James

NUFC4, Thread titles need to remain informative, and must not look like they have been written by an illiterate two year old. Thanks.

I'm convinced Martin Jol is actually Mihir Bose.

It's quite baffling! I actually can't believe what I am hearing and seeing right now. We dont quite know what you are seeing or hearing to be honest

Unlucky. One point away at Spurs is generally considered a good result. Dissappointing, but it is better for you than it is for them.

What to? Englands Gerrard breaks leg Once the title is changed it may as well be deleted. i was kidding JAMES always fucks around with my misleading titles and it pisses me off I'm so priveliged that you think I'm so important that you have to spell my name with CAPITAL LETTERS.

I agree with the sentiment, but I'm sure many fans will be looking at Manchester City thinking that they've fixed things quickly, so why didn't we? That is wrong of course, as they already had a solid spine to their team.

He was poor today. Not only did he waste possession but he was a headless chicken, went to ground to easily, and was often out of position.

I'd say it was a slightly below-par performance considering we were away at a team that never loses at home, with only one player (Butt) really disappointing. Its not the complete shambles that others are making it out to be.

Given - two good saves, two bad cock-ups - 5 Beye - did little wrong - 6 Rozehnal - Defended pretty well - 7 Taylor - Outpaced and outwitted - 5 N'Zogbia - Terrible defender - 5 Geremi - Won the ball back a lot, but passed sloppily. Got an assist though - 6 Butt - Absolutely woeful for the first 70 mins, but did ok after that. Elano ate him for breakfast. - 4 Smith - Passed, tackled and harried well, and had some good touches in the final third - 7 Milner - Harried well, and tried his best to create. Let down by others wayward passing - 6 Martins - Scored, but could have used his pace a lot better - 6 Viduka - Clearly a class above the rest of our players, but we didn't get him on the ball enough - 6 Enrique - Made no real difference Faye - ditto Emre - Looked lively I dont think we were that bad. Manchester City were immense and I reckon they are the best challengers for the top 4 this season as long as they maintain fitness and consistency. Elano is better than Kinkladze, Benarbia and Berkovic combined.

Allardyce has just said on Sky Sports that it wasn't a hernia, just a danger of one, so a long term absence has been avoided. He is in contention for Everton if his midweek op goes well. Apparently its an incredible surgeon who got Shearer recovered from a hernia in seven days.

One other thing is that our defence like to get the ball down and spend some time on the ball. We've had problems against Derby and West Ham when this wasn't allowed. I think that this time though, they are going to get the time they need.

The key battles for this game could be: Taylor/Faye vs Mpenza Rozehnal and Geremi vs Elano Smith and Beye vs Petrov Butt vs Johnson N'Zogbia and Milner vs Ireland and Corluka Martins vs Richards and Garrido Viduka vs Dunne and Hamann In bold are the battles we may win, and in italics are the battles we could lose out on. I'm going for a 1-1 draw with goals for Johnson and Geremi (penalty)

Manchester City have their own injury problems, and I think we need to be wary of a very attacking 4411 formation. We need a brick in defence to deal with Mpenza, but the midfielder in the hole is one for the more continental defensive players to deal with. thus it is a shared job for Rozehnal and Geremi. I think we are in trouble if we are forced into a Faye-Taylor partnership. Manchester City probably do have the brightest and most talented midfield we have faced so far this season, and today is for a tough and wizened trio of midfielders to deal with the Premier League inexperience of Elano, Johnson and Petrov. Thus, Butt, Geremi and Smith should all play. Right wing is Manchester City's weak point at this moment with Stephen Ireland, so I would persist with N'Zogbia at left back - although I don't rate him defensively, I feel there will be little pressure at that side of the pitch, giving him a licence to get forward. Milner, Martins and Viduka then pick themselves as the only other attacking players available. So do we play 442 or 433? Tough call, but I'd play 433 as Manchester City's midfield seems to be pretty compact.

I dreamt last night that due to a fixture mess-up, we had to play Manchester United twice on the same day. Our strongest team beat their strongest 1-0 in the first game. And in the second game, our weaker team beat their strongest 4-0, with Fergie not trusting his weaker players despite the fresher legs.

Rozehnal is a slight doubt today, dependent on whether Baby Rozehnal decides to pop his head out two days ahead of schedule.

Didn't Cushing get a small amount to spend on transfers if a scout came in with a recommendation on a good young player? Weren't the signings of N'Zogbia, Krul and Danquah his own personal business?

In the end of the day, would rather go out now than later on. Will be hoping Arsenal win this (and the league)

I'd rather we got someone better in and people stopped trying to kid themselves that this lad is anything special. Seriously, there are people that think that this kid is a TOP talent. It's f****** ludicrous. Not having a go at you btw Dave, it just astounds me when I watch this kid play, the reputation he has with some of our fans. Were his 17 goals last seasona fluke then? Playing alongside Sibierski and Dyer? God gove me strength. You go and have a look over the goals he has scored for Newcastle and come back and tell me he can't finish. His situation reminds me of Adebayor's situation at Arsenal. All my friends who support Arsenal kept telling me he was crap and just like Shola and I kept telling them he just needed to play regularly and I would happily swap Shola for him anyday. They always laughed at me about it. This season they're wetting themselves over him the twats. Pisses me off something propa. I don't need to hear about the conversations you have with your mates at the back of the special bus tbh. Funny guy. I just don't like fickle people. Had either Drogba or Adebayor come to Newcastle you would have been the sort to run them out after their first season. Both similar players to Martins. Speed, athletic ability and power, but not the best touch or awareness. Surround them with the right players and play them often enough and they will be very productive though. Simple as that. We have no choice but to play Martins everygame now. Let's see what happens with him playing alongside Viduka regularly then. We'll talk about this again in aaround four weeks. So now he's as good as Drogba or Adebayor, it's just that he's playing with the wrong team mates? By the way, Adebayor's touch pisses all over Martins'. Please don't embarrass yourself by trying to say that Adebayor and Drogba "don't have the best touch or awareness" in an attempt to defend Martins. You really must be illiterate. Get a fuckin degree man! Can you read? I think he's got a fuckin degree man!

Despite starting the moves for two of our goals on Sunday with two forward passes. Which sounds great if you watch the highlights on tv, unfortunately he doesn't pass it forward nearly enough over the course of 90 minutes and offers the team very little apart from playing it safe the majority of the time, partner that with a defensive midfielder in Butt and it's a bit of a shit partnership. Sometimes it is better to sit back and keep possession instead of wasting balls played forward. Considering that we were leading for most of the game, this is perfectly acceptable.

Despite starting the moves for two of our goals on Sunday with two forward passes.

Even though Geremi started the moves that led to the first and third goals on Sunday?

Only £5m outstanding if reports are accurate.

Started the moves in the last game which led to the 1st and 3rd goal.

my guess is that terry mac does similar to what the other coaches at the club do. interesting to see onsunday that while enrique at half time (warming up) was very animated ie communication mainly by hand signal,then before he came on was being given his instructions by terry mac.......i wonder what that conversation was like. I'm sure Terry Mac just has a list of things to do before the player enters the pitch. "Tied your shoelaces up laddie?" "Stretched your calves?" "Brushed your teeth?" "Been to the toilet?" "No? Are you going to need to in the next seven minutes?" "Alright then laddie. Now I know I'm not allowed to do tactics, but if you look at this stickman on the piece of paper? That is Craig Bellamy. I want you to kick him. If you do that, me and Lee Clark will be nice to you this week, even though you are foreign. Ok?" and you think that because why ? I have an overractive imagination.

my guess is that terry mac does similar to what the other coaches at the club do. interesting to see onsunday that while enrique at half time (warming up) was very animated ie communication mainly by hand signal,then before he came on was being given his instructions by terry mac.......i wonder what that conversation was like. I'm sure Terry Mac just has a list of things to do before the player enters the pitch. "Tied your shoelaces up laddie?" "Stretched your calves?" "Brushed your teeth?" "Been to the toilet?" "No? Are you going to need to in the next seven minutes?" "Alright then laddie. Now I know I'm not allowed to do tactics, but if you look at this stickman on the piece of paper? That is Craig Bellamy. I want you to kick him. If you do that, me and Lee Clark will be nice to you this week, even though you are foreign. Ok?"