Cronky

One of my pet irritants is pundits saying that a striker 'should have made the keeper make a save'. No, the striker should aim for the edges of the goal so that the keeper can't make a save.

I don't think he's actually got that powerful a shot. The two goals last night were down to technique and a willingness to improvise. As others have said, striking the ball early and accurately is usually more important than trying to burst the net. He also looks very relaxed and calm, as though he was playing in a kickabout. There's no unwanted tension when he strikes the ball.

Hard to take it away from Cisse, but yes, Santon's now playing with a bit of a swagger and it's making all the difference.

A great effort by all players. And as good a goal as I've ever seen from a Newcastle player.

We're the better side. Simple as that, so far. My only worry is that we've expended a lot of energy in the first half. We'll need to freshen things up with some subs after an hour or so.

Ridiculous, we don't have a capable replacement. We saw against Wigan what a team with good movement could do to us, and Chelsea will carry the same threat. Ba has looked off the pace in that more withdrawn position, and I'm sure Pardew will have at least considered the idea of replacing him for this game. The trouble is, there's no obvious direct replacement, as you say. We could move Jonas forward and put in Guthrie / Perch into the midfield? Then if we're still level with 20 minutes to go, Ba could come on and have a real impact.

My query is why did the Beeb pick Joey, and why did Joey accept the invitation. He's never played for Hodgson, and he only has one international cap. His lack of relevant experience was painfully obvious. I found the interview annoying and embarrassing, which is the same reaction that I've had for a number of Joey's public pronoucements over the last year or so. It's embarrassing because he seems to be trying to live down the image of an unintelligent footballer, but actually rarely has anything original or interesting to say, falling back on populist cliches instead. It's annoying because he really ought to be concentrating on his day job as club captain, which, judging from QPR's league position, he perhaps isn't doing very well. I also find it annoying that a number of people seem to be lapping up his posturing as though it was all very profound. You do know Loftus Road is literally 2 mins away from BBC Television Center? I can't see how it can be disputed that Joey courts media attention.

My query is why did the Beeb pick Joey, and why did Joey accept the invitation. He's never played for Hodgson, and he only has one international cap. His lack of relevant experience was painfully obvious. I found the interview annoying and embarrassing, which is the same reaction that I've had for a number of Joey's public pronoucements over the last year or so. It's embarrassing because he seems to be trying to live down the image of an unintelligent footballer, but actually rarely has anything original or interesting to say, falling back on populist cliches instead. It's annoying because he really ought to be concentrating on his day job as club captain, which, judging from QPR's league position, he perhaps isn't doing very well. I also find it annoying that a number of people seem to be lapping up his posturing as though it was all very profound.

I don't think we should have ruled out a foreign candidate. Of the two English managers, Hodgson is probably the better bet, but there were drawbacks with both and the FA should have been more open-minded.

No, mainly because he had no experience of working with Roy Hodgson and therefore couldn't provide any insights over and above what you or I could pick up from the papers. Did the BBC pick him in the hope that he was going to say something controversial? Not for the first time, I wonder what the QPR players are feeling when their captain seems so keen to put himself in the limelight. They're in a relegation battle, but Joey seems to think he's a bit above it all.

Not wishing to re-open old wounds, but a very large number of people wanted Keegan as England manager at the time he was appointed. It means nothing.

I think he wants four specialist centre backs who can step into the first team if needed. At the moment, we've only got three, and Pardew has had experience this season of two of them being unavailable at one time, and the problems that caused. In fact, didn't we play Simpson and Perch against Norwich? It's a vital position, and while Perch has done okay, he doesn't want to have to rely on him.

Poor guy is a turnip before a ball has been kicked. That article came straight out of Page 1 of journalistic cliches - successful maverick is passed over in favour of establishment man. Martin Samuel writes in a very catchy and fluent style, but the content doesn't always match up. I don't know how he has the nerve to say at the end 'The pity for Hodgson is that, as at Liverpool, he may be rejected in the minds of many before the job has even begun'. If you think it's a pity, Martin, I don't think you're helping. Martin Samuel is a very strange journalist in relation to the quality of his articles. Sometimes capable of writing some intelligent, thought-provoking stuff that is far more interesting than your run of the mill football journalists, but other times he just writes utter nonsense. This being one of the utter nonsense articles. Yeah, he's capable of an original take on things. This wasn't one of them. There are some issues with Redknapp that are much easier to ignore when you don't have the responsibility for the decision.

Poor guy is a turnip before a ball has been kicked. That article came straight out of Page 1 of journalistic cliches - successful maverick is passed over in favour of establishment man. Martin Samuel writes in a very catchy and fluent style, but the content doesn't always match up. I don't know how he has the nerve to say at the end 'The pity for Hodgson is that, as at Liverpool, he may be rejected in the minds of many before the job has even begun'. If you think it's a pity, Martin, I don't think you're helping.

His big problem will be that he doesn't have the support of the media, who wanted Redknapp. They'll cut him no slack at all.

Agreed. That was the game we needed to win. Either Chelsea or Spurs could still stumble, but not both.

The best is the enemy of the good. (Authentic proverb)

I'd agree with all four. On the full back position, I think we could alternatively buy another LB and switch Santon to the right. RB debuchy CB douglas CM Sygnaunsson??? LW Moses A bit too simplistic for our transfer strategy Debuchy and Douglas I haven't seen. Sigurdsson I'm not sure about. He can certainly shoot but I've yet to catch a game where his all round game has impressed me. That could just be down to chance, because even the best players don't shine every time. Moses has come of age this season, but I think it would now take a lot of money to prize him away and the club won't pay premiums for players in the spotlight. Hoilett we could perhaps get if we were able to offer CL, but even then I think other clubs might offer him more money. Zaha looks a major talent, but then again Palace can maybe demand a large fee if other clubs are interested. The best value is abroad and I suspect that's where the club will look again.

I'd agree with all four. On the full back position, I think we could alternatively buy another LB and switch Santon to the right.

Who did, Santon himself or the team? Santon. He looked so much more confident on the right. Not that that should be a surprise.

Looked 1000000000000000000 times better when he played on the right today.

I'm not bothered that Ba's not scoring. He's been playing in a deeper position anyway, and providing the team is (usually) scoring and winning that's all that counts. What bothers me is that he's looked ordinary at best in that new role. It doesn't seem to suit him. The idea that he just needs to get a goal and then his form will recover seems to me a complete misinterpretation of his current problems.

I didn't think the pressure affected us particularly. Wigan's pace and movement was simply better than ours. There's been plenty of games this season where that's been the case, and on this occasion we got punished. Williamson was beaten by Moses because as the ball came over, Moses just shoved him a yard away so that Williamson wasn't in the right position to make his height tell at the crucial moment. You could say that Williamson was weak, but Moses is as strong as an ox. I noticed later on that even Tiote was bouncing off him. Does Krul have a back problem? One or two posters have suggested that. I thought he was a bit slow in getting down for the 2nd and 3rd goals. Santon looked far more comfortable playing on the right, during the 20 minutes that he was allowed to. Pardew really should give him an extended try there.

Do you mean positive whispers? It's not clear. I don't get the hostility towards Smith because 1) We're not offering him a job as a player and 2) It's not his fault the second part of his career was blighted by that injury. Often a player who suffers from disappointment and unfulfilled potential through injury or other reasons can have the right motivation to succeed as a manager.