Northern Monkey

It's sometimes sublime. Usually s**** though. To have an 'excellent first touch' though it needs to be consistently very good, which it plainly isn't.

 

A la Viduka. Very rarely does he give the ball away when he wins the initial ball.

but his winning of the ball isn't brilliant. Its a cruel, cruel world.

Why's everyone putting Smith in attacking midfield? he isn't an attacking midfielder. If he plays striker he plays right up top, if he plays in midfield he plays a more holding approach, it's simple.

 

Did you watch the Sampdoria match?

 

He played very much as hard working midfielder, not attacking or defensive. His energy means he can cater for both jobs getting involved in both the tackling and the attacking. If we play with 3 centre midfielders (Geremi,Butt and Smith) Smith is going to be the one with a licence to get forward above the rest.

 

out of those 3, you're right.

 

But that doesn't mean he's GOOD at it, of course, or that he'd necessarily be the "free roaming" midfielder if we had other players next to him.

 

No no. Smiths the kind of player that we all know what we are going to get from him, regardless of position. I don't think Sam every does the free roaming thing but IF we were to play with those three i'd expect Smith to play in a similar position to what Nolan does at Bolton. The two players aren't too dis-similar.

I'm not a Noaln fan per se, but he's a damned sight bettter than Dirty Smith.

I'm expecting soem Parker-esque long range sliding tackles, lots of bluff and bluster, and not a lot else, but who knows, maybe all the Man Utd fans are wrong.

4th.

 

1 - Manchester United

2 - Liverpool

3 - Chelsea

4 - Newcastle United

5 - Manchester City

6 - Arsenal

7 - Aston Villa

8 - Everton

9 - Tottenham

 

Not very 'fashionable' (indeed, a bit controversial, especially to those obsessed with the current 'top four') but, lets wait and see!!

 

4th!!!! muahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

 

Let's all just wait and see, Mr Monkey!

 

We are consistently under rated, while a few other teams are consistently over rated.

 

None of us (in doing a forecast for us) have anything (at all) to go on, as the club/team did not exist in its current form last season at all. In my judgement we will score a lot of goals, and the only thing that stopped us picking up a lot more points last season was the defence. This season we should pick up a huge number of additional points with the defence (as I "hope" it is) sorted!!

yes, we shall see indeed.

I have some fundamental issues with a number of our positions, but i'm a cynical man, so thats understandable.

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=257424

 

 

 

 

what the f*** do they expect anyway?  It's the NEWCASTLE evening chronicle.  Let the Echo have it on their back page.

 

 

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle is a "regional" newspaper for North East England  (like the South Eastern English equivalent - the London Evening Standard - is for the South East of England) it is not just a "Newcastle" paper.

 

Most regional functions / businesses / media, are centred and have their head office in Newcastle (often in the City Centre) and the Chronicle / Journal newspapers are amongst them.

 

From a football perspective it concentrates mainly on Newcastle United, because they are the only big nationally/internationally-known football club we have in this area, not really because the head office of the paper is in Newcastle City Centre!!

They have the Echo.

I think Martins has an excellent first touch, it's often his second touch that lets him down and his short range passing isn't too good either.

i think his first touch is sometimes good, often utterly shite. Like his passing and his shooting.

Why's everyone putting Smith in attacking midfield? he isn't an attacking midfielder. If he plays striker he plays right up top, if he plays in midfield he plays a more holding approach, it's simple.

 

Did you watch the Sampdoria match?

 

He played very much as hard working midfielder, not attacking or defensive. His energy means he can cater for both jobs getting involved in both the tackling and the attacking. If we play with 3 centre midfielders (Geremi,Butt and Smith) Smith is going to be the one with a licence to get forward above the rest.

out of those 3, you're right.

But that doesn't mean he's GOOD at it, of course, or that he'd necessarily be the "free roaming" midfielder if we had other players next to him.

I just think that we have a Championship class squad, with the possible exceptions of Richardson and Gordon.

 

Nope, Richardson is Championship class as well.

Nah, he's a middling Premiership player (like most of our players last season, and many of yours).

i think Martins has got a good touch most of the time

Milner miss controls a couple every match but he works 100%

Blows your claims about going to loads of games home and away clean out of the water

ha ha, it does like. What next "Ameobi has excellent positional sense and reading of the game"?

Given is breaking down a lot now it seems  Not good news at all.

 

So who is currently our third goalie at the moment?

years of overwork are finally taking their toll.

What ever happened to Rafa?

Gone off to re-write history. He'll be back at some point to claim that Torres is the "final piece in the jigsaw".

Or, like a fella i heard on the radio on Sunday, that it'll be a two-way race between the RS and Chelsea, and that Man Utd are "off their game". Classic stuff from the Annual Liverpool Delusion Society.

At least Oba has enough pace and skill to make up for his poor first touch most of the time.

pace, certainly.

4th.

 

1 - Manchester United

2 - Liverpool

3 - Chelsea

4 - Newcastle United

5 - Manchester City

6 - Arsenal

7 - Aston Villa

8 - Everton

9 - Tottenham

 

Not very 'fashionable' (indeed, a bit controversial, especially to those obsessed with the current 'top four') but, lets wait and see!!

4th!!!! muahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Did the whole prediction thing in the spreadsheet, my results.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Sparkynufc/prediction0607.jpg

Only 2 losses at home??

Of course i want them to go down.

Anyone who would rather other teams went down that Sunderland is a fucking wrong 'un. It's SUNDERLAND, for fuck's sake!!

9th.

Ameobi, Martins and Shambles (RIP your career, you stupid twat).

They have the incredible Kevin "I've never played for England" Nolan, so why would they ever need a 20 goal a year striker?

 

We've already got a 20 goal a season striker. Nicolas Anelka.

 

That would be the 20 goal a season striker that has never scored 20 league goals in a season? And has only scored 20 goals in a season once in his career.

 

How many 20 league goals a season strikers do we have?

 

What has that got to do with his comments being inaccurate?

None. But the fact remains that we don't.

Cassano's meant to be available. Presumably he's shit now though. He's an Allardyce type 'risky' buy though.

 

Some SerieA clubs have offerred to take him on loan for a year apparently and match his wages.

Loan deal would be a good idea. Less risk etc. At the same time, if he does really well, we may struggle to hang onto him. We can just sign Deco or Riquelme next summer if that happens though.

 

yeah, we can just sign either of them next season. Or dig up the remains of George Best and reanimate him as a young, not-drink-addled superplayer, which is slightly more realistic that signing either of those two.

I was taking the piss with the last bit.

I know, but there'll be some idiot who thinks a "big club" like us will be signing those kinds of players. You shouldn't encourage them.

They have the incredible Kevin "I've never played for England" Nolan, so why would they ever need a 20 goal a year striker?

 

We've already got a 20 goal a season striker. Nicolas Anelka.

 

That would be the 20 goal a season striker that has never scored 20 league goals in a season? And has only scored 20 goals in a season once in his career.

How many 20 league goals a season strikers do we have?

I heard that he'd been spotted wearing one of those 'Sumo'-style rubber suits. Then again it might just have been Mark Viduka.

 

17 goals last season 

I heard that he'd been spotted wearing one of those 'Sumo'-style rubber suits. Then again it might just have been Mark Viduka.

 

17 goals last season 

14 league goals. Doubt he'll get that many this season.

Cassano's meant to be available. Presumably he's shit now though. He's an Allardyce type 'risky' buy though.

 

Some SerieA clubs have offerred to take him on loan for a year apparently and match his wages.

Loan deal would be a good idea. Less risk etc. At the same time, if he does really well, we may struggle to hang onto him. We can just sign Deco or Riquelme next summer if that happens though.

yeah, we can just sign either of them next season. Or dig up the remains of George Best and reanimate him as a young, not-drink-addled superplayer, which is slightly more realistic that signing either of those two.

Babayaro, Ameobi, Pattinson, Dyer, Fatty Carr.

It seems to have been generally reported as £4m rising to £7m. People are obviously optimistic about getting the add ons.

Well, if he's as sh*t and injury prone as everyone is saying on here, you won't be getting much more (based on appearances anyway).  Like I said, he's not guaranteed to be first choice in any position.

 

He's better than Scott Parker mind you, that bloke is one average footballer.

Parker and Dyer are two average footballers, in fairness.

As for the 433 argument, he has an eye for goal and a telling pass, his link up play is good and is far more attack minded than fucking parker.

he is none of those positive things you speak of. Go talk to a Man Utd fan (one who actually saw him play), and ask what they think. He's not a good midfielder, and he's never scored enough goals to be classed as a good striker.

Im pretty shocked by some of the shite on here tonight. Big Sam is building a squad. He will want players with different attributes to play in different games. Bringing Smith in gives us different options, especially away from home. He is a better manager than we have had recently. He looks at the big picture and isn't so stupid to think that every single signing has to improve our best 11. He will pick different players in different formations against different teams. Smith will fit into one of these systems, proberbly in games away from home and against some of the better sides at home.

 

The days of 442, pick your best 11 are long gone. It will change game by game, and Smith will be an important player.

If a player of Smith's quality becomes genuinely important to us, we are going to be struggling with the whole "top 10" thing.