Cronky

Strong and fast would have been very handy yesterday.

Decent point. 50% of the midfield's job is to defend, and Jonas was our only midfielder yesterday who is half-decent at defending. And he wasn't given a defensive role. Pardew is coming in for a lot of criticism, but we were so dominant in the first half that it would have been a tough call to decide to 'shut up shop', as people are suggesting. And in any case, in the absence of Tiote and any other DM, did we have the players yesterday who could do that?

It was outside the box Aye. Didn't realise that, but it must have been close. The main point still stands - that Santon's poor positioning had put himself and his team in trouble.

It was Duff I stand corrected. The second half has become a bit of a blur.

Inevitably Shola is being singled out, but we didn't get much from either striker all game, and virtually nothing in the second half. It's been said numerous times, but we need at least one striker with better pace and movement up there. It was a major factor in our failure to hold on to the ball in the second half. I don't know why people are complaining about the first pen. Santon knocked into Johnson and you can't expect an opponent to stay manfully on his feet in that situation. The problem was he let Johnson get the wrong side of him.

It felt like a return to the bad old days, when any old ball over the top would have us in trouble. The back four was horribly exposed in that half. We missed Tiote giving us that bit of protection.

Bad defending by Santon. Needs to work on his concentration.

The only danger is complacency. If we keep our focus, there won't be a problem.

We're keeping the ball on the deck very well and dominating the game. That's the best half of football I've seen from us this season.

He does have some previous for hitting someone when they're down.

I think Magpie's general point was that there's often a lot of pressure from supporters to retain the services of established and popular players. However, the owner and manager have to look at the longer term, and make sure there's a good lot of younger players coming through into the first team. Sometimes that means taking a short-term step back to take a longer-term step forward. The prime example of that in recent years was Shearer extending his time at the club, which was treated as great news by the majority of supporters, but which turned out to be a terrible mistake. The other consideration is that you can't wait until an older player's form starts to dip, and then pitch someone in reactively. That's seems to be what Chelsea are trying to do and it's difficult. We also don't know precisely what Colo is asking for. I'd say it's right to have a general policy on salaries and if his demands are way in excess of the rest of the squad then we shouldn't cough up. As it is with Colo, I'd settle for allowing him to see out his contract if we can't come to an agreement. We're not going to get the kind of mega-offer that would tempt us to do otherwise.

With all his other problems, it's hard to imagine this 18 year old lad coping with life in a different country.

Bold, very bold. I assume that Colo is holding out - possibly until the end of his contract - to see if he gets a more lucrative offer from a more successful club. Unlike Enrique, I'm not sure he's going to get a better offer. He's a big hero here, but I don't know if he's as highly rated by the powers that be at CL-type clubs elsewhere. He's a ball-playing centre back, brilliant in some areas but with his weaker points which often get glossed over on here. Hence his international career seems to have stalled and there doesn't seem to be much sign of major interest by other clubs, if the absence of rumours in the media are an indication. I think we'll come to an agreement in the summer. Even if we don't, I'm not sure we'll get a sufficiently big offer to make it worthwhile letting him go early.

5 o'clock isn't such a long time ago arf arf. We oldies are in the minority but you can spot us in the undergrowth now and then, waiting to pounce.

This week it was good to see quotes from supporters on other message boards, talking about us being a well-run club and querying why their club couldn't have picked up the likes of Cisse, Ba etc That makes a real change from being the butt of other people's jokes, which has been the case for most of the time that I've been a supporter.

Fortunately for us all, some time ago Mike Ashley ceased to care what others think of him.

Yeah, that's how it looks. I was hoping for more of a Bellamy / Beardsley-type, but Pardew's vision for the side is evidently different. Or maybe he's looking to Ben Arfa or Marveaux to fill that kind of role. He should add pace and sharpness in the penalty area, which we've been lacking and once he gets used to the more physical nature of the Premiership, he looks like he can be effective. Although he's not big, he seems quite strong. Whatever, the encouraging thing is that this is a player that we've identified at an early stage, he fits into a plan for the side, we've refused to be ripped off and when the player has become available, we've acted swiftly.

Looks quicker and more mobile than our other strikers, and plenty sharp at getting on the end of chances. Yum.

HBA nearly quit football to become part of a Muslim cult - Sufism iirc and that it was a French rapper (Malik I think he was called) and his manager, that got him into it. His ego was too big to kiss the leader's feet though, so he left, it was part of his interview yesterday. Interesting lad, eh? Searching for a father-figure. Told you.

There were glimpses on Sunday of the side we could become. We were held back by a CM in Taylor who did too little, a right back who can't pass and a slow strike force.

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,70504.msg2463543.html#msg2463543 You heard it here first. Scoff ye no longer at my awesome powers.

31 in February. NEXT! Exactly the kind of striker we don't have in our squad, so I wouldn't say no. But against club policy, as you point out.

Was just about to say he's looked decent. Yeah, I've not seen much of him before, but he looked a good all-round midfielder. That's not an area where we have a vacancy, but if Moses is going spare at the end of the season, I'd hope we'd put in a bid. He seems to have improved a lot.

Winning 1-0 at home? We won 2-1 v Fulham at the start of the season and our manager then called for extra bodies then...... The problem is our three strikers are all strong but not very pacey centre-forward types. Combining any of the two of them does restrict our style of play. So basically I agree with you.

Hummm..... an 18 year old publicly implying that Sir Alex is not telling the truth. This will not last much longer.