Guest Knightrider Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 I think a good number of our team were poor on the ball yesterday, Barton, Geremi and Martins the chief culprits. However to a man they all worked their socks off and that's the least we can expect from them when they aren't at their best which is much better than them not being at their best and neither putting a shift in which was the case a few weeks back. In that sense Barton was tremendous, covering a lot of ground and showing a bit of pace at times when taking on his man. Lets not forget space and time was at a premium due to the nature of this match which made it tough to get the ball down and play. The fact we did play football periodically is very encouraging. They were all poor I thought, even Owen and Viduka who are usually our better players in possession were sloppy and gave it away too much. A very sloppy performance but it'll be overlooked because it was a derby, lets hope we can get back on track for the West Ham game. I thought Owen was very good, on and off the ball. He played a great ball through to Martins for example that you wouldn't expect from him, a killer through ball, and while not all his passing came off, the intent and ideas behind some of his attempts were spot on. He also switched play superbly at times. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keefaz Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 McShane. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 I don't think Owen did a lot apart from get his two goals. He did well when he put Martins in though. And before someone sarcastically points out OMG all he did was score two goals, I'm just saying it wasn't the allround accomplished performance he has often given of late. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Venkman Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 I think a good number of our team were poor on the ball yesterday, Barton, Geremi and Martins the chief culprits. However to a man they all worked their socks off and that's the least we can expect from them when they aren't at their best which is much better than them not being at their best and neither putting a shift in which was the case a few weeks back. In that sense Barton was tremendous, covering a lot of ground and showing a bit of pace at times when taking on his man. Lets not forget space and time was at a premium due to the nature of this match which made it tough to get the ball down and play. The fact we did play football periodically is very encouraging. They were all poor I thought, even Owen and Viduka who are usually our better players in possession were sloppy and gave it away too much. A very sloppy performance but it'll be overlooked because it was a derby, lets hope we can get back on track for the West Ham game. I thought Owen was very good, on and off the ball. He played a great ball through to Martins for example that you wouldn't expect from him, a killer through ball, and while not all his passing came off, the intent and ideas behind some of his attempts were spot on. He also switched play superbly at times. ditto, owen ran the game for us, in the first half at least, which was a good job becuase obafavourite martins looked like he'd never seen a football before, however i would have left him on as his pace obviously is a threat to teams and duff's fucking horseshit imo only owen, butt and barton really turned up, defense didnt have much to do but i have to say i thought taylor was a bit better than usual, faye was beaten all day by jones Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Bit harsh on Geremi iyam. His general play was pretty cack and his corners were pap as usual, but he still put some cracking deliveries in, including for the first of course. Four assists and a goal in the last five games isn't bad at all. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Faye did alright though I thought. Jones is a nightmare to mark and excellent in the air but Faye stuck to his task and kept getting the all important challenge in which stopped him getting free headers and so on. Less experienced players might have panicked and tried to win ball they couldn't and conceded a lot more free-kicks and so on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggio Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Viduka didn't look right to me. I know he struggles to move at the best of times, but yesterday was something else. Might have been playing with a knock? Still had a massive contribution for the penalty, but most definitely wasn't at the races - which was a shame when you look at the quality of defender he was up against. The problem I've noticed with Viduka in this formation is that he offers little support out wide, because we're not playing with wide men you need the attackers to pull out wide as an outlet, Martins does it well on the left and looks like he's been told to use that as his starting position when we haven't got the ball, Viduka however just isn't mobile enough and quite a few times yesterday we were left with a big space for someone to run into out on the right and nobody to run into it, Beye gets forward well but he can't be expected to do it all and there were times when he was the one looking to play it out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Knightrider Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Owen had a chance to put Martins through not long after he put him through the first time but he spread the ball instead and that to me was his way of not really trusting Martins to make use of a through ball as he rather made a hash of the first one and miscontrolled a few good balls up to him throughout. That's something I think Martins needs to work on, he must be a frustrating player to play with at times. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Viduka didn't look right to me. I know he struggles to move at the best of times, but yesterday was something else. Might have been playing with a knock? Still had a massive contribution for the penalty, but most definitely wasn't at the races - which was a shame when you look at the quality of defender he was up against. The problem I've noticed with Viduka in this formation is that he offers little support out wide, because we're not playing with wide men you need the attackers to pull out wide as an outlet, Martins does it well on the left and looks like he's been told to use that as his starting position when we haven't got the ball, Viduka however just isn't mobile enough and quite a few times yesterday we were left with a big space for someone to run into out on the right and nobody to run into it, Beye gets forward well but he can't be expected to do it all and there were times when he was the one looking to play it out. I did notice Beye getting into that space if able. Love that massive run down the right near the end...Beat 2 men?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggio Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 I don't think Owen did a lot apart from get his two goals. He did well when he put Martins in though. And before someone sarcastically points out OMG all he did was score two goals, I'm just saying it wasn't the allround accomplished performance he has often given of late. That was what I was getting at, he certainly didn't run the show. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keefaz Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Martins played the wrong ball on at least two occasions when he should've squared it. Bit selfish, imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Viduka didn't look right to me. I know he struggles to move at the best of times, but yesterday was something else. Might have been playing with a knock? Still had a massive contribution for the penalty, but most definitely wasn't at the races - which was a shame when you look at the quality of defender he was up against. The problem I've noticed with Viduka in this formation is that he offers little support out wide, because we're not playing with wide men you need the attackers to pull out wide as an outlet, Martins does it well on the left and looks like he's been told to use that as his starting position when we haven't got the ball, Viduka however just isn't mobile enough and quite a few times yesterday we were left with a big space for someone to run into out on the right and nobody to run into it, Beye gets forward well but he can't be expected to do it all and there were times when he was the one looking to play it out. Definitely. I think that's why many are hoping we'll sign a Jones sort for next season, if we're sticking with this way of playing. If we have two strikers up top and they do what you're asking of them there, split wide to drag the defenders around and open up holes in the middle, I can only see Owen and the midfielders getting more goals out of it. We can't rely on Beye to cover the whole right side, which he is currently doing because neither Viduka or Geremi have the legs to do it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Martins played the wrong ball on at least two occasions when he should've squared it. Bit selfish, imo. He's not the best decision maker. He's a better player when he hasn't got time to think about stuff / is instinctive imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Knightrider Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We are crying out for a mobile centre-forward with pace. To exploit that we'd also need an attacking midfielder to fill the hole of the vacating centre-forward when he pulls wide. Numerous times yesterday the ball came back in field but Barton and Butt were both behind play. A Rob Lee type would have had lots of joy. Owen did his best but even pushing on, he's a penalty box man not an attacking midfielder, see his first goal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~1294556,00.html This guy needs to be in the team ahead of Alan Smith. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jawesome Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We are crying out for a mobile centre-forward with pace. Just out of interest, whats Martins? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We are crying out for a mobile centre-forward with pace. To exploit that we'd also need an attacking midfielder to fill the hole of the vacating centre-forward when he pulls wide. Numerous times yesterday the ball came back in field but Barton and Butt were both behind play. A Rob Lee type would have had lots of joy. Owen did his best but even pushing on, he's a penalty box man not an attacking midfielder, see his first goal. From what I've seen in recent weeks I think he can play as an attacking midfielder though. The fact his first goal came (and will continue to come in the main) from in the box clouds the issue slightly for me because if he were playing further forward I'm not sure he'd be finding the space and be able to make those late runs we are seeing from him now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We are crying out for a mobile centre-forward with pace. Just out of interest, whats Martins? I think he means mobile, pacy target man-type ideally. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggio Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We are crying out for a mobile centre-forward with pace. To exploit that we'd also need an attacking midfielder to fill the hole of the vacating centre-forward when he pulls wide. Numerous times yesterday the ball came back in field but Barton and Butt were both behind play. A Rob Lee type would have had lots of joy. Owen did his best but even pushing on, he's a penalty box man not an attacking midfielder, see his first goal. The first goal was scored because of the formation we play. Nosworthy and Higginbotham were off marking Martins and Viduka which left the space for Owen to run into, McShane didn't really have a clue who to pick up and that lack of concentration let Owen get in using his great off the ball movement, I think it was tmonkey who said we could really push on next season using this formation because it will be too good for the poor teams to play against and I think he's spot on with that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggio Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~1294556,00.html This guy needs to be in the team ahead of Alan Smith. He moved around the pitch quicker than Viduka to be fair to the bloke. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedro111 Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 "4-1, even chopra scored" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We are crying out for a mobile centre-forward with pace. Just out of interest, whats Martins? I think he means mobile, pacy target man-type ideally. Would have been nice if we'd got Anelka when we had the chance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggio Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We are crying out for a mobile centre-forward with pace. Just out of interest, whats Martins? I think he means mobile, pacy target man-type ideally. Would have been nice if we'd got Anelka when we had the chance. Chelsea would probably sell him if they got their money back because he's been far from impressive for them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We are crying out for a mobile centre-forward with pace. Just out of interest, whats Martins? I think he means mobile, pacy target man-type ideally. Would have been nice if we'd got Anelka when we had the chance. Chelsea would probably sell him if they got their money back because he's been far from impressive for them. Still think he's a good player. Lot of players have had trouble slotting in at Chelsea in the first season...Ballack, Schev etc... Funny system and now lacking the insight of Jose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest float one in Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Against my better judgement, and without having any first hand experience of watching play for more than 10-15 mins, I am excited about how Andy Carrol might develop... I'd love to think he'd end up as a Geordie Duncan Ferguson, without the fitness problems and a better temperament! Could be the mobile target man we are looking for... If Viduka can be fit and motivated for most of next season KK might continue to blood Carrol bit by bit, and who knows he might be a formidable player the season after. All the same I'd probably like to see us bring in a real class act up front if we really want to push on next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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