Oba...Obafem

[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.

 

 

 

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.

 

Butt had a point to prove, he'll never play that well again in the rest of his career imo.

 

 

[Pilko]

Martins gets slated less than, say, Ameobi for missing a chance, simply because he occasionally scores great goals (last season) - Alkmaar (h), Spurs (a), Tallinn (h) to name a few.

[ElDiablo]

KaKa viewing the thread, here we go.

[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.

 

Butt had a point to prove, he'll never play that well again in the rest of his career imo.

 

 

 

Even so, you're basically saying we should play 4 up front, even after seeing Geremi and Barton last night??

[Decky]

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.

 

Butt had a point to prove, he'll never play that well again in the rest of his career imo.

 

 

 

[Skirge]

Butt gave our back four great protection in the 2nd half, he really did help Faye out a lot.

[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.

 

 

 

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.

 

Butt had a point to prove, he'll never play that well again in the rest of his career imo.

 

 

 

Even so, you're basically saying we should play 4 up front, even after seeing Geremi and Barton last night??

 

4? No 3.

 

I'd like to see it, hammer a few teams with it at home, the ones who sit back and hope for a point, then when we get some goals in we revert to 442 and tighten up ourselves.

 

A lot of teams will be playing for the draw coming to SJP, and we really need the points.

 

It might backfire, but then again anything and everything we do tends too anyway.

 

 

[ElDiablo]

Butt is the perfect 433 player (in our squad)

[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.

 

Butt had a point to prove, he'll never play that well again in the rest of his career imo.

 

 

 

Even so, you're basically saying we should play 4 up front, even after seeing Geremi and Barton last night??

 

4? No 3.

 

I'd like to see it, hammer a few teams with it at home, the ones who sit back and hope for a point, then when we get some goals in we revert to 442 and tighten up ourselves.

 

A lot of teams will be playing for the draw coming to SJP, and we really need the points.

 

It might backfire, but then again anything and everything we do tends too anyway.

 

 

 

If you play Martins, Viduka and Owen, where exactly are you playing N'Zogbia? He's not exactly the type of player to protect the back four is he? (same can be said about both Geremi and Barton). If you're going to play N'Zogbia in midfield, Butt needs to be there too.

[KaKa]

KaKa viewing the thread, here we go.

 

 

Twat.

 

Why don't you all stop moaning about people praising Martins. People go on about how unintelligent he is and how poor his footballing brain and his touch and movement are just as much also, and that is just as annoying.

 

When he does well it is only fair that he gets his dues, even if slightly overboard. The guy made a huge difference yesterday and will continue to do so. I don't feel like we will struggle to create chances to score as well as score goals when he starts games.

 

[ElDiablo]

No mention of Owen inabilities! Well done.

[KaKa]

Incidentally, anyone notice how monsieur HTT  lies low for a few days anytime Oba has a decent outing?

 

Probably concocting a new theory to dispell every good thing the guy did yesterday.

 

[Tooj]

Incidentally, anyone notice how monsieur HTT  lies low for a few days anytime Oba has a decent outing?

 

Probably concocting a new theory to dispell every good thing the guy did yesterday.

 

 

Probably coming up with a new theorem to rival that of the four corners. The isosceles triangle or something.

[Pilko]

Martins is a good player, he just doesn't always show it. 

[Consortium of one]

I still don't understand why he was subbed out.  KK has said that he did it to shore up the defense, which I understand.  However, Oba is the only one of the three who can create a goal out of nothing.  Viduka and Owen have to be set up to cash in so you have to commit to coming more forward to have deeper control to put the ball on them whereas with Martins if you can get him in space a good deep ball can be a winner without leaving the team short in it's own end.

[STM]

Martins best quality is that he does shoot. Regardless of whether he hits the target or not he always has at least 4 or 5 attempt on goal (which is 5 more than smith). On his bad days he couldn't hit a barn door, however, on his good days he's a match for any striker in this league.

 

Two other qualities that go somewhat unoticed are a) his ability to head the ball, not only in hold up play but also whilst in front of goal (which created our goal last night) and b) the pressure he puts defenders under with his pace. On numerous occasions yesterday he forced a throw in or the opposition to concede possesion (like what he did to Riise the week before).

 

In short, even when Martins isn't scoring he's a more consistant threat than any of our other players.

[Wullie]

There was fuck all wrong with the substitution, some of you need to have a look at yourselves. It was hardly like he brought Martins off for a centre half, N'Zogbia is an attacking player liable to cause some different problems as well as get some width which is often crucial in the later stages when the game becomes stretched. I can see why it was Martins rather than Viduka too because Martins is more likely to give the ball away than Viduka, plus if he brought Charlie on to get some crosses in, Viduka's more likely to get on the end of them.

 

It was ten minutes for crying out loud!

[STM]

There was fuck all wrong with the substitution, some of you need to have a look at yourselves. It was hardly like he brought Martins off for a centre half, N'Zogbia is an attacking player liable to cause some different problems as well as get some width which is often crucial in the later stages when the game becomes stretched. I can see why it was Martins rather than Viduka too because Martins is more likely to give the ball away than Viduka, plus if he brought Charlie on to get some crosses in, Viduka's more likely to get on the end of them.

 

 

 

It was ten minutes for crying out loud!

 

This is what i thought. It was vital we kept the point anyway and not do a "blackburn".

[KaKa]

Had Viduka and Martins been left on in the last ten minutes, with Owen vacating, we would have scored two more goals.

 

Thereby, collecting all three points and improving our goal difference.

 

Keegan has clearly lost the plot. Does he even have his pro license or badges?

 

[colinmk]

There was fuck all wrong with the substitution, some of you need to have a look at yourselves. It was hardly like he brought Martins off for a centre half, N'Zogbia is an attacking player liable to cause some different problems as well as get some width which is often crucial in the later stages when the game becomes stretched. I can see why it was Martins rather than Viduka too because Martins is more likely to give the ball away than Viduka, plus if he brought Charlie on to get some crosses in, Viduka's more likely to get on the end of them.

 

It was ten minutes for crying out loud!

 

Yep, this is what I said in the match thread at the time and a lot of people seemed to be outraged by it...

[Parsley]

Dunno if this has been mentioned already..

 

By Craig Hope

 

LIKE gaffer Kevin Keegan, Toon striker Oba Martins laughed off any suggestion of a fall out between the pair after his reaction to being substituted during the 1-1 draw at Birmingham City on Monday night.

 

The Nigerian had been lively throughout the crunch St.Andrew's clash and was clearly disappointed when he was replaced with ten minutes left to play.

 

But the seven-goal hitman insists that his frustration was merely born out of a desire to help steer the Geordies away from the threat of relegation.

 

"There are no problems," said Oba.

 

"We have quality players and if we continue that sort of play, we will do even better.

 

"All I am trying to do is help get this club away from the relegation zone.

 

"The fans or the club don't need that so that is all I am concerned about.

 

"The coach plays an attacking game and that suits my game a lot.

 

"I am satisfied with that and by the way we played going forward as a team."

 

The Geordies were unlucky not to collect what would have been a much-needed three points against the Blues as they dominated the majority of the second period.

 

And Oba believes that KK's men can be encouraged by that display ahead of another crucial clash at home to Fulham this weekend.

 

"The players did very well, we battled and we showed we wanted to pass the ball and go forward," he told the Evening Chronicle.

 

"I think everybody gave their all and gave it everything they had but we just couldn't get that second goal and go on to win the game.

 

"One point isn't too bad but we know that we needed three really.

 

"Yet this sets us up for Saturday to win and four points from six games would be very, very good for us after the results we've had."

 

 

Fair play to Oba tbh.

[Skirge]

Creases me up this site does, people over reacting to people over reacting , all some are saying is that they would have preferred to see the statuesque Viduka go off instead of Martins, there was nothing wrong with KK bringing on a midfilder for one of the three strikers nothing at all. If he wanted to tighten up so we did not throw it away in the last 10 mins then thats fine but that means sitting back a bit, so it may have been better to leave our fastest player on the pitch so we could at least try and hit them on the break.

[Shak]

There was f*** all wrong with the substitution, some of you need to have a look at yourselves. It was hardly like he brought Martins off for a centre half, N'Zogbia is an attacking player liable to cause some different problems as well as get some width which is often crucial in the later stages when the game becomes stretched. I can see why it was Martins rather than Viduka too because Martins is more likely to give the ball away than Viduka, plus if he brought Charlie on to get some crosses in, Viduka's more likely to get on the end of them.

 

It was ten minutes for crying out loud!

 

How would you have felt if it'd been Duff being brought on for Martins, with the same goal in mind?

 

Anyway, I can see what Keegan was thinking but I'd have left it as it was personally. N'Zogbia played in an extremely advanced position most of the time anyway, so I don't think the move was a defensive one from KK.

 

Just an introduction of fresh legs, hoping for N'Zogbia to produce something. With Martins seemingly playing with a bit of confidence, think he might just have been a better bet.

 

Still, we'd almost certainly have still drawn the game anyway.

[Wullie]

There was f*** all wrong with the substitution, some of you need to have a look at yourselves. It was hardly like he brought Martins off for a centre half, N'Zogbia is an attacking player liable to cause some different problems as well as get some width which is often crucial in the later stages when the game becomes stretched. I can see why it was Martins rather than Viduka too because Martins is more likely to give the ball away than Viduka, plus if he brought Charlie on to get some crosses in, Viduka's more likely to get on the end of them.

 

It was ten minutes for crying out loud!

 

How would you have felt if it'd been Duff being brought on for Martins, with the same goal in mind?

 

Forster would have been a more likely candidate to score or assist than him. So annoyed. 

[Consortium of one]

Creases me up this site does, people over reacting to people over reacting , all some are saying is that they would have preferred to see the statuesque Viduka go off instead of Martins, there was nothing wrong with KK bringing on a midfilder for one of the three strikers nothing at all. If he wanted to tighten up so we did not throw it away in the last 10 mins then thats fine but that means sitting back a bit, so it may have been better to leave our fastest player on the pitch so we could at least try and hit them on the break.

 

Yep.  I'm not all stressed out over it, just curious.  Classy quotes from Martins, btw.