STM

Only Carr, Ramage and Ameobi to go. Need replacements though!

The best Beye song i heard was: Oh Habib Beye Oh Habib Beye Sung to the tune of oh happy days. Looks class in every department. If he keeps this up he could become a good candidate for captain, as he was at Marsaille.

Bollocks to pace. Milners proving that a footballing brain is paramount, not that he's a slow mind. Do people think he would be better on the right? I'm starting to think he's enjoying playing on the left, he's performances are very good.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. We had 14 shots on goal, hit the post twice had two cleared off the line (practically) and milners edge of the box shot. We played well and deserved the win.

Aye, again i was very disapointed by this. It was pure laziness, he was under no pressure.

People are being a bit unfair with this. Smart foul really, with attacker getting away from him, far better take him out there than risk a foul on the edge of the area and have us let in another wonder goal. If it was anyone else we wouldn't even be talking about it. yep Barton had absolutely NO intention of getting the ball and it wasn't a "smart foul" because he could have tripped him or pulled his shirt if that was what he was trying to do. I'm one of Bartons biggest fans, football wise but he aint getting away with deliberately chopping down a player straight after he had lost possesion.

Thought he struggled today tbh. Could do with a rest next weekend if Faye is fit again. Oh aye, when Faye is fit i'd stick him straight back in. I just think he had a fairly average game, need to see their goal again in order to see what happened.

Heard some idiot on the radio on the way home saying that we performed poorly and had no width. I thought we played some good football today. Given- 6.5 Had barely anything to do all game, couple of comfortable stops. Beye- 8 Best game yet, defensively and attacking. Won us the corner that he scored from. Taylor- 7 Very powerful, never put a foot wrong. Rozehnal- 6.5 At fault for the goal but otherwise very composed. N'Zogbia- 7.5 Involved in alot of our attacking play. Geremi- 7 Worked hard throughout, calming influence. Butt- 4 Gave the ball away 4 times in the time he was on the pitch. Barton- 7 By far our best passer of the ball today. Lunatic foul let him down. Milner- 8.5 Never lost the ball once, the heart and soul of our attacking performance today. MOM Smith- 7 Worked hard, held the ball up nicely and won his share of headers. Martins- 7.5 Could of had a couple. Deserved his goal. Subs: Viduka- 7 Inspired in the first, tired in the second. Enjoyed the game. We completely dominated a team who beat Spurs last weekend.

Well first of all i believe that playing the way that has been mentioned is natural and would work but that doesn't mean to say that the system we are playing now deosn't work. I think N'Zogbia's a very good left back and Milner is very good on the left of midfield. It's the fact that playing this way weakens our right side thats the problem. However, if Sam is easing Enrique into the premierleague i have no problem with what he is doing. When Duff becomes fully fit, at minimum, i'd like to see Milner shifted to the right to make way for him. I believe we have more important areas of concern than this situation though.

Give him all the time he wants while we have others that can play in his position. Might be good to get him on the bench on saturday though. The fact that he is back in the reserves suggests its now about fitness and not worring over his injury. Therefor games coming thick and fast might not be a bad thing. No need to risk though.

This. What it does is sends a message to all of the players to say that they played well and deserved to keep their place.

Smith- Hardworking, experianced, versitile and highley rated by ALOT of managers. Emre- Gifted player constantly played in wrong positions. Milner- As you say gives 100% and has one of the best cross conversion records in the prem. N'Zogbia- Class, played in defence. Butt- Highley experianced and disciplined. Massive pedigree, was one of our best players last year. Geremi- Rarely loses the ball, wins tackles, gets quite a few assists and is a leader. Barton- I rate him very highly, give him time and he will prove me correct (hopefully). Duff- Quality player, fitness has let him down. My point is that positive and negative slants can be put on anything in football. It all depends what type of person you are. For me with the quality we have we should be looking for top 8, if we dont make it, it won't be down to talent. I would say mine a pretty realistic, yours are extremely optimistic. Of course you would say your opinons are realistic. Thats why they are opinions because we believe them to be true/real. I deliberatley made mine sound optimistic just to prove what a can be done with positive comments. Personally, i believe we have as good a players as most of the top ten. If i wanted to i could go through the top 10 clubs and pull out negative points of most players. One thing is for sure though, our midfield is not as good as the top four. As for the rest i don't see a massive difference anywhere.

Smith- Hardworking, experianced, versitile and highley rated by ALOT of managers. Emre- Gifted player constantly played in wrong positions. Milner- As you say gives 100% and has one of the best cross conversion records in the prem. N'Zogbia- Class, played in defence. Butt- Highley experianced and disciplined. Massive pedigree, was one of our best players last year. Geremi- Rarely loses the ball, wins tackles, gets quite a few assists and is a leader. Barton- I rate him very highly, give him time and he will prove me correct (hopefully). Duff- Quality player, fitness has let him down. My point is that positive and negative slants can be put on anything in football. It all depends what type of person you are. For me with the quality we have we should be looking for top 8, if we dont make it, it won't be down to talent. I appreciate your sentiments. But our midfield is the weakest in the top teams. Lennon Routledge Malbranque Taarabt Zokora Jenas Huddlestone Tainio Boateng Ghaly As far as im concerned there is very little difference between ours and spurs, apart from depth. Yet they were touted for 4th, how does that work? Even if you believe Spurs midfield to better than ours which you are entitled to, there isn't a huge gulf. Yet the expectations were so different. I believe there to be barely anything between ours and the other teams that have been mentioned. The differences as i've mentioned is down to consitancy, teamwork and motivation. Spurs weren't in my calculations when I started the thread hence the title dear. Pardon me. I thought it ment into assumption of who we'd expect in the top 10. It works even better for my arguement though because spurs have a better midfield than half of the teams in the top 10 anyway.

Smith- Hardworking, experianced, versitile and highley rated by ALOT of managers. Emre- Gifted player constantly played in wrong positions. Milner- As you say gives 100% and has one of the best cross conversion records in the prem. N'Zogbia- Class, played in defence. Butt- Highley experianced and disciplined. Massive pedigree, was one of our best players last year. Geremi- Rarely loses the ball, wins tackles, gets quite a few assists and is a leader. Barton- I rate him very highly, give him time and he will prove me correct (hopefully). Duff- Quality player, fitness has let him down. My point is that positive and negative slants can be put on anything in football. It all depends what type of person you are. For me with the quality we have we should be looking for top 8, if we dont make it, it won't be down to talent. I appreciate your sentiments. But our midfield is the weakest in the top teams. Lennon Routledge Malbranque Taarabt Zokora Jenas Huddlestone Tainio Boateng Ghaly As far as im concerned there is very little difference between ours and spurs, apart from depth. Yet they were touted for 4th, how does that work? Even if you believe Spurs midfield to better than ours which you are entitled to, there isn't a huge gulf. Yet the expectations were so different. I believe there to be barely anything between ours and the other teams that have been mentioned. The differences as i've mentioned is down to consitancy, teamwork and motivation.

Smith- Hardworking, experianced, versitile and highley rated by ALOT of managers. Emre- Gifted player constantly played in wrong positions. Milner- As you say gives 100% and has one of the best cross conversion records in the prem. N'Zogbia- Class, played in defence. Butt- Highley experianced and disciplined. Massive pedigree, was one of our best players last year. Geremi- Rarely loses the ball, wins tackles, gets quite a few assists and is a leader. Barton- I rate him very highly, give him time and he will prove me correct (hopefully). Duff- Quality player, fitness has let him down. My point is that positive and negative slants can be put on anything in football. It all depends what type of person you are. For me with the quality we have we should be looking for top 8, if we dont make it, it won't be down to talent.

The reality sometimes is actually real. [Parky/] No, you've lost me. The Allardyce out crew are ignoring some of the home truths/realities reg our squad. Our midfield doesn't stand up to proper scrutiny. I'm not part of the Sam out crew, but it is his fault. I was dead against the buying of Barton and Smith, they're all hardwork and no quality. Barton has a great deal of quality. Barton is a grafter, always has been. He's never been a good technical player and his passing has always been dodgy. IN YOUR OPINION. Had you ever seen him play before he joined us? and i'm not talking about on telly. I have and he's anything but. He has a good pass and has scored 7 goals with 5 assists last season. Might not be Ronaldo but thats not bad for a "grafter".

The reality sometimes is actually real. [Parky/] No, you've lost me. The Allardyce out crew are ignoring some of the home truths/realities reg our squad. Our midfield doesn't stand up to proper scrutiny. I'm not part of the Sam out crew, but it is his fault. I was dead against the buying of Barton and Smith, they're all hardwork and no quality. Barton has a great deal of quality.

Yes but it is easy to be negative. How comes is it that Sunderland are showing more teamwork than us, yet they have ALOT worse players. I'd argue that Emre is extremely talented and being utilised wrong. That Butt brings experiance and discipline to our midfield. That Smith... ok, ok i think he would be better as a striker. We need to concentrate in getting the correct combination of players and playing as a unit, like we did at the start ot the season. Suprise suprise when we did that we picked up result, albeit (to me) in a rather disapointing fashion. In my opinion too many new players will just give us the same problems.

Aye. Even if we look at Villa. Barry Gardner Reo- Coker Petrov Young I honestly would rather have that lot. :-[ You say that as if it is a surprise. England international Barry, former U21 captain NRC and current top form player Young? Gardner is promising. Hardly gets a start, 3 PL goals already this season. Even Petrov is producing the goods at the moment. You also forgot Maloney, who is a quality player who gets - for some reason - hardly a look in. Came on as sub against arseluck iirc (the little fella?) and looked quite tidy imo. That's the one. He's a decent player. Scored against Fulham. Fans love him, would love to see him get a decent run out What Villa has is teamwork, motivation, cohesion, consistancy AND some individual talent. Newcastle are not lacking the individual talent just all of the rest. I think its a mixture; where you have technique (emre) you lack fitness and bottle. Where you have motivation (smith) you lack tehnique and pace. I think we have some very average players and some under-performing ones. Thats what MANAGEMENT is for. Players like Keane didn't rip defences apart with their pace, just like players such as Henry didn't win cruching tackles. It's up to the manager to take the individual talents, mentality and attributes and make them work together as a team. If we choose our players selectively, get the correct blend and play them consistantly i have no doubt that results will change. i.e if your going to have an Emre in our side you need a Smith in their to balance it out etc.

Aye. Even if we look at Villa. Barry Gardner Reo- Coker Petrov Young I honestly would rather have that lot. :-[ You say that as if it is a surprise. England international Barry, former U21 captain NRC and current top form player Young? Gardner is promising. Hardly gets a start, 3 PL goals already this season. Even Petrov is producing the goods at the moment. You also forgot Maloney, who is a quality player who gets - for some reason - hardly a look in. Came on as sub against arseluck iirc (the little fella?) and looked quite tidy imo. That's the one. He's a decent player. Scored against Fulham. Fans love him, would love to see him get a decent run out What Villa has is teamwork, motivation, cohesion, consistancy AND some individual talent. Newcastle are not lacking the individual talent just all of the rest.

That's not forgetting the fact we have Emre, Duff, Butt and Smith to add to that lot.

N'Zogbia Geremi Barton Milner Would be my first choice midfield. Should they been given a run of games i believe they would be BETTER than some of those other clubs. Therefore i wouldn't swap them, they just need time to gel.

Really enjoyed hearing him speak. He really does come across an incredibley troubled lad, i have a horrible feeling it's a matter of time before something else happens with him. I also feel he may go to jail. Sometimes decent people have a hot temper or conflicted views about "the right thing to do" in troubled situations. He someone who definately needs some severe counciling.

TBF Maik Taylors save was a world class one, Given has made plenty of them in the past. If a striker tries his luck from 30 yards and doesn't score does that automatically mean he isn't world class anymore? Look at Anelka, he missed an open goal but i'm not going to start claiming he has lost his talent. Given can't be expected to make those types of saves every week, especially condsidering he has just returned from injury. I agree there have been a few flying in recently but regardless of form or talent they were goals that MOST keepers would not have saved.

I completely agreed with him. There is no excuse for the players of that calibre not to qualify for the Euros, it's poor management that has cost us really, although i didn't expect him to say that. Notice it's "Newcastles Micheal Owen" when he's a blithering idiot. Fucking shit journalism.