Oba...Obafem

[Guest Rob X]

IMO martins is like many of our players. They huff'n puff but offer little in end product.

[junkhead]

Martins must play every fucking game. Same for N'Zogbia.

[Guest float one in]

He needs to keep letting his hair grow, that's for sure. It makes him look even more electric.

 

I think that with a sharp, in-form Viduka that three-pronged attack could work very nicely. Viduka showed some nice touches but at times hung onto the ball that little bit too long or tried a turn that just didn't come off. Had he been at his very best, we'd have won last night I reckon.

 

Viduka as the focal point of the attack with Martins and Owen working off him should get plenty of outings the rest of the year given the problems with our wingers at the moment. Martins gives you the neccesary pace up front while for Owen playing from deeper might actually be of benefit to him. Did well dropping off and retaining possession last night, and while he's not got the pace to get in behind defences for through balls like he used to, but he still times his runs beautifully and could be tough to pick up drifting in from deep.

 

The big problem with playing all 3 is the lack of width in the team, it wouldn't be too bad if our fullbacks were better going forward but sadly they're not.

 

I also thought Viduka suffered by not having a midfielder pushing forward that he could lay the ball back to.

 

Agree, just said in the Riise thread that I think both our full-backs could be replaced in the summer. Keegan will want more attack-minded players instead.

 

As for the second point, that's what Barton should have been doing I thought. But he wasn't really at the races getting forward. In the system we played last night I think we'd benefit from having either Emre or N'Zogbia on instead of Geremi or Barton, giving us a better balance with a leftie in midfield.

 

Ideally, if Barton started playing well we could drop Geremi and play Barton and N'Zogbia either side of Butt and encourage them to drive forward and get into wide positions.

 

I think the problem in midfield comes from our fullbacks being poor going forward tbh.

 

If Enrique and Beye could get up and down better then we could have played a midfield triangle with two sat deep and Barton pushing on, instead we had to rely on Barton and Geremi to pull out wide which meant nobody was in the middle to push on.

 

 

or could it be we are that rubbish defensivly from midfield the full backs don't want to commit as neither of our wide midfielders have the tactical nouse to read a game and try to cover or be in a position to cover.............or dare i say it....the desire to cover ?

 

No, the fullbacks are just poor going forward, you can tell it's just not a natural part of their game.

i think they do ok and will do better with confidence,however defending has been the worst part of our game this season so you can't blame them too much for not wanting to move too far away.

 

thought enrique done well last night when he had someone to pass to.

 

I agree with Madras.

Playing full back in a 433 is not the easiest thing to do, especially when out of your midfield three, one's legs have gone and one is inexplicably poor, leaving the other one (who also happens to be getting on a bit) almost hopeflessly overrun. Alot of how effective a full back can be going forward depends on how confident he is that if he does push forward, something disasterous is not going to happen in his channel if we lose the ball - in our team I think Whitley Beye and Enrique have good reason to be a bit wary of pushing forward. A couple of times in the first half Enrique was looking for the 1-2 with one of his midfielders (should be Barton's job), but you can see he's not confident he's going to get it back. If he gives it inside to Barton and runs up the line, then Barton loses it (not out of the realms of possibility by any means) we are straight in all sorts of bother.

 

I'm not denying they don't go forward because they want to keep it tight at the back but in the past when they have gone forward both offer very little, in fact I'd say both of them look like a centre back playing out of position rather than what you would think of as a natural fullback, if you compare Beye's ability to go forward compared to the likes of Chimbonda, Neville, Sagna, Beletti etc you can telll he's really lacking in the footballing ability department, that doesn't mean he's not a good defender and defensively he's better than a few of them, but I'll be surprised if Keegan sticks with either of them long term.

 

Aye, they're probably not as good as say Venison on the ball, and you're right Keegan has always seemed to like to have ball playing full backs. Out of the one's you've mentioned there I've only seen Neville play enough to comment and I agree with you, but he has been one of the best full backs in Europe over the last ten years.

I think both of ours are probably better on the ball than we have gereally seen since they signed though. For instance I thought Beye looked great on the ball in the first few matches of the season, but has probably been affected by playing in a poor team since then. And Enrique, who knows what he's capable of? He's a young foreigner playing in defence, who's been in and out of a poor team in a strange league - I don't think we can expect to have really seen what he's consistently capable of yet. That bit of skill he did to skin his man on the edge of the box, and the shot on his left foot afterwards both hinted that there's something there, I thought. I'd be very happy to see them as our first choice full backs next season.

[TRon]

 

 

Aye, they're probably not as good as say Venison on the ball, and you're right Keegan has always seemed to like to have ball playing full backs. Out of the one's you've mentioned there I've only seen Neville play enough to comment and I agree with you, but he has been one of the best full backs in Europe over the last ten years.

I think both of ours are probably better on the ball than we have gereally seen since they signed though. For instance I thought Beye looked great on the ball in the first few matches of the season, but has probably been affected by playing in a poor team since then. And Enrique, who knows what he's capable of? He's a young foreigner playing in defence, who's been in and out of a poor team in a strange league - I don't think we can expect to have really seen what he's consistently capable of yet. That bit of skill he did to skin his man on the edge of the box, and the shot on his left foot afterwards both hinted that there's something there, I thought. I'd be very happy to see them as our first choice full backs next season.

 

Spot on there. Enrique looks like he's got some ability on the ball, with a decent midfielder in front of him we could see him turn out ok IMO.

[KaKa]

I always felt Enrique got way too much heat for punting the ball upfield as there are never any options available to him.

 

On the odd occassion when options are available he has shown the ability to play little one twos and get forward for sure.

[Decky]

Loved the passion he showed, his eyes were red when he was taken off, i think he may have been crying.

 

Pathetic by KK taking him off instead of Barton who was fucking TERRIBLE

 

Not really.

 

Yes really.

 

We should have been going for the win, and instead of taking off a massive liability in Barton and replacing him with another midfielder, we took off our most dangerous player who is a forward and replaced him with a midfielder, which killed any chance we had of winning which was shown last night after Martins went off.

[Tooj]

Loved the passion he showed, his eyes were red when he was taken off, i think he may have been crying.

 

Pathetic by KK taking him off instead of Barton who was fucking TERRIBLE

 

Not really.

 

Yes really.

 

We should have been going for the win, and instead of taking off a massive liability in Barton and replacing him with another midfielder, we took off our most dangerous player who is a forward and replaced him with a midfielder, which killed any chance we had of winning which was shown last night after Martins went off.

 

Like we went for the win against Blackburn which left us overexposed and cost us? Behave man. 1-1 was an excellent result due to the circumstances going into the game.

[Guest alex]

KK can't win. Literally and figuratively.

[Tooj]

KK can't win. Literally and figuratively.

 

This has been what I've been trying to emphasise all day.

[Guest alex]

KK can't win. Literally and figuratively.

 

This has been what I've been trying to emphasise all day.

The literally bit referred to the results of matches btw

[Tooj]

KK can't win. Literally and figuratively.

 

This has been what I've been trying to emphasise all day.

The literally bit referred to the results of matches btw

 

Aye man. Just my head has been done in pretty much all day. Especially now since this man returned to the fold for us last night. Let's not praise the manager for having the grapefruits to make those decisions last night, or the team performance. Especially as a unit up-front. It's all down to the fact this man has finally started again.

 

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8995/weahtj1.jpg

[Guest alex]

KK can't win. Literally and figuratively.

 

This has been what I've been trying to emphasise all day.

The literally bit referred to the results of matches btw

 

Aye man. Just my head has been done in pretty much all day. Especially now since this man returned to the fold for us last night. Let's not praise the manager for having the grapefruits to make those decisions last night, or the team performance. Especially as a unit up-front. It's all down to the fact this man has finally started again.

 

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8995/weahtj1.jpg

[Decky]

Loved the passion he showed, his eyes were red when he was taken off, i think he may have been crying.

 

Pathetic by KK taking him off instead of Barton who was fucking TERRIBLE

 

Not really.

 

Yes really.

 

We should have been going for the win, and instead of taking off a massive liability in Barton and replacing him with another midfielder, we took off our most dangerous player who is a forward and replaced him with a midfielder, which killed any chance we had of winning which was shown last night after Martins went off.

 

Like we went for the win against Blackburn which left us overexposed and cost us?

 

The only reason we lost that was because basically everyone bar Taylor went up to Blackburn's penalty area leaving us exposed.

 

My point is that Martins was our most dangerous player, why didnt KK take Owen or Duke off instead if he wanted to take a forward off? Especially Viduka who is coming back from some time out.

[Tooj]

Loved the passion he showed, his eyes were red when he was taken off, i think he may have been crying.

 

Pathetic by KK taking him off instead of Barton who was fucking TERRIBLE

 

Not really.

 

Yes really.

 

We should have been going for the win, and instead of taking off a massive liability in Barton and replacing him with another midfielder, we took off our most dangerous player who is a forward and replaced him with a midfielder, which killed any chance we had of winning which was shown last night after Martins went off.

 

Like we went for the win against Blackburn which left us overexposed and cost us?

 

The only reason we lost that was because basically everyone bar Taylor went up to Blackburn's penalty area leaving us exposed.

 

My point is that Martins was our most dangerous player, why didnt KK take Owen or Duke off instead if he wanted to take a forward off? Especially Viduka who is coming back from some time out.

 

Because Viduka is a lot more intelligent and can use his head in that situation, holding up the ball, bringing others in, making the right decisions. Owen scored the goal and looked lively, don't see the problem in my eyes.

 

We got a much deserved and morale boosting point, I'm happy, why risk something that could have been totally soul destroying to our hopes? Blackburn was bad enough, but if we'd have conceded late on again last night. That would have been it. Well done KK in my eyes.

[Guest alex]

Not being funny and not having a pop at Martins, who played well, but he didn't score in the first 80 minutes, yet his going off is the reason we didn't win? The decision had some merit imo and I can understand the motivation behind it. It was crucial that we didn't lose having got back into the game. 1-1 was a good result. Obviously a win would have been better but I think it was a good time to play percentages given our situation and try and ensure we didn't lose - which would have been verging on disastrous.

[Pilko]

Pleased he's committed to the club. He's signing a new 5-year contract soon, not Anal Oliver's words, but his own. 

[Tooj]

I'm a fan of Martins btw, but at times some of the praise he gets from folk all around is total madness. Probably due to the fact how poor we have been mind since 2004 as well that any bright spark in our side, gets excessively lauded. Same with The Zog as well, who gets far too much praise iyam.

[ElDiablo]

I'm a fan of Martins btw, but at times some of the praise he gets from folk all around is total madness. Probably due to the fact how poor we have been mind since 2004 as well that any bright spark in our side, gets excessively lauded. Same with The Zog as well, who gets far too much praise iyam.

 

It is a bit pathetic on here at times with regard to Martins. I particularly liked the way it was him who basically put the goal on a plate for Owen and how amazing the build up from his was. Whereas if it was the other way round it would have been all 'Z0Mg did you see the way he leapt about TEN FOOT to poke that in, what AMAZING athleticism'.

[Dave]

There's always a few who spoil things for the rest of us.

[Tooj]

I'm a fan of Martins btw, but at times some of the praise he gets from folk all around is total madness. Probably due to the fact how poor we have been mind since 2004 as well that any bright spark in our side, gets excessively lauded. Same with The Zog as well, who gets far too much praise iyam.

 

It is a bit pathetic on here at times with regard to Martins. I particularly liked the way it was him who basically put the goal on a plate for Owen and how amazing the build up from his was. Whereas if it was the other way round it would have been all 'Z0Mg did you see the way he leapt about TEN FOOT to poke that in, what AMAZING athleticism'.

 

Top class reactions mind from Owen for the goal.

[Dave]

Top class reactions mind from Owen for the goal.

 

The way he reacted and ghosted through those three defenders was quality.

[ElDiablo]

[Dokko]

Martins is the key to us surviving, always has been, lets hope he doesn't pick up any injuries it would be a nightmare run in without him.

 

Take butt out and play zoggy and i'd be quite happy seeing that team for the rest of the season.

 

 

[Tooj]

Top class reactions mind from Owen for the goal.

 

The way he reacted and ghosted through those three defenders was quality.

 

I'm a huge fan of natural strikers as I've bored people to death with on here in the past. It's a crying shame the way the modern day game has went that players who do the hardest job of all are now becoming a rare breed because they don't give enough to the team and are not built like a Drogbar, so cannot help their team condense play by playing up top by themselves.

[Shearergol]

Martins is the key to us surviving, always has been, lets hope he doesn't pick up any injuries it would be a nightmare run in without him.

 

Take butt out and play zoggy and i'd be quite happy seeing that team for the rest of the season.

 

 

 

Butt was easily our best midfielder last night. I think we'd get completely over-run wuth N'Zogbia in there, along with the 3 up front.