fredbob

Keegan's response suggest he knows something about it, but doesnt know the exact details to be fair, i imagine that Mort put emphasis on this club being built from the ground scouting and youth wise and Keegan knew he wasnt the man to do that part of the job, (because he wouldnt know how), DOF seems like an appointment that was pre agreed before he took the job, with guartanees of no interfering. Keegans responses wasnt a shocked, "this is the first ive heard of it" response but more fo a "I dont know the exact details response".

Well said, to be fair, although i have no criticisms of this appointment i just want to know who's idea this was and what are they basing it on? First Redknap, then Wise. Who within this club has picked out Wise as a suitable appointment and why? (Providing it wasnt Keegan)

So who's done the deal? Ashley?

Is it me or are most people missing the point here? The way i see it the potential appointment of Wise has nothing to do with his coaching ability or management style, the way i read it he's gonna be the buffer between Keegan and the board, he'll be the one in the background building the club and looking at getting signings, leaving Keegan with coaching the club and sorting out match day. Nothing more nothing less. How can anyone comment aboutt his being a bad or good appointment with no precedent of Wise beinga failure in this position is beyond me, maybe Keegan is very good friends with Wise, maybe wise has a lot of contacts through his Chelsea days which Keegan would like to tap into. As long as this is Keegans appointment, then what exactly are people worrying about?

He's had an absolutely golden opportunity in a lot of games i've seen him in this season, particularly recently. Man City after half time which he toe-prodded it to the keeper, Man Utd where he was offside and the keeper stopped, Stoke away where he couldn't control a relatively simple curved pass right infront of goal, Stoke at home, in which he scored, and also against Arsenal yesterday. Those are the ones that i can remember off the top of my head. He's absolutely pointless. He can't get into the game unless the midfielders are on top form. He can't collect it and run at players. He's got no pace whatsoever. He's short so he's not much of an aerial threat. And he just seems to have lost a lot of his 'intelligence' for me, which appears to be everyone's back-up claim for him. You can call him a natural goalscorer... not anymore he ain't, not this season. Countless times yesterday when there was a move down the wing and Duff/Zog cut inside to play the ball low - into the heart of the box, Owen's plan was to 'run as fast as i can at the keeper'. Not enough; what does that achieve? So many times we were craving one of the on-rushing attackers to drop off and give the winger someone to pass to. It wasn't happening. I'd agree that we need a striker in the long-run, but we've got Viduka and Martins to come back and i can't wait to see Oba playing under Keegan (he's vital whenever he plays imo, completely unlike Owen). We need midfielders first but a striker in the summer is important. Golden oppurtunity in a lot of games? You must of seen alot more chances then i have seen. Also the bit in bold is the key bit if you ask me, Owen is an 18 yard box player and if we dont havea midfiled who will be able to dominate teams and possession we wont ever see the best of Owen, or many other players to be honest.

Well, has his price, is droppping down the pecking order a little, getting crowded out the centre of the park. Is a geordie boy and has always said he'd love to come here. Nothing in stone obviously but a hell of a lot morelikely then any other top playerin a top 4 team.

Carrick is the player who id love, would be perfect for out team, would be signing we could make as well.

We have made some horrific choices as captain, the only player who should, ever be captain is someone who's position can never be compromised. Given should be captain its between him and Faye those 2 are the only guaranteed starters in my book.

How do you work that out? LC Final

I dont understand how people write off our strikers saying they're crap or have lost it, yet the same people will say we arent creative enough and need a creative midfilder, am i the only one who sees the link ther? First and foremost we need to be able to have a centre midfiled that can dominate the team who are below us and other teams who we should be on par with, for me the most important player in a centre midfiled is the DM, its a psition we are very weak with at the mo. Get that bt sorted and the rest should follow.

To be honest im ok with losing him, how far has his stock fallen hat no one was truly bothered when he looked like he was going for us. Turn the clock back 18months(?) when Roeder was in for him 95% of the board waas gutted when he wasnt signed. Goes to show, because on his day the best teams the the world would love to have him. I dont think if he'd come we'd concede less to be honest, i personally wish we'd concentrate our efforts on boosting the mdfiled, that is where we are losign the games.

Cacapa is good enough for in my book, chances are with Faye in front of him no one will be running at him with power. Well thats the plan anyway, not sure why Roz gets so much flak to be honest, i havent been watching him closely but i think he lost a huge amount of condfidence when SA broke him and Tayl partnership up for no apparent reason. Has made a couple of mistakes, but i still think he has all the attribtures to be a quality defender, he needs to be partenered with a beast though, and Cacapa isnt a beast and Taylor doesnt know what he is yet. Personally, if Faye played DM, with Cacapa/Roz and a Taylor who commits and blocks balls like Terry, then we'd have a winning partenr ship right there, those 4 have all the attributes and blends to be huge successes.

One chance then, yeh? How many chances has he has all season, honestly speaking i cant think of many good chances he's had, could probably count the number of chances hes had on 2 hands.

Fair enough, but its not the first time ive heard it and im pretty sure it wont be the last.

Adebayor was the difference today, his confidence is high, he is strong on the ball and has a hunger that our forward line severly lacks. Really? Adebayor was the diffrence today? So by saying that you're saying if Adebayor was on our side we'd of won? Personally i thought the game was lost in the centre of midfiled, we were easily overran in the midfiled, our attacks were broken down with ease and we didnt regain or retain posession well enough. No denying that their midfield is better than ours, but even in the first half when we were well in the game and playing some good stuff we never really looked all that likely to score, due to the lack of real class up front. You knew once Arsenal got going and got the ball into their strikers they'd score. It's a bit of both tbh, but we desperately lack a genuine top class forward. Well to be fair, in the first half we create a couple of chances, Smith had one off the line, Zog and Duff made a couple of decent moves down the left. I just dont see a top class striker making any difference to be honest. Owen is completely inneffective outside the 18yard box and if we arent able to pin teams in there own half and retain possession well enough we wont utilise him well enough. I still think he will score goals for us, i actually cant rememeber seeing him have any chances for a long long time now, how will any striker score without an chances? Once the second half started Butt and Zog dissapperred, the number of times i saw Zog pull out to the flank was unreal, Fabregas would never find himself in the same position as Zog. Aslo saw Cacapa make alot of tackles in the DM area.

"And some players were dismayed at new Newcastle boss Keegan's farcical tactical team meeting ahead of yesterday's 3-0 FA Cup fourth round drubbing at Arsenal. A Toon insider said: "The players were waiting for Kevin to give his instructions but all he said was: ‘Arsenal are a great passing team. We must make sure we pass the ball better than them.' "That was it. There were no specific tactics, no work on set pieces...the players were stunned." I know its jumping the gun, but its the sort of thing that worried me with the appointment of Keegan.

On the flip side he is also our best DM, so why not play him there? It depends on where you see the problems with our defence lie, i personally think the problems lie with te protection, many of of dfenders have good games yet we still conceded alot of goal. We conceded too much possession in the centre of midfiled and arent proficient enough in regaining it. Game against Bolton when we had huge amounts of possession because we kept the ball well and won it back easily, then take the game against arsenal where in the first half we won the ball well, and kept it well, even carved out a couple of chances, but collapsed in the second half when the posession wasnt kept even half as well, Butt and Zog disappeared in the second half.

I pray that there is no truth in that team tactic bit, that would be exactly what i would be scared of. Really sends shivers down my spine.

Adebayor was the difference today, his confidence is high, he is strong on the ball and has a hunger that our forward line severly lacks. Really? Adebayor was the diffrence today? So by saying that you're saying if Adebayor was on our side we'd of won? Personally i thought the game was lost in the centre of midfiled, we were easily overran in the midfiled, our attacks were broken down with ease and we didnt regain or retain posession well enough.

A fit Woodgate would more than match Ferdinand, not seen too much of King to be fair. JT isnt as good as an on form Woodgate, again not sure about King.

Kaboul and Dawson ought to be made to just sit in the stands, watch King and Woodgate and learn how it should be done. Both of those are better than Terry. King is, Woodgate definatly isnt. Its weird as i had the exact same debate with people over at GG about this yesterday. Lol, where has that come from? Terry is an excellent defender who has been onthe top of his game for 4/5 years now. Woodgate is a fine fine defender who on his day is every bit as good as Ferdinand. What is everyone basing there opinion on Woodgate on? This season?

Couple of years ago i would of been gutted, but this tme around im not. We have 4 good defenders i dont think its a case of our defenders not being good enough but more our defending not being good enough,. Woodgate would make a bit of a difference but he still wouldnt make us inpenetrable.

In my opinion we reallyneed a DM, badly. Watched Cacapa play most the second half, in a DM position because he kept on being drawn out. Butt was alrite in the first half, and it showed because we werent being overun. I still think we have the good partnership in there, we just need to be able to retain possession better and get it back.

Wierd, a coupleof years ago, i wouldnt think twice about having him here, but there seems to be too much baggage with him for me to get too excited bout it. I still belive there is a quality centre pairing with the defenders we already have. Have we been linkd with any midfielders?

You have to look at Shola and judge him as a player that we hope to keep in we are to go places, does he have the attributes to spearhead the attack and provde an end to our produce? No is the answer, can anyone actually name me a strength of Shola? Pace? Movement? Finishing? Heading? Link up? Strength? Creativity? Touch? I wouldnt say he was strong with any of these attributes. How anyone can defend him as a footballer is beyond me. I think id rather have Heskey than Shola.