Guest LucaAltieri Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Two away games against Arsenal up, then an away game against Villa and after that Man U at home. A damn difficult start for Keegan Difficult but not impossible to pick up points. We've managed to get something out of good Arsenal sides in the past and I reckon we will again. Also, one of those Arsenal games is in the cup so couldn't give a toss about that one, so long as we pick a point up in the league. We'll get battered by Man United again but Villa certainly aren't unbeatable. Chin up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 same team again next week maybe Butt back Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Libertine Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 keegan makes the same first error sam made. he played ameobi. andy o'brien marked him out the game. and dont give me any of that "he needs games" stuff, he was s**** before his injury and he's s**** after it. bolton were considerably nearer to scoring than we were. did we even have a decent shot on target? One thing Sam didn't do was play Ameobi. I think he played him once against Derby? And then never again. yes, he played him against derby and he had his usual nightmare. sam learned from his mistake and didnt play him again (bar arsenal in the cup) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BONTEMPI Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I'm desperately disappointed but in one way i'm slightly pleased it turned out like that. The season itself doesn't really matter, we're not getting relegated and we're not getting into Europe. Keegan can survey that and know exactly what he has to do. It wasn't even a bad performance. We lacked a bit of 'something else' that one or two of the missing players (namely Martins/Beye) might have provided. Mainly, we're missing a spark, a click. Centre-mid, centre-mid! Yes at least he knows which players are not up to it! Milner Rozza Carr Ameobi Butt Smith all need to get the fuck out at the 1st chance we get! Shocking that even KK can'y inspire them enough to even get a shot on target! Sam has taken us backwards with the signings he made! People say they still want sam after that? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Lua Lua looked promising and the team tried to actually play football. Those are the positives. Milner was awful today, N'Zogbia never really got going, Ameobi wasn't anywhere near match sharpness, and Owen was a nonfactor. Given all of that, it was going to be hard to score against anyone, much less a team with 9 behind the ball. It's a process. And I hope this shows people how far we have to go. That little outside-of-foot pass through to Owen would have been exceptional if it had come off. Fantastic vision. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LucasUnger Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 sorry for kk not to win. and for the games we now have. quite a few positive things (2nd half). but we need a few players in right now. ameobi should never ever even get a place in the reserves. come on glenn bring him to norwich. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chris P Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Good team selection today . loved Rothental in that new midfield roll . Enrique proved why he's called the Bull. Duff was a waste of space. we were still playing set piece big sam football , but it'll get better Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jep Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I take optimism for today's second half. I think the attacking football is something we have missed for a while. It's a pity there is no goal but the attacking intent, the pressure, the possession, the speed of attacking was nice. The future will be better I think we lose out on alot of headers. Unfortunately, Owen was pretty quiet for the match. Ameobi wasn't that bad. But I don't think any players was particularly awlful honestly.The team will take time to gel, that I'm sure. Enrique is very promising ^^ Regards, Ericz Agree entirely with that summing up. I second that, and raise you a shite ref. Utter tosspot, just like Bolton who managed to timewaste from the first fucking minute. Baffling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Novocastrian Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 To be fair to Keegan I would think Martins, Viduka and Smith would have been in ahead of Ameobi. There wasn't much for Keegan to pick from and I'll be amazed if Ameobi gets more then Half a dozen more starts for Newcastle before he is shipped out to Norwich or some other team of Championship stiffs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericz Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Mainly, we're missing a spark, a click. Centre-mid, centre-mid! As a matter of fact, I can't think of anybody concrete that we need to buy right now. From the performances itself, we need (1) A striker that can head - I'm hoping Viduka's return will solve just that. (2) A CM that dares to take shot outside the box. Of course, with a degree of accuracy too - Maybe Barton or Emre? Regards, Ericz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 One telling thing was how our team looked like they'd forgotten how to shoot. I put that down to Allardyce's methods. Looks like all we did was set pieces and his fitness training. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brendan_Rice Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Zog man of the match, Given shut up the doubters. Considering how many first team players we actually had available for this game, that isn't a terrible result. I thought Owen would have stepped up as captain but I think there are a lot fo positives can be taken from the game. Zog was immense we tried to pass it about well although we just couldn't do it in the final third where it really matters. Shola battled well and doen alright for his first game back one of the few players that challenged Bolton in the air. I think the wingers were so ineffective because of the way Sam has been playing and training them. Most importantly WE DIDN'T PLAY NEGATIVE FOOTBALL AND TRIED TO HAVE A GO. I can see Keegan bringing in a couple of flair players that have the quality to improve our attacking options. I would love to see Sean Wright Phillips if we could get him. He would have been just what we needed today, him and Zog would link up well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfrederi Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Camped in their half for practically the whole of the second half just a problem that we couldnt break them down but a lack of creativity has been obvious the whole season. Not a bad performance though when you consider we are missing Martins, Beye, Feye, Geremi, Butt, Barton, Smith, Emre and Viduka dont think ive missed anyone else. Think Milner was better when he went to the left and dare i say it thought Carr had a very good game. Zog looks rejuvinated and is set to be a massive player for us did well even though heavily marked. Bolton came to piss on the parade and thats what they did. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 What did people think to Rozehnal? Distinctly unimpressed, personally, if that's supposed to be his best position. Looked pretty clueless to me. Offered very, very little and his distribution is just as 'scoop-y' and all over ther place as Butt's is. Worried about him, i have to say. Makes me nervous watching the guy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 roz was shit he isnt a midfileder and should never be played there ameobi is shit and should be sold to norwich, constantly gives away free kicks whether it be offsides or elbowing or pushing apart from that we were alot more positive than we have been, it's just bolton did their job and came for a point and did everything they could to prevent football Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LucaAltieri Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Zog man of the match, Given shut up the doubters. Considering how many first team players we actually had available for this game, that isn't a terrible result. I thought Owen would have stepped up as captain but I think there are a lot fo positives can be taken from the game. Zog was immense we tried to pass it about well although we just couldn't do it in the final third where it really matters. Shola battled well and doen alright for his first game back one of the few players that challenged Bolton in the air. I think the wingers were so ineffective because of the way Sam has been playing and training them. Most importantly WE DIDN'T PLAY NEGATIVE FOOTBALL AND TRIED TO HAVE A GO. I can see Keegan bringing in a couple of flair players that have the quality to improve our attacking options. I would love to see Sean Wright Phillips if we could get him. He would have been just what we needed today, him and Zog would link up well. Fast but nowt else. Not what we need in my opinion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 What did people think to Rozehnal? Distinctly unimpressed, personally, if that's supposed to be his best position. Looked pretty clueless to me. Offered very, very little and his distribution is just as 'scoop-y' and all over ther place as Butt's is. Worried about him, i have to say. Makes me nervous watching the guy. Agreed I wasn't impressed, but I'm giving our players a clean slate under Keegan (except the obvious no hopers). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronky Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Lay off Ameobi, please, guys. At least he got himself involved. His striking partner was a non-event. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brendan_Rice Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 keegan makes the same first error sam made. he played ameobi. andy o'brien marked him out the game. and dont give me any of that "he needs games" stuff, he was s**** before his injury and he's s**** after it. bolton were considerably nearer to scoring than we were. did we even have a decent shot on target? Shola done more than Owen today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbers Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 On a sidenote...wtf was that challenge on Owen...cut and dried penalty tbh. Not sure what we could expect from today,square pegs in round holes and all that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Express Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Cant believe the knives are out for some already, Rome wasn't built in a day. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
M4 Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Lay off Ameobi, please, guys. Nah, that's okay. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Mainly, we're missing a spark, a click. Centre-mid, centre-mid! As a matter of fact, I can't think of anybody concrete that we need to buy right now. From the performances itself, we need (1) A striker that can head - I'm hoping Viduka's return will solve just that. (2) A CM that dares to take shot outside the box. Of course, with a degree of accuracy too - Maybe Barton or Emre? Regards, Ericz Viduka can't head the ball to save his life if we're playing it long, which we did occassionally today (it wasn't long ball tactics, obviously, just on occassion it was the best option), so don't get your hopes up there. I don't think it's that crucial a thing anyhow, we'll mainly be seeing the ball on the floor from now on (one hopes), and i think Martins/Owen/Viduka will all bury a header right infront of goal. We desperately need a 'midfield maestro'. Someone to make us tick. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 jesus H. Christ andy obrien got man of the match! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtype Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 We tried to play Keegan-style football without the required organization, and that obviously wasn't going to go very well. Bolton played very well organized anti-football. First half, they nearly played us off the pitch. Thankfully, 10-behind-the-ball tactics have their weakness in that it's very, very difficult to concentrate with that plan for 90 minutes, and it showed as Bolton started breaking down at the sixty minute mark. Unfortunately, we lacked the quality up front to take advantage of their collapse. Ultimately, this just goes to show that if we want Keegan-style football we're going to have to buy some Keegan-style players, and more importantly, get some organization going. Like Keegan said, every player on the ball should have three options for passes, and we won't get that until the players have a good understanding. <Ratings> Given - 7 Not much to do. Thank God for the wondersave. Again. Enrique - 7 Improving rapidly. Solid on the defense, strong going forward. A bit worried about his man marking in set pieces though. Carr - 6 Not much defensive action but very decent going forward. Seems to be regaining his old form, a couple of years too late though. Cacapa - 7 Used his class to overcome Davies' bullying and put him in his back pocket. Taylor - 7 Fullbacks were pushing up a lot, so Taylor had a lot to do stopping Bolton's advance on the wings. Positive effort. Rozhenal - 7 Very active, started out shaky but was dominant in the last thirty minutes. Somehow turns out to be our best passer. Duff - 6 Started out bright but tired quickly. Seems to be regaining a lot of his old form, hope he gets there quickly. Milner - 5 Erased off the pitch by Gardner in the first half, was very active in our second half surge but all his crosses/shots somehow magnetically attatched to Bolton defenders. Not his best game. N'Zogbia - 6 Has the potential to be a good central midfielder but has to learn how to play there first. Dallies too much on the ball and tries to do it all himself instead of distributing it. Ameobi - 7 Eight years into his senior career he's finally learned how to hold up the ball. Impressive link up play against a physical Bolton side, hope he can keep it up. Honestly think he did better than Viduka would have. Owen - 5 Not there. Part of it has to with the service but I'm beginning to question whether Owen can survive without his pace. Yes, he was decent without blinding pace at Real, and his first season with us, but post World Cup injury he's gotten even slower and it seems to have been one blow too much. If he doesn't have the pace to create his own chances and doesn't have the instinct to be a good poacher, I'm not sure what exactly he's supposed to be doing. LuaLua - 6 decent cameo. Wish we had actual impact subs though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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