Karate_Kuyt

Regarding Houlier some people must have missed him claiming not to be interested in our job? Can´t see why he would either, when he´s at one of Europe´s more exciting clubs and doing well..

Legend.

That's about as smart as people over at this side of the pont saying all English football fans are hooligans..

You say composure is something a player has and can't be thought. Have a look at these early career stats from Van Nistelrooij. In the 97/98 season he was of the same age as Martins is now. His goals/appearances ratio does not suggest he had great composure when he was that young, still years later he was recognised as one of the best finishers of the game, so much so in fact you could argue that without hsi composure he would still be playing in the Dutch second division.. 1993/94 FC Den Bosch Eerste Divisie 2 0 1994/95 FC Den Bosch Eerste Divisie 15 3 1995/96 FC Den Bosch Eerste divisie 21 2 1996/97 FC Den Bosch Eerste Divisie 31 12 1997/98 SC Heerenveen Eredivisie 31 13

He's utterly useless, and that's me being nice about an @j@x player for once..

Are you suggesting that having opposition defenders trying to tight mark the fastest man on a football match, who is quite technical and a very good finisher will make him ineffective. I think it's excellent that Oba is proving to be a treath from distance as well as a player to look out for in counter attack situations. By now defenders around the Premiership will have sit up and taken notice I would have thought, and I don't think he will be easy to nullify as he can do it all, score with his left, his right, from distance, counter attack or even heading in crosses..

The contrast between the start of this topic and his importance to our current plight is enormous.. Anyway, I was just checking out some youtube footage of his time with us, and I noticed that a huge part of his goals for us have been bullets in the top of the net, completely unstoppable. If this is his preferred way of shooting, you would think he must quite often blast it over the bar, but I can´t seem to remember this happening too often.. Remember one or two instances where he hit the bar (Chelsea springs to mind), but generally he´s well on target, just below the bar. I don´t think I´ve ever seen a player who is so good at putting a moving ball in the top of the net. Love his arial prowess too.. Keep it up!

No way that cross was just decent. He cut out his man feigning to play it right footed then put an excellent cross in with his weaker foot to completely put Pattison free to head on goal. I think we can all see Milner is no top drawer player. He lacks pace and technique for that level. The way his crossing has improved this season (he must be nearing double digits with assists, don't know the exact figures) and the way he's worked on left footed crosses proves that he is making good progress. He's still a young player with a lot to learn. He wasn't cheap, but the price tag wasn't his wrongdoing and we will get at least our money back if we do eventually decide to sell, so we can only be happy at the way he's contribued and showed progress..

So was the right wing. Bot off dickhead. Milner has been one of our best players for months now. saying it twice doesnt make it anymore true I'm hoping he's on the windup. I'm by no means a fan of Milner, but he's been quality this season. No wind up. If your definition of 'quality' is Milner's performances this season then I can only assume you didnt see Solano, Ginola, Robert etc in their prime. The only similarity between the players above and Milner is that they all have 2 legs. He is still nowhere near the level of performance of a young Keith Gillespie. Not good enough. Nowhere near in fact. Sorry to upset the applecart on this one but its been obvious to see for too long now that the kid isnt up to the level we should be aspiring to be at. His performance yesterday was abysmal by the way. His crossing was indicative of his time at Newcastle. He is young but he should have learnt the basics by now. The lad worked very hard defensively and put an excellent left footed cross in from the right that could have easily been a goal if it was anybody else than Pattison at the far post. If a winger puts in at least one exceptional, potentially matchwinning cross and spends most of his time helping out a makeshift defense to ensure we get the three points you can't say he didn't put in at least an ok performance..

Passive reader and occasional poster on both forums, but I feel that the N-O one is going downhill rapidly, mainly due to a number of members slagging each other of at every chance they get and thereby completely ruining almost every decent thread (HTT, can something not be done about this?). Interesting posters and opinions on both forums though..

I think he is more of a holding midfielder who is good at going forward and adds a bit of creativity: a left-footed box-to-box midfielder if you want.. A good tackler and very much at ease in possession, he is not very fast but takes defenders and other midfielders on with a good dribble. I would compare him to a younger Edgar Davids, although he is probably a bit more attack minded and slightly less of a fighter. I think he's a very complete midfielder though, and a partnership with Parker should bring out the best in both..