget just how young Taylor is, i think he'll be class, hopefully now he'll work harder to get his place back in the first team. he's older than bassong. you can use age, settling in, learning the language etc... as an excuse up to a point, but you cant use it indefinately. taylor has some good aspects as a defender, but he has some real weaknesses in his game that were present during his debut and are still present now. its not impossible that he turns out to be a good defender, he does have ability, but at the moment he is a bottom 3 premiership/top6 championship defender in my opinion. if he doesn't improve he'll stay that way and i've seen little from him so far to suggest he's capable of changing. bramble could have been a really good defender if he'd manage to improve on his attributes at 19 into his mid twenties but he didn't. taylor is the same. His age was no concern for me he could be 28 for all it matters, but while he's been n the team he's had no competition so has slumped it happens to some familiarity breeds contempt as they say. In theory this will make or break Steven Taylor at Newcastle. no competition, are you pissed tonight or what mate? Souness - Bramble and Boumsong first choice Roeder - Bramble and Moore then Bramble and Onyewu first choice till last month of the season Allardyce - Faye and Cacapa first choice Keegan - first choice Kinnear - now Bassong and Coloccini first choice since SBR left and Taylor established himself as a first team player, only one of 5 managers has had him as first choice despite the generally woeful options for central defence. He's had s**** competition and still failed to rise to the required level. And still people see him as a good defender

a good centre back who's been at fault for no less than 7 goals this season? madness. He's absolutely diabolical and it's funny how people forget it the second he's benched for a few games

Bassong is a very good player on his own merits though, as could Bramble be at times. O'brien and Taylor are just plain shit

Same. People seem to forget that we've had a poor season with all the things that have gone on. Confidence isn't high and so when the players make mistakes, its affects them even more. Imagine how they'd be playing without the threat of relegation hanging over them, with a run of wins, with a larger squad - then you can see the potential. with another 5 players in various positions in our team we'd be a lot better off for it. Our defence is one of the positives we have I feel, its never going to be perfect (and you can't say that about any team in the league) but we're a lot better off than we've been in the past! All of which is what worries me about Kinnear going for Upson and a replacement for Enrique. Competition for places is all well and good, but Upson and the likes of Riise would be coming here as starters. Why change it? I wouldn't. But in all honesty I never want to see Taylor in the team again, especially not with Colo and Upson certainly knocks him down the pecking order. Upson has played LB before hasn't he?

Redknapp's a deluded fool

If that was the case then he wouldn't have appointed Joe Kinnear. He'll make more money in the Premiership than in the Championship. well Kinnear was his 5th choice tbh. As useless as you or I think Kinnear is, they'll always be armchair pundits out there believing him to a top manager after he won premiership manager of the year in 97 or 98

no intention of selling

We'll see I suppose. I'm not a massive fan of Sidwell like some but he seems to be the type of player who quietly but consistently gets better and better, kinda like Barry and to a degree, Lampard.

he blatantly will in 5 years when Gerrard, Carrick, Hargreaves and Lampard are gone though He will be about 30 himself then won't he? yes, but getting a game I suspect

he blatantly will in 5 years when Gerrard, Carrick, Hargreaves and Lampard are gone though

I don't. He was a decent-ish player that wasn't really interested when he first came here, and since his return from Birmingham hes been a generally poor player with the odd decent game here and there. Absolute rubbish. He was our best player throughout the last 12-15 games of last season. I think its safe to say we're not going to agree here as I think that statement is absolute rubbish. agreed, Barton and Geremi in the midfield were better. Oba the standout player for me, when he came back the ANC he really changed things

s***! I was looking forward to another clean sheet. Bent is much more of a threat then any of their other strikers tbh

Essien was bought in August though

blatantly considering jumping in/waiting for the tide

safe with 53

to be fair though, whilst Speed wasn't a DM till his final few seasons with us, he was always a great tackler, as far back as Leeds

Woodgate has no class, and if you dont believe me ask the landlords who've barred him for burning £20 notes

Coloccini is our classiest since Albert tbh

Id go for a fully fit Bellamy, he's got such a good footballing brain and a pain in the arse to play against, Martins is good and keeps you on the edge of the seat but Bellamy posed simlar threats that Martins does but has a bit more to his game. Bellamy also proved at Blackburn that he does have a decent amount of goal in him. I love Bellamy but Martins is more of a goal threat, quicker and much more diifcult to defend against. A lot more physically imposing too

Wigan again. Get your money on Ryan Taylor. BTW Woodgate is definitely out on Thursday. I want a Martins vs Dawson rematch. if they'd faced each other in a figurative boxing ring instead of a pitch, Dawson would have been killed 4 times over

ridiculous, very glad I reserved judgement on Guthrie. Him and the colossal Bassong for next to nothing represents fantastic business