Sifu

I'm running out of excuses to defend the lad. Like I said last night though, I'll give him at least one season to buck up his ideas. Needs a massive kick up the arse.

Quality finishes today. An absolutely quality signing. Like I've said before, he's pretty much everything you want in a striker.

Still going to give the lad a chance myself. I won't write him off just yet.

Like some people have said, looks like we're looking to offload Kadar. The fact he wasn't even on the bench today and Ferguson, a LB/winger, got the place ahead of him speaks volumes. Absolute shame if we do end up getting rid.

The lad played decent enough for his first PL start imo. Looked composed on the ball when he was bringing the ball out of defence. Some good forward runs too. Simply has to start games from now on, hope his knock isn't too serious. Promising stuff for me.

Should have definitely come on today. Would have given us an extra dimension to our attacking outlet especially when we were chasing the game at 3-2. Hopefully we'll see him next week.....

Like I've said before, the sooner he's back the better. We need an actual CB playing next week against Swansea. So many problems were highlighted today with a lack of a natural CB.

If Tiote doesn't make the Swansea game, then I'd be alright with Abeid starting. Anyone but Smith really!

This is a massive game. A must-win really though I can see Vorm frustrating our strikers

Ha, didn't see that.....

Vorm is some keeper like.

If Tiote is back for Swansea, it will be a welcome return/massive lift of pretty much epic proportions especially with our options at CM decreasing by the game...... Oh and that bit about him being "set to join Chelsea", absolute load of bollocks.

Just got in from town. In short, not a great performance which I guess was expected with our two starting centre backs today. Simply put, Simpson and Perch aren't centre backs, we really missed Coloccini's commanding presence. The defending for Norwich's set pieces was terrible. Free headers all round which led to their goals really. Poor. The only positives come from Santon's performance, did well for his first PL start. He looked composed on the ball and his forward runs were good. Our goals were great too. Cabaye's ball to Ba was quality and great finishes from Ba. Gosling's red card was a yellow card at most (would have got sent off anyway but like JH pointed out, a one game ban is better than a three game ban). Another thing, Ben Arfa should have come on at some point. He would have given us some attacking outlet, Shola was poor.

For me, a captain on a football pitch is one who is able to inspire the other players through his own example. A captain like Coloccini, for example, isn't one who is really vocal on the pitch but is one who leads by example (in Colo's case, it's his calmness on the ball, won't give up etc.). Such a captain should be able to inspire the others. Kevin Nolan was a vocal leader and wasn't afraid to give his view when needed. He was able to keep the players together by his own example, sure he wasn't a proper athlete but he was dedicated to the cause and was a professional. Now let's look at Michael Owen. He was quite frankly the worst possible choice for a captain because his example was not really doing anything on the pitch or even off it. For a player who really wasn't arsed with the cause of helping to keep us up nor was he a model professional is hardly the inspiration his peers needed. Great leadership material eh? I agree, however in the Owen scenario it was clear that team didn't have anyone capable of been a leader. Now that I think about it, yeah we didn't have any leaders as such on the pitch that season.

For me, a captain on a football pitch is one who is able to inspire the other players through his own example. A captain like Coloccini, for example, isn't one who is really vocal on the pitch but is one who leads by example (in Colo's case, it's his calmness on the ball, won't give up etc.). Such a captain should be able to inspire the others. Kevin Nolan was a vocal leader and wasn't afraid to give his view when needed. He was able to keep the players together by his own example, sure he wasn't a proper athlete but he was dedicated to the cause and was a professional. Now let's look at Michael Owen. He was quite frankly the worst possible choice for a captain because his example was not really doing anything on the pitch or even off it. For a player who really wasn't arsed with the cause of helping to keep us up nor was he a model professional is hardly the inspiration his peers needed. Great leadership material eh?

Yeah, I'd definitely give him at least a year. The talent/ability is there, just needs to reveal it a lot more and use it consistently.

Good read that but the fact remains that he still hasn't hit top form yet. Needs to be a lot more consistent and definitely more confident about his ability really.

Prediction time, going to go for 2-2. Cabaye and Ba.

He's done so to avoid getting into trouble with the management really.

There's an article in the Times tomorrow called "Martin O’Neill sees vision of Catalonia". Can imagine what that's about

I can never put a bet on against Newcastle. Feels morally wrong.

Tempted to put an accy on for tomorrow. I'm bound to get lucky eventually........

Be even more amusing if they don't... Nah I reckon most of them will just blame Bruce and how Super Martin O'Neill needs to rebuild etc..

My eyes.......

Ah yeah, forgot about that!