Shearer9

Chelsea-Brum was a good match. So was Chelsea-Liverpool. Nothing like Spurs-West Ham from last season, but decent entertainment, especially considering who it was.

It's still that whole inferiority complex though. Clubs like Everton and Spurs sit in the shadows of Arsenal and Liverpool and it just turns their fans into complete wankers. They can't handle the lack of success in their club when they have to see and deal with success of a rival so much.

I'm still a bit surprised people are saying that was a 433. Because it wasn't. Maybe when you take the players out on the pitch and have to put them into some sort of SKY Graphic that demands a formation, but in reality, I don't think that's what a 433 really is. Why it looked so disjointed today, who knows? Poor selection, an off day, organized opposition, the slick conditions, etc. People need to stop judging this tactical system based on one performance. Not only has the idea of Newcastle playing a 433 gone out the window in 90 mins of football, so has the idea of the 433 in general in the minds of most people. Show some patience.

I don't even really think it was a 4-3-3 today, and that was part of the problem. We had 3 dedicated defenders (Rozenhal and Taylor at CB, Carr at RB), and then N'Zogbia, who's role was essentially "the entire left flank". I don't know why that happened, he had no support going forward, and clearly felt like he couldn't dribble to the line at the end and cross, all of his crosses were from deep. But the midfield trio of Butt, Smith, and Geremi did well enough covering for him as far as getting back, even if individually they had some shocking moments. Geremi was clearly only a holding player, while Smith and bizarrely it was Butt who made a lot of woeful forward runs. Then there's Viduka up top essentially standing in the middle doing close to nowt, with Milner down the right and Martins all over the place. Totally unbalanced both across the pitch and up and down it. The promising thing, however, was the fact that we had numbers going back and kept a lot of possession. The old Newcastle would have played out the boring first half, then let the pace of Young, Agbonlahor, Moore, etc get to them and the pressure would steadily have shifted back onto us, someone would have made a mistake or a rash decision, and we'd have lost 1-0. Textbook. The thing we need to build on is having possession. How to better use it, especially in the wide areas, and how to make sure strikers get service. It seemed like we had a lot of possession, although O'Neill disagrees with me on that one. Does anyone have a concrete stat on that?

Every time Nicky Butt made an all action surging forward run it was so infuriating. Ridiculous.

The little defensive triangle of Butt, Geremi, and Rozenhal were awful today. The Zog did the most work of any player, had to play fullback as well and handle the left wing all on his own. Milner was Ok, and I thought Martins looked like our only genuinely dangerous player. I think we have bigger striker problems than people think.

Mido was also on SSN implying that Spurs rapid ascension into 5th spot a few years ago was basically down to him. Anyone still taking bets on Boro for the drop?

Malouda

Is Match of the Day on tonight?

They seem REALLY nervous about this. I didn't realize Bolton had gone from so good to so bad.

Anyone have Dave Kitson in their team?

Was this ever actually confirmed?

I agree mostly, although I think either Torres or Kuyt will actually step up for Liverpool and have a 15 goal season. As long as they don't play Pennant too much, I think they can close the gap to Chelsea and ManUtd. And I think between Young, Agbonlahor, Carew, and Moore, Villa will score enough goals to get into Europe. I'm interested to see who you think will finish 5th-8th, considering you've kind of pushed aside the European bids of Villa, Spurs, and City.

Carr's pursuit angle was awful as well, Anelka let the ball run by him, then as soon as he took a touch he rocketed past Carr.

I'm also wondering how Viduka collected the 2 bonus points, he didn't really do much, and Rozenhal got the 1 bonus point, I thought he had the worst performance of any toon player.

I think they messed up, those are actually supposed to be the Actim Bonus points thing. Its fixed now.

Good performance, really just glad with the win, know that Sam will build on the weak points. I'm also really pleased that we didn't fold after that first Bolton goal, it really could have gotten hairy down the stretch but we stayed strong.

And what a lovely memory that was...

Why is Baines showing up injured? Haven't been able to find documentation of that anywhere else? And is Tevez supposed to play for ManUtd this weekend?

I'm actually surprised they've gotten Gordon, they've done well there. He'll get plenty of work, that's for sure. safc, do you feel like the board is overspending with the expectation Keane will keep you up, or is there some new source of income?

Is Baines injured now?

Cristiano Da Matta hit a deer while driving a Champ Car over a year ago, hasn't raced since.

What is your organization? And wouldn't several smaller singing sections scattered about the ground lead to a better atmosphere with everyone?

£15m for a player that's nearly 30, no Premiership experience, I'm not sure how I feel about that. Maybe if it were half that fee, then I think it would be worth the risk, but as Shevchenko showed, even the best players can have trouble making the jump, especially when they're older and lack pace. I also find it strange that Chelsea are linked, he just doesn't seem like a Chelsea player to me.

Jesus Christ go easy on him...Just didn't know