stozo

Don't really have any pro/anti Pardew views based on last night. We were always going to put out a weakened team and the priority with us being through to the last 32 has to be the league now. To be honest as well I don't think Pardew is wrong to say the less experienced players need to step up and might need to go on loan to get the experience. Bigirimana aside the five other 'youngsters' are Sammy (20), Abeid (20), Ranger (21), Ferguson (21) and Tavernier (21). These players are at the age now where they need to start getting pushing for the first team. This means being better or at least being able to compete with the player who has the starting spot in the first XI. At the minute none of those five would get in our best XI. To be brutally honest about a few of them they can't say they haven't had the chances this season. Sammy in particular has had a fair few chances and really not taken them. All of them are at the age now where they have to take the limited chances they get if they want to stay in the team and if they're not able to take them then it's probably best for all parties if they go out on loan.

Good news - Bryan Ruiz will miss the game on Monday.

here's how the Journal sycophantically reported it: http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2012/10/09/shane-ferguson-proof-of-a-laudable-policy-61634-31994548/ I'm sure we'll continue to recruit under 18s through the usual channels - ie boy's clubs, locals etc - but it looks like the idea of paying money for them from other clubs is finished. big mistake imo and a knee-jerk response to some initial failure. I said this at the time in more detail but I really don't think it is a mistake for a club of our size to stop doing this. Unless you've got the money to spend several million per season on new U18s then you're never going to see the benefit (unless you get lucky with one player). Chelsea, City,Spurs, Liverpool have all spent millions on U18s and seen very little benefit for it. When your recruiting at such a young age (15, 16 etc) then you generally have to accept that the majority of players simply aren't going to develop into what you hope they will. If you've got a finite budget (as we have) that is a very significant hit to take.

Completely disagree with those singling him out for criticism last night. I'd argue last night he was one of our better players (in an admittedly poor performance). His job is to move the ball around and get it to the players who are supposed to be able to do something with it. Last night he passed the ball more than any of our other players (21 times more than Bigirimana, 32 times more than Sa. Ameobi) so in that sense he did his job. Don't think he's set the world on fire yet but he is certainly not a nothing player.

What on earth was Taylor doing for the goal? Absolutely shocking defending. Also Danny Simpson just offers us nothing. He's a average/solid defender but he's atrocious going forward. Finding a new RB has to be a priority.

Tonight is the first time I've been concerned about us. Up until now it's been frustrating but tonight was genuinely worrying. If we don't win at the weekend Pardew is going to really start to feel some pressure from fans.

First half was frustrating but that second half was just awful. Really not many positives to take out of that apart from the Marveaux goal.

When we have the ball Anita and Bigi have been neat enough but apart from our goal there has been virtually nothing from the front 4 going forward. Very frustrating. On the positive side we needed a win tonight and at least we are getting that so far.

Reflecting on the game I'm not sure I'm as negative about it as others on here. It was another fairly uninspiring performance but there are a few points I'd make: 1. Our confidence looks totally shot. Apart from a ten minute spell at the start of the second half we really didn't look confident at all when we had the ball. Defensively we also look massively fragile this season where as last season we looked really solid. 2. I don't really see an enormous difference (apart from confidence) in performance between this season and the majority of last season. There was a spell towards the end of last season where we brilliant but I'd argue for the majority we were successful by being defensively solid and grinding results out. The difference yesterday was that Krul made a silly mistake (the type of which was rarely seen last season) and that left us chasing the game which saw us caught on the break for the second. Had we not conceded the first goal from an individual error I honestly think we might have ground out a rather unattractive 1-0 win. Frustrating that we got beat but I think with a few players back we'll start to pick up results and hopefully performances will follow on from that.

A little light relief from the doom and gloom. Name your Premier League XI + subs. Only rule is no more than 1 player from each team. I'd go for: Schwarzer Sagna Agger Huth Baines Yacob Toure Ben Arfa Hazard Bale RVP Ruddy Nolan Michu Kone O’Shea Clyne Taarabt

Big day tomorrow. Time for this team to put in a quality 90 minutes and demonstrate the talent we all know it has.

I find this a bit odd - surely the problem with those players were the fact that they were recruited by Wise who bought badly and overpaid for youngsters. To be fair I don't think it's that bad of a move for a club with a constrained budget like ours. Chelsea have spent millions (£5m for Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo in particular sticks out) in recent years and got virtually no return from their investment. Plenty of other examples at Man. City, Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool as well. I think with players that young to be successful you really have to adopting a bit of a scattergun approach which will involve investing several million per season and accepting that some of them will fall by the wayside. I think at our club where we're going to be spending a net of about £10m per season on our entire squad it's a tad unrealistic to spend several million of that on players who the majority of will come to nothing.

By the looks of the squad list posted on Twitter by Caulkin Cisse was in the squad but pulled out (Bird says he's ill).

Full squad: Abeid, Amalfitano, Sa. Amoebi, Sh. Amoebi, Anita, Bigirimana, Cisse, Elliot, Ferguson, Gosling, Harper, Marveaux, Obertan, Perch, Santon, Taylor, Tavernier, Vuckic and Williamson.

Love Harper for the way he's stayed loyal to the club but surely Tim Krul with a dodgy elbow could have done better for second goal.

Really don't know what to think about that game. On one hand we were very lucky with the disallowed/not seen goals but on the other we missed two really good chances (Cisse first half + Ben Arfa second half) that could have swung the game in our direction. Either way I'm ecstatic with a point after that horrific first half.

Where'd you read/see/hear that? Looked to me like he was going to come on for Cabaye when he was injured but then Cabaye stayed on. Obertan was certainly changed and ready to go anyway.

Really like the look of our side. It's also a nice change to have two striking options on the bench.

Please stop bumping this thread.

Have to hope the group stages improve the quality. Both of the games against Atromitos have been mind numbingly boring.

Which is why I'd not play Tav, as they seemed to spot him as our weak point. Would probably play Raylor and Santon as full backs but I thought after the goal Tav got to grips with Epstein.

Very frustrating if nobody else comes in but there is part of me that's happy that we clearly know who we want and aren't going to panic buy people who we haven't scouted. That said I'd kill for us to sign Debuchy.

Not sure whether to play my wildcard this week or next. I've go three players with no game in week 3 (2 Reading + 1 Chelsea) so will have to change before that. Would rather hang on another week and see how season develops but I've got Aguero (injured), Sinclair (probably won't play) and Lucas (picks up bookings + is up against Man City) all in my team who I'd like to get rid of.

Has Pardiola cloned him?