Shak

Happy with the team. He's not going to drop Colback any time soon so it's the best we can hope for... for now. Feel bad for Perez after a good performance at Old Trafford but Thauvin and Sissoko out wide gives us more potential service for Mitrovic.

Yeah, got a throbbing hard-on to see this at some point. Anita Sissoko Wijnaldum Thauvin Perez Big Mits Potential for Perez and Thauvin to swap regularly. Would be the best bet for the tougher games where we need a bit more presence in CM anyway. Then if we really want to have a go at teams we can go. Wijnaldum Anita Sissoko Thauvin Mitrovic Perez

Tasty draw.

Home draw!

Walters looks so vacant, has a sort of bovine indifference etched on his face at all times.

Awful goalkeeping from both keepers in that shootout.

Guy goes down the middle but this time Shay didn't go early... He still didn't stop it, but a moral victory.

Given has gone the wrong way on 5 out of 6 penalties.

Shay Given between the sticks for a shootout... Better hope Luton put a few wide.

Sorry to be a nuisance , but Could you describe it please ? The one where he uses the outside of his foot to make the defender think he's going one way then when the ball is off the ground and moving flicked it the other way to wrong foot the defender. Nearly lead to a goal. The Elastico

I'm feeling feelings again.

Thauvin taken off to stay fresh for Saturday I hope.

Good stuff.

You can't teach decision making to a footballer? Is it the magic ingredient that you just have or dont? Hello mr Pardew. I'd agree with Polic like. Obviously coaching can improve a player's decision making but much of it is down to vision and ability to read the game in a split second, which is largely innate in my opinion. Both of those things (vision and ability to read the game fast) are constantly taught to players even in a much lower level. As with most abilities some are naturally better at them but the idea that they can't be teached is just simply wrong. Obviously they can be improved, that's the whole point of coaching. But the original point you took issue with was that you can't teach a player to be as clever as Ayoze is, which is absolutely true.

You can't teach decision making to a footballer? Is it the magic ingredient that you just have or dont? Hello mr Pardew. I'd agree with Polic like. Obviously coaching can improve a player's decision making but much of it is down to vision and ability to read the game in a split second, which is largely innate in my opinion.

Yeah, some players I find myself shouting at when watching the game because they don't see the pass or they don't make a good run when it looks on. Don't get that with Ayoze, so smooth. If McClaren drops him for the next game I'll be very annoyed, should never have been out of the team in the first place.

Never fancy him with penalties. Such a soft attempt.

Not sure SDJ has the legs for it. Haven't seen a tremendous amount of him so I might be wrong but I had him down as someone who's going to do well operating in the hole using his movement to create space for himself. Asking him to play as a real CM player would possibly negate that as he'd be asked to do a lot more work when we don't have the ball and have to start off from too deep a position when we gain possession.

I'd go with that too, won't be upset if they give Darlow a game though.

Do you think it'll be Tiote and Wijnaldum then? Would require Tiote rediscovering his best form for us, don't know if I can see that happening. I think McClaren also wants Anita to be the foundation of our midfield, the player who takes it from the defense and gets things started. Personally I'd like to see us go primarily with Wijnaldum Anita Sissoko Perez Thauvin Mitrovic Think that could produce some very good football and the players would compliment each other quite well, bit of everything there. The downside to it is that we'd be possibly a little light on presence in CM in tougher games against better opposition, particularly away from home. So when necessary I'd like to see us move Sissoko central and Perez out wide and go with something like this. Anita Sissoko Wijnaldum Perez Thauvin Mitrovic Bit like we saw yesterday, Anita sitting in front of the CB's with two CM's in front who have license to push forward on the counter. Sissoko and Wijnaldum gives us excellent athleticism in the middle of the park. SDJ would obviously be a strong candidate to play AM in the first formation, I put Perez in because he has the ability to move to the right and we could change systems at will.

All in all I've been impressed by him so far. There's definitely an intent to play good football there, and more importantly he seems to have some sort of idea about how he wants to go about installing it. Biggest gripe so far has to be him actually rating Obertan and starting him ahead of Perez, a decision that seemed ludicrous and yesterday's game confirmed to be so. If we see Obertan start again I'll be surprised and very disappointed in McClaren. Obertan is shite and forever will be, no excuse to keep playing him. The next big issue is going to be Colback and Anita in CM. I'm worried that he'll persist with it for far longer than he should. He seems to see Anita as a key cog in the system he wants, which is fine with me. He also seems to think Colback has a large role to play though, which I can't understand. Think most of us want Wij playing deeper and Perez\De Jong starting as the #10, but personally don't think he's going to do it and it'll become the first long term gripe we have with him

Wasn't entirely serious you fannies. End of the day I'd say he's good enough to play for a PL team who are fighting relegation, any team who aspires to anything higher shouldn't have him playing IMO.

I can see how people would think he's a useful player if they don't pay much attention to our games and/or don't really understand the game of football. Probably applies to a large portion of the St. James' Park crowd though, unfortunately, which is why he's mysteriously liked by so many of our fans.

That's fucking heartbreaking. Fuck Pardew. Fuck our retarded fans. Fuck anyone who reads this. Fuck sake.

No it wouldn't, he'd be a passenger. Need someone with legs. Nah, he'd hold it up in the centre for at least a few seconds longer than anyone else is able to at this stage. Give some time for others to push out. And how do you suppose we'd get the ball to him?