James

http://www.nufc.com/2007-08html/2007-10-27reading-a.html

I thought I noticed something about Duff on Saturday. At Chelsea, after a couple of shoulder injuries, he went to martial arts classes in an attempt to learn how to land more softly and hopefully prevent more shoulder injuries. Well on Saturday, he would be running pretty swiftly, arms moving and all that, but whenever someone got near him, would reduce his arm movement, and drag his left arm across his body, and such a movement means that if an opponent clatterred into him, he would be able to quickly bend his elbow and roll onto his shoulder rather than land on it. Nothing wrong with trying to avoid injuries, but restricting his arm movement is not going to help him beat his man and get to the byline.

That stat isn't particularly good on its own, and is only there cos people asked for it. A better way to look would be to rank number of victories when playing in player's best position, and compare it to the ranking of number of defeats when playing in the same circumstances. Victories: Geremi 7 Butt 6 Rozehnal 5 Cacapa 5 Beye 5 N'Zogbia 4 Milner 4 Martins 4 Given 4 Viduka 4 Smith 3 Owen 3 Harper 3 Taylor 2 Enrique 2 Faye 2 Barton 1 Carr 1 Emre 1 Ameobi 1 Duff 0 Ramage 0 Defeats: Given 11 Butt 11 Milner 10 Beye 9 Taylor 8 Cacapa 7 Owen 7 Duff 7 Faye 7 Martins 6 Barton 5 Smith 5 Enrique 4 Rozehnal 4 Geremi 4 Viduka 4 Carr 3 Harper 3 Emre 2 N'Zogbia 2 Ameobi 2 Ramage 0 Together, we can't really see the effect of the likes of Butt, Cacapa and Beye as they've played through the good and bad in their best position. We can observe some big changes in ranking. A lot down from victories to defeats shows that we have been losing when they aren't playing in their best position, and a lot upwards from victories to defeats means that losses seem to come when they have come into the team. Comparing these rankings seems to put Geremi, Harper, Viduka and N'Zogbia in good light, while not looking so good for Given, Taylor, and Duff.

We should drop Beye. Not even as good as Nicky Butt. Only thought it was fair I posted that tbf, Beye wasn't a NUFC player for the two wins he missed.

Just for the record, here is how many of our 7 league wins each player has played 45 mins+ in: N'Zogbia 7 Milner 7 Geremi 7 Smith 6 Butt 6 Rozehnal 5 Cacapa 5 Martins 5 Beye 5 Given 4 Viduka 4 Owen 3 (plus 1 crucial sub appearance) Harper 3 Taylor 3 Enrique 2 Barton 2 Faye 2 Carr 1 Emre 1 (plus 1 crucial sub appearance) Ameobi 1 Duff 0 Ramage 0

yes and no. he maybe should be given a chance because what we have isn't working,more so than the stats. Well the stats equally show that Butt isn't working.

I did say in my first post that stats aren't the be all end all, but when you see that Geremi has featured at CM in 89% of our wins this season, you have to give him another chance in the first team.

You can only play what is put in front of you

A couple more stats. Only appearances of 45 mins or more at CM are counted: Percentage of our wins during which player has featured at CM for at least 45 minutes: (wins with player at CM/total Newcastle wins) Geremi - 89% Butt - 67% Percentage of our defeats during which player has featured at CM for at least 45 minutes: Geremi - 20% Butt - 93% Games won with player at CM: (player wins/player appearances) Geremi - 57% Butt - 23% Games drawn with player at CM: Geremi - 21% Butt - 23% Games lost with player at CM: Geremi - 21% Butt - 54%

I know statistics aren't the be all and end all of football, but when playing CM, Geremi has consistently been in the top 3 passers in the side (see Telegraph stats), usually with Owen and Cacapa. Also, if you look at key contributions rather than assists (where you take into account the fact that scoring goals is not just about the assists and goalscorers, but players also have to get the assister onto the ball in space, and someone has to win the ball back off the opposition in the first place), Geremi was second to Emre iirc when it came to key contributions per minutes on the pitch when I counted back in late November I think it was. Given that we haven't scored many since I'd imagine he's still pretty high up there. Also, a couple more to look at more to look at: Only counting minutes spent at CM, here are the goals scored/goals conceded by team per 90 minutes played for both Geremi and Butt: Geremi Goals scored per 90 mins: 1.5 Goals conceded per 90 mins: 0.9 Butt Goals scored per 90 mins: 1.0 Goals conceded per 90 mins: 2.1

Wembley too far to travel? He'd be home by now tbf. And yet he posted on here at half time. Didn't think the Wembley stewards would let folk nip out like that. Wembley has wifi The stewards there are the biggest Nazis I've come across though.

Wembley too far to travel? He'd be home by now tbf.

Old Given would have saved the first - by committing himself before Rooney connected with the ball.

Well you really don't sound like a fan given one of the names you are calling him.

Please stop. Especially the ape bit.

Oh deary dear

Oh dear

no they did not Ok, we scored a few more goals, but we still conceded the same. we didn't concede 11 against them in the space of 6 weeks Because the extra 12 weeks makes a huge difference We could say thats worse in fact, as we had the extra time to sort out the defensive unit.

no they did not Ok, we scored a few more goals, but we still conceded the same.

To be fair, Manchester United did just as well against us when we finished 3rd under Sir Bobby.

Manyoo currently account for 50% of our negative goal difference.

I think we ran out of bacon 4 goals ago tbh.

There has been a noticeable drop in his work rate since about December. Agree with most of the stuff in the OP.

We haven't been terrible, we've tried to take the game to them, we may not have had a shot, but we've been centimetres from a few good chances, eg a Milner corner whiskers away from Butt's head. Manchester United have been ruthless on the counter attack - these are really good players, unplayable at times see Ronaldo's sublime cross. Both goals were the fault of ball watchers - Zoggy didn't track Rooney, Taylor didn't track Ronaldo. A good keeper would have anticipated Rooney's first and saved it by committing early in my opinion.

Go!