Shack Attack

Could I have Man City to beat Sunderland please. Norwich to win and Wes to score at any time as the side bet. Hope I have this right. It''s been a while.

Hi Nutty. It''s been a while but I''d like to get back involved in this. Can I just make a pick tomorrow like the old days? Were you at Blackburn on Saturday? Got a feeling I may have seen you in The Golden Cup.

He actually did OK on Saturday when he came on. Calmed things down a bit when a second Blackburn goal could have really spooked us. He doesn''t move much outside the middle third but I doubt AN wants him to. I''d keep him.

Players who don''t celebrate when they score against their old clubs out of respect for the fans. Maybe it would have been more respectful for you to have tried a bit harder so you didn''t get shipped out of your previous club or not left your previous club the minute another club waved a bag full of cash under your nose.The idea that contact, however slight, gives a player the right to hit the deck.The sense of entitlement that infests modern day football fans so badly that they are seemingly incapable of dealing with any defeat.The overuse of ''false nine'' by pundits/fans who clearly don''t understand what one is.The use of the word ''banter''.The constant rimming of Jose Mourinho by the English media.The fact that I''d quite like Liverpool to win the league.The phrase ''in the Premier League era'' when used in conjunction with any record.The demise of the FA Cup and UEFA Cup as competitions that teams actually want to win.The phrase ''on his day he is unplayable''.FL72? WTF?The analysis of every decision made by a referee in real time in the heat of a game in super slow motion from the comfort of a TV studio.

[quote user="Hog"]Just seems like modern managers will refuse the old style 442 at all costs as its not the "continental" style.. Personally I would love to see its return[/quote]Are you suggesting that modern managers are ignoring 4-4-2 because it''s unfashionable? Given that any manager is only safe in his job if his team is performing then that seems unlikely. 4-4-2 has lost popularity because teams who play that way tend to struggle over the course of a season.Having said that I''m not sure many modern teams play with one formation that can be expressed in numerical terms in both defence and attack so this may be a moot point.

Different people use places like this for differnent purposes. For some meeting those that you have interacted with online is a natural progression and coming somewhere where everyone (or at least in theory it is everyone) has something in common such as NCFC in our case is a great place to start. For those who are perhaps less confident and who struggle to make themselves heard in ''real life'' places like this are great as that anonymity helps cover up the anxiety that some have in large groups. Either is fine but there are some strange people on both sides that have a problem with the other. Thus the posters who want to meet get derided by some as a kind of ''inner circle'' and those who have no desire to meet get slated because they won''t come to the pub and discuss matters over a pint.

Lambert toyed with this formation on occasion but as Nutty rightly points out it never really worked for him. It was pretty clear that he wanted to get more control of games (Hughton has maybe gone too far this way which is why some deem him to be overly negative) and this formation should have done this whilst still allowing two strikers. It does create a new set of problems though in that as very few teams play with two out and out strikers these days you don''t really have a need for three centre halves. I think you need at least one of the back three to be able to step into the midfield for this to have any chance of working. Otherwise you''re just wasting a player back there.

[quote user="Norwich or die tryin"]Win, loose or draw Hughton has to go tomorrow.[/quote]I find it unlikely that we will sack our manager if we win or draw tomorrow. If he''s loose though he can clear his desk and get the f*ck out of our club. What a cheek.

[quote user="can u sit down please"]Re 4231 I don''t think we have the pace from the midfield to support a line forward. No penetration going beyond the forwards at all.[/quote]Spot on.It''s easy to defend against one up top unless you have either (or preferably both) creative players who can play in between the lines or pacy midfielders who can break and go past the lone striker. As a centre half you only really have to worry about tracking the lone striker. When we get people up and around the lone striker (the goal against Chelsea was a good example) it''s not so bad but that didn''t happen much today.

Villa created a chance out of four first time touches there. We would hve probably ended up back on the halfway line.

[quote user="Thecanaryfan"]Truly awful cross by Fer. Horrible. [/quote]Seemed desperate to get rid of the ball. Should have taken it in further.

[quote user="ReadingCanary"]Alan Shearer raised a good point though the other weekTheir team has no English core who will fight to the death to ensure they stay in the league. For the club and for the fans.If they have a few injuries and go on another poor run, it has been strongly suggested that the squad will start breaking up into mini groups (much like QPR) [/quote]Is there any evidence that you need an ''English core who will fight to the death''? Sounds like the usual banal horseshit you would expect from an ''expert'' who didn''t even know who Hatem Ben Arfa was when he signed for Newcastle. The idea that foreign players will roll over when the going gets tough without an English spine to the team is fairly insulting really.

[quote user="Kangaroo Court"]The radio experts are out in force today.[/quote]Were you impressed with the first half then?

Why do people dislike Welbeck so much on here? Is it because he was perceived to have taken Grant Holt''s rightful place in previous England squads? He scored last night, and it is his poor scoring record which is often held up as the reason why people don''t rate him, and had a decent game overall. Given the right development he has all of the natural physical attributes you need to be a top class modern centre forward. Sure there are aspects of his game that require improvement but he''s only 23. I just don''t get the hate.

[quote user="Its Character Forming"]I think the difference between football and say cycling is that say the Tour de France is very one-dimensional in that at the top level, it''s all about endurance and the winning margin is very small.  So if a cyclist can take drugs that give him a marginal boost to his endurance, that can be enought to make the difference.  Ditto with sprinting being all about power, etc. [/quote]I''ve heard this kind of explanation before as to why something like EPO wouldn''t benefit footballers (or tennis players) as it would athletes in an endurance sport such as cycling but I''m not so sure. Football is a sport where more technical skill is required (although many people would argue that the balance between physical fitness and technical skill has tilted more towards the former in the modern game) but those skills are a lot easier to perform when you have time and space. A drug which allowed you gain an extra yard of space on your opponent (especially in the latter stages of games) could only be beneficial surely? I can open a can of beans with my left foot when I''m kicking a ball around in the garden with my kids but if you dropped me into a competitive game these days I bet I would struggle to ever get a pass or shot away.Footballers cover more and more distance and play more and more games than ever before and we are asked to believe that this is possible because Arsene Wenger invented pasta sometime in the 1990s?