toontownman

Think we will go almost full strength. Pardew wants this cup. Ferguson at LB would be nice though. Obviously would like to see gosling, barfa, sameobi and abeid but I'm not sure the latter will feature.

We probably played our best football of the season and played the ball along the ground for most of the time. We did go route one a couple of times and so we should, just not all of the time. Cabaye could have had 3 and we didn't have a poor player, unlike against QPR when most were poor. Think about how bad we were against QPR, we were as good against Villa as we were bad against them. No idea if they were poor or if we just made them look that way, I guess we were just that good and they couldn't get the better of our midfield. It's easy to say they were s**** but we deserve credit for that, if they were. well thank fuck for hearing that, my pvr only recorded the second half so I had no clue how we played in the first. We should have won easily in the second half, they were there for the taking. I figured it was the same frustrating clueless perfomance. We seemed to have zero ideas coming forward although cabaye did very well. Sounds promising on the first half performance though. We give attackers so much space and backup all the way until the box, where colo and Taylor get quickly turned which is a worry.

Would be relatively happy with four weeks, thought it would be much worse.. still might be, but early signs look good. As a couple have mentioned, Ferguson or Kadar need to be given a chance against Forest. Four more weeks of Raylor would be horrible. Sure he is out of position and maybe he will start getting his head around it over the next couple of weeks, but he is still clumsy, slow and shite bar his set pieces once in a while.

Nice. P.S. Sameobi's legs are horrendous in that pic, he is going to get broken in two on the pitch.

Agreed, yet on the evidence that he played 70mins and still doesnt fully speak English I would say he is most probably starting from the bench on Saturdady.

Best striker at the club? Worked his ass off today, shame there was no service. I am not convinced with his work in the air but I think he has to be our starting striker going forward.

With Binnsy there, would definately like to see this. KRUL SIMO SAYLOR COLO SANTON CABAYE TIOTE JONAS GOSLING MARVEAUX BEST Surprised we didnt see at least a cameo from Santon today though. Not convinced Pardew is ready to start him next week but I bloody hope he changes his mind this week if so.

Annoying I didnt think he was as bad as a couple of games ago but its a backwards step from Fulham on the defensive side. He worked pretty hard tracking back last game.

Had a good first half especially at the start, put some decent balls in and ran the flanks. Pulled more into the centre in the second which didnt help anyone out but we also needed someone to come past the half way line through the middle. He is still looking very short in confidence when it comes to taking players on and what to do with the ball when he gets to the box. He has the skills to beat players but is struggling with a huge mental block there. Can be a huge attacking threat if he gets over it. He must be taking something from Pardews backing putting him in the starting line up, however with Marveaux approaching fitness and Barfa maybe returning I would expect him to be dropped to the bench. If he doesnt grasp this opportunity with both hands it is going to be hard for him to do anything at this club imo. I still think he is getting better with each game, but as soon as he drops to the bench he is going to start losing any confidence he is building up. He needs to make an impact and quickly. Really its down to him, not much coaching his going to get him over his slump.

It's ok I am off to the Colo thread to post about playing him as a DM next..

I know, but that pretty much goes without saying. Always thought he played well for us there and offered a suprising amount going forward. It was also a time when it was safer playing him there than in the middle he has cut out alot of his errors since then. Bar pace I somehow do prefer him there than Simpson.

He is a noob of the highest order. I dont think he has improved all that much although his partnership with Colo is getting better. He gets bullied far too easily as with Boothroyd today who should have scored twice given the room Saylor had allowed him. I am happy to see his idiotic mistakes have however improved in the fact they arent just confined to the penalty area and in and around the box. Still prefer him at RB, but probably our best bet due only to Willows lack of pace.

The "One Joey Barton" chants I heard were mainly Q.P.R. fans to be fair, unless our away support all have cockney accents. I dont have a problem showing him some thanks before the game or when his name is called out with the teamsheet but when the game is in full swing and he has just slyly kicked and one of our young players and thrown the ball at him seems a bit silly. If it was our fans singing aswell. Either way to each their own. He played well today which shouldnt come as a surprise. He was surrounded with creative players which took the weight of expectation to create (that he had here) off, so he could go about his game tidying up the midfield and supporting the attack. Big loss for us this season but we have moved on now.

Think this game was always going to be hard with the positivity surround the clubs multitude of signings and the Barton pressure factor for us niggling at the back of players and fans heads. Think Q.P.R. surprised everyone with how quickly they have gelled. Taarabt was the major difference maker in the game. Q.P.R. offered attacks from everywhere including some flair in the middle. Taarabt will be offski in January if he continues to play like today, we did unfortunately find him in one of his "on" days though. Draw away and a cleansheet and a result from a game we have often thrown away in the past should not be stiffed at, although ultimately we could and should have played so much better.

I share this opinion for the most part. Criticism on Obertan is harsh he was probably one of our better players in the first half with Best. Certainly dipped far too much out of the game in the second though when he drifted inside instead of staying out wide. However I dont blame him because we had absolutely nothing coming through the middle at anypoint during the game. Understand sticking with Raylor although I didnt like it last match or before that. With two days training and alot of pressure around this match it made sense to give Santon some time to settle in. Hopefully Santon is in for Villa, should have given him some pitch time today though imo. Worrying omen that he might not start at Villa either. Defence looked solid (Raylor aside) but we certainly missed any creative spark. Cabaye looks like Nolan (plus pace but minus any attacking influence). What in the hell happened to Tiote over the summer is the biggest question. He maybe gave a handfull of balls away last year. I think he did it twice that amount in the first game. He looks fucking terrible. Flashes of the old Tiote today at least but some Bramble-esq mistakes in double the dose. The pro's are that we do have Marveaux to come in who will certain offer us some creativity, Barfa too if we can just get him consistently fit. If Santon can live up to the hype our back four will look much better. Still not convinced by Ba. Would put Best up top by himself at the moment. League above any other strikers on our books. P.S. why is Saylor such a noob. His attempts to psych kenny out was embarassing.

Pile of shit but at least we came away with something.

Think he has done well, still better with each game. Clearly still having confidence issues around the box and taking players on. He hasn't shorn any skills one on one yet and he does possess them. Have to bare in mind this is one of the most narrow pitches in the league.

Working hard but completely void of ideas of how to attack, create and shoot. We aren't doing too badly but we are easily second best. Taarabt is the difference maker. We have no create spark to do anything different or unpredictable. Defensively we look good bar raylor. Cabaye is invisible and both he and tiote are sitting so deep yet again we offer nothing through the middle coming forward. Best, obertan and guru are working hard and playing well. We desperately need players to find confidence to shoot in and around the area because we are offering little right now.

Absolutely shitting it. Shouldnt have watched the pre match build up! Twice the team they were last time they played, literally, hopefully they haven't gelled yet and we have.

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2011/09/06/injured-ben-arfa-back-in-the-fold-61634-29369217/ Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no. Great to have him back. Hopefully he doesnt have too many reactions to training. Fingers crossed he is back in the team for October.

Just going to post the same thing. Can see us getting suitably embarrassed at QPR but I don't care either way right now, just want to see us playing again. International breaks mean nothing to me anymore, haven't done in ten years.

Mark Hughes would be in like a shot if pards left.

If Williamson had saylor pace and agility he would piss all over Taylor. bar a few dodgy outings this year Williamson reads the game and is much calmer IMO. Does look like saylor is slowly improving though.

No coincidence we didn't follow up our initial interest then.

my problem with this is we "bid" around the 10m euro mark at the start of the window for 2 strikers, then when that all fell apart none, NONE of our other options were worth paying a similar amount of money for?' the "bids" themselves denote the club realise it was a priority (to the fans) position to sign a player in, so they bid early and go public after that, with 8 months of research behind them, you're telling me seriously they couldn't find and sign a striker for around 10m euros that's really what you think you need help man Your post doesn't seem to have anything to do with the post that you are quoting. Feel free to explain what you don't understand about the sentence "They need to get a lot better at playing their own game, however." i was replying to this as all evidence points to the opposite of what you're saying basically EDIT: what i would say though, in their defence, is that if they could have found another good striker who was cheap or free then they'd have had no hesitation in signing him it's clear to me, as it should now be to everyone, that we will not be spending money over and above what we recoup in fees from sales (unless it's a HBA type signing who is clearly worth more than the fee paid) was it coincidence maiga went on "strike"? personally i don't think so, the only thing preventing his cut price arrival was the reluctance of his club to cave in 2 misconduct allegations in one window, frankly i'm amazed it's so few - it'll become par for the course imo...it's well known ashley likes to throw the rule book away in his business dealings, why would this be different? Well, fine. You carry on believing that we're making player bids for PR reasons alone, and I'll carry on thinking you're two fries short of a Happy Meal. people have already pointed out numerous examples of why you're wrong mate, read the writing, or answer my questions in that last post The board is clearly set on the deluded hope that they can build a top 6 side by spending a quarter of the amount needed that succesful clubs spend.