David Kelly

Yeah I remember thinking he was a right little shit!

Well Oliver does seem to think he represents the whole of Newcastle doesn't he.

Wasn't Emre falling about all over the place that night too?

Worse than Leonardo on Ramos in 1994? No blood, but fractured his skull... 115601[/snapback] That was accidental though surely. Tino's did no dammage as I think he caught him more with the inside of his upper arm, but it was certainly fun to watch.

I agree with full-backs but in Boumsong, Taylor, Ramage, Bramble and dare I say it, Moore, we are well covered although one solid head in there would be welcome. Full-back, we've always neglected those positions. 115636[/snapback] With a decent coach and a one senior centrehalf who can help bring on the other players I do beleive we could have a decent central defence. The fullbacks are obviously not up the task.

Obviously the more talent the less individual errors but why don't Wigan make schoolboy errors week in week out like wor lot do it seems? Man to man, we have the 'superior' talent but a poorer defensive record. Conditioning, working as a unit on the training pitch day in day out, no real chopping and changing etc. That's what I mean by some top-class coaching and some patience from fans will help eradicate needless errors. That's not to say we'll suddenly have a good defence, we won't, that's where good players come into it but we could easily cut out 10-15 goals against via some hard work on the training pitch. It's no coincidence that since Roeder took over, we've looked better defensively, not by much, but we know he has been proactive on the training pitch where as with Souness it was all about grafting your bollocks off and not beating him in 5-a-side "I've still got it" games. I disagree with Distin BTW, I think he has something Bramble doesn't which is the ability to 'download' informtation quickly and act on it. With Bramble it's the rabbit in the headlamps effect, and before he knows it he's been caught out, he just doesn't have good reaction skills IMO. Fabulous technical ability, power, good in the air etc., as a player he's probably better than Distin, in the head though... where it all matters for me as a defender more than real ability. 115553[/snapback] I'm certainly not arguing that with better coaching our defence wouldn't be better but the players we do need better players too. With regards to the comparison with Wigan, I would say they quite possibly have four better defenders than we have. Henchoz and Arjan whatshisface may be getting on and neither of them are world beaters but they know the game.

I agree with some of what your saying but far too often our defenders make ridiculous individual errors when under hardly any pressure at all and they consistanty look anything but assured the rest of the time you can't blame that on the rest of the team. The likes of Terry wouldn't make the mistakes we've seen from our players I also agree about Upson or Mellberg, think they would be excellent signings but I think you would see Distin be no better here than Bramble.

Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs

Despite all of his injury problems I'd still be willing to risk a couple million on him. If he ever does recover his fitness he is one of the best defenders in the world.

Pretty poor list for what is supposed to be the top job in world football if you ask me. None of them have managed anything approaching a major club in a major league, apart from O'Neill they have about one trophy and three seasons of European football between them, none of them have had a team in the top five in England, two of them have teams currently in the bottom half of the league and none of them are used to managing the biggest names in English football. I'm all for an English manager if they have the right qualifications but I can't see how any of these guys do.

I remember Tino's 'headbutt' on Curle at Maine Road, but not an elbow. Where and when did that happen? 115252[/snapback] Same game I think (the headbut was at the end right?). He put his whole body into it a caught curle square in the dish. Brilliant

Worse elbow than Tino's against Keith Curle? Of course since it was Curle he should have got a medal rather than a ban!

To others the 24-year-old is an under-achieving luxury who lacks both the instinct and ability to become a top-class goalscorer. Absolutely spot on. I still hate the way as soon as he miscontrols one ball or misplaces a pass the majority of the crowd moan like they've just had a black mamba shoved up their arse.

He was shit on Saturday, doesn't mean he's shit all the time but he was that game.

I thought both teams looked like scoring every time they went forward early on. Moore was diving in too much and Rammage looked a little unsure. As the game went on though they became much more composed and Spurs never looked like scoring apart from when Elliott was playing Jenas in.

I don't blame it all on our midfield but it's all part of it. You need balance in the team and part of that is someone in midfield to sit when necessary.

See for me our biggest problem when Speed was here (other than the fact that he couldn't pass a ball in his last season and a half) was that all our midfielders just bombed forwards all the time and no one took the responsibility to sit. We might have looked more attractive back then but it cost us points.

Bowyer has proved in his time here that he can't play like that every week. I don't get the whole Parker is overrated because he doesn't do much attacking argument. He doesn't but that's not what he's there to do. The only problem is that Emre doesn't do it either and with the lack of pace and movement up front usually shown by Shearer and Shola we don't get enough players in the box. If you change the set up (ie playing him with the likes of Bowyer or Dyer and/or having some movement up front) there is absolutely no need to have Parker bombing forward and he becomes increasingly important doing the job he does.

Nah, that would be Given. Parker second is probably fair. 113822[/snapback] Parker for me but Given is certainly up there.

I haven't. He always wellies it out for a goal kick as far as I've seen. I've never seen him "kick for touch" in a territorial sense and then try to take advantage of the ground gained. Keane was out of order, and as has been pointed out, he only did the decent thing after a good bit of arguing with Shearer about it, and he clearly wasn't happy at having been talked into doing it. Anyone notice that he didn't do his stupid forward roll thing when he scored - that's cos he was scared of me. 113808[/snapback] I can't think of any specific circumstances to back myself up here but I'm sure I've seen him kick for touch before. I don't think I've seen us follow it up with pushing the opposition right into the corner though. Mind you we never bother pushing any team back when they are stuck in the corner in normal circumstances. Keane is without doubt a cnut like.

Parker has been our best player this seaon - fact. Bowyer has been shite in pretty much every game but saturday. What Saturday did show though was our need to get more players in the box and suggested that the Emre Parker midfield may not be our best way forward.

Seen Shearer do much the same thing tbh.

Carr was stinking. Everyone else played their part on Saturday but he had a mare.

Except the Lighning Seeds aren't totally shite.

Quarter-final draw: Sevilla v Zenit St Petersburg Basle v MIDDLESBROUGH Rapid Bucharest v Steaua Bucharest Levski Sofia v Schalke 04 Winner of Smoggies game play Bucharest. Worryingly I think it's theirs for the taking!