Attractive football in a relegation battle

[TRon]

Something that concerns me a bit. Keegan's brand of attacking football was exactly what was needed earlier in the season against Derby, Reading and the like. Easier to play free-flowing stuff when there is no pressure. In a relegation struggle, with confidence low it's less easy to produce, and it's usually the struggling sides who try to play football that suffer most. With forwards and midfielders struggling to get goals is it the right approach at this stage in the season? If Martins and Viduka figure more, then probably yes. If we stick to Smith up top then I'd say no.

[BONTEMPI]

Something that concerns me a bit. Keegan's brand of attacking football was exactly what was needed earlier in the season against Derby, Reading and the like. Easier to play free-flowing stuff when there is no pressure. In a relegation struggle, with confidence low it's less easy to produce, and it's usually the struggling sides who try to play football that suffer most. With forwards and midfielders struggling to get goals is it the right approach at this stage in the season? If Martins and Viduka figure more, then probably yes. If we stick to Smith up top then I'd say no.

 

Well if Smith and Butt are always getting a game i'm not surprised.

 

With Martins hopefully back we should go for a line up like this

 

      Harper

 

Carr  Beye  Faye  Enrique

 

          Geremi

 

Milner                    Zoggy

              Duff

 

    Martins      Owen

 

Duff playing the role he does for teh republic sometimes

 

I think we could actually win a game with that line up

             

 

[Guest shaun11177]

There are 2 brands of football in the Premiership-the technical passing style employed by the top 4 because they have the best players and the we are bigger stronger taller than you close em down get stuck in  style which everybody else employs.

KK is a firm believer in the 1st method but doesnt have the players,Allardyce was a firm believer in the 2nd but found he hadnt recruited the right players either.

Newcastle for me have 1 weapon which is better than many clubs and that is a top class striker in Owen and thats all we have really,we dont have a great defence or midfield so i would attack and try and create as many chances as possible, we wont get any confidence back until we score some goals.

[BONTEMPI]

There are 2 brands of football in the Premiership-the technical passing style employed by the top 4 because they have the best players and the we are bigger stronger taller than you close em down get stuck in  style which everybody else employs.

KK is a firm believer in the 1st method but doesnt have the players,Allardyce was a firm believer in the 2nd but found he hadnt recruited the right players either.

Newcastle for me have 1 weapon which is better than many clubs and that is a top class striker in Owen and thats all we have really,we dont have a great defence or midfield so i would attack and try and create as many chances as possible, we wont get any confidence back until we score some goals.

 

Problem is if you can't retain the ball or pass 2 fucking yards then attacking is an after thought

[ChezGiven]

Wait untill after the weekend, then we'll know better.

 

It doent look great tbf and my arse is doing the '50 pence, 5 pence' routine.

[BONTEMPI]

Wait untill after the weekend, then we'll know better.

 

It doent look great tbf and my arse is doing the '50 pence, 5 pence' routine.

 

Dave coming round more regular like? 

[ChezGiven]

[Guest alex]

There are 2 brands of football in the Premiership-the technical passing style employed by the top 4 because they have the best players and the we are bigger stronger taller than you close em down get stuck in  style which everybody else employs.

KK is a firm believer in the 1st method but doesnt have the players,Allardyce was a firm believer in the 2nd but found he hadnt recruited the right players either.

Newcastle for me have 1 weapon which is better than many clubs and that is a top class striker in Owen and thats all we have really,we dont have a great defence or midfield so i would attack and try and create as many chances as possible, we wont get any confidence back until we score some goals.

 

Problem is if you can't retain the ball or pass 2 fucking yards then attacking is an after thought

That and Owen isn't top class any more

[Theregulars]

Spot on. If Keegan wants to play this attacking, creative and entertainers-of-old football, he is shooting himself in the foot by picking the wrong players every week. What he wants is clearly not feesible with Barton, Smith and Butt. I'm reserving judgement until Viduka, Emre and Martins are fully fit and have a good run in the side - although a large part of me is concerned this won't happen, either due to persistent injury/a teeth-grindingly frustrating belief among club officials that the 3 aforementioned players are worthy of the shirt.

[Teasy]

Spot on. If Keegan wants to play this attacking, creative and entertainers-of-old football, he is shooting himself in the foot by picking the wrong players every week.

 

He's picking the players who are fit and available to play, who else should he pick in midfield instead of Barton or Butt?  Who else instead of Owen or Smith?.. Carroll?, Ameobi?  Big difference that would make..

[Guest Stephen927]

I wouldn't suggest trying to play attractive football in a relegation scrap.

 

What you need if you're in a relegation scrap is a big strong striker who you can pretty much hit every other ball upto, most teams who come up invest in a player like that, such as Kenwyne Jones, or have players like that already in the squad, ie Harewood. I don't think we have anyone like that to be able to play in such a way, except maybe Smith or Viduka.

 

I don't think we should one dimensionally, we should try and play a mixture of flowing attacking football, while also mixing it up and hitting a long ball up to Smith or Viduka.

[AliGupter]

Get rid of Butt and we'll be fine.

[Guest shaun11177]

Get the ball in the box as often as possible, if we do that Owen will score if we dont he wont and we wont.

i would be tempted to play 451 and say to Owen dont move out of that penalty area just make sure when its in there you get to it first.

 

[Guest float one in]

I don't think Keegan is even thinking about playing good football at the moment - he is just desperately trying to get his current group of players to score some goals any way at all - free-kicks, tap-ins, long balls... Just as he did when he saved us in 92.

 

And the 'top four' don't all play good football. Only Man U and Arsenal are consistently good to watch, and only Ferguson plays the way Keegan likes to play.

Although Arsenal keep the ball on the deck they are pretty measured and calculated in their attacks, always have been under Wenger. They put together a lot of pretty moves, all very easy on the eye, and are a very effective attacking force, but it's never edge of your seat excitement. In my opinion. It may be a cliche to say that Keegan's style is gung ho, but its also the truth, and Man U can be a bit like that as well. I don't think Ferguson puts a huge emphasis on defence in terms of the way he sets his team up to play, but the defenders he buys are normally top, top drawer.

 

[Teasy]

No way should we play the typical relegation scrap way, that's the reason we're in a relegation scrap in the first place!  Because Allardyce has been playing as if we're already in one from the start of the season.  Had we gone out and just played Football against the likes of Derby we wouldn't be in this position.  Having said that we also shouldn't go into every game playing attacking Football..  Really what we should be doing is playing like we're in a relegation scrap against the better sides and trying to play Football against the s*** of the league.

[Guest Stephen927]

and trying to play Football against the s*** of the league.

 

We do that in training to no real effect.

[midds]

Don't give a shiny shite what type of football we churn out between now and May. We need 3 wins to stay up. How we get them is irrelevant imo.

[Wullie]

It's a ludicrous myth that because you're down the bottom, you have to make some sort of concerted effort to play shite and kick lumps out of people. It doesn't even make sense.

[Guest fraser]

Keegan has managed a club in a relegation scrap before. Successfully, too, as it turned out.

[ShearMagic]

I couldn't give a rats arse how we play for the rest of the season, as long as we pick up some points.

 

Go back to Sam Allardyces style if it means we will actually win a game.

[brummie]

It's a ludicrous myth that because you're down the bottom, you have to make some sort of concerted effort to play shite and kick lumps out of people. It doesn't even make sense.

 

True, but it does mean that the importance of points above all else becomes very, very clear, especially these days when relegation is an unmitigated disaster.

 

 

 

[Mr. Snrub]

It's a ludicrous myth that because you're down the bottom, you have to make some sort of concerted effort to play shite and kick lumps out of people. It doesn't even make sense.

 

Not really.  The reason they're down there is because they can't play good football.

[TRon]

It's a ludicrous myth that because you're down the bottom, you have to make some sort of concerted effort to play shite and kick lumps out of people. It doesn't even make sense.

 

If you can play good football and score goals then yes you are right. If you have forwards and midfielders attacking the box in a feeding frenzy it makes sense. I'm not sure what we've got at the moment except a bunch of big names past their best who run 5 yards, get rid of the ball, then leave it to someone else.

[Wullie]

It's a ludicrous myth that because you're down the bottom, you have to make some sort of concerted effort to play shite and kick lumps out of people. It doesn't even make sense.

 

Not really.  The reason they're down there is because they can't play good football.

 

West Ham weren't saved last season by Lee Bowyer kicking people and snarling but the class of Carlos Tevez. Perhaps they'd have been safer earlier if they'd bought Alan Smith and played him instead, we'll never know.

 

We're down at the bottom because of players like Smith with zero ability other than "effort" and lunging into tackles. These players will get us in deeper, not save us. The pundits peddle lines like "he's the type of player you need at the bottom" and it usually refers to the players who got you down there in the first place by being absolute bollocks.

[johnnypd]

It's a ludicrous myth that because you're down the bottom, you have to make some sort of concerted effort to play shite and kick lumps out of people. It doesn't even make sense.

 

Not really.  The reason they're down there is because they can't play good football.

 

West Ham weren't saved last season by Lee Bowyer kicking people and snarling but the class of Carlos Tevez. Perhaps they'd have been safer earlier if they'd bought Alan Smith and played him instead, we'll never know.

 

We're down at the bottom because of players like Smith with zero ability other than "effort" and lunging into tackles. These players will get us in deeper, not save us. The pundits peddle lines like "he's the type of player you need at the bottom" and it usually refers to the players who got you down there in the first place by being absolute bollocks.

 

spot on.