Stu

Ugh. What a fish-tastic post, marra. He's still early on in his time here, results are the important thing for Pards at the moment as they buy him time to evolve the playing style towards his preferred way (a variant of 4-3-3/4-5-1). He could be trying to get the team to play on the floor with 3 front men but if we're conceding every week then we won't get results.

Gatewood today, will win comfortably.

Because it's not in Pardew's nature to play a pass and move game. He's come from low profile teams where the long ball is used effectively to punch above their weight similar to Sam Allardyce. He does try and incorporate some passing, but it's mostly just impressive talk. It doesn't look like we practice it on the pitch at all, and under the slightest bit of pressure it's Shola up front and long balls to the big lads. He doesn't really believe in the passing game IMO, and looks unsure how to implement it. It looks to me that players like Cisse and Marveaux are getting stick on here when more than likely the style of football is more suited to the Sholas and Martin O Neill type of players. Agree with all of that. Pardew sticks to what he knows which is percentages. Players moving around or going forward too much and losing position in a passing movement worries him. Our players try as much as possible to hold thier zone and their core position and then reboot. This keeps the team profile solid and hard to score against (that's the theory anyway -MON - Allardyce and Moyes - but he's changed the last couple of seasons). I suspect he's been pawing at statistics too much which often don't tell the full picture. Often 3/4 touches may lead to a goal (like the kick from Krul goal on Sunday) and nobody has to have deserted their positon (Shola just moved in a bit). He looks at mistakes (goals conceded when there is a corner up the other end and the breakaway). Ironically these kinds of stats are the surface of the game but now with prozone and so on they have become the new gloss. Tbf to Pards he's a bit like an unpolished Mourinho who has had his fair shair of very static and defensive formations (remember how Chelsea used to lob it to Drogba a lot?) Just that a lot of Mou's overfocused research (see all his assistants and their number crunching - Clarke etc) is gilded with teams full of stars. P like Mourinho is only interested in winning football. Even now two sprinters wait on the half way line (Benzema and one other) while the whole team defends. P still really wants Carroll as the focus, that should tell you everything. What a bunch of tripe, Pards consistently produced attacking, creative football teams with much lesser sides. How on earth do you compare this to Allardyce? Is this the chalk and cheese thread?

Missed the first 15 minutes but (given Man Utd are 2 goals up) we are comfortably the better team.

to be fair to D28, Ronaldo did have 'better' season than usual, relative to Messi. Don't think Messi is an odds-on banker when you consider it was his lapse that cost Barca a champs final place - that'll count for a lot. Similarly, Ronaldo's ridiculous decision to go 'last' in the pen shoot-out (and not take one) should count against him. Good shout for Iniesta, he was sublime at the Euros.

Every year we go through the same thing with this regime though, and every year people moan about it, and every year we get better. One of these days the penny's going to drop with a lot of people that for the most part they actually know what they're doing. Besides, we are showing ambition, signing one of Ajax's best players and a bunch of very promising youngsters, and providing we don't lose any big players (that's a game changer) that is a massive signal of intent! I just think people sometimes need to step back and appreciate where we are and how good our squad actually is.

Seriously? You're saying that 17 year olds HAVE to 'press on' and break into the first team? That's a dreadful approach to youth development. "Ahh, you're 18 and not played for the first team...sorry, you're not going to make it"

Aye, i can. I'm just going by what players have said once they join Newcastle. That and how Newcastle is now viewed down here.

No one is demanding a top 4 finish. I just think that you should have a "realistic dream" and I think, as you says, that it is to finish top 4. too have a battle of 5-7 just because that may be the likely outcome feels quite lame too me. Well fine. If we look at that from last season, we set up the Battle for 7th because that was our "realistic dream", so this season, our dream of top 4 would not be a bad shout. If "Battle for 4th" inspires more confidence for you, then I can see where you're coming from.

I AM SHAKING WITH RAGE.

That's probably because you are one of the knee jerkers though. Am I bollocks man, ive been dissatisfied all summer. Today's just underlined what I've felt all pre season tbh. HOW many gold medals for Team GB?

French league is notorious for never going over 2.5goals.

Just under 7/2

How many gold medals do you think we'll get?

e/w - not that it helped

Good shout, actually

Premiership Winners: Man City Runners Up: Chelsea 3rd-6th: Arsenal, Man Utd, Newcastle, Spurs Relegation: Swansea, West Brom, Norwich Overachievers: Reading Underperformers: Tottenham Top Goal Scorer: Aguerro Break Out Year: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (over 10 goals) Season to Forget: Carlos Tevez/Vidic/Hazard PFA Player of the Year: Aguerro PFA Young Player of the Year: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Manager of the Year: Roberto Mancini First manager to quite/be sacked/'mutual consent': Brian Laudrup Newcastle United Where will we finish?: 5th/6th Top Goalscorer?: Ba How will we do in the cup competitions?: 4th Round - League Cup; 5th Round (replay) - FA Cup; 1/4-finals - Waffa Domestic Championship Promotion: Cardiff, Birmingham, Bolton Championship Relegation: Barnsley, Crystal Palace, Sheff Wed League One Promotion: MK Dons, Swindon, Sheff Utd League One Relegation: Portsmouth, Shrewsbury, Crewe League Two Promotion: Dagenham, Fleetwood, Plymouth, Torquay League Two Relegation: AFC Wimbledon, Rochdale FA Cup: Man City League Cup: Arsenal Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Fleetwood Town Europe La Liga winner: Real Madrid Serie A winner: AC Milan Bundesliga winner: Boroussia Dortmund Champions League winner: Real Madrid Europa League winner: Napoli World Player of the Year: Iniesta Other Will Stewart Downing finally get a league assist/goal for Liverplol? Yes Will Fernando Torres score 15+ goals? Yes How many points will Rangers win Scots Div 3 by? 15pts On what date will Fat Sam get that top job he deserves? When hell freezes over. Tiote or Cattermole? Bats for me, like. Mario Balotelli - what insane stuff will he do? Score a decent amount of goals, contribute to a league winning campaign, grow-up.

Shara Proctor @ 8/1 Zuzana Hejnova @ 8/1 Sanya Richards-Ross @ 14/1

Well he's not wearing the Spiderman mask because his mother was killed by the Green Goblin and it reminds him of his eternal quest for vengeance

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02303/hockey_2303278b.jpg

Haven't double checked but I think they also let me down in the 4-fold - Grabarse was e/w. Good night though

For tonight: Sally Pearson @ 1/6 110m Hurdles Robert Grabarz @ 4/1 High Jump Taoufik Makloufi @ 7/2 1500m Great Britain @ 5/6 Men's Hockey

Had a treble on: L.Clarke to finish top 2 on his heat GBR/GER/NZ straight tricast in Mens Kerrin Aus/GBR straight forecast in Woman's sprint Pays 62/1 EDIT: Did that go through as a dead heat for 3rd place? Not paid out yet