And unlike Softie for once I am not overly impressed apart from a brief spell with our performance on Sunday. I am not a pessismist but watching the game (twice), for the first time in over 50 years of supporting the lads I could not get arsed about them. If anyone out there can tell me different Ill listnen and take it onboard but the facts speak for themselves as far as I am concerned, forget about reputations , YBR plays three big guys at the back, has Speed in midfield who can rise, Al has been known to head a few in and Cort should be able to outjump them all, enough there to be confident in defending ones area from a ariel set piece and also in the event of winning a corner or free kick, the potential power of these moving up would be awesome. Crap (exempt Shearer in attack), and maybe Dabs, the rest do not attack the ball when in the danger area. Lined up against them are Stam (excellent) Sheringham and Johnson, give you Keane,/ the Nevilles, Becks, Giggs, Coley, Scholey should not be at the races. Friends 6`4 Cort cannot heed a ball for toffee, got the height granted, has no neck muscles or timing, hence no power as I witnessed in a incident in the second half. Manchester work bloody hard for each other, none more than Giggs close the oppossition down quickly, everything that we should be doing and then some, when required they play at a faster pace, whereas we even in our 20 min good spell were one paced and so bliddy predictable its so esy to read, its amateurish, A lot has been spoken about the 3 center backs, Bobby`s idea of midfield leaves open a lot of questions, face it people Lee`s best days are over, Speed is no more than adequate, his goal ratio stops him from being the weakest link, but where is the pace coming from, from what I saw on Saturday it appears that bad habits are being carried over from 5 a sides at the Riverside, still no balance on the left side, stop and check, Cordone and Hughes, Dyer has a modicum of incisesivnious (sp) about his play, Barton does not hide, but beat Derby convincly and all will be rosy, I for one am not sure, whats wrong in wanting to give the big boys a better game of it,and to finish, agree with you Dave in regards to unsettling the opposing team, but who have we got who is capable?

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2000

Answers

You're preaching to the converted Buff. I'm looking forward to the day Softie does a piece on a prem game that reads like his latest on the reserves.

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2000

Spot on Buff.

So predictable and one paced. It was like watching the cup finals again. Lets hope for improvement against Derby. A bit more self- belief should come with more games together

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2000

This thing about Cort not being able to head a ball is interesting. I wonder how big he was at 15? A daft question you might think but let me explain. Spurs have signed a central defender, lad called Antony Gardner from Port Vale, last season. Gardner is 6ft 5in and was that height when he was 14. (I know this because one of my mates used to teach him). Anyway, he is outstanding on the ground, great passer, but for a bloke of that height his heading was poor. The theory expressed is that he has always been so much bigger than the lads he played with he's never HAD to learn to head it properly - always got there anyway. Interestingly, this summer Gardner has been having special coaching in the heading department from the 5ft 10in Sir Les Ferdinand. I hope someone at Toon can take Cort in hand in a similar fashion - although for 7 million quid you'd expect the bugger to have some idea!!

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2000

Thanks very much for the match analysis Buff. This seems to confirm that we have (almost) reached stage two of the YBR management era. The first stage was to get a set of players he could weld into a team and he does seem to have gone a good way along that road. I was suprised when it seemed obvious that he had been going to buy a new striker when the Drunken transfer got called off. Yet YBR himself had slagged the defence for their performance (?) in Spain? Perhaps he knows that a defense can not be bought in the same way that an attack can? The big improvements in individuals last year were among the defensive players. So I think that means that the team now have to play themselves into being a good team. Not that we won't add and subtract players but we have to get the YBR style and learn how to play it?

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2000

Like I said in my spiel in the 'Hughes - A left back' thread, if NUFC want proper width down the left, the only choice should be Domi at left back, and a 3-1 midfield formation that allows Speed, Bassedas or Cordone to support Domi.

As for the central defence, I would like to go along with many others on here and say pick of the lads and say "right your it" and play them untill either injuries or being totally crap rules them out of a match.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2000

Tre, I wanted to agree with you, "As for the central defence, I would like to go along with many others on here... and play them untill either injuries or being totally crap rules them out of a match".

YBR inherited these guys and "being totally crap" (totally inconsistent would be more accurate?) comes along all too frequently, just as we think they're settling down, one, or more of them, will make an amateurish mistake; Dabs. can be up there with the best, then...

IMHO "consistency" is the name of the game in the Premier League, why is it that NUFC can raise their game / compete with / defeat the 'best', on occasion (e.g. v. Manure at SJP), yet look second class more often than not? We play one good game in ten, Manure play one bad game in ten!

Our single biggest problem is in not having ONE commanding figure in defence, Manure's got one, L'pool have, Ar$e have, Chewsea have, Leeds have, WE MUST GET ONE! Such players don't allow sloppy goals like the first one on Sunday, if YBR's got any dough in the kitty then that's where (IMHO) the money should be spent.

End of rant

:-(

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2000

Bud

Totally agree about a NUFC needing a commanding centre half. Unfortunately the BBS is rather divided about bringing back the one player that I can think of who fits the mould. Helder.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2000

That is because we already have enough players who only play 1 in 6 games Tre. No matter how good you are, if you can only perform on the pitch to that level we do not need you.

With the subject of the width coming from the fullbacks, the midfield can be structured to make up for the shortcomings of the side. If the fullbacks go galloping down only one side ie the left and Domi, by your reckoning. You do not need a left sided midfielder, you can use a right sided one and 3 central ones. With one of them taking the responsibility of dropping in behind the player going forward.

We saw a lot of this on Sunday, however the team doing it were not in B & W.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2000

Good point Gus. The emphasis these days seems to be for solid midfielders unless you have Ryan Giggs who even gets through his fair share of work.

I believe we should be playing Domi and Griffin when fit. Griffin played a couple of times in the right midfield slot, so he could get used to going forward more, I think he had a couple of assists. All we need now is tony Adams to tell them when they should be staying back.

Adams has that unique quality of defensive vision, even if his legs may not take him where he wants to be fast enough.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2000

That, Gus, is the whole idea.

We could have Bassedas supporting and covering Domi. Solano supporting and covering Barton. Leaving Speed in a central holding role and Dyer playing behind the front two as a floating midfielder. When defending the four midfield players can revert back to a standard flat four midfield once Barton and Domi have recovered their defensive positions.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

I have to differ with your opinion Tre, I have the feeling that Cordone will be better playing behind Al and Carl and Dyer filling the central role of midfield supporting.

This gives Solano the freedom of the right and Bassedas as holding then left sided M/f. In a 4-3-1-2 formation.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

I think Solano is our key man. we were so much better last night with him playing.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

My one concern with that midfield is that there isn't a single player who is recognized as a hardman, holding midfield player. If we had two great central defenders I wouldn't be so concerned, but we don't. I know we haven't seen Bassedas play yet, but from accounts he doesn't sound like a midfield general, but more like a midfield play maker.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

Funny that, I thought the playmaker was the general?

Why do we need a "hard" man in midfield?

Go for 2 creative types in the middle, 2 running, skillful, crossing wide types and what more do you want?

With 4 at the back one of the central men can be the "hard" man. Unless of course you mean a ball winner!

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

We need a holding midfielder a la Batty (although obviously not Batty). We were over-run in the midfield last night.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

That's the key Dougal, someone like Batty only a better long range passer would make the world of difference to our side.

Can anyone that saw the matches in the US tell us what sort of player Bassedas looked. I'm not sure anybody really knows.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000