Personally I think that we lack in quality behind Man utd, Arsenal and Liverpool, but one thing that the team currently possess is belief. I'll try to explain. Unlike Arsenal and Liverpool I think that individualy every one of our players has a sky high morale and only Man utd seems to match us in that way. Bobby is doing a very very clever thing by playing down our chances as a team while he is full of praise for every one of our players. Craig Bellamy, Alan Shearer, The Nobster, Shay Given and the rest approach every match believing that they are better or equal as the opposition and that gives us a big advantage, we are not scared. I do follow football in very large quantities for a reasonably long time and what is easy to notice is that when a team as a unit realizes that they are capable of winning it or at least to push Man utd to the end they panic. Liverpool had that period this year and I think that Leeds went into the season with the rival tag and that beat them more than anything else. My bet is on Man Utd. Ruud and Ole are on fire, Becks is slowly returning into that England form and Ferguson gave them that extra and rightly timed push. Still there is one thing regarding Man utd which could help us and that is their participation in CL. It will be very interesting to see if 'sir' Alex will adopt squad rotation policy which will frankly do us a favour. There is no way Man utd reserve team can beat teams away who are fighting from relegation so that could help us but we will just have to wait and see. As much as I hate to admit it I still don't belive that it will be our year but more than anything else I would love this team to prove me wrong. One thing I forgot to mention is that it is very important that we don't pick any injuries at least in midfield and in attack, every one of those players are crucial to our chances of going all the way. At least we have something to look forward to, the team is young and we have loads of young players in reserves which could become quality assets in time to come. Having said this I think we should be delighted if we finish second which would take us into CL automatically and that's something few of us could predict before this season. Howay the lads and good luck, not that we need it, it's just that no one can win without it.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002

Answers

I agree with a lot of what you are saying.

Belief I think is sky high at the moment, perhaps better than it has ever been this season.

Look at Aaron Hughes as a recent example, from a player who lacked confidence going forward, he is not only venturing into the opposition's half, but he is taking players on, and more importantly beating them.

I sometimes wonder if he has always been able to do this sort of thing but has lacked the confidence. Nobby and Bellamy are high as a kite at the moment and Robert is always confident (bordering on the arrogant at times). I still think the back line are a little bit nervous at times, but this can only be expected with a defence that has really only played a few games together.

Alan Shearer is currently on the top of his game. Different player to what he used to be in the past but still as effective.

Take the Southampton game at the weekend as an example, when Shearer smacked the post from 25 yards. The old Shearer would have been in the box looking for the cross, but his new found lack of pace meant he was behind the rest of the team, and was there when the ball ended up coming out of the box. Ideally a centre midfielder would be there, but that's the thing with our team - the movement of so many of our players makes such a difference. Laurent Robert in particular with Bellamy on Saturday worked a treat. The Southampton right back didn't know which way Robert would go, but whichever option he chose there were still options. In the end he decided to run inside, before playing it out wide to Bellamy where we got a cross in.

This movement is the one major difference compared with last season. The introduction of movement is largely down to the introduction of Bellamy (and Robert to a smaller extent).

At the moment I believe from an attacking perspective we can't possibly improve in terms of approach. Maybe the application (or Bellamy's finishing) could improve but he's still young.

Arsenal sometimes play good football, but they put away far too few of their chances for me. Henry only seems to be good at placing balls in the bottom corner from 12 yards with only the 'keeper to beat.

Man Utd are still the main title favourites because they have the best team. However, with a few games against the top 6 still to play for them it's still in the balance.

I agree that it is important that we don't get key players injured, but this is the same with all of the teams to be honest. Take Pires and Vieira out of Arsenal's team and they will struggle. Take Gerrard and Hyypia out of Liverpool's side and again, they won't do as well. And Van Nistelrooy and Solksjaer are doing so well at the moment, but if they got injured, who would score the goals?

I think it is possible for us to win it, and it certainly wouldn't be a huge surprise if we did win it, but I honestly don't believe that we will be Premier League champions come May. If we take 9 points from our next three league games however, maybe I might have to start being a little bit more optimistic with regard to the title push.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002

Paul,

IF we take 9 points from the next 3 games - THERE IS NO DOUBT WHERE THE CHAMPIONSHIP IS GOING!!! Haway the Lads!!!

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002

Aye!

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002

Quality - have we got less than other teams? I'm not sure that we are lacking. As was pointed out Arse (who Mr Robson said gave us a lesson in the first half at Highbury) don't win as many games as they think they should. There are different dimensions to quality. For example, a real quality we have is raw energy in Bellamy and subtlty/experience in Shearer - and in this respect, for instance, we may have as much if not more quality than other teams - perhaps including Manure. Another quality we have is that we just don't know when we are beaten and we have come back from behind so many times now that some people on this BBS actually WANT us to go behind.

I'm not trying to play down the skills of manure, or arse for that matter, its just that IMHO Mr. Robson has developed the right type of qualities for this particular group of players. I do think that Leeds may be out of it because they have self-destructed on the field and have had many injuries and even their chairman seems to think they won't win the League.

But the title can still be decided by chance events - and given how close things chance will almost certainly be seen to have an effect.

Not to get too biblical but I have always liked the saying:>/P>

"The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong but time and chance happeneth to them all.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

I think your point re Shearers new found lack of pace is a little misdirected Paul.

Whilst he is not as quick it may just be the fact that with so many players running into the box the space that was available was outside the box, he saw that and filled the space. Also he could have been defending shortly before and had the full 100 yds to make up.

He seemed to keep up with Nobby when Jones saved his shot, or maybe you think that when he ran towards then away from Nobby he wanted him to pass the ball?

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

IMH(!)O we will not win the Premiership. Our defence is not good enough yet and I see potential embarassment and a quick exit from the CL if we make it. Also the midfield doesn't look CL standard as present.


-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

Our problem is believing a side that played as we did against Spurs and West Ham can be champions. Champions should be great great sides. Whoever wins it this year won't be a great great side. At the moment the best points per game record is us with 2 per game. If we continue that standard by losing at home to Arsenal but winning all other home games (= 15 points), and losing away to Liverpool, Sunderland and one other and winning three others (=9 points) then we'll have 76 pooints, playing no better than so far this season, and very likely be champions.

All the other sides will have to improve to get above us.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

oh and Shearer is unbearably slow at the moment

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

Shearer's just slowing down so he can savour all those goals he's scoring. ;-))

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

Shearer definitely conserves his energy during the game, and can afford to do so because of Bellamy's work rate. When things don't go for him, it makes him look sluggish and lazy. But he's still a powerful player who plays in bursts and as long as he keeps on popping up at the right time and place to score and create chances he'll be invaluable. If he were alone upfront, he would soon cut the forlorn figure we saw too often last year.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

gus, you may be right about why Shearer was outside of the box, but I still think five years ago he would have been right in the middle of the box waiting for a cross.

Winning the league this season would be too much for me to contemplate at this stage, I'd be absolutely chuffed if we did it though, and nothing would stop me smiling for about a decade.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

stop it

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

I second that remark Swift! (:o)

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

"......I still think five years ago he would have been right in the middle of the box waiting for a cross".

Paul - 5 years ago Shearer was an out and out goalscorer who didn't really participate in build up play. He is playing an entirely different game these days, is much more involved in linking play with m/f, and is doing a fantastic job for the team. However, occasionally this means he isn't in the ideal CF position for crosses - but he is contributing so much to the team in so many other ways.

"Shearer's just slowing down so he can savour all those goals he's scoring!" Great line ciara - after all, everyone knows he's sh*te, that donkey Shearer!

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002

Aye, but it's even worse than that Clarky. He's a flat track donkey. I believe he was even seen training on the Long Sands earlier in the season. The sooner we put him out to grass, the better.

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002

Clarky, refer back to my original post:

"Alan Shearer is currently on the top of his game. Different player to what he used to be in the past but still as effective"

I think I have been misunderstood, perhaps some think I am criticising Shearer, but nothing could be further from the truth, I am full of praise for Shearer at the moment.

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002

Shearer has got better as the season has progressed. When he first came back, he was struggling badly, something that probably wasn't helped by his being over-played (120 mins against Brentford FFS). I think the main thing is that he is no longer the focus of every attack and he can use those other elements of his game more than he ever needed to when he was our main goalscoring threat. In just about as many games, he has missed three absolute sitters, which isn't what you expect from Big Al, particularly since the build up had been so nice for most of those should-be goals. However, he may be saving them for other occasions.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2002

Paul - I didn't think you were criticising AS: I was just trying to add something extra to the point you had already made.

Dougal - all top strikers miss so-called "sitters": lesser strikers don't get into the positions to be able to miss them. Having said that, I must admit that he has missed one or two recently that in the past you would have expected him to put away. Overall though he isn't doing to badly in the scoring stakes for someone who is supposed to be past it.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2002

Clarky, that was the point I was making: Shearer was the most-valued striker in the World (arguably) because he didn't miss sitters. Even when people spoke of a decline, they conceded that he was pretty much a chance=goal player. This clinical aspect of his game has faded a bit. However, as long as he carries on as he is, I don't think anyone can carp as he still up their with the most dangerous players in the PL.

I'd have to add that while we are talking of Shearer's rebirth, we should praise Nobby for going from a sporadically brilliant but often anonymous player to making a mature, solid contribution in almost every match: all of a sudden, he's overlapping with Hughes, tracking back when Hughes is attacking, as well as making breathtaking runs like the one that, but for a wonderful bit of goalkeeping, would have been goal of the month. I don't think many of us thought Nobby could be that solid.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2002

Got to agree about Nobby dougal - he has become a real contributor rather than just an occasional player, and is now a major cog in our machine.

I actually credit Solano with taking AH under his wing and making him the FB he has become in recent weeks - they are playing so well together.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2002

ps. "Up their?" It's finally happened: my brain has turned to jelly.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2002

Let's not forget Shay Given either.

If we had a lesser 'keeper and a few more goals had gone in, we could have been sitting in mid table.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2002

Agreed Paul. I've never really been a big Shay fan, always thought he was over-rated, but this season I think he's been terrific.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2002