chicago_shearer

Can someone please inform the commentator that we are playing well, and that Dunne is not.  Tired of him wanking all over him. 

Yessss...Laursen is fantasy team gold.

Might not be a bad thing since we seem to get more motivated for the "big" games.

Diarra

Nolan

Zoltan Gera

"If we don't win anything this year I will be off," Deco is quoted as saying in The News of the World.

 

"Playing for Barcelona is a dream that I have realised.

 

"This is my fourth season and has been a fantastic period in my career but if things don't go well I will be leaving.

 

"The English league is somewhere I'd like to play.

 

"You can compare Manchester United to Barcelona."

 

"You can also compare Newcastle to Barcelona," he continued.  "Both wear stripes, for example."

Damn it Arsene, stop trying to fuck over my fantasy side and bring on Adebayor.

Martins wasn't exactly offering a lot was he?  It really doesn't matter which out of form midget you have running about like a headless chicken.  Viduka would have made more sense, but it isn't fair to say that was the decision that cost us. 

Don't expect any fireworks against City or Stoke...

 

We're utterly incapable of taking a game to our opponents.

True, but given what we saw today against a £100 mil pound team away from home, there is no excuse about Sam handicapping them with his tactics.  It is down to the players.  There is no formation in the world that forces bad passes and poor defending. 

What I'd like to see now is Mort come out and give Sam another vote of confidence, right away.  Let the players know they are playing for their own careers, not his.  There can be no sitting back and falling back on bad habits.

How the fuck does the linesman miss that?  I can't understand it.  He has ONE thing to do, it wasn't even close!!  Jesus, I need a drink.

First half, 4-5-1, not good, zero shots on goal, wasteful posession.  Second half, 4-5-1, score a goal, play good football.

Now is that all down to the tactical shift of swapping Duff & Zog?  Or could it be that Sam's tactics were always capable of a good result, and it simply required the players to perform?  Which most of them (FUCK off Taylor) did.

“The worst thing that happened to Newcastle was when they beat us 5-0,” Ferguson added.

I don't know why simply "winning" isn't an adequate answer?  I'm prepared to give him a season or two to prove he can do that, but winning regularly is really the one and only goal.  Nice football is a distant second.

If we are winning consistently, then he does his job well and if he does his job well than he has won us all over.

When we are losing, all this stuff about style, arrogance, his tactics, his techniques, his stupid head set, constant chewing and ridiculously large tie knots seem important.  But when we win, nobody cares.  And if you win a lot, then the flaws become positives (see Jose Mourinho). 

I actually feel sorry for N'Zogbia especially. You can see his frustration at having to play alongside crap players. That is perhaps my biggest fear for the squad right now -- our better players getting fed up and leaving for a club/manager with ambition to face teams 19th/20th in the table who don't want to concentrate on keeping a clean sheet.

I can't understand that attitude.  N'Zogbia is 21 years old and probably a millionaire.  He has considerable ability, although he is far from a complete player.  He owes all his money and his fame to this club.  He has had some good performances, and some not-so-good performances this season.

Yes, he has been asked to learn a new position this year.  Yes, he has to play with less naturally talented teammates.  But that doesn't give him the right to have a strop, underperform, and ask to move elsewhere.  If he did that, the last thing I would feel is sorry for him.  I don't ask them all to bleed black & white, but we should demand a higher standard of pride and professionalism.  Especially for young players like that.  They do not run the show, regardless of what they might think.

This is a great post, and mirrors what I've been thinking over the past few weeks.  Well done.

This may not resonate with those who don't think the players bare the most responsibility for their own performances and are merely puppets in the grand design of the manager, but I would collectively have a lot more respect for the squad if I thought their efforts this season had been adequate.  And they haven't. 

Beye and Faye seem like dedicated professionals, which I can respect.  I can also respect Given's service to the club.  But we also seem to have a lot of motivationally challenged wasters at this club.  And some annoying thugs.

Those poor little lads in the dressing room must be heart broken to have Big Sam show such little confidence in their abilities after the drive, passion and ability they have shown in the past few weeks. 

Sam is right on the money IMO.  The players play the game, and they simply aren't performing.  Sacking a manager after 20 games flatters the moody, talent deficient misfits wearing the shirt and exculpates them from the blame they also deserve.  And if Sam needs to admit failure, it is in failing to bring in the appropriate level of ability and professional attitude to the club this summer.  Not his tactics or team selection.  You play where and how you are told to the best of your ability.  And the useless fuckers in our current squad seem incapable of that.

Shocking that more than half of the people responding don't realize that our players are simply of inferior  quality.  That may be the cause of unrealistic expectations.

 

I just don't think we have a fantastic group of players in the context of the Premiership.  Who would get in a top 4 side?  Oba maybe? 

 

Expensive does not equal exceptional. 

 

The squad of players is good enough for the Top 8, absolutely no doubt about it. If you think otherwise, you're stupid, no doubt about that either.

Good enough for the top 8 certainly.  And it is worth pointing out that with half the season gone, we are only 4 pts back of that mark.  But are our players "fantastic"?  I doubt that.  The likes of Pompey, Spurs, Everton, Villa, City etc. wouldn't exactly be falling over themselves to sign most of our lot.  There is hardly a lot of stand out talent in our group, and that is the prime reason behind our dire standard of play. 

I am just getting a bit tired of people flattering the abilities of our players.  When Emre was playing regularly with Scott Parker, he did not set the league on fire.  But when Sam drops him, opinion swings back in his favour.  If you are waiting for another manager to step in, tell them all to stand in different places and then watch as they suddenly rediscover how to pass a ball and show some ability and intelligence on the field, then don't hold your breath.

4 or 5 years go, we had a relatively much stronger squad than the rest of the Premiership.  Today, that is no longer true.  This myth about Everton being a plucky, organized group of average players is garbage.  They have better players than we do in many positions.  That is why they are more successful.

Shocking that more than half of the people responding don't realize that our players are simply of inferior  quality.  That may be the cause of unrealistic expectations.

I just don't think we have a fantastic group of players in the context of the Premiership.  Who would get in a top 4 side?  Oba maybe? 

Expensive does not equal exceptional. 

If he did go, it would have to be Shearer or Keegan.  Because I honestly can't see a non-supporter being interested in what would certainly become the worst job in English football.

Sack the players.

Fucking amateurs.

f*** this 4-4-2 s***.  The problem isn't tactics, it's technical lack of ability and poor attitude.

I don't like or have enough confidence in the ability of our players to think that a new manager would make any real difference. 

Employ David Moyes now

Why on earth would he be interested? 

The same shit group of players will be there if we sack him.  There's just no fucking point.