Shak

Barton's a natural captain. Sadly, he's also a bit of a proven lunatic and until he goes a couple of years more without doing something stupid you can't really make him capatin.

Seems a massive contradiction that referees get graded on their performance and can be demoted or promoted to higher/lower leagues based on what they get right or wrong in a game. But then someone has his career seriously jeopardised by some thug and they're powerless to act, just because some useless referee saw the incident at the time and was too incompetent to take the appropriate action.

It's a strange rule really, seems to work on the premise that the referee is infallible. Nothing will happen to De Jong in the end, he'll go on as he has before and will continue to make a very good living playing the way he does.

"And let's go over to Old Trafford where... no, sorry, just a backpass."

I'd piss myself laughing and would send a Nelson Muntz card to his hospital bed tbh.

Fuck you Dave.

Just stood up and screamed "FUCK" quite loudly there a minute ago. Lass thinks I'm gone mad. Desperate day.

I haven't seen anything like that, it looks like I'm clutching at straws. Haven't seen anything conclusive either, but generally once that oxygen mask appears you know the guy is fucked. Hope he can return and his career isn't completely ruined by this.

Routledge just doesn't seem to have the confidence he played with last season, think he has the ability but not sure he has the belief. Has never done well at Prem level, maybe it's just a step too far for him. Not sure Ryan Taylor is much of an alternative though.

Playing Shola wasn't the problem, it was who he replaced. Hard to really have a go at Hughton for today, again we've gone away from home and given a good performance and had the referee not faceraped us we'd have gotten something. No question the spirit is good in the camp and when we're underdogs in a match we're doing some great things. The problem is that Hughton doesn't have the balls to drop Nolan and play two proper strikers up front at home, and we've lost to two poor teams in home games we should have been more aggressive in as a result. Needs to sort it out like, he's digging his own grave with his loyalty to a retard like Kevin Nolan.

Still, one of these games he'll get on the end of some chances again I'm sure. Big, big player for us that he is.

How'd he do today? I'll bet he was CLASS.

Stream I was watching on was shite, when we went 1 down I got absolutely furious and stormed off to the pub for a drink. Reading the last few pages, fucking glad I left. Seems we were robbed again, and on top of that our most exciting player is fucked. Hate football sometimes like, wish I didn't care so much about this club.

Gonna go and watch the golf.

It's possible I'm overreacting, haven't even seen the challenge, but I hope everyone in De Jong's family gets AIDS.

At least now we won't have to pay any money for him. Could give a fuck about this game now like, seriously gutted. Odds of relegation just shortened considerably.

Well that's the end of that then. We're fucked now, basically.

Seems we've identified that the weak link in the front pairing was actually Carroll rather than Nolan. It's so clear to me now, how could I have been so stupid?

Fucking hell, some people really do go out of their way just to have a go at our own players. Agreed, that post reached almost Kevin Nolan-esque levels of shitness.

Dropping Tiote. Jonas will start in place of Routledge or Ben Arfa I would guess. Reckon we're gonna get beaten quite comprehensively in this one unfortunately, City have looked great at home and I think they'll overpower us in CM and have the majority of possession. Our best bet would be to hit them on the break, but we've no pace up front to do that. Can see it being a bit like the Man U game. A good, spirited performance but a sound beating, maybe 2-0.

Not surprised to hear that people are having problems with their shirts, especially with the sponsor patch on the front. Looks like it was put on with Pritt Stick. Can only imagine how much it actually costs to make one of those shirts, feel sorry for the poor mugs that bought one.

It's much sadder that Hughton seems to think that Nolan is playing in "the hole" rather than up front alongside Carroll. Playing in the hole, you're supposed to actually link midfield and attack, drop into clever places between the oppositions' defense and midfield and make things happen and create chances for your teammates. Nolan basically waddles around the shop for 90 minutes doing his level best to avoid anything resembling link up play in deeper areas, and then gets his arse in gear when someone else on the team creates an opportunity for something to happen in the box. To his credit he does read the game very well, which is why he gets on the end of quite a few chances. But he's basically a big fat goalhanger, this nonsense that he's playing in some sort of free role is just laughable.

Has his value really been that great at any point this season though? He's scored twice in a rout of Villa, a game where we were that dominant that your striker would be doing well not to score. And his other goal came from the spot. It's not like he's scoring crucial goals for us. I'm pretty confident that had we started Shola in his place that we'd have seen at least as good a return from the position, and we all know Shola's not up to much at this level.

All very well and good, but not really what the thread is about surely?

Nae offence Shak, but you should stick to the NFL threads if this is the type of analysis and contribution you bring to the football threads If you like Hughton, then give him chance to prove his judgement, no matter how wild it seems to the armchair supporters on here, is actually beneficial for NUFC. I though the knee-jerk chopping and changing had gone out when we got relegated? Hughton has built his team through consistency and allowing players to grow into the team. I'm not a massive fan of people banging on for change, when it's often for changes sake. Been watching football a lot longer than I have the NFL Stu, and I'm telling you that Kevin Nolan is a hindrance to the evolution of our team and we'll never be any good until he's no longer part of it. He's a passenger who makes every single player around him (barring those on the opposing team) look worse than they are. This is no knee jerk either, I've always thought he was shite. And my stance on Hughton has never been knee jerk. At first I thought he only got the job because nobody else would take it (which was the case) and I didn't think he'd be able for it (which wasn't the case), and over the course of last year he convinced me that he deserved a shot with how well he'd done. At the moment I'm right on the fence with him. I love how united he's made us, and the way we've tried to play football this year has been really encouraging. But he's still making what I believe to be mistakes, and I feel it's going to end up costing us (and him) unless he fixes them. And I feel that would be a shame, because there's a good manager in him IMO and I'd hate to see him blow it here because of a loyalty to a poor player like Kevin Nolan. I'm rarely adamant about things, I know that the manager sees a lot more than me and is better qualified to make decisions than I am. I'll give him every chance to prove that his way is right, that making Kevin Nolan our ace in the hole is the best thing for us going forward, and that I was wrong. But I'm not.