Tachikoma

Did one of your insiders tell you that Ashley arranged for Chelsea to loan us their manager?

Ameobi's going to get a call up one of these days you know

Its too little too late, but I have a feeling in the gut that someone's in the pipeline *crosses fingers*.

Completely different player now, from the one we had at the start of the season.

Reality check: We didn't come into this game expecting a win, did we? We outplayed Arsenal in the first half, and should have had a couple goals to go with it. Cheer up a little. Credit to Hughton and Co for growing the balls to go at them, now lets just make sure we do it against the teams which are around us.

you'd 'love' to see a team which would effectively revolve around Andy Caroll? yeah, genius Who else have we got? Xisco isn't likely to play, and has been injured for a bit too.

Does anyone _honestly_ see Owen and Martins working? Not once did they link up as a pair against Hull, and I'm not going to expect it to work against Arsenal. I'd love to see the 4-3-3 back, with Caroll in Viduka's role. Or perhaps Loven-Martins-Owen.

Tied for 2nd and 3rd for me - very little between him and Roeder. And thats just within the last 5 years.

[Fanboy]Its the coaching, obviously. Look at how Milner's come on since moving on.[/Fanboy] When the team loses or fails to score, that will be all 11 players without meaningful contributions. [glow=red,2,300]You cant underestimate the ability to collect the ball under pressure and either make space, beat a man and move the ball forward. [/glow] If you look at the worst NUFC teams and the worst performances, you'll see players collecting balls under pressure without the ability to find a man, make space or beat a player. The team loses possession and eventually the pressure cranks up until we concede. Jonas collected the ball in his own and was surrounded by 3 man u players. If he loses the ball, man u go on the attack. He didnt and we went on the attack. Thats a meaningful contribution imo. All you "but he can't cross..he can't score...end product...boo hooo.." types should read this very carefully. Then read it again a few times until it registers. With regards to Chez's original post. Those attributes on-the-ball you could also award to Emre, but Emre wasn't as defensively solid as Jonas. Has the makings of a very good ball-carrying link-up man, and Emre didn't have the necessary physical strength & durability to fill a spot in the middle for any meaningful amount of time, in terms of a stretch of games played. But when Emre was there - with Martins' movement and pace further afield - there wasn't much that was amiss with our second phase/counterattacking game. Nobody - not me at least - is underestimating or overlooking Jonas' strengths. IMO his strengths aren't being used where they would be most advantageous, especially in terms of us creating some incisive second phase play though the middle of the park, if he was used as i've suggested some time ago. With this type of player filling what is a void in the engine-room there would be very little need to persist with the long-ball rubbish from the back, to a player/s - in Martins & Owen - who are ill-equipped to deal with this persistent pattern of play from the back. Harper's distribution - his short to mid-range passing game is better than Given's - is underestimated & being undervalued by the current bosses, and Collocini is more of a play-making centrehalf as opposed to being a rough & tumble 'old fashioned' British centrehalf. And goals aside Taylor's short passing game is at the moment his redeeming quality as a centrehalf. Put Beye into the equation and there's enough pass & receiving options in the defensive third who will create the necessary space - by pulling apart the opposition's zonal & pressing play in our half with the passing one-twos, triangles passing sequences - for Jonas as a 1st or 2nd Receiver. In fairness to Hughton and Co, that looked like the gameplan we had when we played Manure.

He had a part to play in the goal we conceded too - it was like he forgot that he was a right back for an instant and starting running towards the center instead of tracking his man to the byline, resulting in the cross that led to the goal. Maybe we ought to play him upfront, he finishes better than Shola does at least.

Some managers have an XI in their head and it stays that way, form is rarely considered. Its rare I agree with our XI, but Man Utd was quite good. At least we have some back next week. How the fuck do you know that?! I'm embarrassed for you. What the fuck have Nicky Butt, Ameobi and Alan Smith done in their lives to deserve to be ANYWHERE near the fucking pitch, in our colours? On a more positive note though, Alan Smith took on a shot, and played a half-decent cross! Now if only the club would sign me.

For fuck's sake, get us a manager.

That investment really shouldn't be equated to the amount of transfer funds we have available; given the size of the club, the lack of spending this season, our lack of debts to pay for and the clearing of deadwood, we should have a more than decent war chest (going by history) despite MA's lack of investment. What I'm really worried about is MA tightening the purse strings to tap our income for himself.

When the team loses or fails to score, that will be all 11 players without meaningful contributions. You cant underestimate the ability to collect the ball under pressure and either make space, beat a man and move the ball forward. If you look at the worst NUFC teams and the worst performances, you'll see players collecting balls under pressure without the ability to find a man, make space or beat a player. The team loses possession and eventually the pressure cranks up until we concede. Jonas collected the ball in his own and was surrounded by 3 man u players. If he loses the ball, man u go on the attack. He didnt and we went on the attack. Thats a meaningful contribution imo. You can quote all these fine theories until you are blue in the face - the only thing that matters is END PRODUCT ; Shearer produced this in bad sides, Solano did also - in past years, Beardsley and Waddle also did...Jonas is an Argentine international, but I wouldn't have him in the side as opposed to, say, Waddle if they were both the same age. Watch some of Waddle's amazing goals when playing in a mediocre Newcastle side in 84-85 - HE didn't need to be in 'a decent side' to produce either dangerous crosses or great goals...Jonas has dome neither in nearly a full season. the only thing that matters is not end product. some players get into the team because of end product and some dont. keane and viera were not in their respective teams for so long for their goals and assists. i know jonas isn't a def mid, but his ability to tackle back and keep the ball and run with is is something we desperately need in our team, cause no other fucker does it. WRONG - end product IS all that matters...Keane and Viera DID have end product because their job was to break up opposition attacks and win the ball for their creative midfielders, and they did it very well... Jonas' job is NOT to do what Keane and Viera did, but to create danger - REAL danger - in the opposition penalty area - in my opinion he does not do this anywhere near often enough, and so he has very little end product. Butt, Nolan and Guthrie are the ones who are responsible for winning the ball in midfield.. Ask Alan Shearer what his main job was, and he would tell you it was to get goals - although he did his share of helping out the midfield, that wasn't what he was there for - that's the point. We get your point, but you were saying that he was a "luxury" player, which implies that we changed our team somehow to accomodate his talents. What exactly did we do to "accomodate" him?

Why would you consider a player who is willing to graft AND has a bit of quality about him a "luxury" player? Because he isn't Robert?

Phew. I thought Smith would never leave again once he managed to squeeze himself onto the teamsheet.

I'd take just about anyone over Bentley though. What a fall from grace Bentley has had. Within a year he goes from being NE5's golden boy to one of the most maligned players in the league. I can see him playing for us next year if we survive the drop (and if the purse strings are loosened a tad)

Just drop Smith and put Owen back in, and everyone will be happy.

Ah fuck. Just when I captained Schwarzer too.

Decent performance, if it wasn't for Raylor I honestly thought we'd have gotten a point out of this. They were doing most of the attacking but truth be told, they didn't look like they were ever going to crack us. Hughton was surprisingly good today too (except the part where he let Smith on the pitch), for once we had a gameplan and it worked.

You know, I don't think I'd really mind that.

How are we even a professional footballing outfit? This is fucking amateurish.

What a waste of two hours' sleep.

We are literally playing like a Sunday league team, everyone is playing on nothing but instinct. What a save by Samuel there, and what the fuck is Hughton thinking subbing Martins now? Game over.

Why are you excluding them? Because they're newly promoted and don't have the resources we should have? West Brom are better than us in that respect anyway.