Rich

You're doing class man, I'm loving the lessened responsibility

Yes, it just doesnt make any sense at all. The only forum in the world with theese rules... Feel free to post elsewhere like As I've said, we've literally been shut down twice in the past in relation to copyright material so we try to be as careful as possible these days.

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,19161.0.html World Police got to it first, boss. Did you message the guy explaining why it was deleted?

Been shut down twice in the past for providing links to streams on here.

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,19161.0.html

Aye, struggling.

Please use the match thread now folks: http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,90608.0.html

HTL.

I wish there were more "number 10s." I grew up in an era that had Roberto Baggio & Dennis Bergkamp. So it's an element that I really miss from the modern game. Same here. I still think it can be an invaluable position when you have the right player in there, although the traditional version is undoubtedly less effective now that so many teams field a specialist defensive midfielder to plug the gap in between the lines. If he's allowed just to drift into space wherever it may be and pull people all over he could completely change the way we play, he also has to be willing to get into the box and beyond the striker too though. Think they call it a "false 10" these days, don't they? Where Ozil played for Germany in the World Cup and VDV played for Spurs last season? Ozil plays in a 3 man midfield in the Lampard role. HBA will be playing off 1 striker like a traditional #10. IMO the modern #10 has to be capable of playing deeper in midfield with some steel (Modric) or out wide (Arshavin) or upfront (Totti). No way did Ozil play "the Lampard role" in the World Cup, he played off Klose, as Sneijder played off RVP and quite a bit off Milito for Inter if I remember rightly. They played as second-strikers as much as they did central midfielders, if not more. This approach led to Spurs using van der Vaart off Crouch for much of last season and it was very effective, although I do think your worry about becoming over-reliant on the number 10 is a very valid one. That I definitely agree with. There were even times last season where our players would just pass it to HBA and then stand still and watch him, but I'm hoping with the new lads it won't be like that this time around. To get the best out of him we need to be getting the ball to him and then ensuring he has options when he does have it. When defending Ozil plays much deeper than a traditional 10, so I wouldn't describe him as a real #10. You would never catch Baggio doing the job he done at the WC. Looking at the Germany formation he DEFINITELY played the Lampard role. Muller and Podolski (who are both pretty much strikers/ advanced wingers) primarily supported Klose as they where the furthest up the pitch. Bastian (Essien), Khedira (Makelele) and Ozil in the Lampard role. That's the classic Mourinho formation. The secondary goal/support threat came from the wingers as evidence with Muller being joint top scorer. Holland where similar with Robben very advanced and excellent. I don't think VDV introduction to the Spurs side has been a good thing overall. None of their strikers did well and they received less points than in the previous season. I'd think they would do better with VDV utilised for away games or rotated with Lennon on the right. In their current system, if VDV has a bad game Spurs won't win. You're wrong mate, I'm sorry, not trying to be a dick but you are off base here. You're not wrong about him defending a bit more than past players in his position, but you are wrong in your description of the role. There's a reason there was so much fuss over the tactics at the last World Cup, because two of the main successful teams (plus Japan) were doings things very different to what people had seen before on that stage in terms of tactics. Diagrams of Ozil's average positions during the group stage WC, rather than just the "starting formation" as shown in the typical way, and apologies to other people about the very passing relevance this now has to HBA other than analysing the role it looks like he'll be playing for us: http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6110/ozil1q.png - Australia http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4186/ozil2.png - Serbia http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/3821/ozil3b.png - Ghana This doesn't change at all until they play Spain in the semi-finals and he goes ever-so-slightly deeper to try and find space. To me he's playing as a "number ten" there, comfortably, not a "Lampard type". You can check all the official tournament statistics here, it's actually decent for anyone who is interested in this sort of stuff anyway: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/southafrica2010/matches/groupstage.html Click on a game and find the "Match Documents" section towards the bottom-right, then click "More »". If Hatem plays that role for us being behind Best/Ba then I think he'll look very good there, thankfully, and I'm excited to see it in action. Even Sunderland looked threatening against us when they had Sessegnon playing the same role, he looked an absolute cut above with time and space in between our midfield and defence.

I wish there were more "number 10s." I grew up in an era that had Roberto Baggio & Dennis Bergkamp. So it's an element that I really miss from the modern game. Same here. I still think it can be an invaluable position when you have the right player in there, although the traditional version is undoubtedly less effective now that so many teams field a specialist defensive midfielder to plug the gap in between the lines. If he's allowed just to drift into space wherever it may be and pull people all over he could completely change the way we play, he also has to be willing to get into the box and beyond the striker too though. Think they call it a "false 10" these days, don't they? Where Ozil played for Germany in the World Cup and VDV played for Spurs last season? Ozil plays in a 3 man midfield in the Lampard role. HBA will be playing off 1 striker like a traditional #10. IMO the modern #10 has to be capable of playing deeper in midfield with some steel (Modric) or out wide (Arshavin) or upfront (Totti). No way did Ozil play "the Lampard role" in the World Cup, he played off Klose, as Sneijder played off RVP and quite a bit off Milito for Inter if I remember rightly. They played as second-strikers as much as they did central midfielders, if not more. This approach led to Spurs using van der Vaart off Crouch for much of last season and it was very effective, although I do think your worry about becoming over-reliant on the number 10 is a very valid one. That I definitely agree with. There were even times last season where our players would just pass it to HBA and then stand still and watch him, but I'm hoping with the new lads it won't be like that this time around. To get the best out of him we need to be getting the ball to him and then ensuring he has options when he does have it.

How did I know this would be the reaction

Aye, I don't mind the French users writing the odd post in French, but at least stick a babelfish translation underneath or something. What about the English users writing in French even after they've been asked not to?

http://translate.google.com/

Can we keep the conversations in English please folks? Been a while since we had to ask anybody to do so, granted, but it still stands as it always did.

Settle down Shirley, not saying I think he's any good at it, but he's often wandering over to the left/into the middle at times during games, even if Jonas is still out there, etc.

I agree with this like, one reason to play him wide is to protect him, but that's a bollocks reason anyway. Marveaux should be played on the left... We get it man, we get it.

I agree with this like, one reason to play him wide is to protect him, but that's a bollocks reason anyway. I think it's narrow-minded, personally. He was outstanding from the left against Everton away, as we all know. Of course he might be even better played centrally, which is a very exciting thought, but to say he "can't play wide" is wrong. There's nothing stopping him starting from a wide position and being given a bit of license to roam, for instance, like Obertan does at the minute. Not really arsed though, as I don't think many expected him to play wide anyway.

I wish there were more "number 10s." I grew up in an era that had Roberto Baggio & Dennis Bergkamp. So it's an element that I really miss from the modern game. Same here. I still think it can be an invaluable position when you have the right player in there, although the traditional version is undoubtedly less effective now that so many teams field a specialist defensive midfielder to plug the gap in between the lines. If he's allowed just to drift into space wherever it may be and pull people all over he could completely change the way we play, he also has to be willing to get into the box and beyond the striker too though. Think they call it a "false 10" these days, don't they? Where Ozil played for Germany in the World Cup and VDV played for Spurs last season?

Ah, this again. You're persistent if nothing else Stu. Anyway, I'll actually try to mix being an arse with some contributions this time: Vuckic is fit to play RM and LM but not CM or AM/FW? Interesting... he's back in full training now, by the way, so he might just be available full-stop. Also can't make sense of Tiote not being included in the CM pool when we tend to play 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 a fair bit and he plays that role, Richardson being ahead of Smith in all areas is very debatable and Smith not being included in the ST pool after his delightful appearance up there against Fulham is just downright negligent. I think Perch would be ahead of Gosling at right-back and also that he would be in the mix for LB ahead of Tavernier/Kadar at the moment if push came to shove. Pure opinion though, really. With Shola only suffering a "knock", Vuckic back training, Santon looking better and Williamson not far off at all we could even have a fully-fit squad come October. Time for a shocking injury to a key player now, I suppose.

Santon looks disgraceful

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/212384/Hatem-Ben-Arfa-warned-it-will-be-weeks-until-line-up/ I just know people are going to love these. At least he's back on with the "door down" and "smiling" bits though, eh?

If it dropped a bit there, just me messing.

Defo mate, appreciate it Hopefully it's something that is eventually remedied in an update.

From the bloke that made the add-on: Doesn't look like one we can sort ourselves unfortunately, I think it'll just be one of those things people have to get used to again.