TRon

vuckic started making his way towards the squad and has been injured since. In the couple of games he played our midfield got pretty much over run IIRC. Don't know if that was him or other younger midfielders like Guthrie and Lua Lua. Having a bunch of kids in defence probably didn't help either tbf. only started one first team game hasn't he.....posh in the league cup in a stiffs side. I think he started one and came on as a sub in another. My impression of him was that he looked great going forward, not so good tracking back.

Kadar hasn't let anyone down tbf, I'd be happy enough if he gets the nod, but you could understand if Hughton wanted to go with experience. Unless Hall is as diabolical as everyone seems to think here. Never seen much of him myself.

vuckic started making his way towards the squad and has been injured since. In the couple of games he played our midfield got pretty much over run IIRC. Don't know if that was him or other younger midfielders like Guthrie and Lua Lua. Having a bunch of kids in defence probably didn't help either tbf.

Hope Fitz Hall has a decent game, cause he's been slated ever since he's signed.

It's always good to sign new kids but it's a bit disappointing Hars Vukic didn't make more progrees this season - yes I know he was injured but in the games he played before that. Considering the state of the central midfield there was a first team shirt just waiting to be claimed.

I agree. While these signings aren't the best quality wise, they are mostly young-ish lads all looking to make their mark. It will bring some much needed hunger to the side, I don't know about anyone else but I've had my fill of jaded big "stars" picking up massive wages without producing results to match.

At least that means both Smith and Butt won't start. Shame one of them can't be injured for the away games as well.

To be fair to guthrie, while he's been a disappointment this season, he was still head and shoulders above Nolan against Leicester. At some point Hughton is going to have to make a decision whether it's justifialbe to carry a passenger for 90 mins in the hope that he will score a goal.

Another draw on the cards I reckon. They are the in form team, we are at home with expectations of a win so I can't really see either side winning it unless we get an early goal.

Nolan has been out of condition from the day he arrived here, whether he puts the effort in or not he's just too slow around the pitch. The same is true of Butt and Smith who are both players who's best days are behind them for one reason or another. Hughton is playing them because they are all disciplined and will defend resolutely even if they don't offer much offensively. Guthrie should have been the one to provide the drive but he hasn't held down a central position. He should have been given more opportunity to prove he can dominate the midfield battles, but when he has had the chance he hasn't given much indication that he's up to it.

Haven't we won 6 games on the road this season?

In quite a few games this season we've started out trying to knock the ball around, the game against Leicester was a prime example, but we always run out of gas and then get over run in midfield. I don't think that's down to tactics, it's just the central midfielders aren't physically capable of running for 90 minutes. there's also games were the opposite is true though, and we only start playing football for the last half hour, as if it was our plan b. i think we're hitting it long with too much regularity for it not to come from Hughton. i reckon he thinks hitting it up to carroll and watching nolan struggling to latch onto haphazard knock-downs is a sound tactic. If the players are doing it from their own initiative it shows that Hughton has no control over them or just hasn't bothered to develop any sort of game plan. either way it doesn't paint a good picture of his managerial capabilities. I didn't see these same players performing any differently under Shearer though so I suspect it's more to do with the personnel. It might be that Hughton himself prefers the long ball or it might be that these players aren't capable of running for 90 mins in which case there's no other way of playing. Until we get in a couple of midifelders or get Barton involved again I haven't really made my mind up yet.

In quite a few games this season we've started out trying to knock the ball around, the game against Leicester was a prime example, but we always run out of gas and then get over run in midfield. I don't think that's down to tactics, it's just the central midfielders aren't physically capable of running for 90 minutes.

That's got nowt to do with the weather mate.

That's just nonsense about Shola tbh. In fairness to him he's spent seasons out with injury/being fifth in the pecking order of strikers. He's always been a very good finisher of the ball, and it's no surprise having Shearer alongside him for the first five/six years of his career. Really, though? Like, seriously? He's struck a few decent shots in his time but he's never 'a very good finisher'. I'd say he's a decent finisher but he doesn't really hit that many decent strikes. So I don't agree with either of you

Despite the fact I rate Woodgate higher, I am still much happier to have the Argie here. He came with a reputation of being virtually unbreakable and so far he's lived up to it. I reckon he will be ok in the premier provided we can upgrade the midfield by then. Selling Woodgate for £13m was the best piece of business Fat Fred ever did.

Not sure how he'll handle the premier but for 900k what are we expecting? I see him as a decent foil for Coloccini who is by far the better defender on the deck, so Williamson's height should give us some aerial strength if nothing else.

I was dead set against Keegan signing Woodgate and his injury history is the reason why. Otherwise probably the best centre half I've seen here.

We've had the Guthrie option for most of the season and have hardly used it. I think the reason we haven't used him is that Hughton is happy with what we've had so far and that is a black mark for him as far as I'm concerned. In that case you'd make your case a lot better by making it clear that we already have better midfielders than those Hughton is picking rather than suggest briniging in some random loans or cheap panic buys.

We had money to spend on a forward and didn't spend it, we still had money at the end of the window so could have used that. It doesn't matter if we are spending most of our wage bill on the midfield, they are not performing well and that is all that matters. I doubt very much that we have a budget then split it by position played in. No, but there's obviously some positions which are a higher priority than others. Central midfield isn't really one of them in this division. There's still the option of putting Guthrie or Barton into those positions after all.

So did Keegan. So did Roeder. So did Allardyce and..

I understand that Hughton didn't have a massive budget and said somewhere else that he should have used what he did have to bring in loan players on better wages to bridge the gap in quality. Barton coming back isn't something I would like to be risking promotion on because we've had nothing from him so far, at least nothing over a decent period of time. But in the real world there's still only so many players you can have in your squad so until Barton, Nolan, Butt or Smith have gone, it was always unlikely we would be spending even more money in this department. I would think most of our wage bill is due to these guys. I would agree that Barton has been rubbish btw, but having seen the midfield in his absence I don't think there will be too many complaints if he comes back into the fray.

I don't think Hughton had a massive transfer budget so rightly prioritised right wing, central defender and striker. How good a central midfielder do you think you'd get for £1m anyway? I'd far rather wait until the summer and if we get promotion we should be able to invest in a quality player which we badly need. With Barton coming back we were never going to blow a big chunk of a small budget on a midfielder.

What a waste of a life. Hope Sib and his family are bearing up well.

Reading through Best's interview in the Chronicle, he does seem pretty thrilled to be here, much in the same way Danny Simpson is. Even if the quality isn't top notch maybe we should just appreciate having some fairly young and hungry players who are looking to make their mark at Newcastle? When you compare it to the brochure mailing wankers who have left the club after costing an arm and a leg maybe we should be thankful for small mercies?