Lenny

Is Emre fit? How did Barton play in the last game? Id prob go: Given Beye Rozenhal Faye Enrique Milner Butt Emre/Barton N'Zogbia Martins Smith Not really a fan of Butt but he's probably been our best midfielder this season.

I wouldnt say no for £2-£3m. Would allow N'Zogbia to be used in LM and give time for Enrique to settle, and isnt an undroppable player so Enrique could come in when ready.

Nope

Maybe but the positives in his play from left back have been when he's been pushing on, not actually his defending.

erm... I kinda agree with him. England's problem isnt a lack of ability at player level, its just that when you put them all together, and have managers that insist on playing people based on name and not what would best balance the team, we're shit!

I would have had, and still would have Allardyce out of all of them. He strikes me as the most thorough. Whoever came in was always going to have a big task on their hands getting the team to gell so quickly. A lot of people said at the beginning of the season that they were willing to give the new manager time, but we are not even halfway through the first season in what is obviously a long term plan and people are talking about who they'd rather have.

If we was to bring in someone like Anelka in, or somoene that can offer a bit of individual creativity and consistency I wouldnt be opposed to seeing Owen leave, it would certainly put an end to the crap surrounding him every day. Cant say Id be happy seein him doin well for another prem team though!!

seen him literally once or twice but looked pretty decent. worth a big ass £7m punt!

Heard a few others say he had one of his better games for us yesterday.

I reckon Cacapa would have been first on most peoples teamsheets before the Portsmouth game. Mine would be: Given Enrique Emre (if given a run of games for us I think he could turn out to be our most influential player)

Dyer and Bellamy have had loads of leg injuries and are still quick, it just depends really on nature of the leg injury. Edit: didnt Dyer break his leg at Ipswich as well?

Coming back from an injury is going to affect your match stamina, not your outright pace (unless the injury has actually caused you to lose some of it). If the injury hasnt affected his body then it will be an injection of pace, just not for a whole game to start with.

I dont think you can really judge Duff much from last season, he may not have played too well, but no-one around him was playing any good either, and the injuries caused his season to be very stop/start.

Where has it been reported Martins isnt in the squad? would be shocking if true, especially seeing as Owen isnt exactly setting the world alight. I reckon we'll draw this one, I just feel its the wrong time for this kind of fixture to come along for us. Not actually gonna be able to watch either, I have to leave for football at 12.45!!!

As much as Id love us to sign Berbatov I really cant see it. Would have absolutely no problem being proven wrong though.

If we win our next game we will be on an avergae 2 points a game, which over a season you would imagine would be enough to get you champions league football. Admittedly we've not come up against any big teams yet, but its not a bad return.

We've all seen how good Cacapa, Faye and Roz have been, but today was the first time that Enrique, imo the best prospect out of our new players, showed that he's very solid. His positioning defensively was very very good. Marked Malbranque out of the game (one quote from a Spurs fan 'was he [Malbranque] even playing?'). He's got some meat yet at the same time is quite agile and pacey. Looks very good. His attacking game is also quite good, passes don't seem to go too astray too often, and also has a good cross. The best thing is that he seems to be a complete fullback, not like Olly Bernard who was only good going forward. Just looks like someone who will only grow and get better with every game, especially if he gets a continued run in the team with Zoggy in front of him. Our left side is fannnnnnnnntastic Our left side does look pretty good, although I can see why Allardyce took N'Zogbia off yesterday because although he was playing quite well going forward, he wasnt providing any protection to Enrique which meant a lot of the time he had no choice but to play the ball long up to Martins. Im sure it will start to work in time but I think its something that they will work on.

Emre is on tiptoes congratulating Martins

christ!

Its refreshing to see the talent we know we have actually performing together in the same game rather than just 1 man at a time for a change!

you cant judge Barton at all from that, we were seeing the game out for the majority of the time he was on. He made a bad pass granted, but its gonna take a while to get him fit.

Pretty much my opinion of him as well. MOM for me though :S

I thought Owen's link up play today was very good.

I thought our entire back four played very well, there is obviously always room for improvement but to say anyone on the pitch in a Newcastle shirt was awful is laughable, no, pathetic! Beye was probably the worst of the lot but still played well, made one mistake of note that he got straight back for.

whateva!