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The Trouble With Us - Part II

onthetwo

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2006
4,583
3,407
personally, I think Sunderland are going to throw the kitchen sink at our defence...it will be Bolton-esque. If we dont lose I will be quite happy.
 

rooster1

Namahage
Oct 9, 2006
883
1
I thought the deal was done and dusted.

Bruce was raving about him the other week and after 3 days in training he's not satisfied !!??

Maybe he threw a bib down in disgust when his team lost
in a 5 aside and he had to do some shirt throwing
press ups to Bruce's dismay. "Chuckle"
 

Rufio

Member
May 3, 2007
350
0
With regards to our first 11 and the (potential) improvements:

Robinson - his form will almost definitely be better than last year and he improved vastly towards the end.

Chimbonda, King - yep

Dawson - Excellent season, but I feel with a fit King, Kaboul will be pushing heavily for Dawsons place - a potential improvement - Kaboul is quicker, powerful, more composed on the ball and has a monster shot.

Bale - Not sure if first choice or not but if he is will provide wonderful set pieces and crosses, which Lee cannot do - that could be potentially 5 goals in assists/goals.

Lennon, Jenas - Yep

Zokora - fit and settled, no malaria, surely going to improve on last year. Boateng is ready to come in but we have been told he is very good offensively and very powerful - improvement.

Malbranque/Taarabt - If Taarabt plays, he will bring a lot of magic, we dont know for sure if he will play or not yet.

Berbatov - yep

Keane/Bent - Bent will be an improvement on Keane in a different way, as he is extremely powerful, he brings us something much needed for away games, so i consider Bent to play at least 19 prem matches, and that is an improvement on Mido at least.

I think our squad has improved vastly, but the biggest problem is getting and keeping King fit.
 

N10toN17

New Member
Jan 22, 2007
1,288
1
Positive post Rich and a positive attitude, I just hope all the doom and gloom merchants don't turn at the first sight of trouble.

Higher expectations for some means unrealistic aspirations. If we give the boys full backing all season long, I'm confident they will not let us down.
 

striebs

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2004
4,504
667
BMJ evidently knows the problem as he has said he wants to cut down from 50 goals against to 30 .

My only doubts are whether Zokora and Robinson will deliver the goods and whether King will be fit in time for the second half of the season .

Everything else looks VERY good .
 

Jonesey

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2004
695
391
Our main problem is that we need to develop a winning mentality. We have a very good squad (left-hand side aside) but winning the Peace Cup or the Vodacom challenge is not going to do that.

Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal have all won major silverware over the last 10 years and that breeds a culture of winners around a club.

We're probably closer to these 4 teams than anyone else but with such a young team i really do think it would majorly benefit us to win something significant this year. Sounds obvious I know but it will breed a winning mentality and help us move towards truly making that step up.

This is probably going to mean taking on - and beating - more than one or two of the top 4 teams this season ... and if this happens in the right cup competitions this could really help us win something, begin to believe in ourselves more as a team and develop a mentality which will enable us to push for the title in a couple of years.

Oh, and keep Dimitar Berbatov at the club beyond next summer.
 

Jonesey

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2004
695
391
I think we have a bought wisely this summer and as a result we have several new best sides:

ROBINSON is still our best choice at GK ... but Cerny has proved he's also a safe pair of hands in Robo's absence.

CHIMBONDA DAWSON KABOUL/KING YOUNG/EKOTTO

LENNON/ROUTLEDGE ZOKORA/BOATENG JENAS/MALBRANQUE BALE/MALBRANQUE (providing we play Bale on the left wing which seems to be looking like the case)


The most significant change for us is up front in my opinion. I think we now have an array of partnerships, all of whom will work together:

BERBATOV KEANE
BERBATOV BENT
BENT KEANE
DEFOE BENT

Things are looking pretty good I think - still need that left winger though.
 

theoldguy

Member
Mar 5, 2007
526
2
And no mention I see about Tom Huddlestone who is, in my opinion, a great reader of the game and one who will create many chances for our strikers. As he matures look for him to command a place in the starting team. You read it here!
 
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