alexthegreat

hit the woodwork 4 times (I think) and had a goal disallowed in his last 3 games as well. Got 3 goals in them but hes actually unlucky not to have more

9 yellow cards now (according to .COM) . A booking v Man City and he will miss Everton

could actually have had a couple of goals by now. At least we're coming out of this horror show in the correct manner. Fans sound decent as well.

never mind

Wigan totally outplayed us but showing a few signs of slight tiredness towards the end of the half. They have played at 100 mph Hopefully they will have worn themselves out by 70 mins. We have been poor but theres the occasional sign we might be able to produce some quality. Still hopeful we will make a game of this 2nd half.

Still think Villa need 2 more points to be safe. Hope they lose their derby away at WBA at the weekend and I'll enjoy seeing them squirm

Henning watches the training session, as Souness and his assistants yell and wave their arms. He tells me about Phil Boersma. He used to be the assistant to the physio at Liverpool. When Souness managed Galatasaray, Boersma was put in charge of warm-ups. When Souness took charge of Blackburn, he made Boersma head coach. “That’s what Souness is like. He’ll only associate himself with people who say ‘yes boss’, coaches who wouldn’t even be competent to coach Norwegian youth teams,” Henning says. Souness lets the club rot rather than lose face. In the last couple of years, David Dunn, Keith Gillespie, Andy Cole and Henning have all left Blackburn after falling out with him. The ­captain, Garry Flitcroft, isn’t even on the bench and Henning’s good friend Dwight Yorke, who came here from Manchester United in 2002, is also on his way out. Right now, Yorke is out there with his team-mates in training, but everyone knows it’s just a matter of time. good bit on Boersma there. I posted this about him a few months back: http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,72448.msg3248394.html#msg3248394

Haven't seen much of him myself but he is now getting some rave reviews on Celitc's forum. I know that last year they weren't overly impressed: http://www.talkceltic.net/forum/showthread.php?t=117372&page=25 If we do lose Krul (has to be conceeded its at least a possibility), have we already got a replacement?

Yep, heres where we were just 2 years and 9 months ago. "imploding" according to our own players: Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1199187/.html#ixzz1s8dLe8w3

Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=692099&page=35#ixzz1s8z5zKe8 selective memories at 5under1and

but would they swap places with NUFC: Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=690296&page=58#ixzz1s1CPoQ9D No of course not

Villa aren't out of it next. They're away to Man United next. Then at home to Sunderland. Lose those 2 and then suddenly their next game at home to Bolton is a massive match. Heres hoping...

The bit before Christmas is a bit of a mess, but when it gets to the last 32 its actually a really good tournament. This is the draw for the last 32 in February, some really big names in there and the final would a great day out. Would love to be in it tbh: Lok'v Moscow 2-1 Athletic Bilbao Ajax 0-2 Man Utd AZ Alkmaar 1-0 Anderlecht Lazio 1-3 Atl Madrid Legia Warsaw 2-2 Sporting Plzen 1-1 Schalke 04 SV Salzburg 0-4 Met'st Kharkiv FC Porto 1-2 Man City Hannover 96 2-1 Club Brugge Steaua Buch't 0-1 FC Twente Stoke 0-1 Valencia Trabzonspor 1-2 PSV Eindhoven Udinese 0-0 PAOK Salonika Wisla Krakow 1-1 Standard Liege Rubin Kazan 0-1 Olympiakos Braga 0-2 Besiktas

Journal say its a hamstring injury: Rodgers and his men knew the game was up and Newcastle played out the contest perfectly – with only a hamstring injury to Cabaye causing them any great concern Read More http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/nufc-results-reports/2012/04/07/swansea-city-0-newcastle-united-2-61634-30710936/2/#ixzz1rOrSb7FG Doubt he'll make Monday if thats the case.

Thought he was excellent today, obvious contender for man of the match, lost count of the number of blocks and tackles he made. However, I really thought he was going to get a 2nd yellow for dragging back Suarez in stoppage time. When the ref blew he put his hands up to his face like he knew he was off - quite fortunate to get away with it, I thought.

Hoddle could choose from Owen, Shearer, Sheringham, Wright, Ferdinand, Fowler, Collymore and a few others as strikers when he was manager. His midfield was good enough that he felt he could leave Le Tissier and Gazza at home for France 98. He had Southgate, Adams and Campbell in centre defence, and Seaman and Flowers were still decent goalkeepers. He still didn't manage to do anything Eriksson didn't manage - was unlucky v Argentina but less so v Romania before that. The bizarre reasons for his sacking are still there, hes done nothing of note for more than a decade, and the players are far, far worse than when he was in charge. He would be a ridiculous appointment.

Been reading this forum more than posting over the last few years. I'd just about agree with this, although I'd go further and say that while there has been a swell of genuine constructive criticism recently, there is a small minority who have been itching to leap on the manager's back for the entire season. Heres one of them: He's a proven liar, dishonest and someone I'd class as a snide. He's a bull shiter in short and a bit of a c*** as a result. Just my opinion of course but hey that's how I see him, as a bit of a c***. (beat Man United 3-0 a few days after this post) Disgraceful attitude towards a manager doing a fantastic job. Can only guess what the motivation is, but I can't see what keeping up a constant stream of vitriolic hatred towards Pardew is supposed to achieve. I do remember that at the start of the season the above viewpoints weren't the isolated voices they are now. People didn't like Pardew for their own reasons, not all of them to do with results. They wrote about it on forums and in fanzines, the media picked up on it, and we were left with the ridiculous situation where the Journal and other newspapers were calling the 2nd game of the season a "must win" game for Pardew, piling the pressure on a manager who was unbeaten in 4 or 5 and just one game into a new season. I really thought that all that would have been left behind by the unbeaten run he went on after that. But theres an extremely vocal, very small minority on here who it seems will always have it in for him. I'm not sure how they think this will help, but whenever we next have a blip they'll all be out in force regardless of the circumstances, making us all look like pricks. Good to know.

Has there been any news on Ryan Taylor's availability for this one?

fantastic today in a bit of an unfamiliar role. I thought that one thing that made the game v Norwich so insipid was the way we got the ball to our forwards (who look absolutely top class today). Jonas was getting the ball from the defence and finding some decent little passes. He worked very hard as ever and I think he will be crucial if we are going to play this way.

Krul Simpson Williamson Coloccini Taylor Tiote Cabaye HBA Obertan Jonas Ba 1-0 to us

Its been noticable that opposition forwards have squeezed the play towards our right when we're playing it out from the back in the last few months, and this was very obvious today. I think Williamson probably had more touches than any of our players in the 1st half. Was very frustrating to have Ba, Cisse, and Ben Arfa at one end of the pitch, very occasionally putting together some decent moves, but more often we were watching Williamson and Simpson nudging the ball to each other in slow-motion, hacking and slicing, and Krul weighing in with the odd miscued kick now and then. I honestly think Williamson had been told not to hoof it as much as he normally does. The results of this were nearly disastarous in the first 20 mins. Amonst a number of errors A slow ponderous dribble across his own goal stood out - it resulted in the loudest 5 seconds of criticism I've heard for one of our players in ages and he was visibly shaken - there were some very nervous touches after that. It was back to hoofball after that. Neither Ba or Cisse can really compete for the long balls against the centre backs, although the introduction of Shola helped in this regard (thought he did well when he came on). I remember against West Brom at home their centre backs gobbled up everything v Ba and Best. Also remember that Odemwingie and Long were relentless in their harrying of our defence. I think that this team needs a targetman who can regularly compete for high balls with Premier League defenders and I don't think either Ba or Cisse can do that. I wouldn't be surprised if Pardew was contemplating either a 451 (gives an extra man in midfield for the defender to find), or playing Shola instead of Cisse. Reading this forum suggests that taking either of these decisions will see him slaughtered. We have some good players but we are badly lacking in some areas - the result is often a disjointed performance. I don't really think Pardew is particularly to blame for this, and I still think hes doing well with what he has.

At the start of the season I thought a defence of Simpson, Perch, RTaylor, STaylor, Coloccini, Williamson, Ferguson, and no one except later Santon was at least as bad as what got us promoted and possibly the worst I had ever seen us have in the Premiership. I think Pardew would like to play more attacking football but I can see why he wants to focus on protecting the back 4 and agree with the approach. We have seen them completely collapse on several occasions, to have the best defence in the league after 10 games with that lot was a remarkable achievement. We haven't got good enough wide players to compensate for constantly leaking two or three goals a game, and while we could get more from Cabaye in the final third, Tiote will never offer much in this area. We were fortunate (and Pardew deserves credit) that at the start of the season that Ryan Taylor (at leftback, unbelievably) and Jonas were in the the form of their lives. Obertan just isn't good enough, we took a gamble on the cheap option with a poor injury record in Marveaux and it didn't work. The result, inevitably, is the ball ends up in the air a lot. With that midfield and Williamson and Simpson at the back it would be the same regardless of who the manager is. Its a shame because in Ba and Cisse we could potentially have a very good strikeforce, but they need the ball on the deck. The solution everyone wants is to just play BenArfa on the wing and go for it. I'd obviously like to see more from him and couldn't understand what Pardew was doing with him but his defensive play really is feeble and does cause us problems. He represents the complete opposite of the attitude that had us in the top 4. In simple terms the squad isn't good enough for us to do any better. We were a very direct team last year, Pardew wanted us to be more entertaining this year. He didn't get enough backing to make the full transition and now we are stuck half way between the two, with a manager who is correctly inclined to err towards defence. If we do manage to finish 6th or 7th it will be because of Pardew's ability to extract passable and sometimes decent performances from RTaylor, Best, Guthrie, Williamson, Simpson, Shola, and even James Perch on a regular basis. I reckon Souness could get that lot relegated and thats why Pardew's a decent manager regardless of what formation he plays.

19 points from 17 games is hardly "atrocious", its only slightly worse than the sort of form I was hoping for at the start of the season. You seem to be confusing us with a completely different team. You were hoping for slightly more than a point per game An extra win in that run of 17 games would give 22 points from 17. Maintaining that form for the whole of the season would probably see us finish around 10th, which was the best I thought we could hope for.

19 points from 17 games is hardly "atrocious", its only slightly worse than the sort of form I was hoping for at the start of the season. You seem to be confusing us with a completely different team.

Roy Hodgson for LFC P17 W6 D4 L7 = 22 points - Sacked. King Kenny's last 17 PL games - P17 W5 D6 L6 = 21 points