chicago_shearer

Like others have said - go out, score the early goal and the tie is over.  So long as we play as positively in Holland as we did in the first half today then we should go through easily.  Just trying not to think about Sporting Lisbon...

Larsson 1-0. 

Man Utd have been very poor. 

I agree with the fact that English success in the CL reflects well on the rest of the league.  If we never beat the teams that are in it and then they all get knocked out in the first round, what does that say about the quality of the league?  Fair point.

That said, I don't think I want an English team to win the whole competition.  Because of their supporters more than anything.  I won't be too bothered if one does (please not Man Utd) but that doesn't mean we have to support them. 

So basically every fixture other than the one we want to watch is recieving some sort of coverage.  Brilliant.  And they wonder why illegal internet streaming is so popular. 

Under no cirumstances.

You would really have a hard time finding defenders that aren't an improvement on the ones we have, and Anton is one of the few centre-halves in the Premiership that might just make things worse.  A partnership of Anton & Titus would be the laughing stock of the league. 

Luckily, I think his stock has fallen a lot in recent months and after this latest disciplinary issue I doubt we'd go near him.

I think we should sign him so we can play 4-3-3 Martins/Owen/Tevez up front and Carr/Ramage/Bramble/Babayaro at the back and therefore achieve the most comically unbalanced team in history.  Imagine having three of the greatest strikers in the world chasing the long balls of League 2 level donkeys like Ramage & Bramble.  Comedy gold there.

The only thing more boring than the match today would be yet another manager search in the middle of the season.  O'LEARY BY TUESDAY. 

I'd like to see the following midfield given a chance against AZ:

 

Duff or Zoggy - Parker - Dyer - Milner

 

And then Le Sib and Martins together up front.  Parker & Butt don't work well together, and we'd be better off asking Dyer to go back to midfield and using Le Sib as a striker for his height.

 

 

i find the whole parker and butt don't work together thing a bit unfair on butt to be honest.  he's played well all season, whereas parker hasn't IMO

Well drop Parker then.  Point is to bring in a creative presence in the absence of Emre.  That means Dyer or Zoggy.  What we have now are two vaugely defensive central midfielders who don't get back and take the ball out of defence, don't really get forward and whose one and only job is to play the ball out to the wing.  I'm tired of watching Parker doing his little pirouette routine with Butt standing 6 ft away from him.

Downing & Defoe (although maybe not so much anymore).

He always fights to get it back, but his first touch can be very very bad.  Other than that, I have no complaints.  Positionally he is good, his passing his decent, and he scores goals.  If other players in the team were as good at their own position as Martins is at striker then we wouldn't be as low as 10th.

Looks like we've been snubbed by Setanta for the second round in a row.  I've found channels in the US showing Tottenham v. Braga, Lens v. Leverkusen, PSG v. Benfica and Rangers v. Osasuna...but nothing showing our game.  I thought for sure they'd show it seeing as they skipped us last time.  Bastards. 

I'd like to see the following midfield given a chance against AZ:

Duff or Zoggy - Parker - Dyer - Milner

And then Le Sib and Martins together up front.  Parker & Butt don't work well together, and we'd be better off asking Dyer to go back to midfield and using Le Sib as a striker for his height.

Roeder needs to decide whether he wants Parker getting forward or staying back.  No organization in that midfield.  You can't say either Butt or Parker has a clearly defined role.

Were all the people giving Bramble an 8 watching every time he gave away posession by blasting it in the general direction of Schwartzer? 

I wouldn't have him back because he is a disruptive influence and I've enjoyed not making the back pages for stupid stunts like the golf club incident.  And even if he wasn't an arsehole, we seem to be doing OK for pacey forwards at the moment and we should take our money and look for fullbacks and central midfielders. 

Anyone know if the retro kits on the nufc.co.uk club store are available anywhere else online?  The company that makes them (ScoreDraw) sells kits on their own site but for some reason Newcastle isn't on there. 

In regards to Owen Fifa have confirmed they have made a "final offer" of £1m compensation. Havent got a link as its on teletext, page 403 I think. Just seen the thread 

On the BBC website now...1 million is FIFA's final offer.  If this had happened to Liverpool they would have paid his entire transfer fee, his wages for the next 5 years and given them a special dispensation for a place in the Champions League. 

6th or 7th is beyond us.

 

10th would be the level that certain players and the manager are dragging us down to.

Maybe.  But I think whatever difference in class exists between the teams you consider good enough to finish 6th or 7th and Newcastle is fairly small when you compare it to how far behind the top 4 we are.  I personally don't feel there is a lot of difference between the 5th placed club (Bolton) and the 17th placed club (Wigan).

If we had a really good manager, a decent pair of fullbacks and a decent centre-half we'd still not crack the top 4 until the entire squad was rebuilt.

This post is true.  Yes, we have some above-average players like Martins & Given, but so do the other mediocre clubs from Bolton on down.  We are underperforming, but you can't pretend this squad has anything near the ability to get any higher than 5th.  And thats if we had average defenders on par with the rest of the league, which we don't.  11th is too low, but 6th or 7th is about our level at the moment.

Europe out of reach now. 

I'd take Tevez, Ashton and Reo-Coker (in that order) and stear well clear from all the rest.

Just in terms of the quality of the squad, I don't think we are favourites.  Even on our best day, Sevilla & Bremen would give us problems.  Just my opinion.  But that doesn't mean we can't win it of course.

Some people on here were so quick to call him shit when he was playing in a terrible side under Souness.  There's obviously no room for him in a team with Owen & Martins, but he seemed a decent player to me