Segun Oluwaniyi

You must have missed that season when he was the best striker in the entire world.

Kanoute was pretty good in England in all honesty. He was placed in a great situation at Sevilla as well.

They got humped 5-1 at the weekend by Wolfsburg n all although Grafite scored an unbelievable goal for one of them. Well worth watch at a popular video clip site. Love that goal. I swear when I first saw that goal, I was making the same sounds the announcers from AND ONE basketball tapes make. He truly embarrassed some "top class" players there. Really enjoy the way the ball slowly rolls into the net. This Chelsea-Liverpool game is played at an absolutely insane pace.

Bayern allowed five from Wolfsburg at the weekend as well. Don't know what their problem is.

well said. don't have the wingers for a 4-4-2, don't have the central midfielders for a 4-4-2, and we don't have the strikers for it either. Guthrie in particular is ready made for a 4-3-3 as his technique and passing are excellent but his strength and his engine all stand out as being sub-standard in a midfield two. give him that extra body in the middle and all a sudden those two things arent an issue - bit like how Butt looked fine at the end of last season. I would personally play Guthrie-Geremi-Jonas across the middle, Geremi sitting back like Butt did, Guthrie in Ron's position on the right and Jonas the non-stop running machine that was joey barton, only better. Up-front you have Owen in the hole, dropping back into midfield when needed and making runs forward when not, with Martins and one more (Xisco, Smith, Ameobi, Carroll, Viduka) capable of playing with their back to goal. I also agree with you that yesterday was one-dimensional from what i saw. there was little in the way of diagonal runs, first touch passing or other invention that pulls defenders out of position. it was very basic and direct as if the tactics were 'get it into the box quickly for owen'. in a way i am disappointed that shearer's assistant has been Dowie. I know he needed to bring in a training ground coach but, while Dowie is apparently clued up on coaching methods he is not too bright tactically. calderwood, dowie, hughton - i dont really see any of those as someone who can pull shearer aside and suggest a novel take on tactics or spot out a subtle problem in the balance as a Venables would've (or create an inventive solution to our problems as keegan did last season). Good insights there and I'm inclined to agree with you. The midfield is woefully underperforming, whatever we have tried with the 4-4-2 has floundered both this season and last season. Not the system at fault it's just we don't have the players with enough confidence or ablity to string two passes together. We need either Carroll or Xisco to play as a target man with Oba and Owen playing off him. A midfield three would be Jonas, Butt and Guthrie. If we are going to play 4-3-3, I'd prefer we'd not drop Nolan. We should at least give him a chance in the position in which he has flourished during his career.

Cant stand Tommy Smith man. Derek Rae (probaly my fav. commentator in the world) is fantastic, but why does ESPN make American fans suffer through this Irish idiot. "If Sir Alex look like a genius.......then his opposite number......er.....looks like.......a genius" He describes every goal as bulging the ol' onion bag. I wish he would be retired. Really pleased for Porto by the way. Result fully reserved. They seemed the hungrier team.

In Allardyce's first window he signed: Smith, Viduka, and Geremi.

Bloody hell. He just casually passed the ball into Rooney's path. Barely even under pressure.

Was again the situation starts from "the best player in the world" losing the ball in his own half.

i'd play Owen up front with Carroll and shove Martins out on the wing. I don't think Oba can play as a winger in a 4-4-2.

If there weren't sponsors on the shirts than there would probaly be adverts during the action. Or you might have to deal with the crap we do in Nigeria, like political campaign slogans scrolling across the screen during the match. I like sponsors, if you have a classy one it works real well. I loved when ours was Newcastle Brown Ale. Loved that star. Obivously, I'd be disappointed if our sponsor next year is Dorito's or something.

We don’t have a midfield capable of retaining possession either, and the only player we have who can play a decent through ball is Barton. Owen and Martins are the best two strikers we have when they can play to their strengths. Trying to out jump Terry and chasing around after scraps isn’t what they’re good at. Our midfield is seriously lacking, I agree, and if we had a viable battering ram/hold up player than we should use Martins/Owen as subs. We don't have this though. Carroll isn't ready and isn't all that good. Ameobi is awful. Xisco we don't know about, and has not been given a chance. Viduka is a figment of your vivid imagination. At the current, none of these are Premiership level players. We should not weaken our strikeforce because our midfield is weak.

Imagine having someone who can actually run in midfield, the mind boggles. we have the makings of a decent team, with 2 new cms a striker a winger and a centrehalf we'd be able to challenge for the top half witha good manager in charge we'd need to spend about 25m though. I think with decent coaching colo will come good but that remains to be seen Harper Beye Bassong New Jose New Barton New Jonas Oba New It highly annoys me that Keegan managed to pull the plug on Wise's Skjelbred travel, but not on Nacho's. Imagine if it'd been the other way around, f*** me we'd have someone never stopping to run, going forward, able to string passes together and not have a phobia from shooting from long range. At the very least, we'd have a lad who'd actually be playing as opposed to curled up on the physio room. Speaking of, wasn't Nacho supposed to be back like... A month ago? Has anyone even seen him around the club, or back in Valencia, or doing anything remotely connected to football since his injury? The man literally left the face of the footballing earth.

This club is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The negativity around this club is like an immense dark cloud.

We've played our best football this season with Owen and Martins upfront. They are our two best strikers. They will score the most goals. We need a good target man, we don't have one.

He had an infection, he's not injured. He was just sick and unaware of it before the match. Really? He got taken off after a prett bad shot to the ribs.

Yup looked in real distress. Wish him well. Decent signing he's been. Anyone got a source on that coma rumour? Norwegian newspaper, but direct quotes: http://www.vg.no/sport/fotball/engelsk/artikkel.php?artid=541254 "When I was behind the goal and couldn't breathe, I thought I was going to die. It was a horrid experience." "After the crash, it got worse and when I was carried off, I couldn't breathe. I was desperate after air and had great pains in the entire body." "I had no feeling in my fingers, and I got a panic attack in a desperate attempt to breathe." "My wife came in when I came to, it was incredible discomfort for her to see me in that state." "I cannot remember how long I was unconscious." "It went three hours before my breathing was back to normal." "They say it's not a lasting problem, so now I am just going to relax a couple of days before I go back to training." "Football is no longer the most important for us." God didn't realise I was waching something so serious during the match on Saturda, especially as the commentators never mentioned it again.

you are joking aren't you yeah, i was. that wasnt the situation at all. Good. I'm pleased you don't recognise a situation whereby a talented player is unhappy at the club. Lets not bother to find out why, nor why he thinks Wigan is a step up for him. Marvellous. Welcome back to the old days, when we were run like a corner shop and had zero ambition. N'Zogbia is at Wigan because his performances at Newcastle did not warrant a move to the places he wanted to go. He wore out his welcome at the club and now he's using Wigan as his "stepping stone".

Nolan is the exact kind of signing that got us into the situation we are in now. I didn't problems signing Ryan taylor, but he has not been godd enough so far.

That's old news though, it was said on MOTD a few weeks back they've never got on after Zaki took Mido's mantle as Egypts top player. As for the £12m I think that was the agreed price wasn't it ? They might settle for £6m as I imagine he won't want to go back to the Egyptian league. And to be fair to Adriano Mattis, they reckon he might have been kidnapped. :-[ Whats going on with Adriano? I haven't heard a Dickie Bird about this? Also on a sidenote, imagine Mido being your countrys best player. The vast majority of countries in this world would kill for a player of Mido's talent. Haha i guess so. Just being an England fan you get used to having a team full of big names. My bad. No problem. Mido's never been their best player though. That's always been Abou-Treika. Mido is an after thought.

That's old news though, it was said on MOTD a few weeks back they've never got on after Zaki took Mido's mantle as Egypts top player. As for the £12m I think that was the agreed price wasn't it ? They might settle for £6m as I imagine he won't want to go back to the Egyptian league. And to be fair to Adriano Mattis, they reckon he might have been kidnapped. :-[ Whats going on with Adriano? I haven't heard a Dickie Bird about this? Also on a sidenote, imagine Mido being your countrys best player. The vast majority of countries in this world would kill for a player of Mido's talent. Apparently Adriano isn't sure if he's going back to Inter. That boy is troubled.

He's a very good player man. Is exactly waht we need to partner Oba/Owen. I would compare him to John Carew. Big and strong, but still decently skilled. It's funny though, because everyone thinks he's this young player, but he's actually older than Oba. The man is 25 years old and a great talent, but this is the first year he's been able to play at top flight club.

I wouldn't think so. Marseille are in a good position to qualify for CL for he 3rd year running, so it'd be a step down. Then again, the Senegalese players respect Beye like a father and he has been linked with england before. So who knows. I'm not really his bggest fan though.

Gomis and St. Ettienne have both had spectacular falls from grace since the end of last season. The team might be relegated and the player isn't highly regarded at all by now.

3-0. Niang again. The title is a serious serious possibility this season.