Stottie

I remember someone saying Shearer overtook Beckham in the category for most goals from outside the box. I dunno what this site means by "long range" but it would seem to confirm it. http://www.premiersoccerstats.com/Top100.cfm There are lots of stats for people who like them there. One is that relatively few of Rooneys goals have been winners. Since ManYoo win most of their matches, they must have been non-winners in games that were won. Giggs has scored twenty less than Rooney, but has 38 vs. 24 winners. The same goes for Van Nistelrooy and even CRonaldo.

Simple question, but do the named stadia have their names in as many places as Sports Direct at SJP? Selling our stadium name may be a financial inevitability, but it doesn't need to be done as tackily as its appearing to be.

Sicklees Photoshop of Kluivert on the KFC bucket was quality. Any chance of another look? As for Rooney/Shearer, they're different players who've been coached to do different things in keeping with the tactical requirements of their day. Someone with Shearers attributes would be coached differently today, or at least he should be. He would become a different player to the one Shearer was. If Shearer was good enough in his day to score sh'tloads of goals over a prolonged period, that is all that matters. No one moans about George Best or Bobbie Charlton scoring goals in parts of the goal where you'd expect a modern keeper to stop it. If a shot was good enough for a goal back then, it was a good shot.

He was clearly far from the finished article when we bought him, so I suppose we've got to give him more pitch time and more patience than he got at ManYoo and see if there is a player in there to go with the attributes. Its not the easiest thing to do. With Newcastle too, they'll not be many games where we're in a comfortable enough position just to give someone a game. Obviously the best way to bring get young players up to Premiership speed is to loan them to someone else and get them to do the donkey work. See Cleverly, Sturridge, and Wellbeck to see how this works.

No way RTaylor should be sent out against the Zog. Its a hard first ask for Santon, but he must play. Obertan was a passenger yesterday, so maybe give Marveaux a game. I don't like 4-4-2, but Besty and Ba is the way until we can find someone to play off a lone striker. Aside from HBA, every other option would be untested. I ferking hate McLeish, so I really hope we win. A point would still be a decent result though. Given's dodgy on crosses but I can't see us exploiting it.

He looks better than a number of strikers in the Premiership, Boothroyd for one. Now lets create some chances for him.

We're definitely riding our luck at the moment and the pointers are to a long season, not to an improvement on last year. We're creating little and people won't keep missing point blank headers against us. The hopeful side of the coin sees the injured or off the pace lads like Tiote, Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Ba etc making an sustained impact. The terrified side of the coin sees an injury to Colo. Even just a straight red before three of the easier games we would be a big loss. I hope the 4-4-2 and hoofing it long is just a stop-gap from Pardew, because we'll get nowhere with it. That should be fecking obvious from the lack of a knock-down collector for starters.

The team was badly set up and performed poorly. Shola never looks uninjured, but he looked more than normal injured yesterday and made us a man short. Both wide players were poor, and we were completely swamped down Ryan Taylor's side. Better players than SWP and Boothroyd would have scored first half when our sole idea was hoof it long and watch it come back. Second half the new Peter Reid fluffed two easy headers, but they pretty much ran out of steam, not surprisingly given their hard pressing game. After his free kick goals, it would have been hard to drop RTaylor for someone from another league, but not now after that performance. With a better LB and anyone but Shola, I don't think we would have been under the kosh as much, which should let the more capable lads do better than they managed last night. That all said, we earned a point from some great last-ditch defending, so remember the value of that and maybe not dwell on the rest.

The banana skin and headlines were avoided so lets all move on. He did better than our wide lads, but was no great shakes.

He's definitely off the pace, but deserves lots of faith after last season. We were overrun by a hard pressing team yesterday, so it was hard work for the lads in the middle.

Rooney stepped up brilliantly when Cronaldo left and to his massive credit started heading them in left, right and center, a skill he must have worked on and nobody thought he possessed. He followed it with a half season dip though, with a timely spit of the dummy for more cash. Shearer meanwhile scored thirty a season for three seasons. That's what I call doing it for an extended period. Again to Rooney's credit he's started doing it in the big games, like the Citeh overhead kick and the CL final after being abject in the other Barca one and twice at the World Cup. I think he's still got something to prove though to be a real great.

I would say Shearer over Rooney because Shearer at one time was unplayable for an extended period. As was Henry and Christiano Ronaldo, if you're talking Premiership era forwards. Rooney has never quite hit that level, though he's been close in a couple of spells. Shearer also scored against absolutely everyone. Among present strikers, the most notable for doing so is Darren Bent. Rooney's record against Chelsea, Liverpool, and normal Arsenal (not that shambles last week) isn't all that good. Shearer was one of the greatest crossers of the ball to play for modern-era NUFC. Pure goalscorer-type comments do him an injustice. He also scored dozens and dozens from outside the box, something pure goalscorers like Lineker and van Nistelrooy never managed. He's absolutely shocking as a pundit though, it has to be said. One big thing Rooney has that Shearer didn't is that he allows the team to defend from the front, virtually a tactical necessity at the highest level now. Teams press much more now than they did ten-fifteen years ago, and Rooney's workrate is just the job for that. Before anyone jumps in, he also has incredible touch, vision, power, and a fantastic football brain. I really wish he would go and play in La Liga or even Serie A as a true role model for future England players. I think he would progress further there than in the Premiership.

Wolves away is Oct 1st, the day before my birthday. Please let it happen!

Deary me. That looks turbosh!t.

Some new bodies for the Arse but four suspensions already this season would be my major concern. They've got to stop spitting the dummy.

If they're changing it, would it need to be on that planning application that did the rounds? Ferking tw@ts if they are, btw.

His own agent lies at least as much as Ashley and Dekka. When he signed, wasn't there a snag until we paid his Citeh loyalty bonus? Basically he's just on the lookout for number one. He's just clever enough to know what fans want to hear.

Oh that's a six for the window, not for how the Carroll money wasn't spent.

Maybe a six in total. A striker and it would have been eight. If Bendnar to the makems is taken into account maybe drop that to five and a half. First 11 looks fine, but there's not a lot below that. I've not read all of this thread but the biggest pluses are Colo and Tiote not being sold. If Ashley simply wants to sell the club, a summer with no big money spent is maybe the best way forward. I just hope there is someone out there with the means and desire to move the club forward.

Hope its Barton in the center. From what I've seen, we should get a result.

Aye, great cross and unlucky with that shot.

Dzeko looking Shearer-esque there.

Nice ball to Ba for the second. A mixed bag though today, and we might struggle against a team with a stronger left side. Worth sticking with against a typical Prem side though, I would have thought.

Ducking for cover, but it looks like he could well score more league goals in 2011 than Carroll.

Get the feck in!!! Well done lads!!