the digler

[alunevans]

Well ****ing said dirk

he said it too slow

[alunevans]

The most important quality in football and indeed life is attitude

Anyone who plays football or has played football can think of a player who when the going gets tough is seen to be sweating blood for the team, doing the right things right which in turn brings the best out of you, a sort of motivational wake up.

This is maybe even more important on the training pitch where we work on reaching our potential as individuals and as a team, in this area Dirk’s influence is especially important as we have such a young team and have spent so much time and money on buying some of the best youngsters on the planet, if we can instil the kind of attitude of Dirk’s into these players then over half the battle is done.

We also have some arrogant players in our team, our captain for example, where as he obviously has a winning attitude but I wonder though if he has the man management skills to bring the best out of his fellow squad members. I believe Dirk has a positive influence on him by the way he acts and always does the right things, we have all read many articles on his charity work etc (10% of all money he earns goes to the Dirk Kuyt Foundation) how every single person who ever comments on their time working with him has not a shred of negativity about him and how he always says the right things

The average level of attitude in the squad sets the level of effort everyone puts into their every day work, and whilst Dirks attitude is about as good as it gets he also gets the best out of everyone else by the by the way he lives his life and the example he sets

This is what makes a winning team

Kuyt's attitude is exemplary indeed. He's a top bloke, you can see that. He never shortchanges the supporters by giving less of his best. I didn't know about the DK Foundation. Quality.

Some good points.

One thing I've read about Kuyt in the past is that at every stage in his career when he made the step up to a bigger club people claimed it was a step out of his depth but at each stage he proved them wrong.

He's a player I'd love to succeed, despite my doubts about whether he has the pace to do it. If he succeeded his attitude would make him a legend.

One only needs to look at the reception he received at the Rotterdam tournament to see that.

[alunevans]

As someone on here said recently, this "20 league goals" barometer is a bit out-of-date now, since we play 38 games rather than 42. 18 goals upwards is perfectly acceptable.

that was me shags. however i am looking on answers.com and they reckon the top scorers from the last few seasons in the premier league are

2000–01 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Chelsea) (23)
2001–02 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) (24)
2002–03 Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester Utd.) (25)
2003–04 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) (30)
2004–05 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) (25)
2005–06 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) (27)
2006–07 Didier Drogba (Chelsea) (20)

so maybe not so outdated as i'd thought

[alunevans]

Very true. look at last seasons goal scorers table - one 20 goal player and his team didn't even win. However we do need to score more goals although a number of players should be tasked with this not any individual.

Barclays Premier League Top Scorers

Drogba Chelsea 21
McCarthy Blackburn 19
Ronaldo Man Utd 17
Viduka Middlesbrough 16
Bent Charlton 14
Doyle Reading 14
Rooney Man Utd 14
Berbatov Tottenham 13
Keane Tottenham 12
Kuyt Liverpool 12
Yakubu Middlesbrough 12
Anelka Bolton 11
Johnson Everton 11
Lampard Chelsea 11
Martins Newcastle 11

last season looks to be the exception rather than the rule. it was last seasons stats that made me claim it was a bit outdated but looking further, maybe its not

[alunevans]

that was me shags. however i am looking on answers.com and they reckon the top scorers from the last few seasons in the premier league are

2000–01 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Chelsea) (23)
2001–02 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) (24)
2002–03 Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester Utd.) (25)
2003–04 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) (30)
2004–05 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) (25)
2005–06 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) (27)
2006–07 Didier Drogba (Chelsea) (20)

so maybe not so outdated as i'd thought

can anyone check these stats. did henry really score 82 goals in the premier league alone in just 3 seasons?? thats 82 goals in 114 (at most) appearances.

thats superhuman!

[Neil Young]

I remember when we used to talk about 30 League goals a season.

Of course, that was in the days when you could barge into a goalkeeper and then shoot him. It was all played in a wonderful spirit. And there wasn't all this kissing when someone scored a goal. It was a manly handshake and then back to the centre circle. And all the players were poor and all the supporters wore hats.

[kop-al-74]

I remember when we used to talk about 30 League goals a season.

Of course, that was in the days when you could barge into a goalkeeper and then shoot him. It was all played in a wonderful spirit. And there wasn't all this kissing when someone scored a goal. It was a manly handshake and then back to the centre circle. And all the players were poor and all the supporters wore hats.

Clive Allen,Ian Rush,Gary Lineker etc.

[alunevans]

Clive Allen,Ian Rush,Gary Lineker etc.

Also Kevin Phillips in 1999/2000

[Joe King]

Xabi needs to be get rid! We need to keep little chief which I doubt with the price tag

[AFII]

can anyone check these stats. did henry really score 82 goals in the premier league alone in just 3 seasons?? thats 82 goals in 114 (at most) appearances.

thats superhuman!

Henry and King Kenny is the two best players I have seen in the league so you can call him superhuman.

[alunevans]

Henry and King Kenny is the two best players I have seen in the league so you can call him superhuman.

Thanks mate. I should really have checked with you first

[dww]

last season looks to be the exception rather than the rule. it was last seasons stats that made me claim it was a bit outdated but looking further, maybe its not

can anyone check these stats. did henry really score 82 goals in the premier league alone in just 3 seasons?? thats 82 goals in 114 (at most) appearances.

thats superhuman!

I think the standard of defending has increased year on year, along with side teams becoming more cautious in the league.

As fitness levels and defending gets better the imperative is to have a number of threats on goal. The important thing is the number of goals scored by your attacking players as a group. I think you have to hope to have two top scorers who between them get around 30 goals which United and Chelsea had while ours and Arsenals got around 20. You then need a number of other threats which make you less predictable. I think the reason that man United won the league was that the had a large number of players who get between 5 and 10 goals on top of their top scorers Rooney and Ronaldo.

I guess we will have to see how this season turns out to tell whether it is a real trend or merely my pet theory.

BTW the Henry stats are correct. Didn't always win them the league or even allow Arsenal to finish above us though.

I remember when we used to talk about 30 League goals a season.

Of course, that was in the days when you could barge into a goalkeeper and then shoot him. It was all played in a wonderful spirit. And there wasn't all this kissing when someone scored a goal. It was a manly handshake and then back to the centre circle. And all the players were poor and all the supporters wore hats.

Obviously the alternative is that most professional footballers are afraid of hair and the sight of supporters sans hats puts them off, resulting in lower scoring.

[Diego]

he simply doesn't impress me, last season he wasn't good enough for me. he wasn't much of a goal threat, his finishing was poor and his final balls where slow and often inaccurate and allot of time slows down our counter attack. he has allot to prove to me before i believe he can be a major factor in us winning the league. imo he's our forth choice striker, i'd play both crouch and voronin ahead of him, in voronins few pre-season games he has impressed me more than kuyt did last season...

on the other note, i think there will be more goals scored this season than last i think, the top scorer this year in the league will get about 25-6 goals to his name, and it sure as **** won't be kuyt...

[Neil Young]

Thanks mate. I should really have checked with you first

[Neil Young]

Obviously the alternative is that most professional footballers are afraid of hair and the sight of supporters sans hats puts them off, resulting in lower scoring.

Footballers' hair phobia is a perennial problem.