ohmelads

I wonder how much of it is due to the fact Barton has been on the right since he came in and offers much more protection than Routledge. Loses fewer balls than Routledge as he doesn't try to skin his man and is tactically more aware. Nevertheless, Simpson's played well in his own right since coming back. Hope he can keep it up.

You'd have to be pretty self-important tosser to think it symbolises anything anti-Celtic, anti-Irish or anti-anything. Anti-war is all it's about. I'm sure many people wearing them in Poland, Italy or New Zealand know nothing about Ireland's history and care even less. It's a universal thing, people wear them in countries around the world and it dates from World War 1. Scotland recognises poppies and people wear them. Celtic is a football club founded and located in Scotland with Irish roots, it's a club with a huge number of Scottish and English fans as well as players down the years. If these supporters (a few pricks with a banner) can't stomach the local culture and traditions, why don't they leave? I wonder if these same fans want their club to be in the English Premier League? I know the Irish don't wear them largely because it's less relevant to them but the people who made this banner have totally mistaken what poppies are about, so it's a pretty embarrassing protest to be honest. Just a few charvas trying to get attention and it's worked but for the wrong reasons.

If we sign one player in January it should be a forward. Might sound strange given we are scoring freely but surely it's only a matter of time before Best and Xisco move on and I believe a proper striker partner for Carroll would have finished off teams like Blackpool and Stoke. Preferably a Bellamy type of forward who has pace and will play off the shoulder of the last defender as well as work the channels. Ben Arfa would appear a good option for this role but we could do with another option espescially as we don't know when he'll return or how his condition will be. Ameobi's doing well at the minute but we'll see if he can keep it up. Lovenkrands, Nolan, Best, Xisco, none are convincing in a striker's role. A right winger is the other priority. Barton's done well out wide but it doesn't seem a permanent solution. Routledge doesn't really cut it. Barton has given the right back more protection and I believe it's shown in Simpson's performances.

It'll surely be an unchanged XI. He will be considering that there are three games in a week but you have to take each game as it comes at this stage and try and get the win. If we do that will give confidence for the next game. Around Christmas time you have to juggle players as there are so many games but I don't think it's necessary now. Same XI with early subs I reckon. Tired or injured players to be replaced for the Fulham game. It's all about keeping momentum.

Tiote, Enrique and Carroll are our most important players at the moment. If any get injured, the backup is nowhere near as good. Tiote's a key player for us. He's more than just a midfield destroyer who tackles and lays off ten yard passes, he's a deep lying playmaker and is essential to our passing game that we have in midfield at the moment.

Man of the match today. Looked world class.

F*cking get in!! When you look at the resources Hughton has you could forgive him if he packed the midfield, going route one all game and kicking lumps out of them. But he didn't. We may play to our height and power up front but it is amazing to think we have gone to Arsenal and won without resorting to Bolton or Stoke tactics. We went two up front, we matched their passing game on their own turf. Very few teams will go there and have as much possession as we just had. Many teams will not even try. The players had faith in their gameplan and to the end we battled to keep possession and pass it about. Off the ball we closed down space very well and never let Arsenal settle into their rhythm. A special mention for Tiote who was world class in midfield. Winning balls, closing down everybody, skinning people and playing one or two hollywood passes. Everything he did relieved pressure, bought space, frustrated them and got us back on the front foot. We may have a struggle to keep this lad because on current evidence he is destined for big things. We're 5th!

There's no point in that attitude. We're capable of a draw here if we play well and Arsenal aren't at their best. They've had a trip to Russia and back while we've had a week off on the back of a big result. Who knows, teams do go there and win, if you catch them on an off day or the ref gives you a chance, anything can happen. Arsenal will of course be favourites but the players have to be positive and go there believing they can nick something. It will be a different game to our second string against theirs in the cup last week.

I think he's the best right back we have, even if it's not his natural position. Simpson is doing OK so it would be harsh to drop him now, but I wouldn't be disappointed to see Taylor come in at right back sooner or later. He's a better defender and I don't see enough going forward in the others to convince me they offer more.

Wouldn't be surprised to see him play the same XI but with the formation reshuffled to a 4-5-1 with Barton moving into the centre and Ameobi and Jonas out wide.

I forgot to add the club released this statement right after the 4-0 home defeat I believe, a perfect time to put your manager's failings in the spotlight if you want shot of him.

Everybody I speak to is baffled by the club's announcement to 'back' Hughton. It would appear that these sack stories are either totally made up by the papers or NUFC is spinning this sh*t. The club's weak pro Hughton quotes are strange to say the least and the timing of them is significant - right before the biggest game of the season. They know fine well they are putting more pressure on him by giving the press these quotes. When a board backs a manager it's often a kiss of death. How many times have we seen this, a few weeks later the manager gets sacked and the board can say they persevered as long as they could. Of course the nation will be told about how the deluded impatient Geordies got rid of another manager. I really hope Ashley isn't up to his old tricks again. Now is the time to voice support for Hughton because wherever these stories are coming from - it's not the fans.

Wouldn't be surprised to see something like this, based on who needs games and who will be rested for Sunday: ------------------------Krul-------------------- Perch---Williamson---Coloccini---Ferguson R.Taylor---Vuckic--Smith----Routledge ----------------Ranger---Lovenkrands Bench: Soderberg, Kadar, Guthrie, Gutierrez, Carroll, Xisco, Tiote With Campbell and Taylor not ready for the weekend, we can't afford an injury to the centre backs. However, I'll be surprised if he starts Kadar there against Arsenal. It's the one area you would want experience and they tend to do less running than other players hence less need of a rest.

Arsenal will be no walkover even with our best XI, and a few of our players may have one eye on the weekend and lose focus on tonight. Sunday is afterall probably the biggest game of our season. If the fans are thinking that way the players will be too. At least the fringe players and youngsters will be desperate to impress in the spotlight and stake their claim, as Ameobi did at Chelsea. I hope the team isn't too under-strength though as there is no point 'forfeiting' a winnable game and a chance to go far in the competition. Hopefully Hughton can find the right compromise and put out a team that will give Arsenal something to worry about.

Agreed. I think he deserves to be dropped and may never be more than backup, but he doesn't look as hopelessy out of his depth as the likes of Huntington and Ramage did. Of course 5 yellows in 5 games is not good but I'd rather he picks up a yellow than lets a man in on goal. He can't keep doing it but people are judging him on a handful of games at a new club. The own goal seems to have given people free license to make him a laughing stock but if he hadn't intercepted that ball it was going to be a goal anyway.

It's not *just* the league though, it's the fact that it's Sunderland next - in the league. Which one does Hughton come under more pressure for losing? There aren't that many other than you, that have mentioned it's because the Mackems are up next. And why is it so unthinkable that we try to win two games in a week? That's my problem, why must there be a choice? I want us to go all out to beat Arsenal because I think it'll give the club a massive lift, but that doesn't mean I'm jeprodising the Sunderland game as a result. It's not silveware or survival. I can see your logic but it's risky, we could easily lose both games. Arsenal are beatable but they are also capable of turning in a top performance. Let's not forget - they won the previous round 4-1 at White Hart Lane. Ultimately I expect he'll compromise, one or two kids, mostly fringe players and a couple of first teamers, and hope that is strong enough at home to win. He will want his best players at 100% for the weekend because the mackems have no midweek game. If Wolves pull off a surprise tonight and knock out Man Utd he will be under huge pressure to field a full strength team with an eye to knocking out the last remaining giant from the tournament and maybe going the whole way.

Beat Arsenal, lose to the mackems and it's a terrible week. Lose to Arsenal, beat the mackems it's a great week. Hughton knows this and I'll be surprised if there are many first teamers at all on Wednesday. Any other week it would be different but the mackems game is about more than 3 points, it would lift the whole club to beat them after our home form of late. It's a shame this game has come at the wrong time for us really. I hope the kids can put in a performance but it'll be tough.

Houllier put it well recently in an interview, saying there are two things in football, performances and results. For years we have had poor performances but scraped a few wins and survived. Souness's team played some abysmal football but he had the luxury of a couple of matchwinners in his squad who could pull out a result for him. It's the other way round this time if you ask me, our football is decent but we lack the forwards to turn performances into results. They're often the most expensive players because they will do that for you. Hughton has lost his best forward player. Look at our bench man. You can talk about tactics all day but Ameobi is Ameobi and Lovenkrands is Lovenkrands. Carroll hardly has any Premier League goals in his career yet he is our main hope. Until January, and possibly the end of the season, this is our lot and yeah, we'll struggle. Mourinho would struggle with this squad. Do you really want to roll the dice again with Ashley calling the shots? The same man who appointed Joe Kinnear, the same man who you know will not pay up for a top manager even if we could attract one? The same owner who sold players for profit as the club fought relegation? I thoroughly believe Ashley's aim is bare survival and he wants rid of the club - his actions back that up. Stick with Hughton and I believe we'll survive but it won't be comfortable. Maybe 15th or so, higher if he has some funds in January to strengthen. Let Ashley bring in any random manager and I could see us going down to be honest.

I expected bugger all transfer funds from the fat man but as I said at the end of the transfer window I thought he had at least given Hughton a fighting chance. The signings were cheap and freebies but in Ben Arfa I had hope. We had signed a classy player, a matchwinner with pace, flair and creativity - everything we needed. Ben Arfa's injury is as serious as Arsenal losing Fabregas to a broken leg or Liverpool losing Gerrard. If anything I'd say it's worse when you consider the options we're left with up front. Carroll, Ameobi, Xisco, Lovenkrands, Best.... are these feared Premier League strikers? Apart from Carroll, you'd struggle to find a Premiership buyer for any of them. Ben Arfa aside, Hughton has had almost f*ck all to work with to build a team better than the one that got relegated. He had to build a team with determination and teamwork and he's done that. In the transfer market, he's been pretty shrewd if you ask me. When you consider Tiote and Williamson's pricetags they are excellent deals and so was Ben Arfa. He hasn't done much wrong in that regard. The criticism of him is his tactics and I'd agree with some of that. But I still struggle to see who we will attract with Ashley in control - everyone knows there's no transfer kitty and everyone knows he undermined Keegan. Any manager will look at that and look at the injury to Ben Arfa and ask himself if he really wants to take that on. If someone like O'Neill came along we'd be mad to turn him down but I don't see a stampede of top managers battering down our door. I believe we could do a lot WORSE than Hughton, and anyone who disagrees should think back to some of the managers we have had in recent years. Souness who spunked 50m on Owen, Emre, Boumsong, Luque et al? Roeder?! Kinnear?! With the current squad I think any manager would struggle and that's what we're in for - a struggle. There's no money to spend and no new manager is going to turn Ameobi into Drogba or Routledge into Malouda. We shouldn't be losing to Blackpool and Stoke at home and Hughton must take the blame for that. But talk of him losing his job is way way premature. Besides I simply don't trust Fat Ash to employ someone better.

I voted yes. I think he was predictably given little money to strengthen but did his best in the transfer market. He's basically been restricted to signing freebies or bargain buys. Williamson was a very good signing, Tiote looks a steal and Routledge at the time was a good signing. Lovenkrands was free and we desperately needed pace, for all his limitations. Simpson was cheap and Ben Arfa looked a bargain. Campbell and Gosling both frees. His only errors of judgement were Perch and Best, two players we didn't need and frankly strange signings. Still don't know why he wasted precious coin bringing them in. But both were cheap once again. Really, he's had very little to spend but has galvanized the squad. We were always in for a struggle. I'm not sure another manager could have done much better with those resources. I agree with others who say that stability is the one thing we have going for us at the moment. I think we look capable of playing decent stuff but lack firepower and that will only be fixed by either getting Ben Arfa fit (impossible) or signing a good forward and they are often the most expensive players. I just don't see Ashley releasing the funds. His only forwards are an unproven but promising kid, Ameobi and a guy with a broken leg. I don't think many managers would fancy their chances with that kind of strikeforce.

I'd probably give Loven a chance alongside Carroll. Routledge and Jonas on the flanks, centre mid as is with Tiote and Barton. I think that would give us balance and options in attack, plus height, width and pace. In defence, it's a tough one for Hughton. A home game is a good place to give Campbell 90 mins and he has the quality to be a rock at the back if he gets fully fit. But equally, he's a short term signing breaking up a promising partnership in Colo and Williamson.

They were smash and grab wins to be fair. I don't think Newcastle deserved to lose either game, and many neutrals agree. I think a club losing its talisman can have the potential to derail a season, we have seen it plenty of times before. There is of course no evidence that we were a team relying on Ben Arfa because he's a new signing, but his class was obvious as is the lack of flair in the Newcastle squad. I would argue it's as big as Arsenal losing Fabregas or Man Utd losing Rooney. Those clubs could replace those players but would suffer heavily. We can't replace Ben Arfa with anything like the same player and have a squad threadbare on skill and creativity. We have lost our last two games, suffered some shocking refereeing and lost our star player for most of the season, we must get things back on track. I would argue, as others have said, that we should have had a siege mentality anyway. I've got no time for sky sports or the tabloids and their 'deluded fans' stuff, at the end of the day we just want to see our team do well like everyone else, we like winning and we hate losing. We became a target because we appointed and sacked a succession of crap managers while spiralling down the league with one of the highest wagebills. That was somehow turned into the fans' fault but in reality it was mismanagement. We're the same fans who saw the Keegan and Robson sides fly up the table. There is a feeling everyone is pulling in the same direction these days unlike that season and I genuinely feel we've just been unlucky in a few games this season. We're lacking firepower to turn good performances into good results, but I'm pleased we look capable of dominating midfield in a lot of games. We just desperately need quality up front, a matchwinner. Ben Arfa showed against Everton he has that kind of class. The team will either rally or their heads will drop, so I agree this could be a pivotal moment in our season.

There's no point getting bogged down in talk about saves or shots on target. If a winger gets to the byline and flashes the ball across goal but noone can get there to tap it in, it's not even a shot off target and there's no save, but it's still a glorious chance. If a through ball narrowly misses its man and the keeper sweeps it up, it's a dangerous move that didn't quite come off. Williamson's point blank header that just went over at the end is a huge chance, but the stats say a shot off target and no save. Football is about fine margins, espescially at the top level, and it's about creativity. Talking about statistics is irrelevant unless you believe in the Allardyce model of playing a percentages game and launching balls into certain areas and so on. It's a creative game. I think on the whole we're doing alright, but I'm also worried by our lack of quality up front, namely the strikers. Carroll's not bad, Ameobi for all his flaws will have to do as backup. Xisco and Ranger don't get a look in either way and Best is a substandard crock. I've seen enough from our midfield and defence to believe we can take points off a good few teams in this division and be safe come the end of it but much will depend on keeping key players fit and the strikers hitting form. Realistically, given Ben Arfa's injury, Ashley must open his wallet in January and sign a striker. Hughton said his transfer business was done but that was before Ben Arfa's leg break. We are a bit weak in right midfield too but the priority is a forward. The only criticism I have of Hughton is his negative tactics at home. One striker up front against all but the top teams isn't good enough at home, we are the home side and most bookies would have us favourites in those games. Teams will get men behind the ball and we will dominate possession, so it's imperative we get bodies into the box for the midfielders to aim for. The performances have looked decent to be honest and fans of other clubs have told me the same. But in a game of fine margins like football you need the forwards who can turn a good performance into a good result and we seem to lack that at the moment.

Early days but he looks the real deal, turns defence into attack by winning the ball and picking the right pass quickly. Looks composed on the ball and energetic off it. He's basically everything Nicky Butt wasn't.

My main worry is where the goals will come from because whilst I rate Carroll, he needs a partner and Ben Arfa is out for ages. Midfield and defence I don't think we're that bad but as ever with us, injuries will play a part. We just have to hope we get no more injuries to key players. Overall, the performances are better than I expected. The results have been a bit topsy turvy, but that's partly down to bad luck and partly down to the aforementioned striker problem. I've seen enough from the performances to be positive, but we can't afford more injuries. January time Ashley needs to go for a striker. Move on Xisco and Best and use the wages to bring a forward in. Take the hit on the transfer fee, a decent striker alongside Carroll will make a big difference in those home games where we should be playing with 2 up front (a lesson Hughton has hopefully learnt by now).