Mick

Why would that happen? Shearer was given plenty of stick as a player when he wasn't at his best and he would get the same if he was the manager.

I'll give him credit for dropping Smith tonight, I'd like to see him try the same team away from home more often.

He's in need of a brain transplant if he thinks Coloccini and Nolan were as bad as each other, for me we didn't have anybody who was as good as Coloccini.

I've just checked and Palace had more shots on and off target then we did, they had twice as many as we did on target and I don't know if the own goal counts as a shot on target for us, I can only guess that it does.

Disagree with this bit, Mick. It's when teams come to SJP with a view to playing football, when we kill them off - and usually pretty quickly. It's when they sit back and shut up shop, a la Bristol/Derby - we struggle. It reaches the 30th minute, we still haven't scored, and we're absolutely knackered - not a clue what to do. Teams come and start the game a bit more open, and on a lot of occassions, we've killed them off (or at the very least - scored) within the first twenty minutes. We're generally excellent from a defensive perspective at home, bar one or two daft ricks like Bednar's vs WBA. The only two teams that I can think of who have came here and tried to do anything are QPR and Palace. I thought that we were lucky to get a draw against QPR and Palace had to put the ball in the net to give us the first and they looked like getting an equaliser until we killed the game in the last minute.

Who expects us to play like Brazil? The Bullshit analysis you're on about has and will always take place. It might happen after the game over a pint or at work the day after a match but it always has and always will take place, especially on a football forum. You've analysed plenty yourself so to have a go at others for doing the same is a bit of hypocrisy.

It depends what you class as our dip in form, I think it goes back to December when we had almost a fully fit side.

Hughton doesn't only pick the team, he also puts the team together and he's done nothing with our central midfield. Joey Barton coming back is no excuse because we would have brought nobody in if we used players coming back from injury as a reason to do nothing as Coloccini is now back and we'll eventually have a fit Enrique and Taylor. We've brought in 3 defenders during the transfer window and dropped Kadar who looks like a better defender than Van Aanholt. We've brought in Pancrate and Routledge to play right wing and let a right winger go out on loan who is probably of more use than Pancrate. We've brought in Best who looks no better than what we already have up front, we don't need 5 forwards in the first team so bringing in a 5th should have only been done if he offers something that the others don't and I'm still waiting to see if he does and what that might be. Our central midfield is at best gash, at worst it’s a liability and that’s down to Hughton as they have been gash for all of the season. As for motivation, we’ve clearly got a problem as some of our players are going to seed. We look unfit and we’re getting slower and becoming less able to control a game and less able to string 2 passes together, we’re going backwards from a very low standard to start with. We’ve tried a different combination for 1 ½ games and reverted to a failed method because things were going wrong for ½ of those games. We were under more pressure against Swansea with our cloggers than we were against Derby who scored 3 times out of 4 shots on target. It might look as if we were more in the game against Swansea because they only scored once and we equalised but that’s far too simplistic. Swansea could have slaughtered us if they were better in front of goal as they had more than twice as many shots on target than Derby. Ranger is a much better footballer than Carroll but isn't getting the time on the pitch to show what he can do, he hasn't scored as many goals as Carroll but he's never going to do that unless he's given the chance. Ranger hasn't had a chance and he's probably now behind Best yet he hasn't been as ineffective as Carroll has been when he's not scoring. Hughton is a bore and the team is reflecting the manager’s temperament, Hughton was a defender and the team is being put out to defend at all costs in the hope that we can nick something at the other end. We’re grinding out points which we don’t deserve, that would be a good thing if we were putting in more of the performances like we did against Cardiff but we’re not. Far too often we hear Hughton telling us how good the opposition are, Derby were a very good team according to Hughton before the match and we played as if they were very good, we played as if we had feared them. If teams start coming to Newcastle and trying to win the games then we’re in deep shit because our home form is only the way it is because very few teams have the bottle to try and come at us. If they start having a go then the players who are being exposed away from home will be exposed at St James’ because they are just as vulnerable. QPR had a go at us and we looked shit against them for most of the match but managed to get an equaliser because QPR tried to hold on to a one goal lead instead of trying to get a second. The team has no leadership either on or off the pitch. Off the pitch we have a players committee who the players have used as a reason for us being top of the league. I have seen no reason to believe that Hughton has any leadership qualities. How many people would go to work and put in a good days graft if they didn’t have a boss looking over them? From what I’ve seen during my working life I would guess that 80 to 90 percent of people would do nothing and our players look like that 80 to 90 percent who have nothing to fear if they just turn up and do nothing.

I don't think Ryan is the type of player that Chelsea need.

And on Valentines day.

He was only here for 8 games, getting the players fit in that time at the end of the season is a big ask.

At least Shearer tried to change things in the short time that he was here.

We're at least 3 years from seeing a good manager here, between now and then we'll be managed by somebody who is seen as not wanting too much and will not rock the boat.

I wouldn't be surprised, he's part of the problem though.

I agree that he comes inside, that just makes putting him on either wing even more stupid. It doesn't help him that he comes in to the middle and nobody is moving for him, we had nobody creating space today but Swansea players had no problem finding plenty.

Jonas is a left winger, Guthrie isn't.

It isn't when some say it.

We can't drop Carroll, he scored.

Calling for his head is pointless, I wouldn't trust Llambias and Ashley to replace him with anything better, he's not the only clueless one at the club.

I don't know how you get so many bites but you do.

Done.

Against Derby we restricted them to 4 shots on target and they scored 3 goals; Swansea had 9 shots on target today and only scored once. If Swansea had of been as accurate as Derby in front of goal then we would have been hammered by more than 3 today.

I had hoped that somebody was moronic enough to come in for him and Smith during the last transfer window. Both seem to have become over rated by the media, it doesn't look as if that has rubbed off on any managers.

No idea, Ranger would do more for the team play than Carroll who can rarely direct a header, can rarely stay on his feet but pops up in the right place at times.

You've been watching a different game to me, I don't think we were on top for more than 3 or 4 minutes during the whole game and that was around the time that we scored. The argument about keeping Carroll on doesn't work as another player could have came on and scored 2, keeping Carroll on doesn't mean that we wouldn't have done the same or better without him.