Gooch

[madras]

I thought Bramble was on thin ice a number of times. He showed glimpses of why some (wrong) people think he is a Premiership player, and glimpses of why some others (including me) think he is a pile of s****.

 

Bramble was shocking in the first half. The only reason this isnt being widely acknowledged is because Bellamy failed to convert his chances.

onweyu (?) won all that came his way in the air,on the ground and organisationally he looked like a player coming in froma much lower league  .bramble had to cover that,notice no-one is questioning butts quietist game for a while,how we failed to narrow the midfield,or questioning why sibs wasn't brought on earlier to hold the ball up and take pressuer off the defence.

 

[Guest Gent]

Wasn't exceptional, wasn't terrible - a decent and steady performance.

[Northern Monkey]

I thought Bramble was on thin ice a number of times. He showed glimpses of why some (wrong) people think he is a Premiership player, and glimpses of why some others (including me) think he is a pile of s****.

 

Bramble was shocking in the first half. The only reason this isnt being widely acknowledged is because Bellamy failed to convert his chances.

onweyu (?) won all that came his way in the air,on the ground and organisationally he looked like a player coming in froma much lower league  .bramble had to cover that,notice no-one is questioning butts quietist game for a while,how we failed to narrow the midfield,or questioning why sibs wasn't brought on earlier to hold the ball up and take pressuer off the defence.

 

 

Butt was better than against Fulham, and as for Le Sib not coming on, that's because Roeder is an idiot.

 

Bramble wasn't carrying anyone, either, he could barely cover for his own inadequacies.

 

I thought the new boy did alriht for a lot of the game - more than his debut, when he had a stinking second half.

[Cronky]

He definitely looks like a good addition to the squad. Whether he's the kind of dominating centre back that we're really looking for - a successor to Woodgate - not so sure yet.

 

I'd definitely keep the Bramble - Onyewu partnership together for a bit yet. You could see their understanding improving as the Liverpool game went on.

[Northern Monkey]

I'd like to see the Taylor/Onyewu partnership set up, with a left back who can actually play football. With Nobby/Taylor/Onyewu/New LB, we would have a chance of seeing what our new CB was like.

 

Playing him alongside Shambles isn't the answer. Poor lad has done nothing to deserve that.

[Superior Acuña]

Hmmm dunno.  I thought it was the gooch's fault when bellamy took on harper.  He just left him.

[Northern Monkey]

Hmmm dunno.  I thought it was the gooch's fault when bellamy took on harper.  He just left him.

 

Sshh, we beat a better side, every one of the defence is now a god.

 

Seriously, he fucked up a bit, but not as much as on his debut. he could turn out ok. Or shite, its too early to say.

[Guest NUFC4]

i wasn't very impressed with him today, only because i've seen him play loads of games and he wasn't at his best today. not signing him would be a HUGE mistake! he gives us an aerial presence and physicality that has been lacking for quite some time. not to mention he's one of the smartest players ever, rarely gets caught outta position and has composure on the ball that allows us to link up with the midfield unlike a certain player named peter "kick it long and run to it because i couldn't pass it through two cones 5 feet apart and 10 feet in front of me" ramage.

 

sign him up! 

[Northern Monkey]

i wasn't very impressed with him today, only because i've seen him play loads of games and he wasn't at his best today. not signing him would be a HUGE mistake! he gives us an aerial presence and physicality that has been lacking for quite some time. not to mention he's one of the smartest players ever, rarely gets caught outta position and has composure on the ball that allows us to link up with the midfield unlike a certain player named peter "kick it long and run to it because i couldn't pass it through two cones 5 feet apart and 10 feet in front of me" ramage.

 

sign him up! 

 

You just described the EXACT opposite of Bramble.

 

He hasn't looked good for an entire game yet, but he needs time. Hopefully he'll have games where he is not played beside Shambles, and soon, before that sucks the confidence out of him.

 

He was ok today, but we didn't see much of that aerial prowess.

[Guest Darth Toon]

Thought he did well in very tricky conditions - its a nightmare to have to play on such a slippy surface with someone like Bellamy running at you, and even more so to have to do so alongside Bramble on one of his "off" days....

 

As others have mentioned, would like to see him get a run alongside Taylor - we've had so many defenders come in, look decent for a while then turn to cack, and yet the common denominator (Titus) remains. Time to move him on and give the others a chance.

[Guest teepee]

i thought he did really well - kept kuyt quit for most of the game!

 

seems calm on the ball, and much more intelligent than bramble (who btw was awfull yet again).

 

if taylor/gooch isn't tried soon i will be  very very dissapointed! but if fear that roeder will keep confidence in the disaster that is.... bramble

[Gallowgate Toon]

for christs sake stop judging him. of course he would win stuff in the air. On the floor he wasnt that shaky but remember on the deck the premiership is a totally different ball game the aerial game never changes whatever league you play in, give him time hes only played 2 games and put in 2 good performances and whatever anyone says he was better than bramble today. Bramble was marking bellamy and Gooch was marking Kuyt, it was Brambles fault that he left bellamy not gooch's. put him next to a decent centre back who can read the game e.g Woodgate we would have the perfect defensive partnership. Gooch the powerful physical defender and woody the reader and stopper of opposition attacks.

[buzza]

He wasn't bad yesterday but was caught sleeping a couple of times as well as bramble was. What he does add is aerial prescence and didn't lose a header all match, he also seems composed with the ball at his feet instead the lump it as far forward as possible approach.

He's only played twice so we can't rreally judge him yet but he does look interesting...

[Tisd09]

Thing is centre halfs at this club will be analysed in fine detail, because of our high profile expensive flops in the past our confidence in new defenders are shot, I feel we are waiting for him to make a mistake because that is what we are used to.

 

He's gonna need more than two games to prove his worth but initial signs seem good and seems a definate impovement on Bramble and Ramage. It would be good to see a long run in the team with Taylor!

[Guest SmileyCulture]

The Belgian league and the prem are a world apart, 2 games and 2 decent performances - i can't wait till he gets settled and used to the pace of the prem, i think we could have a pretty good defender on our hands for the future, he's easily good enough to earn a place in our defense already.

 

He looked pretty vocal in defense against Liverpool which is what we need, i'd say easily 80% of our defensive errors (non-indavidual errors that is) are down to no communication, if he can use his past experiances in a fairly sold defense (even if it was in a belgian league!) to organise our young guys at the back with a few signings for left/right back in the summer we could have a very solid defense.

[Guest scottfx]

Whats the fee on gooch if we were to sign him at the end of season? he out of contract or

[Troll]

Part of the terms of him coming on loan was that Standard extended his contract by a year so we couldn't just get him on a free this summer.  £2-3 mill was the figure I remember hearing.

[Guest SmileyCulture]

I'm not sure, i very much doubt it would break the bank even if he was still on his contract - i deffinately think if he keeps going the way he is we'l snap him up at the end of the season when his loan runs out.

[Cajun]

Im sure the fee was £1.8m wasn't it?

[Guest SmileyCulture]

We've paid alot more for alot worse players regularly in the past

[Guest teepee]

good price - especially these days, just look at upson!

[toontownman]

Can see a nasty Distin repeat at the end of the season. Albeit he will be going to a much better club, and wont be going just for the money.

 

Roeder hypes it up like this is his big chance to make it and "win" a toon contract. If he continues the way he is going I think it could be more of a chance we would do well to hold unto him.

 

He is a very ambitious player and has refused to talk past the end of the season so far, infact he hasnt even said anything other than he wants to do his best until the end of the season.

[Willow]

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=447654&CPID=8&clid=4&lid=&title=Roeder+praise+for+Onyewu

 

Onyewu, meanwhile, has admitted he enjoyed his battle with Craig Bellamy at the weekend.

 

Former Newcastle striker Bellamy led the line for Liverpool at St James' Park and fired The Reds ahead, but Onyewu believes the Welshman did not overly enjoy their battle.

"My size and strength are big assets and I don't think Bellamy liked that too much being half my size," said the American.

 

"He never shuts up. When you come across players like him, you've just got to laugh at them.

 

"Bellamy is a handful, he's very quick and tries to get into the heads of defenders with his talk.

 

"From his history I know he's a very good player but, all in all, we handled him well."

 

[Cajun]

I think he is quite a modest player, he knows he will more than likely get regular games here if he keeps it up and im sure he will sign if we choose to take up that option.

[Guest teepee]

i have to hand it to them - i'd smack bellamy in an instance for all his bullshit. Probably one of many reasons why i am not a professional footballer