TRon

I'm sorry, but how do you not realise his thigh's torn as a medical team? Well Tiote recovered from a hamstring scare to come on miraculously against Stevenage only to be sent off. This is called smart decision making by some.

Or just pointing out areas we could improve in the future maybe?

Think it's more to do with his own confidence issues to be honest. He's shit scared of Premiership full-backs. He never looked comfortable here either. Massive difference between his attitude and the likes of Danny Simpson who isn't half as gifted but who acts and talks like he's the luckiest person alive to be wearing a Newcastle shirt.

That is true. Jonas has a great engine, wins free kicks, fully engages and occupies whatever the other team has lined up on their right hand side and gets the full attention of some of their other players as well. But he isn't a great crosser of the ball. And another 50 pages on here won't change that. Exactly. I'm fairly sure the managers we've had in his time here are fully aware of his strengths and weaknesses and weigh up all the options before deciding to play him. If he's on the pitch there's probably a good reason for it unless they are all wrong.

That's it really. While I agree with the criticism that his end product is usually mediocre at best, at the moment he's a key player because he can run with the ball without running out of breath.

Let me put it another way then, Modric doesn't kick back. I don't think Guthrie enjoys the games where opponents are ready to mix it up a bit. My view is Guthrie likes time on the ball and passing teams like Spurs will give you more of it.

Say what you like about him but his pace and work rate kept us in the midfield battle. Nolan and even Barton would have had trouble stopping the Spurs midfield over-running us without him as an outlet.

No it wasn't, he's looked unmotivated and lack lustre in previous games. Today he actually looked our best midfielder out there which suggests he can only show up in games where the midfield battle is less intense. How was the midfield battle less intense yesterday? Spurs are a passing side and they aren't as physical as many premier teams. I had a feeling this game would suit him better before the game, in the same way I thought it wouldn't suit Nolan. To be fair to Guthrie I've not thought much of his previous efforts in midfield but he looked good yesterday. Thought he contributed in terms of the physical side of things too - harried and hassled Van Der Vaart and Modric well. That sort of proves my point though. It's easy harrying little squirts like Modric, but up against teams who can give as good as they get he goes all quiet. The annoying thing is he clearly has some football ability if he could up his work rate and show some desire.

He looked a different player today, much more relaxed and confident. I can't work out whether it's because we didn't get the best out of him or the Championship is just shit. The latter I suspect.

No it wasn't, he's looked unmotivated and lack lustre in previous games. Today he actually looked our best midfielder out there which suggests he can only show up in games where the midfield battle is less intense. How was the midfield battle less intense yesterday? Spurs are a passing side and they aren't as physical as many premier teams. I had a feeling this game would suit him better before the game, in the same way I thought it wouldn't suit Nolan. To be fair to Guthrie I've not thought much of his previous efforts in midfield but he looked good yesterday.

Not really. Left a massive gap to Lennon's right. Simpson's a full back, his priority is to make sure the winger doesn't go outside and get to the byline. What the fuck was Williamson doing by charging in to cover the same area?

thing is when lennon plays down the left he can come inside or outside, it's easier to say "show him to the line" than to do it and best was getting slated off shola,barton,simpson and nolan for not giving any support down that side......and when he went off it didn't really change. simpson left isolated many times against a very good player.i can't blame simpson for their goal. I thought Williamson was more at fault tbh. Simpson as a full back has to cover the outside. It was Williamson's job to cover the inside but he ended up in the same position as Simpson. Their lack of understanding just made me appreciate the Coloccini/Enrique even more. Enrique playing alongside Colo did exactly the same thing against Adam Johnson earlier in the season, as someone else pointed out. I'm sure it did in that example you mentioned but when you look at the bigger picture you get a more balanced view.

Got caught in possession a lot today. Like Nolan probably found the pace of the game a bit too much at the end of the day.

thing is when lennon plays down the left he can come inside or outside, it's easier to say "show him to the line" than to do it and best was getting slated off shola,barton,simpson and nolan for not giving any support down that side......and when he went off it didn't really change. simpson left isolated many times against a very good player.i can't blame simpson for their goal. I thought Williamson was more at fault tbh. Simpson as a full back has to cover the outside. It was Williamson's job to cover the inside but he ended up in the same position as Simpson. Their lack of understanding just made me appreciate the Coloccini/Enrique even more.

No it wasn't, he's looked unmotivated and lack lustre in previous games. Today he actually looked our best midfielder out there which suggests he can only show up in games where the midfield battle is less intense.

Pardew made some good changes at half time but because we still had Nolan on the pitch we were effectively playing with 10 men by the end. Barton was also shattered but at least he was capable of setting up counter attacks. Pardew himself has said that the players were too gung ho at the end but if he's getting the credit for the changes at half time then he has to take the criticism for how we are failing to close out games.

Tbf though, one of the players who was probably most gassed was Nolan and we had no midfielders left on the bench.

You would, so what is your problem with what Pardew did? And what do you mean by a rash of substitutions? Guthrie was fucked so had to go off. Lovenkrands did well and was a great outlet, and Ranger did a damn sight better than Ameobi when he came on. Usually a manager brings on players to tighten things up but the ball was still flying from end to end. I expected us to close them down a bit better with the fresh legs on.

You would expect the changes would help in that the new players would be less knackered than those going off though.

Needs to learn how to close games out. Two weeks in a row a rash of substitutions has failed to kill the game.

4 points down the swanee in the last two games

knew it

Come on lads....fight for it!

Crowd going nuts at Shola

A late equaliser for Blackpool will make this the perfect day.