Could somebody please tell me what is to like about this side. I can't seem to find anything. Play-doh is more creative than Newcastle United.
The way our defense falls apart, you'd figure we had play-doh in a black and white strip out there somewhere.
The owner takes advice from the traveling supporters, wears Alan Smith's shirt, and likes to buy pints for everyone. In other words nothing. Just hope for the future.(wait never mind Dennis Wise is in charge of the Academy now) Thank God the Premiership is absolute rubbish or we would get relegated.
A let-off as Hleb does well to get to the byline and produce a virtual sitter that Fabregas misses from 14 yards. We get a free-kick inside the D and about 6 players want to take it. Butt ultimately does and it rattles the post and Gallas clears for a corner. You know you're shit when Butt is taking your free kicks.
Not to pile on the misery, but it seems that Nigeria have advanced in the ACN. On the bright side they don't stand a chance of getting past the quarters because Ghana's going to stick it up 'em.
This is true, and Martins just got dropped from the squad today which is even worse. We needed him to go off to the ACN and pick up some goals/confidence. Now he comes back and Keegan will likely be just as idiotic as Big Sam and start Owen ahead of him, further denting his confidence. Then he will demand a transfer, we will give it to him, and he will be successful wherever he goes while we are stuck with "I'll throw my hands up every time I'm blatantly offsides" Owen.
Shola gets a half-chance, Almunia saves. Our first shot on target the entire game is our last. Smith just about hits the corner flag with our last effort of the game. Mercifully this one is over. Thank god Derby are dead and buried and there are seven other teams below us otherwise we'd be in all kinds of trouble. Two points from the last 21 on offer, and we haven't won in the league in a month and a half.
A continuation of Saturday's game; very comfortable for Arsenal. At least today our defence didn't make any glaring errors but were undone by decent play. Our midfield was hopeless. Butt was never within 10 yards of Cesc, Flamini was allowed so much time on the ball and Milner never touched the ball. The lack of end product from what should be our two most creative players, Zog and Duff, is worrying. Another typical Owen performance. We are at rock bottom At least we have a billionaire owner and a manager not afraid to spend it.
Just terrible! And with the transfer window closing don't plan on them getting any help. Dump half the squad and start over.
With half the round played, here's where things are. [result] 1. Arsenal 57 2. Man Utd 54 3. Chelsea 50 4. Everton 42 5. Aston Villa 41 6. Liverpool 40 7. Man City 40 8. Blackburn 38 9. Portsmouth 37 10. West Ham 33 11. Sp*rs 27 12. NUFC 27 13. Boro 24 14. Sunderland 23 15. Bolton 22 16. Reading 22 17. Birmingham 20 18. Wigan 20 19. Fulham 16 20. Derby 7 Villa 1-1 Blackburn Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle Boro 1-0 Wigan SMBs 2-0 Brummies Bolton 0-0 Fulham Lose to Boro at the weekend and we're right in the thick of it.[/result]
Couple of stats that jump out at me Haven't scored in 284 minutes. Haven't scored in league in 484 minutes. We've been outscored 14-0 in our last 5 league games. There are only 4 teams (Spurs, Reading, Mackems, Derby) who have given up more goals in league then we have. Owen has only scored 2 goals in league all season. Martins leads the team with 6 league goals. This team needs to be gutted and rebuilt and soon. My thoughts from today's match Given-Could have been better, but defense did nothing to help him N'Zog-is not a defender, I thought we figured that out with Big Sam Cacapa-Yeah, not cutting it Taylor-decent day, needs a veteran partner badly Carr-why is he still here? Rozy-is not a midfielder, this is as bad a playing N'Zog in D Butt-decent day, but not up to the level of Fabregas who he was asked to shadow. Duff-could he please quit playing out of position, taking the ball away from teammates, making pointless runs, and yelling at his teammates. Would love to see him go Milner-seemed out of sort all game, still should have been Lua Lua and not that farce of a striker Ameobi for him. Smith-Why is he still here? Owen, couldn't create on his own if his life depended on it. Right now he couldn't score on a League 2 side. Barton-why, why, why bring that jail bird into the team, better yet he showed nothing to make me think he should be playing in anything more than reserves right now. Ameobi-He'd be a decent striker for a lower championship/upper division 1 team.
For those of you who think we're home and hosed and don't need to worry about the drop: 42 points is the most anyone's been relegated with. To eclipse that, we need 16 points from our remaining games. From the reverse fixtures of our remaining opponents, we got 18 points. Boro (A) - draw Villa (H) - draw Manyoo (A) - loss Reading (A) - loss SMBs (A) - draw Portsmouth (H) - loss Liverpool (H) - loss Everton (H) - win Sp*rs (H) - win Wet Spam (H) - win Fulham (A) - win Birmingham (H) - win Chelsea (A) - loss Blackburn (A) - loss So we host Rovers, Manyoo, Chelsea, Fulham, Reading, the Mackems and Boro. We should get at least 13 points out of this normally but with the way we're playing we'll be fortunate to get eight. I see us taking seven by beating the Mackems and drawing Boro, Fulham and Reading. Of course, we could always do something stupid like lose to Fulham to compound things. Away we go to Pompey, Liverpool, West Ham, Sp*rs, Villa, Brum and Everton. We'd do well to get six points even if we were playing well. I see two here - drawing WHU and Birmingham. Now, in all actuality this season we might be safe with 8-10 more points. I think we might be able to get nine as things stand right now. That, boys and girls, would leave us with 36 points, a total which would have been relegated in two of the past five years. That means we're in the thick of it.
Yesterday's game sucked, no way around it. Still, I think the general tone of the discussion here is more pessimistic than the facts require. We have played three games under Keegan - Bolton after he'd been in charge for three days and Arsenal twice, who are without a doubt a much better team than we are. Okay, we're out of the FA Cup and we got thrashed twice in three days, but I don't think we need to start to think about going down a rung just yet. Consider: 1. Four of our players are playing in the African Cup, three of whom are actually important to the team and probably start as soon as they return; 2. Keegan has been unable to use many of the players who are here through injury, suspension or good 'ol fashioned bail restrictions; 3. Some of the players who have been on the pitch are coming back from injury and probably aren't at 100% as yet; 4. Keegan has almost no one one the bench to bring in other than the already mentioned cup of tea and orange slices; 5. Because we are short in numbers and playing multiple games in a short span, the players have no time to recover, this is especially important for the players returning from injury and short of match fitness; 6. We still have players on the pitch out of position, not because Keegan doesn't know where their strengths are, but because we don't have the bodies to play everyone where they should be; and 7. We won't be playing Arsenal again this season. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there isn't a lot to fix or that we don't need a major overhaul in the offseason, but I firmly believe that we will be fine as the season winds down, that we won't be hovering in the relegation zone, and that we'll get our share of goals and victories once we have our full squad back, Keegan has more time to settle in, and we play against the rest of the Prem rather than the leaders. Okay everyone, tell me why I'm wrong!
what he said above,... Good lord the TPS™ in here is astonishing. a few notes-n-things after watching the replay last nite: --Our midfield is now officially worse than our defense. Yes Rozenahl didn't help them much but WTF neither did Butt. --Cacapa is a great defender when he knows he has someone behind him and to his left. He actually passes the ball well when he gets it. Problem is no one who gets it knows what to do with it when they get it as they are so accustomed to long balls from the defense. --Smith and his gay haircut need to just plain die. No looking around for help, no look of suprise or confusion, no "wha--?" comment before gripping the ticker, no fade to black, just fall over and die. thankyouverymuch --Carr was suprisingly good. well OK he was better than normal. Ok so yeah thats not really that good as that bar is pretty damn low. I'll admit at first I thought Steven Taylor was playing LB and had shaved his head for the occasion. --Given has a very good back flick. Put him up in the midfield for more creativity. --Owen, well at least he's trying as much as a five foot six striker with a rebuilt knee can. --ZOggs,-sigh- the kids got heart but not much of a head and is doing Enrique a favor by playing LB. --Taylor...meh he's is getting better all the time. I do mean all the time. --Shola,..wha? Didn't some one once compare him to Euseubio? yeah, right --Barton looks good in Black and white stripes, although the horizontal ones fit him better, did he do much after he came on? --Milner and Fuff er Duff effectively cancel each other out. One runs at the defense on one side with his head down; and on the other side, the other passes balls over the defense, and the end line and usually the stands with his head down as well and MO sits in the middle and says: "whaddya want from me?" --Hleb is as ugly as his name... --Mike Riley is maybe 90 lbs ,...soaking wet. --Keegan; well, have you ever seen a deer in your headlights?
I watched the game. How bad is Owen? He is dreadful. Yet somehow Capello will probably choose him for his England squad.