Shak

The lack of Mitrovic up front means we have absolutely no outlet to play direct, Perez has no chance up there.

Happy 2nd of March everybody!

Barton and Taylor ? Dyer and Jenas Think Smith and Owen started a game up top together for England when they were both NUFC players. I don't recall how the game went... it's hard to imagine it was anything other than ghastly.

He may never be a top goalscorer but his play leading the line really helps the players behind him get into goalscoring positions so it's more than worth the trade-off IMO. Perez and Wijnaldum both have a real eye for goal so as long as we have players like that playing off Mitro we can still get enough goals IMO. It's also a bit early to decide he's not much of a goalscorer in any case. It's his first year and he's still very young, I hope we're patient with him.

Sent my brother a link to that video on Facebook. Response was as follows. "Bit of a loon tho aswell always had the skills tho wasted" Called him a fat retard and logged off immediately.

Perez is shit now then.

Tiote warming up the tardmachine.

Right, because everybody always has the exact same opinion on a decision once we've seen the replay. There'll still be plenty of controversy, video refs will make decisions people don't agree with as a huge percentage of decisions are subjective. What this could cut out, however, is blatant cheating and absolute refereeing howlers that cost teams games when everyone can see an injustice has been done. I've no idea why anyone would be against it in a sport so badly littered with cheating.

We can only have 25 players who are over the age of 21 registered. So the likes of Mbemba and Mitrovic don't count towards that 25. Given that we have the likes of Bigirimana and Marveaux listed (as well as loads of other utterly shite players) I don't think it's going to be too difficult to find someone we can boot out to make way for any new players.

Was very poor yesterday, didn't look bothered. Still reckon he'll score plenty if we ever decide to play with a system that actually tries to get crosses into the box, but he doesn't appear to have any pace at all so he's gonna need to be an absolute monster in the box.

Colback clearly took him put lads.

That was awful from Benteke. Could have just rolled it in from 30 yards.

Whoops. Honestly expect me to believe that YOU made a mistake? Not buying it.

Dave has Tiote starting in the game thread. Got my hopes up that Colback had gone away.

Perez, Mitro and Thauvin in. Cisse, SDJ and Colback (or being realistic... Anita) C'mon McClaren, make it happen you gimp.

Seriously? Decades of heartbreak and piss we've endured and you're telling me that the failure of John Dahl fucking Tomasson is the one thing that really stings.

Was ridiculous that he wasn't a starter at the beginning of the season. We started Obertan ahead of him FFS. Finally gets in the team and was very clearly one of our best players thereafter. Now he's inexplicably dropped again. This time it's for De Jong, a guy who has literally never done anything to justify a place in the team. My only guess is that he's a quiet, laid back character in the dressing room and McClaren sees him as someone he can leave out without risk of it causing problems. It's bullshit.

His ball into Mitrovic for that chance was terrible tbh, absolutely fucking thumped it at Mitrovic when there was no need at all. Made the chance very difficult. Disagree with you there mate, if he doesn't fizz that ball in then it's going to get cut out by a defender. It flashed right by Mitro who was too slow to react. If he'd missed it diving at it you could put it down to a bad delivery, but he just looked like he didn't know which foot to attack it with. Don't get me wrong Mitrovic should have done better than he did, but it was a tough chance given the rain was absolutely pelting down at that time. I'd have to see the replay to see if you're right about it being a small window to make the pass into, but I really doubt he needed to hit it as hard as he did.

His ball into Mitrovic for that chance was terrible tbh, absolutely fucking thumped it at Mitrovic when there was no need at all. Made the chance very difficult. Thought he was decent today though, all in all. He'll always be a somewhat frustrating player as his final ball is incredibly erratic but I do think he's quality on the whole.

Just a typo, I'm not illiterate.

Dunno where his best position is tbh, doesn't get involved enough to be the #10 and you tak take away his best attribute if you stick him in CM. Think where he is now might be his best spot but if we're gonna leave him there a proper attacking left back is a must because absolutely nothing is coming from us down that flank with Dummett out there dummetting things up.

He has such a punchable face.

Had enough chances to win it but can't complain about the result, awful start to the second half against a team who were there for the taking. We so desperately need a real left back and better CMs. Frustrating result.