TRon

It's common knowledge that you should introduce kids into a team gradually, in this game they were all chucked in at the deep end altogether in another unbalanced team. In the league games, Hughton has been over-protective of his senior players, packing the midfield and adopting a defensive formation. Yet when it came to playing the kids, he stripped them of any cover whatsoever, playing four forwards effectively, five if you include Lua lua. I'm sure Tavernier really appreciated having an unenthusiastic Lovenkrands in front of him for example. It might have been good to protect the senior players for the league but I doubt it's done the confidence of the youngsters much good.

Not really. Sending out a completely raw side didn't really give anyone a decent chance. We learned absolutely nothing from this as a result.

Is Donaldson a holding midfielder? I am wondering as he's started ahead of Butt who I would have thought needed the match practice.

It looks exciting but a bit lightweight. Hughton seems to swing from one extreme to the other.

That's my take on it as well. By being forced to play Ranger when Shola got injured we now know he is capable of at least doing a job at this level and we've added another striker to the first team pool. Who's to say that tonight we won't unearth another lad who we can use in league matches this season? Someone like Kadar for instance might show that in an emergency he can come in and provide cover for Enrique.

No chance man Yeah, I agree we don't really have a chance. But we shouldn't be throwing out a bunch of kids. So you would rather a first choice team? Madness I'm not even sure the first choice team that Hughton has been picking is the best bet anyway, it's been overloaded with midfielders and light on forwards. Tonight is a good chance to go with two strikers although the balance of the team should still be right so it's not too lightweight.

With Coloccini's non-existent injury record he might have a while to wait before getting a first team spot.

From the interview Hughton seems to be leaning towards playing a fairly mixed side, not just youngsters so there's potential to put out a fairly decent side apart from the centre back position where we just don't have the numbers available. Personally I think it's great that the likes of Krul, Tozer and Lua Lua get the chance to feel part of the first team squad, it will be great for motivation, not just for them but some of the senior players who take their place for granted.

Neil Farrington in the Journal has also touted starting Barton tonight for similar reasons. Pretty damning assessment of his displays so far this season in the write up http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcastleunited/sundaysun//tm_headline=now-is-the-time-to-drop-joey-barton%26method=full%26objectid=24747079%26page=1%26siteid=61634-name_page.html

One youngster in each area of the pitch is enough IMO, otherwise you aren't going to learn much from the exercise. Guthrie didn't play on Saturday so he could start in CM.

What are you trying to say though? That we gained an advantage from changing to 4-4-2 later on instead of playing it from the start ? Anyway the result of us playing 4-5-1 for the last few games has largely been garbage, being level pegged by the side bottom of the championship purely summed that up. We did better when we went to 4-4-2 because we play better at 4-4-2. The midfielders generally do not support enough atall when there is only one upfront, simple as that. Guthrie is the only one that sometimes gets up there to. Literally everyone one of our goals this season in the league bar the west brom game has been the result of either a long ball or a cross of some kind. Every single one. So in what moronic world does it make sense to then play one lad upfront to get on the end of these against 2/3 defenders at a time. A waste is an understatement. If we're going to play like that, we may aswell do it efficiently. Couldn't agree more, it seems like those trying to defend the 4-5-1 are using the numbers as an argumrnt to hide behind. Just take the blinkers off for a moment and ask yourselves how many midfielders actually get onto the box to support the solitary striker in the 4-5-1 when we use it? It's usually reverted to a backs to the wall defensive job after the first 15 minutes in nearly every game I've seen it deployed. i don't even think the advantage came on saturday from changing the formation as much as the personnel. playing 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 the wide men will still drop to half way when defending and pick up the oppo full backs when pushing forward. and the full backs will pick up the more advanced wide midfielders/wingers. the problem as ever is with movement more than the formation as even if nolan played up front in a 4-4-2 his lack of movement hinders his being there whereas if you had a mobile and attcak mided midfield they should be looking to get up with the forwards and even (dare i say it) beyond them. as ever with nufc the problem,which has been the problem since robson left has been a lack of basic technique and movement. Probably why Robson made such a big deal about Dyer having "two engines". For all people didn't like him for various reasons his movement off the ball was exceptional. This is probably the difference between the best sides and the rest; they have players who possess mobility and intelligence, we usually have players with one attribute or the other. Noaln for example is actually quite a clever player, he's just too slow around the pitch so we end up losing control of the game due to lack of movement when we have too many players like him in the side.

I have a feeling that our loan transfer dealings are over until January now as Hughton has only publicly indicated that we were in the market for a striker and a forward which we have just about acquired with the arrival of Harewood and Zurab. That makes it even more important for Lua Lua to make some sort of impression when he gets playing time otherwise we are stuck with using players out of positon till Xmas.

What are you trying to say though? That we gained an advantage from changing to 4-4-2 later on instead of playing it from the start ? Anyway the result of us playing 4-5-1 for the last few games has largely been garbage, being level pegged by the side bottom of the championship purely summed that up. We did better when we went to 4-4-2 because we play better at 4-4-2. The midfielders generally do not support enough atall when there is only one upfront, simple as that. Guthrie is the only one that sometimes gets up there to. Literally everyone one of our goals this season in the league bar the west brom game has been the result of either a long ball or a cross of some kind. Every single one. So in what moronic world does it make sense to then play one lad upfront to get on the end of these against 2/3 defenders at a time. A waste is an understatement. If we're going to play like that, we may aswell do it efficiently. Couldn't agree more, it seems like those trying to defend the 4-5-1 are using the numbers as an argumrnt to hide behind. Just take the blinkers off for a moment and ask yourselves how many midfielders actually get onto the box to support the solitary striker in the 4-5-1 when we use it? It's usually reverted to a backs to the wall defensive job after the first 15 minutes in nearly every game I've seen it deployed.

He started 2 games for Donny & was a late sub in one game. Is he a right winger? He seem to have played in most postions for 2nd XI. I wish he had his brother pace. He looks like he's got his brother's tunnel vision...let's hope not though.

Well it's always worth looking at a Youtube compilation if only to convince yourself you've signed a world beater. more chance it's a wife beater in this case mind.

Does he operate in the penalty area much or is another player who likes to run from deep? I haven't seen that much of him but we seem to have a glut of strikers who are good at being target men and not very many who actually get in goal scoring positions on a regular basis.

i've personally had enough of saying it, but people still want him there. It's absolutely bloody ridiculous man. The problem for me is that since he first pulled on a Newcastle shirt he's made it clear he doesn't like playing on the wing, and when he's put out there he doesn't look like he's putting 100% in.

Even more baffling how he isn't fitter by now after playing every game. Maybe he just looks unfit because he's fat and slow.

To actually guage the full potential of the back up squad players it would be better to only play 3-4 youngsters max. Sticking too many inexperienced players into the line up suddenly isn't really fair on them. Butt could be useful in this game for that reason if he's paired with someone like Guthrie.

I look at it as more like a chance for Hughton to experiment with the team and pick a more adventurous formation. In the league he is obviously more cautious and worried about putting noses out of joint, but here he can argue he is protecting the seniors for the league fixtures.

Lovenkrands has had a tendency to go missing in his time here, having got his contract he needs to show a bit of hunger if he wants to stay in the first team as a regular. It's well documented he doesn't like playing on the left wing but he's not guaranteed a start as a striker so he should get his head down and put a shift in for the team.

most fans seemed pretty pissed off or worried when he put it up for sale this most recent time though. though it is possible that what you describe could've been just what Ashley was thinking. Most fans were woried that the club wouldn't actually get sold and putting it on the market would mean that the club would be end up at a standstill. They were right to be worried as it has turned out.

It's his preferred position but I don't think we'd lose all that much by moving him to the right. Can only remember him playing on the right against stoke (home and away) off the top of my head, sure there're more examples though. If we can get a higher quality LW than RW in on loan I'd be happy for him to switch. Enrique like Jonas infront of him, provides cover and enables Jose to attack more. True, they do seem to work very well together. Sounds mental but when Jonas is in our team Enrique is our most creative player. Enrique overlaps well with Jonas, it would be great if we could get a similar partnership going on the right hand side. Ryan taylor should be able to produce a lot more consistently when he's playing full back, although tbf he did quite well on saturday.

The squad is starting to look strong enough to challenge over the course of the season at last. Carroll and Ranger making an impact has obviously been a massive boost as well.

Can't say I've been too impressed in the cameo run outs he's been given this season but I just feel he should have been pushing harder for a first team spot considering the fact he played in this division last season for a spell, not to mention we don't have any right wingers on our books. Not that I expected him to be starting every week, but if he's not ready then we need someone in who is.