madras

I hope not. I think Diame has been like Perez, looking worse than he is due to playing a role he's just not suited for.

Given that Rafa has been in the press this week bigging up Mitrovic and Diame.......would he dare go for a Diame off Mitro in front of a middle 4 ? Rotation and all that.

Both need to play off a front man as dres gale at a higher level.

With the squad we have, in this league, we shouldn't be bothered about other teams games.

Only got to OT twice but both were memorable for different reasons. Went there early in the 84/85 season soon after promotion. We got absolutely pasted 5 nowt and played s**** generally (apart from moments from Waddle and Beardsley) but it was memorable for the sheer amount of Toon fans at the game. It's easy to exaggerate a large away following but there had to be at least 12000 Newcastle fans there and if you watch the highlights that are out there, you can see we had that entire end behind the goal and a bit up the side as well. I could swear we had more fans there that day than even Liverpool and Everton did in that era. Also went in the 87/88 season for the 2-2 with Mirandinha scoring 2 and although he was uncoordinated and greedy and generally lacking in any type of awareness whatsoever, he was a treat to watch that day. He scored from a deflected free kick that seemed at the time to take about 4 seconds to trundle into the net and a mad back-post header from a flicked-on corner. Can remember getting pelted with coins after both goals by the c***s next to us. Everything happened in the first half, loads of action and then the second half, from memory, nowt seemed to happen at all. Tons of memories from the 84-98 era, hard to only pick out a few. yep was at that one, in the paddocks, almost to the half way line down the side. remember speaking to some man utd fans years later who said they were in the stretford end that day, and were shitting themselves when they saw how many of us there was- but f*** me OT made some noise then when they scored. was it 52k crowd? I was there. We started off in two paddocks behind the goal then as more cane in the law cleared paddocks of them to let us in, paddock after paddock after paddock. We had paddocks from one half way flag to the other., Jasper Olsen ran us ragged (hat trick I think) I bought the very things "bushes scream" from some record shop in the arndale and kept it safe through an attack on the van.l

Even at 3-1 I was worried if they get next well just sit back and try and hold on. Still don't think we are getting the best from this squad.

Some people think football is so simple nowadays you just need a winger and big guy upfront in a 442 and that will get you results. If it's that simple why don't all teams and managers do it.... Reason is its actually far easier to defend against that now. It's not that it's that simple but if you have a squad which would be best suited to that then do it. I doubt anyone on here would stick to any formation if they had personnel better suited to something different.

it wont be, the crowd is affecting the players, says a lot when Rafa is telling the players to try and ignore the crowd. The crowd are getting a bit agitated as they don't think Rafa is using the team to get the best from them. No surprise that many of our fans are overrating our squad. I'd say we have the best squad in this division but it would struggle in the prem. Is that overrating it ?

it wont be, the crowd is affecting the players, says a lot when Rafa is telling the players to try and ignore the crowd. The crowd are getting a bit agitated as they don't think Rafa is using the team to get the best from them.

whip patsy Kensit Whip patsy kensit Whip patsy kensit Till she bleeds, yee hah! Oh when the beans come out the tin. He'd also do the double decker theme, I remember helping him with the bell and horn sounds at Peterborogh.

Just don't think Rafa fancies him. Be interesting when Murphy is fully fit.

He looks a very good prospect fwiw.

Didn't even know the sport was still in print.

Did think he would last longer than a couple of months. More so down to the corruption thing than footballing reasons IMO.

Aye, but Rafa seems not to. doesn't even need to be "2 up front" as such. he's played, to me at least, more of a 4-4-1-1 of late with Diame in behind Gayle. I'm all for this tactic/formation but not the personnel. Pretty much sums up my feelings, don't mind a withdrawn striker if it's a good creative one. It's not even that I prefer one formation over any other, just I think that way gets the best out of what we have at present.

Aye, but Rafa seems not to. doesn't even need to be "2 up front" as such. he's played, to me at least, more of a 4-4-1-1 of late with Diame in behind Gayle. I'm all for this tactic/formation but not the personnel.

So, in short, when anyone says anything critical, about a club that deliberately plays a player they know to be a nonce, always battling relegation,employing a known fascist to manage the club, a club widely regarded by other fans as the turd that won't flush......it's the magedia. When they have their arse licked by a self professed fan then it's fair and balanced. Have I read that right ?

Don't see why Gayle couldn't as he has played wide in the past and I'd assume he'd have had to put in covering work then. Could also take it in turns or focus on the opposition when the player who drops off is decided by which side they bring the ball out etc, we did that a bit with Shearer and Bellamy.

The Supermac goal from the throw in was V Bolton 3-3 draw in the Fa cup. I remember him taking a long throw against Notts county in the league cup run, keeper fumbled it into the goal, wonder if it was the only goal scored where the move was all hands from start to finish ?

It's quite telling that on here the Sunderland thread often gets derailed onto NUFC stuff, whereas on RTG................

Is the obvious retort from Villa that they play at the most 3 games a week, Virgin trains run hindreds of trains per day.

Yep. We can discuss this until the proverbial cows come home but as long as Rafa is in charge the only time we will see more than one out and out striker on the pitch is if we're chasing a game. It's not really a 4-4-2. He's moved on already from early seasons ultra cautious, rigid 4-2-3-1 to what seems more like a 4-4-1-1. Playing Gayle, Perez or Diame behind Mitrovic or Murphy still plays into this. Even most teams that play a nominal 4-4-2 drop one of the front two back a bit when out of possession. I don't see Gayle, Perez or Diame as out and out strikers either.

You do know that doesn't really make sense ?

He wasn't known as the dog. The "poster" has heard of the bloke and used it in his ruse. Like me saying I'm a seaburn casual and mentioning Jase as proof.

RE Tommy. I can't remember him ever being called Tommy the dog, there was the notorious millwall fan Harry the dog and the not so notorious Timmy the dog who was part of the famous five massive.