Following on from comments on last night`s matchday thread, it was interesting to hear Clarky say that Shearer had a good game. Just goes to show how deceptive listening to commentary only can be. The commentary was very downbeat, not much mention of Shearer - in fact not a great deal in the way of praise for any of the players.

On the other hand, if I watch a match, I am always amazed at how much work Big Al does - a great deal of it in midfield, and always some spectacular clearances in defence. If he couldn`t play, I wonder how much the team would be weakened throughout.

I guess the point I was briefly trying to make on the matchday thread was I wish we had reached a stage where it wouldn`t feel like the end of the world if he was rested, or (God forbid) injured. At the minute I would still feel anxious if he wasn`t in the team.(:o)

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Answers

Perhaps Shearer is the holding midfielder we have always been looking for! Gets forward once in a blue moon but what a shot from outside the area. Probably the best passer we have and that coupled with his strength on the ball he has all the attributes.

He would be able to carry out the captaincy better from midfield as well. Food for thought? Probably too early in his career yet.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

I thought it might be useful Gal to copy onto this thread my response to Screacher's concerns about Shearer's lack of scoring against 'inferior' opposition as it is buried on a long and probably dead Match thread.

Yes he didn't score again Screach, but as I suspect you realise, there is more to it than that. He skippered a team that won 2-0, and IMHO was one of our better players, judged on overall performance and team contribution.
Why he isn't getting the chances to put away I simply don't know, but I'd be far more concerned if he was getting into easy scoring positions and missing them.
Worryingly, some of the crowd around me were getting on his back a little - nothing major, just twittering.
I'm obviously a little biased, but alongside Andy Griffen (who was excellent) I thought Al was one of our best players on the night, and for me remains a top professional in a dyfunctional team - and a top striker getting crap service and thereby needing to forage.

He may not be the top striker in Europe any longer, but he remains one of our best players. He is our best striker by a country mile, although I was heartened by CC's performance last night on his comeback. If he stays fit we could finally contemplate a situation where AS could be rested occasionaly.
IMHO Alan's overall contribution to the team is immeasurable, and to even consider leaving him out right now would be just plain dumb thinking. When Bobby finally gets a settled team and team pattern I believe we'll see Alan scoring goals again, and I'd still be very surprised if he doesn't bag 20+ this season.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Have to agree. I've said elsewhere that he held the Chelse amatch as much as any of our defenders. Thing is, we have bemoaned him for being selfish and not dropping back. Now he is doing just that, we're moaning cos he's not scoring. He has come very close and has also been a provider, defender and general factotem. Furthermore, had Cordone passed the ball to him yesterday ibstead of going for personal glory, Al would have scored.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

What stood out for me was that he seemed to be doing all the fetching and carrying that somebody else should have been doing so he could get on the end of the decent plays.

Good as he is, he can't be in two places at once. If he's flogging his guts out trying to start moves, he can't be expected to finish them as well. It's not his style.

Must admit, I didn't enjoy the game that much. Seemed to be lacking in atmosphere, and we made bliddy hard work of what really should have been an evening stroll.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

I think you summed it up beautifully there Clarky. Without injuries, how long would you expect it to take for the team to stabilize? I`m guessing at probably about a quarter to a third of a season - which is why, I guess, I still feel anxious.(:o)

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Ive been reading the comments and I agree with the 'shearer is working more as a midfielder at the moment' comments. However I cant believe the doom and gloom on the bbs. Go back to before the southampton game, everyone was upbeat saying were making progress and the defense is playing better. We lose at southampton (as we always do, admit we did play shite!!)and everyone is down and back to last seasons attitude!!! The game last night was a banana skin just waiting to be stepped on and we avoided it. Another clean sheet (4 in the last 5 games, when was the last time that happened??) and 6th in the premiership. For the next 2 months we have games that are all winnable, our new signings are coming back from injuries and we have 2 settled CB at last. A win on saturday and we could be 3rd, life is good at the moment, lets not spoil it!!!!

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

I'm in the middle of Shearer's Biography at the minute. Anyone else read it?

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Yeah, twice, once myself, and a chapter at night bedtime reading to my year old grandson when he stays over, chants of Shearer , Shearer to fade.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

DB - your comments re Shearer being the "holding midfielder we've been looking for" are an interesting thing to follow. It may seem a logical move for an ageing striker to drop back. It has been done before and perhaps this is Shearer's next role to extend his career while he earns enough brass to keep the wolf away from the door and feed the new bairn ;-)

If he is to follow that route, then we must ensure we have a replacemet for him, and this brings us back to the old "have we enough quality strikers (no, IMHO)" issue. I'd also question the role. Holding, to me, would imply ball winner as well. If not, then what does it mean - creative? If creative, then what do we do with the likes of Dyer (and that's been askes a number of times before too).

I would expect that Shearer could fulfil a m/f role pretty well. He has the strength to keep going, but no longer the pace, so dropping back would appear reasonable option. He reads the game well and his distribution is as good as most and better than others. His foraging forward would surely give opposing defences something to contemplate.

A natural conclusion from this would be that Shearer could fulfil the role currently played by Gary Speed. Should we sell GS??

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

No Screacher, Gary scores goals

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

I don't know about you lot, but I've always been told that midfield is the hardest position to play (box to box stuff and all that) Shearer has not got the legs to keep the midfield together for 90 minutes. Midfield requires constant long sprints, chasing, tackling, being tackled, have to fend off more than just one challenge. A natural progression for AS would be defence since he knows the ropes on the other side this would make the transition easy for him. Midfield is for young 'uns not for strikers in their twilight. Besides (and I hate to say it) keane would break him in two.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Look, Al will score one goal then it'll be like last season and the floodgates'll open.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

I'm still not a fan of Speed even though he keeps ramming my words back down my neck. I'd sell him.

Not sure I'd want to see AS in midfield unless we also had a Beardsley type as well, but whether or not that's Dyer I'm not sure yet, he doesn't yet score those miracle goals that PB used to come up with.

What we really need, I reckon, is somebody who can win us open space. There were a few glimmers last night, a lot of the passes got to where thay were meant to, but the receiver was immedioately under pressure. And there still isn't enough running off the ball looking for space. Maybe it's the packed defenses that make that difficult, but (risking being sacreligious), Manure seem to handle it well enough most of the time.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Screacher,

I suddenly thought of this role for Shearer this morning. I must say though that I think he should still play up front and he will start banging them in some time soon and once he starts he probably won't stop.

I'm not sure whether Shearer could do the ball winning bit as well as some but he could do it as well as a lot of midfielders in that position. The way I see it Shearer needs to be in the thick of things, midfield is certainly no hiding place and Shearer would love the involvement.

The thing that made me think he would be suitable is his attitude to the game, his tremendous passing ability and his knowledge of the game. He has tremendous strength due to his natural physique. Shearer could take it from the back four and distribute as well as someone like Guardiola IMHO and he has been yearned for unrealistically on here.

Shearer is good in the air and good on the ground and in this position he wouldn't need the pace. Can you imagine a ball breaking out of defence from a corner to be met by a Shearer thunderbolt sending it through the back of the net. Batty used to take that position up!

Shearer has had seriously bad injuries, which after reading some of his book, I have realised were far more serious than most people recognise. He may get more knocks in midfield however, which could hinder his career more than playing up front, but he gets a battering up there as well.

The suggestion was just thinking out loud really, I don't want to call time on Shearer's career before it is needed, he has too much left in him for that. I wonder if Shearer or anyone else in the game has considered it?

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Somebody just cracked the whole game! SPACE the good teams in Euro 2000 had space in abundance i.e Portugal. I sincerely hope Bassedas is the 'Space'man!!

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Pit lad - as I said on another thread last week, the main difference between us and ManUre (and a few others) is pace and mobility. Dyer has this, but we haven't seen it directed in the same way it was with PtG.

Undoubtedly, Shearer is playing (by choice or not) a different role from what he did a few years ago. So do Cole (Andrew) and Sheri. They do far more foraging than was necessary previously. However, when they go looking, there's always somebody coming into the danger area - Keane, Scholes or any of the other midfielders they've got. We don't see that with Newcastle.

Things may change when Cort gets a good run in the side. To be honest, I couldn't give a damn if Shearer only scores (say) ten goals in a season if he is creating loads of opportunities for others.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Geez guys, you are gonna move him to midfield, defence ,holding midfielder, attacking midfielder. no-one has mentioned moving him on, is he good enough?, has he lost it, I go with Dougal on this one, he is a center forward, thats it, will score goals with the right service, the question is how to provide it and at what cost for one man, or he is classed as a squad player which I am in favour of,and YBR picks/plays to suit whatever. The best utility player in my eyes was Paul Madely of Leeds, anywhere on the park and never let England down, from center forward to center half, give you John Charles and no-one else. Face up to it, if Al is not doing the biz, and that is scoring goals lets be quite ruthless about the matter, he goes, we are the people, the fans, never let the heart rule the heed, **2 players from Monaco took my eye last night, midfielder Guilly, pacy, movement(in words on this board now), fiery, good tackler and not feared to have a go tho his shots were off target, and their capt D`Jeto. defender, presence and guts, BTW I feel Ronald de Boer cops out when the game quicknens -

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

That was the danger of my posting those thoughts Buff. They wer only that...thoughts. I don't believe that Shearer should move at the minute and once we get a balanced midfield he'll start scoring again, have no fear.

D'jetou was a Manure target not so long ago and is excellent on Championship Manager if you ever manage to sign him!!

Touching wood the defence has ha settled look about it in terms of personnel, now we need the same with the midfield. We need Bassedas in there according to Bobby. Gallagher runs all day but we need more. Dyer should play right wing and forget about Nobby, if Dyer and Solano are having a bad game boy do we know about it, especially away from home.

We still need a left winger. According to some Colchester fans on their forum, Lua-Lua helps out defensively as much as anyone so hopefully Bobby can blend him into the left wing spot and we will have a midfield that could start to hurt people in attack but control the game through pressure and passing as well.

When all this happens we will have the ammo to supply Cort and Shearer and we will win the league !!

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

Harping on about Shearer's performance last night is missing the point gang.

The problem last night, and in other games already this season, wasn't Shearer but a midfield that was utterly useless. Their movement, covering, tackling and often their passing, was cr@p. Solano played like like a girls blouse against poor quality oppostion and should have been yanked long before he was. Gallacher, as ever, was all hustle and bustle but contributed little offensively. Speed was in and out, but as usual ran his knackers off in the cause - AND while he was supposed to be the holding m/f player, he made a number of good runs into the box, including when he got his goal. IMO, he was the pick of the m/f.

As ever, Dyer is the big enigma. His overall performance was hugely disappointing. After obviously getting a bollocking at HT for an uncommitted display, he picked up a little after the break. However, IMO he is not making the progress that he should be, and his lack of development has become a major concern. I actually wonder how much his life-style is hindering his professional development.

For me the big problems last night were a lack of movement off the ball, and overly ponderous build-up. There were several occasions in the 2nd half when a defender took the ball from Harper and his ONLY option was to hump it forward to a line of four, and at times five, static players standing just outside their penalty area.

It looks now as though a great deal this season depends on the impact that Bassedas makes when he finally makes the team.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

You're all smoking weed again aren't yez?

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000

No player gets talked about more. He's on the back of most shirts, he's one of very few names that get chanted, and of course he was a World record signing when he came.

I don't like to knock anyone at the club unless they are REALLY bad and Al is certainly far from that category. So I'm not going to attack him but I just wonder why so many here feel the need to defend him.

A lot is made of the fact that he doesn't get service. I'm not sure about this. Many times I see a dangerous cross come in and I'm looking for the big man and he's nowhere. Other times I see him ambling back into an onside position and taking ages. Well I appreciate that energy has to be preserved for that explosive run at the crucial time but I am concerned about his stamina. He is not an end-to-end player. His defensive work (brilliant against Chelsea as pointed out earlier) was all at set pieces.

Last season The Chronicle or Journal published a summary of all matches played since Shearer arrived, split by games played with Shearer and games without. Surprisingly, the results were somewhat better without him than with (on a league points per game basis).

Well there's nothing I'd like more than to see Al come good again this season, and even up this record. He's a great player, tremendous experience. Above all, he is a goal machine so I've little time for talk of making him into a midfielder or defender. I wish him well but I also hope that Robson isn't afraid to try alternatives if the occasion demands. We can and have won many games without the club talisman. My preference is to see many more wins with him in the side.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2000