Parky

Exactly, how long do we have to wait before the manager can get his "average" team of multi-million pound internationals to string more than three passes together? 20 games? 38 games? How dare we demand to be competing with those giants of the premiership Man City, Everton and err....Portsmouth. We are not fit to lace their boots and the sooner we realise Big Sam's long term plan (target man, long throw-in specialists) the better!!!!! Has Sam been outed?

Sniffer will flip if he sees that long list of excuses.

I wonder if Queiroz had any affect on their changes of fortune in Europe. What changes of fortune is that then? Their appauling away record perhaps? There are no guarantees in football but from what I know he was initially bought in to help on the tactical side especailly for Euro games.

I wonder if Queiroz had any affect on their changes of fortune in Europe.

Yeah we've had the gerbil/rodent Dave.

You're being silly now. England isn't really in Europe is it Sniffs? It's an island remember. Thatcher's island. If said British manager had worked at Euro clubs then you'd have a point. How many current British managers managing in the PL have worked at Euro clubs? ....yes well... :giggle:

Eh? I just meant managers who have worked in Europe who are European (speak 2/3 languages) and have worked at European clubs might have better contacts and knowledge of the European scene than most British managers (not all).

Of course foreign managers have the added advantage of a Euro knowledge base and contacts that can identify young talent.

We need to look abroad?

Globalisation for the win. Doubt it. It was a joke Park Life! It's a serious business. >

Globalisation for the win. Doubt it.

I remember that and it was backed up by Mort at the time.

All this talk - from last season in particular - about needing new defenders was bollocks. You are right, look back at that blackburn game. Have we ever dominated and forced a game like that ever since ? Maybe one or two of Roeders first games ie Pompey, but thats all. This is how good teams play, they play controlled possession football. When you do that, you aren't giving the ball away and are forcing the pace of the game. It's amazing how people can't see this, when they have been shown it. When you give the ball away and spend the entire game forced backwards, you will NEVER look secure at the back. You need talented players, able to show their talent by passing and moving, with a positive attitude and belief that they will win, playing to win. Playing like this you beat the teams with lesser players and slug it out cat and mouse with the other top teams. I thought Allardyce would have had it in him to adapt his previous methods and play like other top teams have shown the way, but I'm now having big doubts. I don't support getting rid of him just yet, but thats because I'm still hoping that he is capable of it. I don't always agree with you NE5, but on this occasion, we are(almost) as one..! Whilst I disagree that we didn't need new defenders - Bramble for one was clearly not good enough consistently - I agree totally with your analysis of the style of play. People may remember that one of the things I have constantly been complaining about over the season is the number of times we give the ball away, inviting pressure back on our defence as you say, and the lack of movement from players off the ball ; there have been at least 2 occasions where this has been disastrous, once at Man City where Taylor was hurried into an error by being given the ball in an unnecessarily-tight situation, and again at SJP against Pompey where we lost possession in midfield after a bad pass and Cacapa was placed in a one-against-one which resulted in the second goal against.. There was also a similar incident caused by a hurried pass from Faye which led to the Mackems' goal. The point is that the players are not confident with passing/possession football - either that, or they are not practicing this in training because the coaching staff either don't promote it or are told NOT to promote it..... Keeping possession is not easy - it requires effort, skill on the ball, good movement off it(players have to be fit in order to be able to keep it going for 90 mins) - and most of all - PRACTICE. Long-Ball football IS lazy in comparison ; it means abdicating responsibility by just whacking the ball upfield even if there is time to find a colleague in space ; it is also 'percentage' football in that you have in most cases, no better than a 50% chance of your team-mate receiving the pass, and in the case of our current side(Owen & Martins being prime examples)the forwards have LESS than a 50% chance of controlling such a ball. Long-ball football is also bad to watch, which is why so many fans are complaining about what they see... I am not saying that there is not a place in the game for whacking the ball away - clearly, in very tight situations in defence, there is - but to play it all the time will not result in success over a long period. Nobody on this board can tell us of a side who have consistently won trophies playing this way - Wimbledon managed it against Liverpool in the FA Cup, and then vanished into obscurity ; Greece did something similar in the Euro Champs in 2004, then failed to qualify for the WC in 06. Most tellingly, Bolton have won NOWT playing that way and only qualified for the UEFA Cup twice... We are NOT Bolton - we are also not yet Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool - but who should we be attempting to emulate with the resources available to the Manager of Newcastle United, and what is more, which way should we be trying to play.. You need VARIETY of style to compete with whatever strengths the opposition have, and sometimes you have to compromise - but in the main, surrendering possession is NOT going to bring success. As for relying on January to bring relief - forget it. Unless we are very fortunate, the type of players we need are unlikely to be available until the summer. As I have said before, I think it unlikely that there will be any managerial change until then, but a flirtation with the bottom 4 by Christmas could change things - time will tell.The Jury is still out, but the time for the verdict is getting closer.... To me it's glaringly obvious. Round, Pearson AND Allardyce are all defensive coaches. There is no balance in the coaching. Two of thme are former CD's ffs!

The unseen priority - new ownership! mackems.gif

He's one of those also that needs time on ze ball.

I agree the comments and the way he set up the side for a few of those games was ludicrous. On the other hand he is under immense pressure and I'm totally sure he underestimated the nature of the task here.

Football isn't like that tho. I agree with most of what you're saying btw, but you're being a little over negative. Pompey and Everton both went through long rough patches in the last couple of years but the managers knew they could rely on the continued support of all at the club and kept in mind their vision and ideas for bettering the side. It won't happen overnight and yes SA has made mistakes and has every right to be lashed for them..I've had a proper go at him writing for the site but I also am aware what he's up against. The nature of the PL has changed and overall the top 10 as a whole are of a much higher quality than even 3/4 years ago..There are 4 CL level sides followed by another 6 sides pushing for that level now inc Pompey and Man City along with the others that we both are aware of. Reading held Arenal yesterday for 1/2 hr with ease and only really started losing their shape in the second half, so you can see even the likes of relegation fodder (supposedly) aren't pushovers. In this context what hurt was the Derby result and the nonsense Sam talked about getting a point being good enough...This is the kind of thing where he will realise he has misjudged the club. He also needs to understand that football is about getting goals rather than not letting them in, this is Newcastle and not Bolton or Everton. I'll be honest looking at the next three games the relegation zone (or just above it) did cross my mind and we could easily end up 14th or 15th after three loses and things will look grim, but football isn't an exact science and there are no miracle cures (well there are buy top class players) for our situation at the moment. We need to stick by the manager who imo is much much better than the last two and do our best to keep the pressure off him. But, we do need to get a couple of quality players for the midfield in Jan or we could be tempting fate.

Sam will bring in a keeper.

Cheers for the history lesson, but the transfer window wasn't used in the Premiership until the 02-03 season. Sep 1999 Jose Rodrigues Alves Antunas ("Fumaca") MID Cantuna Loan Oct 1999 Kevin Gallacher FWD Blackburn £700,000 Nov 1999 Marino Rodrigues Cristovao Helder DEF Deportivo La Coruna £500,000 (for one season) Surely the first responsibility of a manager is to get as effective a team as he can from the players at his disposal onto the pitch. That as well yes. But imo ultimately as the quality comes in everything else starts falling into place. We haven't added quality for sometime to the squad.

Unforgiveable. blueyes.gif

Rarely do teams give up their best players in Jan. Anelka is the only one that might be a poss and perhaps the giraffe.

Imagine having Smith and Barton coming atcha...

That's hysteria creeping in sniffs my son.

The first responsability of any manager is to get quality players onto the pitch.