joey_big_nose

We had arguably our best all round performance of the season, 4-1 win at home to Charlton, with Savage and Reid in the middle. We beat Portsmouth at home without the Turk too. Apart from that we struggled when he wasn't available.

While thinking about it the idea of Lua Lua has grown on me. I am increasingly of the opinion that he would be a better signing than Benni, and cheaper to if Portsmouth go down.

It looks like Tugay might not be fit. If not I think the side could well be: Subs: Enckleman, Zurab, Mokoena/Kuqi, Peter, Dickov There is quite a lot of flexibility in there. As at Tottenham Reid and Bentley can switch around depending upon whether we desire combat or skill in the middle of the park. Bellers will run the channels, we will see if Pongo can make his flicks start to come off. I am looking forward to this!

Our own Michael Gray as well. And Alan Smith. Viduka too?

He was in the papers after a fight a club recently. The best three players in the relgation fight with a few years left in them are clearly Dunn, Pennant and Arca. We need a creative midfielder, a right winger and a left back in the summer... We also need a striker but I can't see any of the relegation candidates providing one of a good enough standard. Kanu or Sutton would be ideal but they are getting on a bit. Lua Lua? Sounds good to me! As for Pennant's discipline problems and questions against Dunn's commiment to training, I would back Hughes to sort them out. It is a question of whether we can beat other clubs to the punch. With Dunnie we have a clear advantage, the others would be a bit of a scrap.

Eh? If you mean Reid I think he has done excellently but if we want to get the points that midfield four offers the most. If Tugay isn't fit the bald headed London Irish dynamo should get a crack on the wing/in the centre.

And why has it got something very close to the England badge on it? Did we wear badges at all in the fifties?

I just worked out some stuff on paper, which I think is roughly accurate: Champions league: Seven wins out of ten or six wind and three draws. Uefa Cup (Presuming 7th is not good enough): Five wins and two draws, or four wins and five draws, or six wins Pretty much that simple, although it is possible that one of the other teams goes on an incredible run. I can's see us winning all but three games. Five wins and a couple of draws is do-able so hopefully sixth will happen.

What a brilliant post from Rovers! Yesh! ps. I still wouldn't play Emerton though next game. Bentley and Pedersen on the wings please, with Tugs and Savage in the middle.

Lets be fair here, Boumsong was rated as one of the finest defensive prospects in Europe. The more suprising thing was he went to Rangers in the first place. Souness' record was bizarre- in terms of getting high quality players on the cheap few can hold a candle to him: Dickov, Tugay, Pedersen, Thompson, Friedel, Niell and Stead were all excellent purchases for relatively low fees. Similarly at Newcastle Emre, Solano and Parker all seem to have been excellent value for money buys. But then he makes some extrodinary blunders with the high transfer fees. Of the Rovers and Newcastle big buys I would only say Owen and Cole look like they could justify the cost, and he managed to force out Cole in the end too essentially wasting some of that money.

He still looks more like he can do the creative midfield role than anybody I have seen at the club in the last three or four years bar Ferguson and Toogs himself. Dunn played too far up the pitch, Thompson kept his head down, Reid and Savage lack the required nous, passing range and technique. The next step is starting him in that role, which I think Hughes will do the next time Tugay is unavailable. He might well not live up to the job in the long run, but we have to give it a shot. Personally I back him to follow the Turks footsteps.

If we win five out of five I am Donald Duck. Three out of five and a draw would be excellent.

Personally I thought he would be a good if not exceptional forward for us when we signed him. Now I find myself agreeing with you. He has all the raw pace of Owen combined with a Rooney like ability to pick the ball up deep and pick players out with passes. His finishing is excellent too. The only British player I would swap him for would be Rooney. Owen does not have that ability to create. It is no exaggeration to say that the player he most closely resembles in style is Henry. f we are to keep him we need European football!

A backlash is coming. Rovers 3 Villa 1 Bellamy, Bentley, Pedersen

What did Zurab do?

He actually had a great couple of dribbles along the left side before putting crosses in, so he can do it if he wants to. The midfield next week has to be: Pedersen Tugay Savage Bentley I am excited to see what that can do, even if it is a bit harsh on Reid. It should be pretty!

In light of Hughes' comments there is an added dimension to where we finish. If we don't get European football I would be very wary of losing Hughes. And if Hughes goes I think we would be in trouble. Today result was a real kick in the teeth bu we are still well in line for sixth. We need to win our next two games.

After today I think Bentley may well be up to the job. He was brilliant in the middle when retaining posession and spreading the play, he has an excellent shot, a few tricks and he can use his left really well too (he crossed better with his left than Pedersen does for Christ's sake!) His nofty little tuns shows he has been learning off Tugay too. Now if he can learn to tackle and work like Sav (and to be fair to the boy he was no slouch at all) we have a real prospect. What was Wenger thinking?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! How did we manage to lose that! I don't think I have ever been this ###### off about football. I don't think I have ever seen Rovers play so well and lose! Every player had a good game apart from Fridel, Emerton and Gray who were certainly not terrible and we lost. How? How? How? How? Great bit of skill from Keane for the firsr, Gray done for pace for the third. Perhaps the second could have been prevented by someone picking up Keane or Fridel for cing the ball wide. APrt from that? Bentley, Bellamy, Niell and Nelsen were all excellent. Even Pongo came into it after bouncing everything off himself in the first 30 minutes. Kuqi won stuff in the air and caused problems- personally I would have got him on 5 minutes earlier. Christ! Fing Jesus Fing Christ. We shall thrash Villa next weekend. Thrash thrash thrash them. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I am getting extrmemly excited about this game, even more so than the Arse in the semi last year (mainly because I thought we would lose it). Two similar sides, masses at stake for both clubs, on the telly so I can actually watch it over here, and we have quite a few players (tugay, Bellamy, Bentley, Todd, Niell) playing really well. I am looking forward to seeing how Bentley does on the left. I am a little suprised so many people have been leaving out Dickov in favour of Pongo. The little scot has been our second best striker by a long way this season.

Apparently he wasn't injured, from bbc: But manager Steve Bruce's decision to withdrew his most effective attacking player Dunn just before the hour did not help the visitors' cause. After Dunn's departure, Birmingham lost much of their invention and as they increasingly ran out of ideas the visitors were reduced to speculative shots. It was a surprise when Bruce replaced Dunn just before the hour, sending on striker DJ Campbell, with the former Brentford forward making little impact. I have rooted around on a few brum message boards- he dfinately wasn't injured, merely taken off to put on a striker and to protect him from injury.

Certainly strikes me as a bit conversational. I thought the guy who writes Rovers for the LET posts on here?

I never suggested that a college year in america makes me a smart person, the standard is almost identical to Britain. Indeed, I am not sure that university affects 'smartness' at all. The reason I brough it up is because you were busy insulting me as if I was American. I thought if you wanted to insult me you might as well be accurate about it. And I meant colourful as in varied and bizarre.

This may well be a bit boring for everybody, but One Post wanted me to substatiate why I found it ironic that he called Mr Boise a 'poo stirrer'. He sent me a PM about it and was very upset. A good example is in the recent thread where an American poster suggested making his own kit. Pointless antagonism against his own fans? I would define that as looking to cause unnecessary trouble. And to JansenPrestyWales defence of Friedel in a different thread he, without provocation, threw in a: And when Flopsy accused him of being sarcastic (nothing more or less) he replied: All of which strikes me as looking for a bit of an argument, hence the comment which I think is justified. Anyhow, compared to the abuse that is handed out around here on a regular basis, including by Onepost himself (he sent me a very colourful and amusing second PM), it is pretty small beer.