STM

I have a horrible feeling baout Williamson, despite being impressed by him in his first two games. I'm going on friday so that will give me a chance to look at him closer, perhaps i'm being harsh on him due to former defenders we have had. I voted Routledge because he's looks the sort that the fans might get behind if he beats a couple of players but it's close between them two.

You won't score a goal either you little fuck. Booed every time he touches the ball. Hope Colo has space in his fucking pocked for the little shit.

The way to judge a goalkeeper IMO is on the amount of mistakes they make i.e poor goal kicks, fumbling in the air, parrying into the path of strikers, that sort of thing. It's on this note why i think Harper is a good keeper because he doesn't make daft mistakes. If you try and judge keepers on good saves and statistics you will never get to the bottom of the situation. If i was England manager (shudder), i would be looking for someone who wouldn't make the mistakes in the big games. I voted for Green, Hart and Kirkland. (Kirkland is easily the most gifted keeper we've got)

He loves apparently, that's why he does it on the pitch.

Out of all the teams in the chamionship, we have been least outplayed. Rubbish. Nearly every game we're consistently under pressure. I bet you can't name more than 2/3 games we've dominated or created loads of chances. Good luck. It seems to me that a team which is outplayed constantly wouldn't be top of the league. I don't give a fuck how much pressure we are under, i care about results. We can have one shot on target in every game all season if it means we are top of the league. in a large percentage of the games i've watched this season that we've won the score could have been a hell of a lot different if the team took their chances. while we may be able to get away with letting teams have good chances in this league we will be murdered for it in the premiership. I agree with you but i will discuss that problem when/if we go up. By the way, there are plenty of team's who play a similar style in the premiership, not that our fans will except it. Is that what you do in real life, deal with problems at the last minute?? Christ. We are talking about Newcastle United who are not in the premiership, we are top of the chamionship. I'm talking about hughtons performances now. I will talk about that when there is something to talk about, keep up. What is the title of the thread? It's about Hughton, can you not read like? The difference is, i'm talking about him now, without the aid of your time machine or crystal ball. Can you read? Can you?

Out of all the teams in the chamionship, we have been least outplayed. Rubbish. Nearly every game we're consistently under pressure. I bet you can't name more than 2/3 games we've dominated or created loads of chances. Good luck. It seems to me that a team which is outplayed constantly wouldn't be top of the league. I don't give a fuck how much pressure we are under, i care about results. We can have one shot on target in every game all season if it means we are top of the league. in a large percentage of the games i've watched this season that we've won the score could have been a hell of a lot different if the team took their chances. while we may be able to get away with letting teams have good chances in this league we will be murdered for it in the premiership. I agree with you but i will discuss that problem when/if we go up. By the way, there are plenty of team's who play a similar style in the premiership, not that our fans will except it. Is that what you do in real life, deal with problems at the last minute?? Christ. We are talking about Newcastle United who are not in the premiership, we are top of the chamionship. I'm talking about hughtons performances now. I will talk about that when there is something to talk about, keep up. What is the title of the thread? It's about Hughton, can you not read like? The difference is, i'm talking about him now, without the aid of your time machine or crystal ball.

I was simply parroting Parky's assessment of our tactics there tbh. I have absolutely no problem with well argued critiques like you give yourself, it just seemed like this thread had descended into a match thread type slag fest with no thought whatsoever going into the criticisms. It goes without saying that the defending has set us apart in this league and is the main reason we are top. However if we blamed the midfield for poor defending last year you can't just ignore it as part of the improvement this season, and part of that is the coaching and tactics. We also have the 4th highest number of goals for. That has to come from somewhere and it can't just be from Nolan, Shola & Guthrie creating goals out of nothing and being lethal in front of goal, they're not the players you would have said that about before the season started. In fact a lot of the criticism Hughton is getting is from playing Nolan at all and from having Guthrie on the wing where he is getting his assists and goals. The team we have CAN play good football and we've seen it on occasion, however I think the main problem is that they just don't have the stamina to sustain it for much of the game, especially the central midfielders which are the key to it. I suppose you could blame Hughton for the fitness of the players, but generally I think it's just an inherent failing in those players and there's not a lot you can do about it. FWIW I have my doubts about Hughton myself, but I'm more concerned about his potential ability to motivate the players when things aren't going so well than his tactics. I'd be much happier if h e was the assistant manager. Why not just post the last para and save the essays? Nobody will read all of that. You're concerned about his "potential ability to motivate the players"....!!! Wake the fuck up. He'll be out on his ear after 12 games the most in the PL. We are not in the premiership. If I'm following you....You want to wait till CH fucks up in the PL....Why? I'd review the situation at the end of the season. But not halfway through the current one like you clearly would.

Out of all the teams in the chamionship, we have been least outplayed. Rubbish. Nearly every game we're consistently under pressure. I bet you can't name more than 2/3 games we've dominated or created loads of chances. Good luck. It seems to me that a team which is outplayed constantly wouldn't be top of the league. I don't give a fuck how much pressure we are under, i care about results. We can have one shot on target in every game all season if it means we are top of the league. in a large percentage of the games i've watched this season that we've won the score could have been a hell of a lot different if the team took their chances. while we may be able to get away with letting teams have good chances in this league we will be murdered for it in the premiership. I agree with you but i will discuss that problem when/if we go up. By the way, there are plenty of team's who play a similar style in the premiership, not that our fans will except it. Is that what you do in real life, deal with problems at the last minute?? Christ. We are talking about Newcastle United who are not in the premiership, we are top of the chamionship. I'm talking about hughtons performances now. I will talk about that when there is something to talk about, keep up.

I was simply parroting Parky's assessment of our tactics there tbh. I have absolutely no problem with well argued critiques like you give yourself, it just seemed like this thread had descended into a match thread type slag fest with no thought whatsoever going into the criticisms. It goes without saying that the defending has set us apart in this league and is the main reason we are top. However if we blamed the midfield for poor defending last year you can't just ignore it as part of the improvement this season, and part of that is the coaching and tactics. We also have the 4th highest number of goals for. That has to come from somewhere and it can't just be from Nolan, Shola & Guthrie creating goals out of nothing and being lethal in front of goal, they're not the players you would have said that about before the season started. In fact a lot of the criticism Hughton is getting is from playing Nolan at all and from having Guthrie on the wing where he is getting his assists and goals. The team we have CAN play good football and we've seen it on occasion, however I think the main problem is that they just don't have the stamina to sustain it for much of the game, especially the central midfielders which are the key to it. I suppose you could blame Hughton for the fitness of the players, but generally I think it's just an inherent failing in those players and there's not a lot you can do about it. FWIW I have my doubts about Hughton myself, but I'm more concerned about his potential ability to motivate the players when things aren't going so well than his tactics. I'd be much happier if h e was the assistant manager. Why not just post the last para and save the essays? Nobody will read all of that. You're concerned about his "potential ability to motivate the players"....!!! Wake the fuck up. He'll be out on his ear after 12 games the most in the PL. We are not in the premiership.

Have you seen us play this season? We have been awful at times. Only less awful than every other team in the league it would appear? I understand people are struggling with the concept that successfull football is not always attractive football. We have played successfull football all season, however it's rarely been attractive. Has it been good? Well that depends on how you define good. Well would you want to watch this style of football in the long term? No.

I was simply parroting Parky's assessment of our tactics there tbh. I have absolutely no problem with well argued critiques like you give yourself, it just seemed like this thread had descended into a match thread type slag fest with no thought whatsoever going into the criticisms. It goes without saying that the defending has set us apart in this league and is the main reason we are top. However if we blamed the midfield for poor defending last year you can't just ignore it as part of the improvement this season, and part of that is the coaching and tactics. We also have the 4th highest number of goals for. That has to come from somewhere and it can't just be from Nolan, Shola & Guthrie creating goals out of nothing and being lethal in front of goal, they're not the players you would have said that about before the season started. In fact a lot of the criticism Hughton is getting is from playing Nolan at all and from having Guthrie on the wing where he is getting his assists and goals. The team we have CAN play good football and we've seen it on occasion, however I think the main problem is that they just don't have the stamina to sustain it for much of the game, especially the central midfielders which are the key to it. I suppose you could blame Hughton for the fitness of the players, but generally I think it's just an inherent failing in those players and there's not a lot you can do about it. FWIW I have my doubts about Hughton myself, but I'm more concerned about his potential ability to motivate the players when things aren't going so well than his tactics. I'd be much happier if he was the assistant manager. Once again a fine post UV. Some claim: "the only reason we are top is because of our defence", as if the defence isn't a valid part of a team. West Brom are only third because of their attack.

Have you seen us play this season? We have been awful at times. Only less awful than every other team in the league it would appear? I understand people are struggling with the concept that successfull football is not always attractive football. We have played successfull football all season, however it's rarely been attractive. Has it been good? Well that depends on how you define good.

It seems everyone is convinced we got exactly what we deserved last season, yet we are somehow fluking being top this year?

Out of all the teams in the chamionship, we have been least outplayed. Rubbish. Nearly every game we're consistently under pressure. I bet you can't name more than 2/3 games we've dominated or created loads of chances. Good luck. It seems to me that a team which is outplayed constantly wouldn't be top of the league. I don't give a fuck how much pressure we are under, i care about results. We can have one shot on target in every game all season if it means we are top of the league. in a large percentage of the games i've watched this season that we've won the score could have been a hell of a lot different if the team took their chances. while we may be able to get away with letting teams have good chances in this league we will be murdered for it in the premiership. I agree with you but i will discuss that problem when/if we go up. By the way, there are plenty of team's who play a similar style in the premiership, not that our fans will except it.

Out of all the teams in the chamionship, we have been least outplayed. Rubbish. Nearly every game we're consistently under pressure. I bet you can't name more than 2/3 games we've dominated or created loads of chances. Good luck. It seems to me that a team which is outplayed constantly wouldn't be top of the league. I don't give a fuck how much pressure we are under, i care about results. We can have one shot on target in every game all season if it means we are top of the league. Agree promotion is the key. But if we carry over the level of management we are under now we're coming straight back down. CH isn't really manager material and he has the job due to the well documented mismanagement of the club by MA and for no other reason. I'll bet you anything, one way or another he won't be in charge by Christmas. Hughton won't be in charge by christmas. However, i think it will be partly because of poor managment but primarily because the fans won't give him a chance. If he was a foreign coach with an exotic name, we would not even be talking about the possibility that he should leave/be sacked.

Out of all the teams in the chamionship, we have been least outplayed. We've also never outplayed anybody either... How can you be top of the league and not outplay anyone? nonsense. If you are saying teams have had more possession and had more shots fair enough but that is not what you are saying.

Out of all the teams in the chamionship, we have been least outplayed. Rubbish. Nearly every game we're consistently under pressure. I bet you can't name more than 2/3 games we've dominated or created loads of chances. Good luck. It seems to me that a team which is outplayed constantly wouldn't be top of the league. I don't give a fuck how much pressure we are under, i care about results. We can have one shot on target in every game all season if it means we are top of the league.

Out of all the teams in the chamionship, we have been least outplayed.

I'm happy with the work Hughton has done. The football's been bloody frustrating but it's worked and (i'll say this quietly)... i think we will improve in the last four months, after seeing the new signings.

He looks like a right arrogant cunt... good.

I think it's ridiculous how much Hughton's tactics are being criticised tbh. I laughed at the naivety of it before, but it really does seem like a lot of people think it's as simple as putting (what they think is) the best 11 players on the pitch at the same time all the time. This gives absolutely no consideration to the fact that the manager has far more information about the players to go on than we do. He sees how they perform in training, no doubt trying different formations, he gets fitness reports on them, he should even give consideration to their mental state and what's going on in their personal life. He also has to try and balance playing the best team every week with rotating things to make sure the same players don't wear themselves out over a long season and that fringe players are not frozen out. We've got 5 games in 16 days coming up next, but I guess that won't come into the equation when people convince themselves the 11 players they put in a formation on a message board would have played beautiful flowing football and won every game 4-0. The fact is Hughton has very limited options to change things in any significant way as the players we have are limited in their ability. We've been very limited in terms of numbers in wide players, and in central midfield they are all much of a muchness except that Nolan has a knack of scoring goals. The players are good enough to get results in this league in the style we've been playing, but no way in the world is it going to be pretty no matter who plays or how they line up, and if we did try to change it there's absolutely no guarantee that "better" football would even maintain the same level of results let alone improve them. Here's some of my favourites from the crap that comes out: "He'll never drop Butt" changed immediately to "he'll never drop Smith/Nolan" once he did in fact drop Butt. I'm not sure who exactly is supposed to play in midfield once we drop Butt, Nolan and Smith. Guthrie and Vuckic I suppose, even though Guthrie's been equally poor when played central and hardly anyone's seen anything of Vuckic so he obviously "must be better". Lovenkrands dad died and because soon after he played one game and scored, that's all gone away and he should be playing week in week out again without a care in the world. "Why didn't he play <insert recently or even currently injured player>?" which of course would turn into "Why did he play <insert previously injured player> rushing him back too soon?" if any player who's been injured in the last month gets injured again. "When player X came on he changed the game". Of course this is used not as a compliment of a good substitution that a player was saved to be fresh coming on against a tired defence/midfield, but as a criticism that the player should have played from the start (where he may well have been far less effective pacing himself for a full game and up against a fresh defence). I swear even if Wenger or Ferguson were manager half of you would be criticising their tactics week in week out. Totally agree. But people don't learn.

we should at least retire the no.9 myth. Aye, we've had some good no 9s but only 2, 3 if you count Supermac who were outstanding wearing that number. Don't know if Hughie Gallagher wore that number or not. nobody wore numbers then. Really? Seems unthinkable when you when you look at all the ridiculous squad numbers they have nowadays. Saw Bendtner wearing 52 for Arsenal yesterday William Gallas is number 10 for them, too. Aye thats daft as well. Geremi's number for Ankaragucu is canny though as someone already mentioned whys it daft. i remember ardiles wearing no.1 in argentina '78 I'm a traditionalist. Should always be GK 1 RB 2 CB 5 CB 6 LB 3 RM 7 CM 4 CM 8 LM 11 CF 9 CF 10 imo anyway. If you were a traditionalist it would look nothing like that.

In all seriousness we could make another foray into the market. Don't listen to SSN, they haven't got it right in a long time with us. It's unlikely but i can't imagine Hughton and Co have simply stopped trying.

We are top FFS?

Is it not because they don't want Newcastle and Sunderland playing at home for security reasons i.e Home fans? Can't see away fans having any baring on it.