Beren

Andy Townsend, Mark Lawrenson &c. proving that propaganda works just as well in 2007 as it ever did.

He always uses the excuse with a thin caveat to be fair. "Now I'm not going to say we've had 13 players out injured but... *"blah blah" that is mitigated by the first part of the sentence*"

I think everyone agrees on this.

You're so slow, you're Huntington. aye didn't think so tbh I'll give you the most exaggerated example so you understand. Bramble is marking Invicta Toon. Ramage is marking Thierry Henry. Invicta Toon goes to Burger King, and Bramble, being fond of the odd burger, marks him. Back on the football field, Henry is running full pelt at Ramage... ...now then, do you think Bramble should have maybe helped out Ramage instead of following his inactive marker, mm? Invicta Toon, I should reiterate for you that this is just an example. E-X-A-M-P-L-E.

You're so slow, you're Huntington.

he was bloody awful, you could equally say "huntington couldn't keep a cool head alongside such and such" or "solano couldn't keep a cool head" etc etc. load of crap to say he's some put upon hero a la Maldini who is wrongly suffering due to his team mates, he made by my count about 15 or 16 INDIVIDUAL errors tonight, which is pretty incredible. awful even by his poor standards. Yes, yet there's a thread exclusively for him! The whole defence was shit. What would you expect from this CB you evidently wish was out there in his place? A god-like saviour amongst schoolkids? It says much for your tenuous stance that you would count his errors alone, after he'd been one of our best players recently. I take it you counted the errors of Oba Martins? Butt, maybe? Shay Given? Pathetic. Trying to scapegoat a god-awful team performance on any one player is worthy of Andy Townsend, brother. why is it pathetic? i have no grudge whatsoever against him. i actually think he is our best defender when on song. i even thought he looked immense for the first 5 minutes. i only started counting his mistakes as he made about 4 in one minute around 10 minutes into the match, and this caught my attention. but i notice you've no more to say about his actual performance. btw a piece of advice, stick to talking about the player rather than trying to undermine someone's motivations. My bad. I was wrong to lump you in with others who I've come across on the board. That said, I don't think he was the worst defender out there on the night. AZ focused much of their attack on the right because Louis Van Gaal had the critical knowledge of any N-O poster worth their salt, and knew that to disorientate our central defence, he had to get them to cover for our incompetent full-backs. This is why I think it is wrong that Bramble has his own thread. Huntington - Patently obvious that he was the worst player out there. Skinned repeatedly to the point where he single-handedly disrupted the shape of our team. Full-backs are uber-important in Europe. Solano - Uncharacteristically uncomposed. One of about three really stinking performances he's had at RB. In fairness to him, he was pegged back and had virtually no options. Looked very lost. Gave the ball away in dangerous areas and was out of position a lot. Taylor - Mistakes galore. Dangerous liability. Probably second worst out there behind Huntington. Bramble - Awful. Similarly to Solano, had little options, so ran his foot through it, so Newcastle had lost possession. This is something everyone was guilty of, mind. Was constantly pulled out of position [partly by AZ players, but more often than not, by NUFC players] and gradually lost the confidence that is so integral to his game. My apologises again.

he was bloody awful, you could equally say "huntington couldn't keep a cool head alongside such and such" or "solano couldn't keep a cool head" etc etc. load of crap to say he's some put upon hero a la Maldini who is wrongly suffering due to his team mates, he made by my count about 15 or 16 INDIVIDUAL errors tonight, which is pretty incredible. awful even by his poor standards. Yes, yet there's a thread exclusively for him! The whole defence was shit. What would you expect from this CB you evidently wish was out there in his place? A god-like saviour amongst schoolkids? It says much for your tenuous stance that you would count his errors alone, after he'd been one of our best players recently. I take it you counted the errors of Oba Martins? Butt, maybe? Shay Given? Pathetic. Trying to scapegoat a god-awful team performance on any one player is worthy of Andy Townsend, brother. Tend to agree, I thought Butt was worse than anyone for the first 60 minutes and yet he seems to be escaping from most people's criticism. People DO have favourites and they DO have players that they simply dislike and want to see the back of, it's just nature. Not sure you can blame people for picking scapegoats after that performance Ank, he was fairly abysmal - but as you say there were plenty on an even keel with him. I think the main point of people's frustrations is that he's still here after multiple performances of a similar nature over a number of years. Good post. This season he has been one of our outstanding players, when he hasn't been put in a beehive of a defence. If we had decent full-backs, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

he was bloody awful, you could equally say "huntington couldn't keep a cool head alongside such and such" or "solano couldn't keep a cool head" etc etc. load of crap to say he's some put upon hero a la Maldini who is wrongly suffering due to his team mates, he made by my count about 15 or 16 INDIVIDUAL errors tonight, which is pretty incredible. awful even by his poor standards. Yes, yet there's a thread exclusively for him! The whole defence was shit. What would you expect from this CB you evidently wish was out there in his place? A god-like saviour amongst schoolkids? It says much for your tenuous stance that you would count his errors alone, after he'd been one of our best players recently. I take it you counted the errors of Oba Martins? Butt, maybe? Shay Given? Pathetic. Trying to scapegoat a god-awful team performance on any one player is worthy of Andy Townsend, brother. Centre halves are judged by their mistakes and Bramble made a fucking bucketful. So did Solano, Huntington and Taylor.

he was bloody awful, you could equally say "huntington couldn't keep a cool head alongside such and such" or "solano couldn't keep a cool head" etc etc. load of crap to say he's some put upon hero a la Maldini who is wrongly suffering due to his team mates, he made by my count about 15 or 16 INDIVIDUAL errors tonight, which is pretty incredible. awful even by his poor standards. Yes, yet there's a thread exclusively for him! The whole defence was shit. What would you expect from this CB you evidently wish was out there in his place? A god-like saviour amongst schoolkids? It says much for your tenuous stance that you would count his errors alone, after he'd been one of our best players recently. I take it you counted the errors of Oba Martins? Butt, maybe? Shay Given? Pathetic. Trying to scapegoat a god-awful team performance on any one player is worthy of Andy Townsend, brother.

Same as the other 10 tbh. If you want to pick on him because you've been "waiting" for it to happen, by all means do so, but Paolo-fucking-Maldini couldn't have kept a cool head/held his position/dominated the defence alongside Huntington, Taylor and Solano.

Comfy 2-0 victory for NUFC.

Amended.

Bramble stayed with his marker for the first goal. His marker went to the near post. Shota was Taylor's. EDIT: It was Carr's fault though, IMO. He was slow getting back, and when he did, he was too central. The crosser had acres of space to fire in a dangerous ball.

At no point over the 90 minutes did they look safe from our attack, in perfect honesty. Ultimately, it's ours to lose now... through red cards, crucial injuries or whatever else Souness' Lady Luck can conjure for NUFC...

What about Bramble?! No, no, you were right... Newcastle should be ashamed of themselves for not having bought Woodgate, Ferdinand and Terry " " I never said we should be getting the likes of them. Oh, I know. You didn't come up with any names when I asked you. I just thought we were having a contest to see who could put the most fallacious words into the other's mouth. In any case, we've done this before, watch this will-power:

What about Bramble?! No, no, you were right... Newcastle should be ashamed of themselves for not having bought Woodgate, Ferdinand and Terry " "

Jamie Carragher is over-rated. He's just a bruiser. The only reason that wasn't horribly exposed last night was because Liverpool defended and attacked as a team for most of the 90 yesterday. Woodgate, Ferdinand and Terry are on a different level to him.

Given - 7 - Was he playing? Solano - 7 - Not a foot wrong. With his only one cross, did more than Milner. Taylor - 7 - Solid, and showed commitment. Onyewu - 6 - Looked shaky, but not terrible. Bramble - 8 - Rock. Milner - 6 - I do very much like him as a player, but I felt like beating him with a wooden plank. Tried and failed with the same "move" a thoooousand times. Highly unintelligent and one-dimensional display. Really needs to learn the game better. Worked hard, mind you. N'Zogbia - 6 - Doesn't look matchfit, nor confident, to me. Started to get back into it though. Parker - 7 - Decent display, including some intelligent play against Boateng. Butt - 7 - Impressive. Martins - 6 - Poor for me. It's a rare bad showing though. Dyer - 7 - Worked hard, but had little to work with. Sibierski - 7 - Did well for the brief time he was on.

Fantastic news.

"Who the fuck is David Edgar anyway, hes just a fucking fake Edgar Davids!"

And write this -whole- season off as one of Bramble's "rare" purple patches?! How long does -he- have to do it for?! Ultimately, that's all I can do short of beating my own brain in/having a circular-bandwidth-wasting quote-heavy debate that exasperates the English language! For the record, I apologise if it appeared I was personally discrediting you as a poster, I only meant to discredit your perspective, and, whilst I'm sure you [and a like-minded contingent] will disagree, I felt that I have. Forum of opinions and all that.

You're being kind. No sense in not being so.

Dinho Lad, you're just being plain intransigent mate. You don't believe in facts and you have no alternative solutions - that is to say, solutions with mechanical semantics involved. Perhaps NM would like to continue in your stead...?

Yeah, that's the truth. Would you seriously be happy for us to start next season relying on the likes of Babayaro, Ramage, Bramble etc as our first choice defenders? Are you sure you want to put up with that crap for much longer? If you think I'm being demanding like a Man U, Arsenal or a Chelsea fan…. then I think your standards and expectations are as low as Hansa Rostock supporters. Ramage isn't a first-choice defender. Baba should be replaced. Now comes your favourite Dinho Lad.... Can you read my signature? If you think that, that [amongst other things - such as eyesight, common sense, understanding of football] does not qualify Bramble as at least a fourth-choice centre back at the club, you're either a WUM or you have a mindless vendetta... or you think we're Chelsea... Pick. So, that's one of the three that needs replacing. I would say we also need a new RB. If you're going to say that you disagree with that Bramble passage above, are you going to tell me either, which and in what respect are four other centre-backs at the club better than Bramble, or, alternatively, which four centre-backs do you want to buy [and how do we get rid of our current batch]?

All fair points [as per usual], but some of the criticism is ridiculous. Posters are more concerned with making a reputation on the board as being the "one" that eddies most viciously against mainstream opinion, than actual football matters themselves...! They don't realise how popular this trend is. The truth is, no one [bar Stephen Carr] is as bad as some of the players that people are describing! You'd think we were a Chelsea! "Replace our whole back line, otherwise we have no ambition!" With regards to the CM issue, a lot hinges upon Emre's circumstance come summertime. I don't think anyone knows what's going on there.