fredbob

Aye he had nowt to do with it Remember your post above next time your waffling on about Freddie Shepherd. It wasnt a dig you bamp, it literally is the simplistic view, blame the man in charge, its the way the world works. Hence the bit in bold. As for Shepherd, I lambast Shepherd et al for the decisions they made themselves. Keep on missing the point though - you'll get there eventually.

Isnt it more to do with the fact that appears to have done nothing since Keegan left to stabilise the club or to improve the relationship between the management and the fans Also been guilty of very very poor - or in all honesty complete lack of - communication I agree, he should be far more vocal in the sense of trying to build relations with the fans and giving the fans a focal point but i just got the feeling that people are making him responsislbe for the actual incident which lead to Keegans departure. Then again, i suppose the simplistic view is to make him, as the Chairmain accountable for anything that goes wrong at the club, irrespctive of actual repsonsibly of incident. Fair enough i suppose.

To be fair to Libertine the issue in hand is Keegan walking off the back of apparent interference from Wise and co. That why we're in the situation we're in now, what exactly has DL got to do with this particular situation? In order to avoid this sitaution he'd of needed to either let Keegan get it all his own way or enforce the structure as it was originally intended, and as we're not sure of what occured its a tad unfair to make DL accountable to the extent he loses his job when you dont know the intracacies of the situation. His silence has been deafening though and if he's responsible for that ridiculous statment then he needs a definite kick p the arse at least.

Come on man, Anelka is absolute class, one of the most talented players ive seen. Had everything to be considered one of the best strikers in the world, but for a poor attitude he'd already be that.

To be fair he would of been given the chance or faith from the fans to become the player he is now. Traore is a player id be interested in, although i dont nknow how he is defensively.

Really pleased to see Jonas, Zog combo, think they can be excellent, particularly pleased to see Zog in the side, although i can see him being dropped agin for Duff becasue i can imagine that Kinnear rates Duffs defensive duties higher than Zogs. Zog did a couple of thing that showed his value to the team he made to driving runs into the box, i noticed alot that he was passing alot more than he did when he was youger and in actual fact was passing when maybe he should of been running. Id like them to be more interchangable becasue i think Jonas prefers being on the left but i cant see it happneing, yet antoehr frustraing conundrum for nufc.

Did the wingers switch at any point today? I like to see that tactic implemented. See i would as well, but Zogs far too one footed to be anywhere near effective on the right hand side. Noticed a few times Jonas drifiting to the left, i tthink he sees that as his natural position.

aye, because we need a forward. Win win if you ask me. Would love to see Balotelli here, has got a lot going for him. Our forward line isnt the most balanced as it stands and frankly Balotelli would offer more than what we've go at the mo. Inler would be worth another look and Engelaar and id see if Viera is available as well.

Just thinking about the game and to be honest, theres been a huge amount of positives to take from the game, mainly, our defending was superb, cant fault it really, the best ive seen for a while. thats 2 games where we've soaked up a lot of pressure and we didnt panic and played as a unit. Bassong was outstanding today and Colo was very good as well although a bit raw at times. Enrique is my only concern in defense, if he can get his confidence up a bit then we should see what we saw last year. Im also happy that Zog is in the side, there were 2 instances in particular which outlined his value to the team, the runs he went on. Although overall he didnt play well those run alone are enough to justify his place in the squad, he can penetrate the opposition with those runs and its inaluable in creating space for other players. Martins was unlucky to come off, Kinnear needs to make some brave decisions.

Actually I thought Beye was Downings bitch today nearly all their attacks came down that side. Most of Downing's crosses didn't come from the byline, though. There's not much you can do to defend early balls into the box. I don't think Beye was particularly good, but he was solid enough when called upon. He's still yet to hit the heights of last season. He hasn't been getting forward enough, neither full-backs have though. I think this might be a specific instruction from Kinnear. Enrique's passing has been woeful this season mind. You can understand that away from home but if they're still going to be reserved at St. James' (which they have been at times) then it's a real pisser. Neither are bad going forwards at all (especially when compared to previous fullbacks we've had), but like you say for some reason don't get the chance or don't seem to want it, one of the two. Enrique in particular showed some real pace at times in the second half and really charged onwards, but he plays so negatively the rest of the time it absolutely kills me. So many times you want BOTH fullbacks to just start moving when they get the ball, instead of taking a touch and then stepping-back into a long ball. For Enrique in particular it seems like habit. Habits can be broken though and the coaches need to get it out of his system. Fullbacks are of immense importance these days and we're in the position where we actually have a couple of decent-good ones for the first time in a good while, we need to start making the most of them. I rarely disagree with anything you post Rich, but I honestly think Enrique is one of the worst full backs I've seen play for us in terms of getting forward. He's terrible going forward, his saving grace as a full back is that people rarely get by him, he's an excellent defender in my opinion, but going forward theres nothing there, the minute he gets past the halfway line he runs out of ideas, completely alien to him.

Great post Yorkie, my only thing with the first line up is Butt in the middle, I think Guthrie needs a place in that team and with the defensive duties being shared amongst all three of the midfield i think you can possbily fit him in instead of Butt. Guthries ball distribution is so much better than Butts.

Agreed but who goes in midfield three? For me Jonas offers enough defensively to be played on the left of the 3 man mid, with Guthrie on the right and Barton in the middle. Using what we have at the moment, Id have Jonas/Guthrie Butt/Guthrie Geremi/Guthrie.

For me - Owen is actully the player id drop if i had to. You look at the partnerships in the team and for me the Viduka -Martins offers the most to the team. Owen Martin - no hold up play or ariel ability Owen Vidulka - No pace for counter attack. Viduka - Matrins - you have hold up play, pace, and ariel ability. Ideally id have all 3 and revert to the 433 which is the best sytem ive seen at the club for a long while. Dont think kinnear has the bollocks though.

Its a refreshing change that we're able to soak up pressure and actually defend, we look organised. Whereas before we've had to rely on putting the opposition on the back foot, even with SBR and recently Keegan the onus has been to attack and releive pressure off us that way. Bassong has been a star buy quite frankly, was superb today and deserves an extended run in the team. Have been defensive about Enrique of recent times, but he has been very poor, his distribution has been woeful but the worst thing is that defensively he wasnt great either today and that is usually his saving grace, really lacked composure today.

That run from Zog is precisley why he should stay in the team.

I want to see the return of the 433. Best sysytem ive seen at the club for a while.

Fair point, obviously i cant argue with that but we were linked with players within that policy from other clubs around europe as well. Digard, Skeljbred, Zayatte, Gomis, Digard, all pretty solidly linked with the club which does show that it was more extentisve. Why they werent signed is up for debate. Fixed.

Defensively we've been excellent again, unfortunaltey that spark is missing for both teams, alot of important players dont seem to be there today.

If it's true, that's a fair price. If we are struggling to find buyers for that amount, you have to wonder what sort of people are in for the club and how much liquid assets they have at their disposal. I fail to see how our value has shot up by nigh £130m since his arrival. That's why you'll make a great Journo! Depends how you look at it. If I had say £300m to invest in a club with the intention of making money via success in the long run then I might take a view that paying £130m for a club which has £100m worth of debt which is serviceable on an ongoing basis would leave me £170m to spend on the team. A price of £260 for a debt free club leaves only £40m which may not be enough to provide the success. So what if you had £530m to invest in a club?

Fair point, obviously i cant argue with that but we were linked with players within that policy from other clubs around europe as well. Gomis, Skeljbred, Zayatte, Gomis, Digard, all pretty solidly linked with the club which does show that it was more extentisve. Why they werent signed is up for debate.

Defence is playing well so far, Enrique having his usual mare regarding passing!

If it's true, that's a fair price. If we are struggling to find buyers for that amount, you have to wonder what sort of people are in for the club and how much liquid assets they have at their disposal. I fail to see how our value has shot up by nigh £130m since his arrival. That's why you'll make a great Journo!

Haha, sorry mate, I think i'm getting little too invested in these debates!

Yeh your right. I see no difference whatsoever between are current tranfer policy and the one we've lambasted for many years.

All signed by Allardyce - sweet FA to do with the supposed change of policy from Jan 08. I didnt realise there was a change of transfer policy starting from Jan 08. And to be fair, i said they werent signed from major teams in the major leagues.