1. After Arsenal and Leeds, it was Middlesbrough's turn to go down 3-0 to Newcastle. What was the game like?

Very, very good. We won 3-0 but with all the chances we had, we should have won by an even greater margin. We should perhaps have been a bit more composed in front of goal but it's nothing serious - in general, we had a good game.

2. Sylvain Distin played very well in defence?

Yes, he had a great game. He profited from Dabizas' injury to play and basically held them at bay single-handedly (And what about Andy O'Brien, bonny lad?). I hope he will be as good against Chelsea on Saturday.

3. Were you involved in the goals?

No. To tell you the truth, I didn't see much of the ball so I couldn't really get any assists or goals. Once again, we played on the right a lot.

4. Have you spoken to the coach about it?

Yes but I'm going to talk to him about it again. We are winning but I think we can do much better. I am often alone in space but don't get the ball.

5. Is this why you have only scored 4 goals?

Yes, I think so. I almost never get the final ball as it is always going down the right. I hope that in taking to the coach and players, we'll see an improvement there.

6. How about your hip?

It's much better. I hardly felt anything yesterday. I'm going to carry on with my treatment but I should be back to 100% soon.

7. Chelsea will be coming to SJP to win on Saturday.

It's true. We are going to have to stay concentrated and play our best football if we are going to win. If we stay committed, we should win.

8. You'll be meeting up with your mate Gallas?

Great bloke, blah blah. Stingy defender who we'll have to watch.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

Answers

Lazy or underused, or a bit of both? A heard dozens of people calling him an idle get in the Ginola mould yesterday, but I wondered of they'd not seen him time and again in acres of space calling for the ball and not getting it.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

...... perhaps they'd also seen both Bellamy and Dyer running 50 yds into acres of space on either side of him, screaming for the ball, before he fell over it in the Boro penalty area after refusing to pass to either of them!

I think he's in the throes of developing this into a neat excuse for his own failings to be honest. There was no obvious shortage of the ball for him yesterday. In any event, you never hear Bellamy or Dyer bemoaning a lack of the ball, because they are always moving into space and demanding it. He could learn a lot from those two players, stop p@ssing & moaning about it, and get on with showing the world what a very special talent he really is.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

against arsenal i thought he stayed well upfield and very wide. more like a third forward than a midfield player. i think he's looking for the killer pass so he can attack the goal, it worked against arsenal on quick breakaways but in general, if he wants to get more involved, he needs to roll his sleeves up drop deeper and work with the full back.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

...... precisely gb.

He is however an exceptional talent, but one we will need to stand by, and be very patient with - not something we are normally blessed with.

A lot of supperters were really brassed off with him yesterday. If we start to get on his case, we will lose him completely, which would be a real shame - I still have a feeling he could be the difference between a CL and a UEFA place.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

both robert and robson need to agree on his role in the team.

right now he plays on the left but behaves like a third attacker - luxury player ala john wark- if that's the case he needs to roam around a bit more, if he is supposed to be a left sided midfielder he needs to go deeper to get the ball, no team in its right mind is going to allow service to robert out in acres of space on the left.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

In theory I'd agree with you GB but if the past 6 matches are anything to go by Robert is hardly ever getting near the left hand touchline. As people have said he needs to be given licence to float if and when things aren't coming his way but at the moment he's just drifting aimlessly inside and making life easier for opposition midfielders and even harder for his colleagues to find him on the relatively few occasions they try.

I don't know if anyone else saw it yesterday but about 10 mins from the end of the first half, as he was chucking another of his Gallic wobblies after Speed had yet again spun 180 degrees to send the ball out to the right, Big Al beckoned him across into the middle. Duly encouraged he forgot about whingeing for a while and at least got back into the game, albeit he couldn't sprint as his muscles looked as if they had tightened up on him.

As Clarky says Robert has the potential to be the icing on the cake that could conceivably get us into the Champions League (and possibly do OK once there with the added space he would be given). While I'm heartened by him staying positive in his web site interviews (cheers Dougal) the more likely scenario at present for me is that he gets increasingly isolated both on and off the pitch and we end up with our most costly French failure to date.

Howay then Bobby, if you cann turn this situation around then I reckon it will have a hugely positive impact similar to Dyer returning, effectively a top new signing at another critical stage in our season. Part of the hard decsion making is resting Robbie Elliott who mostv definitely needs a break to work on his pace and distribution, not least to bring Robert into the game early on and then to keep him involved throughout the 90 mins. Giving Distin and his left foot a run in the team may also have a positive impact in many respects too, boty the fact he is left footed and that Robert obviously wants his babies !

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

Was I at the same game? Robert came inside in the second half in desperation. He was neglected time and time again and the ball was moved right even though the simpler option was to give it out ot the left. It may be the case that his teammates don't like his attitude, don't like him or they don't think that he will deliver. However his link up play with Bellamy is sometimes magnificent and it is a pity that it has dried up. There were some quality and dangerous moments from him. I hope that this rolling snowball of criticism, typical of this BBS and the NUFGC crowd, will not bury a potentially great player. Lots of players can roll up their sleeves, look industrious, but produce nothing.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

The thing I keep remembering is how sh8te the Arse fans thought Pires was last season...Give him time.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

True, in the unlikely event that a player should alight upon this BBS, they should declare themselves or suffer the fate of any other eavesdropper. Abusing a player at SJP is entirely different and, I agree, out of order.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

Aye I'm sure you were at the same match True ! I agree with what you saw although I think he was starting to drift in even in the first half.

From what I have witnessed I think Robert is already far from being a favourite of certain team mates. Some of his lack of service this season unquestionably stems from tactical deficiencies which desperately need addressing but(more worryingly)I believe on occasions he is already being deliberately frozen out.

It's potentially a vicious circle - the more desperate runs up blind allies he makes seeking instant glory with relatively limited posession (like in the 2nd half when he went on a glory run up the middle and selfishly refused to lay the ball off for a certain shot on target) then the more he's going to piss off others and be denied still more possession. A significant part of the current problem is his attitude and the fact he doesn't show himself as being enough of a team player. Surely you have to see that ?

As Clarky and myself were saying, if YBR can crack this one then we will have made even more phenomenal progress. Or to put it another way our own Ryan Giggs on the left rather than just a Trevor Sinclair.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

Didn't seem to stop Bernard running up and doon the line, getting the ball and er..................scoring.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

I agree wholeheartedly with Clarky, in that he is possibly the most talented player we have.

He does have a temper on him - but this is more French people than anything else, perhaps a region of France - or maybe former PSG players.

I still say look at Pires (as Dougal pointed out in this thread). Robert's early season form is too good to ignore - he is obviously capable of better than that. I think that he likes to take all the credit, so maybe certain players are denying him the chance of getting any credit at all.

His attitude in the first half was awful though, and it was a wise move to sub him off with Solano, as Robert by himself could have produced a negative reaction from certain fans.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

Haven't had a chance to really read the threads, just skimming, so dunno if this has been mentioned elsewhere...

Robert got pretty heavily booed around where i was sitting towards the end of the first half yesterday after he literally stopped in the box and watched the ball float past him. Had he made the slightest effort he might have scored or set someone up, he was so close to Crossley. I was quite shocked. No way was that moment down to injury, just laziness, inattention...something. Something must have been said at halftime because he put alot more effort in the second half. Not jumping on the anti-Robert bandwagon at all, just an observation. Still think he'll be tremendous as the injury clears and he can sort out his lazy tendencies.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

...... erh, excuse me Bill, but the 'rolling snowball' almost become Mont Bloody Blanc yesterday - not on here, but at SJP.

While this may indeed be "typical of this bbs", all I recall this being was a discussion of the problems that are presently precluding Laurent Robert from doing the business - most of it pretty damned supportive, actually.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

A eulogy that a SOG fan has just put on his site. It doesn't translate well but the bit "always in our hearts" should tell us something....as should the bit about singlehandedly getting them into the second round of the CL:

En tant que fidèle supporter Parisien, je tiens à exprimer ma grande admiration à l'ex N°11 de la capital, qui par ses multiples exploits au Parc a, à jamais, marqué nos coeurs et nos esprits. Je me souviens d'un certain PSG-ROSENBORG où Lolo a été dans cette soirée, à l'origine des 6, des 7 buts inscrits par le PSG et grâce à cela, le PSG avait arraché sa qualif. pour le deuxième tour de la ligue des Champions. Laurent Robert va bientôt prendre une dimension mondiale, grâce à son immense talent, et à ces coup franc magistral dont seul lui a le secret. Vive Lolo ! Vive le Foot ! et Vive LE PSG ! , PARIS EST MAGIQUE

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

Bin him. And the 14 odd points he's been worth to us already this season. Useless tosser. Get someone in who wants to race down the line and hoof balls over Bellamy's head. I'm just off to cut my nose off ready for Saturday.

Come on, it's all stop-start down the left except when Bernard and Robert are running together. It was the same on the right when Hughes was a sometimes reluctant partner to Nobby, but now Dyer and Solano are back in tandem it's a constant stream of quality moves and Hughes can hang back or slot in field of them.

Robert gets hacked off sliding balls through for people who don't bury the chances; is anyone going to deny that he knows how to finish off 1-on-1s? Infinitely happier with a bit of needle in the side and hopefully some rivalry rather than blind, hangdog subserviance to sending everything through one player. Shearer's injury last season and his absence from pre-season was a blessing in that the rest of them have woken up and realised that they are strong. Praise the Lord and pass the amunition.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

No criticism off Robert's ability - just his attitude at times. A bit like Nobby. Bags of talent, just doesn't open the bliddy zip from time to time (ooh er, missus!). At present, we can afford the luxury. When the going gets tougher, I'd expect him to have to fight for his place.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

Robert is a bit of a baby. He talked about his PSG coach as being too parental to him and treating him like a baby, speaking down to him and such. But I think when Bobby publicly criticised what Lo Lo said about the game being more physical in England (told him to get on with it), I think he soured things. Robert was never the same since.

He needs to be treated with kid gloves to get the best out of him. Obviously he's going to need to grow up a bit and face the fact that he's going to have to give his heart to achieve success, but I hope Robson can hold his tongue a bit.

I trust Bobby and I don't mean to run him down. Given time, I think Robert will learn. The form of Bernard will force his hand.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Putting a positive spin on all of this, imagine how good we could be if we got the best out of Robert?

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

I think that's what we're all thinking Pete - in our different ways.

The best book I've ever read about coaching was by a fella called Lou Holz (sp?), famous in the States for his exploits in college gridiron in particular with Notre Dame. One of his many truisms for me was when he spoke about rating individual players' performances. Holz was quite clear that it was no good using ballpark standards to evaluate contributions. Instead he made it clear to all his players that each game and training session they would be scored according to how good they had the potential to be. It's something that resonated with me and perhaps helps explains comments on Robert above (which some people seem to interpret as criticism). At root he clearly has the potential to be considerably better than say a Robbie Elliott and you can't therefore view their matchday performances equally. Hope that makes some sort of sense ?

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Agree about Robert's potential LT. Also think Softie's right when he mentions the Dyer/Solano understanding having something to do with lack of play down the left, and hence Robert's disappointing contribution. Ability is one thing, but being on the same wavelength is also important. Hopefully time and practice will help, but the challenge for Robert and his team mates is to integrate him into the TEAM. On his website he jokes about starting one-twos with people where 'two' ends up being someone else. Luckily because we're playing so well, and Bernard has shown such promise, we have time to sort the Robert situation out.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

The natural swing of a leg means that a left footed player will pass to their right and vice versa. So when we have a central player in midfield liek Speed his instinct if he wishes to play the ball long is to go right. If Rob Lee is there then he woudl be going right.

With Dyer in the side the emphasis is on pace and short passing, no sweeping balls out to the wings, more filling the space and playing neat inter passing stuff. Which works superbly with Solano and Dyer.

Shearer often seems to spin to the right when he is holding the ball up which again restricts the chances for Robert.

The only chance I see of us going left more with the players we have in midfield is to have Bernard at left back and getting closer to Robert and playing short passes to him.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

LEts Remember how long we waited to replace Ginola with anyone of such quality. The fact he is good enough to give his thoughts so honestly on the web is a breath of fresh air. It's a shame really that all we seem to want him to say is that he's very happy here, settled in nicely and get on with all the lads - i.e a Gary Speed interview. I don't know about the Boro game but against Leeds he had a quiet game, however, he was on my side of the pitch in the first half & I was amazed at his control & accuracy despite having two defenders on him.

2 games into the season we were worried that teams had clocked us by doubling up on him & Solano. Now we have more options through the middle, Robert's worth having on ht epitch if only to make space for Dyer. but

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

When that trident of Robert, Dyer and Bellamy gets thrust into the guts of the other team it's impossible to deal with. If I had to bet on one of those three hitting the target it would be Robert, however, if they all keep running then any one of them has the ability to lay it off into the path of the others and they can all roll it into an empty net. It's the hole left by having to mark Shearer and the three of them running like stink with Nobby, Bernard and Speed joining in as opportunity allows which makes it happen. Combined with 2 footballing centre halves and we potentially have the most skillful passing side in the league.

Just cast your minds back to last season: only 6 times we started with Glass to give us balance and we won with ease. The guy doesn't even have to get the ball to be making a difference, just being a genuine left-footed threat gives us options and splits the concentration of the opposition defence.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Your analysis is spot on Softie. I don't think anyone wants to see Robert drop out - it's just that some of us feel he has so much more to offer than he is right now. For the avoidance of any further doubt, I think the guy is an incredible talent - but he has to use it rather more than he has been.

My main concern in entering into this particular debate, was that there was ample evidence on Saturday that the crowd are losing patience with him. If they get on his back, we'll lose him, permanently - there's no doubt whatsoever in my mind about that. We MUST be patient with him, and allow BR to weave his magic in private.

It seems to me that a key part of this process for Bobby is somehow addressing Robert's concerns that the team are not playing to him - he really seems to believe he is being excluded - and hopefully there are no serious personality conflicts at play here. I honestly can't say I've noticed Robert being deliberately avoided - but it's important to recognise that he seems to believe he is.

I can only echo Screacher's comments that when Barnard comes on he doesn't seem to have any problems getting his share of the ball. Hopefully, the pressure Bernard is exerting for inclusion will provide the motivation for Robert to step up a gear - but firstly he has to believe his team-mates respect him and want him involved.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Bobby asks us to be patient with him in today's Ronnie.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

perhaps we should loan Robert out to Darlington to toughen up his attitude ;-)

I agree again with Softie, in that because of what he's shown he is capable of, defenders can't ignore him, and by hugging the left touchline, it makes the defenders' jobs all the more difficult. In fact, how would you defend against us? Presumably by dominating midfield and exposing our limited ball winning skills. How much has Dyer's energy helped us in this department - ie defensively? Opinions?

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

as we await the verdict on Bellers' suspension, what about playing Bernard and Robert together. If Bellamy's suspended, we would want still want to try and worry ManU with pace. Dyer and Robert could play behind Shearer, with Solano and Bernard wide and Speed sitting centrally. It would pull Robert into the game more, and nobody's better than Shearer at holding the ball and laying it off or flicking it on.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

... sounds good to me, Peter.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

The critical aspect in this to my mind is that we keep playing well and winning. It's a lot easier to live with Robert's inconsistency if we're still playing well despite that.

There'll be nothing to distract the morons who are getting impatient with him if, as well as his gutlessness, they have to cope with us, god forbid, going back to where we were, playing crap football and losing to crap sides.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Softie you're spot on, and I said something similar a few weeks back when he started dipping in form.

He only has to be on the pitch and someone has to pick him up and mark him.

Arsenal didn't pick him up - and they suffered. If he hadn't have come on at Highbury it could easily have ended 1-1.

Teams picking up Robert leave space for the likes of Dyer, Solano et al to run into and cause problems.

If he puts good balls into the box, class through balls etc then it's just a bonus for me.

He is still a top drawer free kick taker, unfortunately we don't seem to be getting too many of them.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2001