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That's quite a Roman-ish thing to say, though it's justifiable.

Athletic have been reported in the past to have been interested in him (on quite a few occasions too actually) so he might end up there.

That is some speed! Fucking hell.

3-1 to us. Why the negativity? It was like this before the game against WH, and then it was like this again before the game against Spurs. Come on man, we're gonna win this. We're at home, we were that bad in the last game that BS made the whole team watch it again, and we'll probably have a striking 'partnership' up front, and someone who can hold the ball up and thus give us more possession in their half of the pitch. All points to a victory for us, especially against a team we've beaten on numerous occasions at home! Edit - If Zoggy starts, we win.

Fabregas or Essien. Seems that Essien's quite underrated on here. I think he's the glue to Chelsea's team - without him they're very vulnerable and usually get dominated. Edit - Good thread btw, we haven't had a good Gen Footie thread started in a while. 2nd edit - I think Gerrard's not been at his best for quite a while now - excluding his wondergoal against Villa in the opening week that is. Didn't finish last season well (I still remember his miss in the Champs League final), hasn't been that good for England and now he seems unable to drive Liverpool forward like he used to do so well a couple of seasons ago, which is actually a polar opposite to Fab's fabulous form atm - showed his class on Sunday.

I don't think I've ever sat down at an away game

I admired Keegan for his outburst about Fergie, the players should have watched it and ran through walls for him but they didn't, that was down to them not him. blueyes.gif I was a kid then but I identified with how he felt. He was a fan, just like the rest of us were.

Tbh, I think I'll we'll all be really lucky if we ever see a Newcastle team play as well Keegan's team did.

This is what I said in the pre-match thread and it seems that my initial fears about the team selection were very justifiable. We've already seen this at Derby and now we've seen it again - we just cannot go away from home against 'shit' teams and play for a draw. The Bolton game earlier this season also demonstrated this fact even though we won. We seem unable to create any chances playing this formation and seem to invite the opposition to just come at us and score. And obviously that's quite a shit tactic since we're not adept at playing quick incisive counter-attacking football, especially with one of our best counter-attacking midfielders on the bench today (Zoggy). We're not Arsenal. We're not going to be able to score from an opponent's corner kick especially since we leave our most direct player on the bench. It's really baffling why, if Zoggy was fit, he didn't start and at least try to get us going in the right direction from the off. Out of our 5 away games this season, we've produced two or three truely abject performances which is unacceptable, especially against teams like Derby, Reading and Boro. Hopefully Allardyce will realize that we don't have the personnel nor do the players have the ability, at the moment, to play this counter-attacking-based formation in away games. We have to play like we do in our home games because I'd take our attack over most of the rest of the Premiership's attacks any day of the week. I'd take Martins, Owen, Emre, Zoggy, Barton et al over players like Doyle, Hunt, Harper etc. etc. It's just so frustrating that our manager does not realize this. They (the teams we play against) should be afraid of us. Not the other way around. Make them chop and change to deal with the movement of Owen, the pace of Martins and the directness of Zoggy! However, saying all that, our home form has been a massive improvement over the past couple of seasons so there's no doubt that we're heading in the right direction, Allardyce just needs to change his mentality for away games and we're nearly there. We'll be better next week.

Any idea of the bench? Where's Zoggy? Did Sam not see how poor we were offensively when we didn't have anyone driving at the other team on Monday night? Fucking hell, seems like he's looking for a 1-0, instead of actually going out and playing. Though this should probably go in the thread, these are the kind of games which will decide whether Sam stays here for a while or not. Most of us don't seem to expect to get much from games against the top 4, so it's 'okay' if we get dominated and lose - we're all frustrated (like we were against Arsenal) but we seem to know that we were up against a better team. However, when we're up against teams like Reading, Derby, and Boro away and we go out defensively, Sam will get criticized to fuck because we all know how that's not our speciality. If we at least attack and play football, at least Sam will have that even if we don't get any points. He needs to improve the football that we play away from home.

Imo we're heading in that direction so that's why I'm really optimistic about Sam's (and Ashley's) era.

The good thing is he seems to have gotten over the initial pressure of wearing the No.9. Honestly, I don't even think about Shearer when I see Martins now. Initially, I have to admit, I did think quite a bit about whether he'll be good enough for the shirt but over time he's proved himself capable of doing a job and is now on his way to making the shirt his own. I haven't felt this good about the club since we came 4th in Bellamy and Robert's first season

Same team as last game. Bring on Smith for Martins/Owen early in the second half if nothing is happening and then throw on Viduka for a midfielder if we're still down with about 15 minutes left. We need to play this time around (as opposed to what we did against Derby). No hoofing it up because that's probably what Reading will be doing to us. Keep the ball on the ground, Owen will be looking for channels to run into so we'll have an outlet for the defence and midfield. And then of course we should be looking to play the ball behind the defence each and everytime we have a chance because Martins will burn them over and over. He created about 4 chances against Spurs just by being a fast tit so we need to utilize this attribute of his over and over and over again. Butt and Emre do seem to have developed a balance in midfield, and it's even better that Butt doesn't seem to be alone in trying to join in the attack (which he was when Geremi was in center mid). The only real position I'm worried about is RM because Geremi will be up against a pacey-ish leftback (Shorey). He was ineffective (at best) against Spurs, so maybe Milner should have a go. That's the only change that'd be acceptable. Anyway, howay the lads. Win this and we're at the 2pts/game average = top-four form!

Any news on Zoggy's niggle?

Never thought about it like that, good point. I don't get it... Sports Soccer outlets will miss out on the normal rush to buy England shirts and merchandise. Quite a moneyspinner. Ashley wont lose money, as they'll order less stock, but profits will be down, which means less money to spend on Newcastle. That's not a contradiction Profits down = Ashley still making some money. So he's still not losing money, but not making as much as he could.

And that's just a rumour... Yes because The Guardian's always right. Anyway, like I give a fuck if Berbatov's attitude 'stinks'. Zoggy's attitude stunk like shit last season yet now he's loved by most of the fans. There's really no point arguing about this, and it'd be stupid for anyone to turn their heads up at a striker of such quality like Berbatov. PS. I'm not back-tracking - before I get accused of that. I still think Berbatov has an exemplary attitude, especially when he's on the pitch (i.e. unselfish, hardworking and gives his all).

And that's just a rumour...

A right-winger and left-back on low budget in January, then Arteta and Berbatov in the summer. Sounds good to me, although i wouldn't bother with Berbatov, his attitude stinks, he'd cost a bomb, and he'd be 28 by the summer, i'd rather go for someone younger. What? Berbatov's attitude 'stinks'? That's a load of crap. If you were referring to him apparently looking not too happy yesterday, what do you expect? He was sitting on a bench for no good reason (from his perspective). Players want to play, they don't understand the concept of 'resting' unless someone else forces them. Just look at Owen for a prime example of someone who wants to play all the time. So of course he looked like he wasn't having the best time, especially with his team down by 2. And if you weren't referring to yesterday, then I have no idea why you might infer that Berbatov's attitude stinks. He didn't make any noises about leaving Spurs in the summer and since then hasn't said anything in public about his dissatisfaction with the club, if he is even dissatisfied about the club at all. If we miraculously sign him, it'll be a signal of intent to every other fucking club in Europe. If we somehow sign him, we'll have signed a top class player peaking, and someone who could pick any club he chooses in Europe. It would be a brilliant signing.

When some players DON'T complain when they're on the bench, they're called mercenary, greedy twats. When they DO complain about not playing, they 'have no right to' because they're on 'ridiculous' money'... Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Allardyce has said that 2 points/game is something he's hoping to achieve. And he also mentioned that this form is top-four form

We've all seen how good Cacapa, Faye and Roz have been, but today was the first time that Enrique, imo the best prospect out of our new players, showed that he's very solid. His positioning defensively was very very good. Marked Malbranque out of the game (one quote from a Spurs fan 'was he [Malbranque] even playing?'). He's got some meat yet at the same time is quite agile and pacey. Looks very good. His attacking game is also quite good, passes don't seem to go too astray too often, and also has a good cross. The best thing is that he seems to be a complete fullback, not like Olly Bernard who was only good going forward. Just looks like someone who will only grow and get better with every game, especially if he gets a continued run in the team with Zoggy in front of him. Our left side is fannnnnnnnntastic

Never thought about it like that, good point. I don't get it...

WHAT!! He played very well at hartlepool and then got injured at Carlisle! He certainly did get injured. He still played a substantial part of the match though. I'm not trying to wind anybody up here, just passing judgement. EDIT: I wasn't at the Hartlepool game but I thought I read he was at best average against a weak side... Not really something I would argue though, I wasn't there. However, he was the worst player on the pitch at Brunton Park. No he wasnt. Dyer wasnt even moving and didnt look interested in the slightest. Fair enough, I disagree though. Although Dyer also had a poor game he did create an opening and a good chance from a breakaway run into the box and had a shot on target. He also never constantly gave posession to the other team. I've no personal gain from saying this, point is he was poor today and then, lets just see what happens. Barton did seemed to be off the pace and seemed to need an extra couple of seconds before a pass but surely that's expected from someone coming off a 2 month layoff? Especially against a team harrying and hustling because they're down by 2? No?

No need to pile it on. I like to think we're a bit classier than that!

We weren't at our best today but took our chances when it came and for the most part, defended resolutely. Our attack wasn't fluid, but it looked like we had a gameplan (for example Given always kicked towards Geremi because he was up against the smaller Lee) and we never stopped hustling in the first half. Even though we weren't playing Arsenal-style football, we were really good in keeping possession and pinning them back. Sam seems to have instilled a low-risk attacking plan which puts the opposition under pressure for long enough that they'll make at least a couple of mistakes, and from there we hope that our strikers finish the job. I think all of this says that we're heading in the right direction, and all we need now is to replicate this type of performance away from home. Note - Milner was quite disappointing whilst he was on. We missed Zoggy ALOT. I dunno whether it was because Chimbonda is a quality fullback or it's just that Milner's a bit tired atm, but he was slow in reacting and even slower in getting involved in our attacks. Note 2 - Berbatov is deceptively quick. Skinned Beye with ease on one occasion near the byline. His agility is also something that hasn't been mentioned that much, but it's that and his close control and overall technique that makes him such a classy player. Note 3 - I'm slightly worried about Beye. He looks good going forward - having pace helps here. However, defensively, he seems unable to adapt and change how close he's actually marking his player. On one instance with Berbs near the byline he was too close. On a few occasions when Spurs had a player on the left wing, he was too far away which made it was easier for them to cross the ball. Maybe it's a tad overreading his game but he needs to adjust to who he's marking and where they are on the pitch. This was also evident when we played Citeh three weeks ago.