David Kelly

Mogwai - Happy Songs For Happy People

Possibly but like I said if we're talking either/or there's no contest!

I remember that, everyone said we should be buying quality instead of unproven talent... 52193[/snapback] Which is what we have since done. Fair play to the lad he's doing well at the moment but give me the choice of him (or Ashton or Andy Johnson) or Owen and I (and I think everyone else) would pick Owen every day even with the vast difference in price.

George W Bush

I think I heard number 4 a couple of times yesterday too

The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners

I think I'm seeing a hidden agenda here. Racist TBH. 51828[/snapback] Bullshit 51844[/snapback] Joke tbh.

I agree about covering options on the bench and there is a value to a striker with physical strength (rather than say pure aerial ability), but if you're good enough you don't have to have that option all the time. Arsenal have the likes of Henry who's shite in the air and he's played alongside and with other players who aren't exactly dominant in the air like Reyes, Bergkamp etc. Meanwhile Chelsea have shown with Drogba the value of having a physical presence, so it depends what you are working with and how well your team is playing and what style of football they're playing. And just to be annoying, i would have loved to see Owen/Bellamy up front as any defence would struggle to handle those two playing together and if you had Dyer in the same line up we would be lethal on the break! 51807[/snapback] Unfortunately I don't think you can compare our team to the Arse team that has succeeded in playing without players who provide an arial presence up top (I know you weren't doing this like). But they also in a way prove the point that it is necessary to have this alternative. In Europe their style has been far too easily snuffed out. They have only been getting to the same stage that we managed to get to last time we played in the champions league with a poorer and far less experienced team. If they had the ability to attack in a different way they could well have won the trophy. Mind you I'd be more than happy with the domestic trophy's they have won in recent years. I know what you mean about having Owen, Bella's and Dyer all playing in attack and it brings images of the Leeds games to mind but I think it's fair to say it certainly wouldn't work every game. Oh and we wouldn't have Owen if Bellamy was still here 51833[/snapback] Why not? Owen is a goalscorer and is the long term replacement for Shearer. If he stays at the club. 51838[/snapback] As I'm sure you could tell from the wink the comment was made in jest. However I do actually think we would not have gone for an Owen type striker if we already a pacy little bloke to play up front already. I think we would have concentrated on a bit more of a physical presence up there for the reasons I've already mentioned earlier. As interesting as strike force of Owen and Dyer or Owen and Bellamy is, I don't think there are many managers out there who gamble on that type of strike force as being their first choice. Of course it's always possible that if Bellamy hadn't fallen out with Souness we might still have gone for Owen (I mean it's not as if the mamoth fee we received for Bellamy paid for Owen) and had some more quality options up front.

Going to explain why? 51830[/snapback] See above

I agree about covering options on the bench and there is a value to a striker with physical strength (rather than say pure aerial ability), but if you're good enough you don't have to have that option all the time. Arsenal have the likes of Henry who's shite in the air and he's played alongside and with other players who aren't exactly dominant in the air like Reyes, Bergkamp etc. Meanwhile Chelsea have shown with Drogba the value of having a physical presence, so it depends what you are working with and how well your team is playing and what style of football they're playing. And just to be annoying, i would have loved to see Owen/Bellamy up front as any defence would struggle to handle those two playing together and if you had Dyer in the same line up we would be lethal on the break! 51807[/snapback] Unfortunately I don't think you can compare our team to the Arse team that has succeeded in playing without players who provide an arial presence up top (I know you weren't doing this like). But they also in a way prove the point that it is necessary to have this alternative. In Europe their style has been far too easily snuffed out. They have only been getting to the same stage that we managed to get to last time we played in the champions league with a poorer and far less experienced team. If they had the ability to attack in a different way they could well have won the trophy. Mind you I'd be more than happy with the domestic trophy's they have won in recent years. I know what you mean about having Owen, Bella's and Dyer all playing in attack and it brings images of the Leeds games to mind but I think it's fair to say it certainly wouldn't work every game. Oh and we wouldn't have Owen if Bellamy was still here

I think I'm seeing a hidden agenda here. Racist TBH.

You don't need to just hoof aimless long balls forward to make use of a centre forward with arial ability though. Football played properly can make use of the ball on the deck and in the air but with two small players up front you are cutting down your options. What I think you really need is options on the bench so that if you can't beat a team one way you can change your point of attack. This is something that I think we are close to having now with the likes of Shearer, Owen, Dyer, Luque, Emre & Solano. I just hope our management can take advantage of it!

Fair point, I agree we would be far better off for pace and movement but I'm something of a traditionalist and I like to see what Chinny Hill would call a traditional number 9 up there (someone like Shearer or Ferdinand) along with Owen. But it's certainly nice to have options.

if everyone stays fit until then, i fancy us to give chelsea a decent game. i hope souness plays his strongest team and has a go rather than playing defensive and sticking faye in the middle of the park. the only way to stop chelsea is to press them at a high tempo from the off. never let them settle. 51772[/snapback] I agree I just think that if we had our best team out against the teams we have faced so far this season (Arse, Manure and possibly Bolton excepted) I think we could expect to pick up wins against them about seven times out of ten. But when you play the top teams (especially Chelski) that percentage drops no matter who we have playing. I just find it frustrating that we will most likely be able to field our strongest team at a time when our chances of winning are smaller when if we'd had them back earlier we could be sitting second in the table at the moment.

You would play Dyer alongside Owen? Do you not think this would leave us too lightweight up top? I could see Dyer with Shearer and possibly with Luque but I'm not convinced about him and Owen together.

I thought the Omen was the best horror film I've ever seen but I've never found anything particularly scary. The Changling is pretty goos too.

Has the Silver Range Rover Sport got a private reg of E5MRE or something very similar? If so I saw him driving through the Toon on Wednesday at half time of the Grimsby game.

At his age and stage of development I don't think N'Zogbia is one of our best eleven. He is having some good games but then having some stinkers in between. You can't expect him to manage it consistantly at the moment. You have to expect (and certainly hope) that Luque will come into the best eleven when he gets a run (he played well against Manure and it's just a shoddy opening ten minutes against Fulham that's souring peoples view of him). If Dyer hits the form of last season then I would say he's up with our best players also the problem is where to fit him in!

Owen Given Parker On overall performance it was Parker by a mile for me but the importance of Owen's goals and Given's saves give them the edge.

Woah there DK, i can assure you i'll not be pm'ing anyone other than Wacky and i only PM him cos it saves me sending him a txt! As for Jimbo however! 51612[/snapback] Tight get. Are you sure that's Al Pacino in your avatar and not Ralf Little?

I thought you were both the same person! Seriously though can we not just make sure Jimbo and Smooth Operator can't PM her? At least they will then have to commit their pervyness in plain view of us all.

The problem is that we have had a lot of injuries while on a run against teams where you think we could have picked up a lot of points. Against West Ham, Fulham, Portsmouth & Wigan we have pretty much dropped 9 points (points which could have put us something like second if memory serves). We will now start to see tougher oposition Chelski, Arsenal and Liverpool all coming up in the not too distant future for example and we will be under some pressure to deliver results against teams where points should be far harder to come by. In many ways it would have been better to have injuries while having a run against the top teams than those at the bottom.

I can see where your coming from but (even on the basis of us playing football rather than humping a long ball forward) I don't think we would see the best from Owen having him up there on his own. The problem with looking for formation to play all of a teams best players often results in not playing to those players strengths. This formation would necessitate Owen playing with his back to goal and thus would rely on others breaking forward and scoring the fair share of goals (something which the likes of Dyer have struggled with in the past). I think we would be better off sticking with Shearer alongside Owen most of the time for now (I think we will see Shearer still proving very usefull when we have some quality in the midfield to provide amunition and Owen next to him with his pace and movement) and use a variation of Luque, Dyer and Solano on a game by game basis. There is also the option of playing Luque up with Owen and playing Dyer/N'Zogbia on the left.

Is it any good? I was thinking of getting a hold of it. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. It's finally starting to click with me now and I'm even enjoying Jeff Magnum's singing.

I think Andy Gray has a soft spot for the Makems because of the Peytar Reid link which makes it difficult for him to praise us too much. That might be me being a bit paranoid but what I do know is that he absolutlely loves Shearer. I think big Al makes him do little sex wees. Rednapp was very positive towards us mind and Jol eventually came round to considering us a top six team by the end.