"The one thing you can't do is worry about tomorrow."
Okay TDHers, the question has been begged: Is Glenn Roeder the man to take Newcastle into the pre-Shearer age? Perhaps it's too early to ask, but Roeder's short record demands attention. Suddenly, here we are, just seven points away from the Champions League, for f*ck's sake!
The biggest miracle of Roeder's young tenure has to be not the scoring, not the revitalization of the attack, but the strengthening of the defense. Out of nowhere, Boumsong is turning in decent performances. Babayaro no longer looks like such a has-been. What the hell is going on? Was Souey really that bad, or is Roeder a genius?
And then Uncle Alan comes off the bench to score what had heretofore been a very rare Sheareresque goal. And Roeder could even joke about it! Okay, by now you've sense TDH's mixture of joy, awe and confusion. Comment away.
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TDH has a more academic point to raise, too. Charlton fought well against Liverpool, and US fans will have been pleased with Jonathan Spector's stalwart 90 minutes against Cisse. But was Robbie Fowler's goal correctly ruled out for offside? Cisse, who TDH believes was the offside player, was nowhere near the play, nor could you claim that he drew a defender away from Fowler. Doesn't the current FIFA rule allow the goal? Perhaps someone can enlighten us.
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Finally, here's to TDH's Argentine team, Independiente (former home of Forlan, Cambiasso, Mondragon and other greats) for surviving a missed penalty by their star, Aguero, and a red card to pull out a 2-0 win against Tiro Federal. Okay, it was against Tiro Federal, but still. Independiente has already won the Superclasico de Avellaneda, against a Simeone-led Racing (TDH particularly enjoyed the humbling of that cheater), but perhaps greater things are on the way....
The biggest miracle of Roeder's young tenure has to be not the scoring, not the revitalization of the attack, but the strengthening of the defense. Out of nowhere, Boumsong is turning in decent performances. Babayaro no longer looks like such a has-been. What the hell is going on? Was Souey really that bad, or is Roeder a genius?
And then Uncle Alan comes off the bench to score what had heretofore been a very rare Sheareresque goal. And Roeder could even joke about it! Okay, by now you've sense TDH's mixture of joy, awe and confusion. Comment away.
---
TDH has a more academic point to raise, too. Charlton fought well against Liverpool, and US fans will have been pleased with Jonathan Spector's stalwart 90 minutes against Cisse. But was Robbie Fowler's goal correctly ruled out for offside? Cisse, who TDH believes was the offside player, was nowhere near the play, nor could you claim that he drew a defender away from Fowler. Doesn't the current FIFA rule allow the goal? Perhaps someone can enlighten us.
---
Finally, here's to TDH's Argentine team, Independiente (former home of Forlan, Cambiasso, Mondragon and other greats) for surviving a missed penalty by their star, Aguero, and a red card to pull out a 2-0 win against Tiro Federal. Okay, it was against Tiro Federal, but still. Independiente has already won the Superclasico de Avellaneda, against a Simeone-led Racing (TDH particularly enjoyed the humbling of that cheater), but perhaps greater things are on the way....
posted by Daniel Altman at 6:47 AM
3 Comments:
sorry for the silence, weekend away by the lake. stunning and cost me 30 squid including food, accomodation, etc.
first off Jenas - solid and nothing more.
And beware of Roeder - he did brilliantly for west ham for a while, but then results nose-dived and they wound up in the Championship...
Finally, totally off-topic, but did you see Calzaghe-Lacy? I can't believe I missed the biggest fight since Hatton - Tsyzu, and am even more flabbergasted that it was as one sided as its been reported.
It's difficult not to like Roeeder. He is modest and pragmatic. Which are two qualities that Souness never once showed in all his time in charge. The results are going Glenn's way at the moment and although the football isn't quite the standard of Robson's side in his first few seasons, there are flashes of that old cavalier attacking football. Playing 5 of his first 6 games at home have helped a bit as well. If we can perform and get results in our next 3 games (Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool) then I think Shephard will offer Roeder the job. Although Maradona makes a good point when he says West Ham got relegated in Roeder's second season after an excellent first(although he did have a brain tumour to deal with at the same time), I think the players at Glenn's disposal are of a much higher quality. At the same time though new managers often go though a honeymoon period. I mean Souness went 9 games unbeaten when he took over...
Saying that, Solano seems to be back to his old self, Emre is just awesome at the moment, Zog is brilliant, much better than i thought he could be, and as for Parker...Even the back four is halfway decent at the moment. Again though is this just a honeymoon period?
Well, Anonymous seems to be lost in as much disbelief as I am (and echoing my earlier thought about honeymoon periods). He/she makes an excellent point about the coming tests. Playing the top three should wake us up from this particular dream; let's just hope it doesn't sling us back to the old nightmare.
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