Rich

He's been in the gym for the last few months working his knackers off to get fit man! Loves the Toon and all that.

He's got worse since he's been moved to the right. Most of his good work in the early games came from him cutting inside from the left.

http://www.football.co.uk/images/news/400x400_1207409541_spt_ai_newcastlevreading_11.jpg Been a bit of an invisible man (or not) for the majority of his time here, much like Joey Barton who was signed around the same time as him. Despite this, I still feel he's our single most important player when fit and in the team and he looks well trimmed-down at the minute as well. He doesn't really feel like "our player" to me in the way I feel about the likes of Beye, Martins, Given and others (if people get what I mean there) but fitness aside there's no reason why he shouldn't cement his place up front and carve out cult hero status amongst the support. You'd imagine he should be well motivated at the moment after such a layoff and with his deal potentially running out come the summer. More than anyone else in the squad I hope he stays fit and he repays us for the money he's had and the games he's missed. Howay The Duke!

I'd love Sunderland at SJP.

You must be drinking loads with all the bonfires you're pissing on lately mate!

List of stuff he does too long?

Wasn't it the Mail who seemed to have the inside track on everything Wise-related from the moment he was mooted to be coming to us in the first place?

Don't get me started.

Nixon is the new Yorkie. You'll turn it around mate.

Are they available for sub £3M? Because that's all we'll get if we sell Owen at this stage.

His first touch was his third last. Think he was talking about Oba?

If it was slow for people there that was my bad. Just messing about with something to make sure it still didn't work. It doesn't. Nowt that affects anything other than Admin maintenance though. Nowt to worry about.

In terms of specialist fullbacks I'd say in terms of getting forward he's not as good as Carr, Hughes & probably on a par with Griffin. Perhaps it is just the way he's being told to play, but if he reaches the half way line he just seems to get rid of it as soon as possible. It's an interesting one but I'd be amazed if it was ability-related for a young Spanish fullback like him. I don't think the way we play helps the fullbacks at all and I can't remember the fullbacks being an integral part of our attacking make-up since Robson had them rampaging forward. To me he seems technically solid and he does have a canny turn of pace. Don't think he's got the best footballing brain though and his decision making seems poor. I don't disagree that he looks a bit "rabbit in headlights" when he gets into the other half.

That's some criticism when you consider some of the cretins we've fielded in those positions over the past few seasons: Ramage, Huntington, Carr, Hughes, Griffin, Elliott, Edgar... Solano I'd grant you without hesitation, N'Zogbia too, Bernard was fairly exciting, Babayaro was easily capable but never bothered to cross the halfway line either. I genuinely think it's more a case of him being made to focus so much on the other aspect than it is him being a poor footballer/incapable of doing any attacking. Even just today he showed glimpses of his ability as far as pushing on goes. He just doesn't do it at all - let alone enough.

You thought they wouldn't respect him yesterday mackems.gif Bit of a difference between coach and manager, alzheimers must be a bugger mate So they will respect him as a coach? Nor, but do you need to be "Respected" as a coach, all he will be doing is taking them through drills and the like Ferguson has created, if anything a coaching role will raise how much he is respected as Ferguson has chosen him. You honestly think if Keane went to OT as a coach he would get given a list of drills by Ferguson and told when to do them?

Yes. FWIW, I still think he'd be better than JFK, but the dream's died for everyone including Keegan now, time to move on Sadly agree with this, at least in the short-term. Haven't given up on him ever coming back completely though.

Actually I thought Beye was Downings bitch today nearly all their attacks came down that side. Most of Downing's crosses didn't come from the byline, though. There's not much you can do to defend early balls into the box. I don't think Beye was particularly good, but he was solid enough when called upon. He's still yet to hit the heights of last season. He hasn't been getting forward enough, neither full-backs have though. I think this might be a specific instruction from Kinnear. Enrique's passing has been woeful this season mind. You can understand that away from home but if they're still going to be reserved at St. James' (which they have been at times) then it's a real pisser. Neither are bad going forwards at all (especially when compared to previous fullbacks we've had), but like you say for some reason don't get the chance or don't seem to want it, one of the two. Enrique in particular showed some real pace at times in the second half and really charged onwards, but he plays so negatively the rest of the time it absolutely kills me. So many times you want BOTH fullbacks to just start moving when they get the ball, instead of taking a touch and then stepping-back into a long ball. For Enrique in particular it seems like habit. Habits can be broken though and the coaches need to get it out of his system. Fullbacks are of immense importance these days and we're in the position where we actually have a couple of decent-good ones for the first time in a good while, we need to start making the most of them.

Got tied in knots by Alves at one point in a moment of horrific defending and has an annoying habit of turning his back on shots rather than manning up and charging them down (which is really what you want from a centre half), BUT he made numerous interceptions at vital times (some extremely difficult technique-wise) and was decent in the air for the most part (recall him losing out to Tuncay a couple of times.) He's doing really well considering the circumstances he's come into. There was a great story about him in the Journal today, too, talking about his English lessons and how Jonas and Nacho are helping him along because both of them are good at it. He even followed Bassong's lead and said "why aye man"!

Actually I thought Beye was Downings bitch today nearly all their attacks came down that side. Most of Downing's crosses didn't come from the byline, though. There's not much you can do to defend early balls into the box. I don't think Beye was particularly good, but he was solid enough when called upon. He's still yet to hit the heights of last season.

He seemed to be everywhere at times today. Obviously nowhere near the finished article, but he's looking a very good signing for them. Another one FM got right, it seems.

Viduka has lost a fair bit of his jowels, like, and despite the massive amount of time out still looked like the only one capable of scoring when he came on (although it was easy to see he wasn't at all sharp).

Disagree there to some extent. The only genuine weakness represented in the side today was in centre-midfield, from a positive point of view anyway. Zog and Jonas didn't contribute loads but they still beat their men and pushed the side forward. I have absolutely no idea what tactic was deployed for Owen and i think we'd probably have nicked it if Oba had remained on the pitch with Viduka. Owen might as well have not been on the pitch today. I'd be interested to see how many times he touched the ball, because he certainly didn't get any chances.

Butt and Guthrie will do that to teams. They'll always work hard, but at the very least we need Barton (or the class midfielder we all wanted in the summer) in there to provide some movement and imagination. It's not just those two. Our whole team looks incredibly poor technically at the best of times (at least where passing is concerned.) There's not much interplay/cohesion between the fullbacks and the wingers, the strikers weren't working in tandem at all (Viduka was better with Owen when he came on), the central midfielders treat the ball a bit like a hot potato at times. It's frustrating because every time we seem to make progress on one aspect (which has been defending recently) we seem to struggle in other areas because of it. There's no balance at all between attacking/defending at the minute, it just seems like one or the other for the most part. Happy enough with a draw away to 'Boro, especially considering their domination of the second half, but there's worrying signs everywhere for me as far as our performances go. Suppose we'll see how we go against Stoke at home with the same players available, but if we don't beat that lot at home and play some nice stuff along with it you've got to worry about our ability to do it against anyone.

Bassong was the pick of the bunch today, Coloccini was generally solid again but did have a couple of hair-raising moments. Beye his usual fairly solid self (this season's Beye, not last's) and Enrique varied from the ridiculous to the sublime, as always. Where did Jose get those injections of pace from in the second half? A couple of times he motored up that left-flank like nobody's business!

Pretty hard to watch again overall (the fog didn't help like). We seem incapable of putting good moves together, unfortunately.