Raconteur

That's what I say - maybe the Ultras can finally live up yo their name

i wish he'd just fuck off like Just read that - if I was Hicks & Gillette I'd be on the phone to 'Arry asking him if he wanted to take over from Woy, since he thinks they are doing such a bang up job

Worst team gets the best draft? Then what is the point to even try to win games once you're safe? But I've diverged from the thread. Fuck Liverpool! Fuck Gerrard and Carragher, fuck Hicks and Gillette, fuck Broughton and NESV FYP. Cheeky bugger - clipping my post and then carrying on with the tangential discussion afterwards

Worst team gets the best draft? Then what is the point to even try to win games once you're safe? That's a big issue here in the Australian Football League (not real football, it's a provincial game kind of like Gaelic football played with a rugby ball) Essentially, draft picks happen in order of last to first - and in the latter stages of every season there is debate about teams running dead or "tanking" games in order to come last and get better draft picks. The problem is exacerbated by "bonus draft picks", if your team wins less than five games out of 22, you get the first two draft picks. It's wide open to a corruption that is nodded and winked at... Interestingly, the Australian Rugby League tried to introduce a draft back in the late 80's - the first guy drafted to a club he didn't want to play for took the ARL to court and won. The ARL draft was scrapped - it's a system that only works with the goodwill of players and clubs. Which is why it wouldn't work in European football. Can you imagine a young starlet being told he had to play for a shite club? Like fuck! But I've diverged from the thread. Fuck Liverpool! Fuck Gerrard and Carragher, fuck Hicks and Gillette, fuck Broughton and NESV

I was impressed with Hughton's interview after the match. The transcripts don't read very well, but watching it you can see he was boiling inside - here's hoping he can channel that into a siege, us against the world mentality

If Ben Arfa played for Corinthians of Brazil, there would be a squad of Hawks around at de Jong's house with a hacksaw, taking off his leg. Just saying...

Nice to see it's not just us that don't rate Nolan Sad truth is, though, that an Everton fan forgetting to give him a mark says more than a Toon fan giving him a 3 or 4...

This. Barton confused Enrique it seems, Enrique was tracking him inside until Barton ran through. That's what I thought at the time too - seemed like Enrique had it under control, then Barton came flying through and suddenly Johnson was past. Cracking finish, has to be said... Krul - 7 Perch - 5 Williamson - 6 Coloccini - 7 Jose Enrique - 7 Ben Arfa - Barton - 6 Tiote - 8 Jonas - 8 Nolan - 5 Ameobi - 6 Routledge - 5 Campbell - 8 Carroll - 6

You make a fine point - the problem with that is that if Nolan is moved to central midfield in place of Barton (instead of onto the bench, or into the stands) it will be even more costly to the team than playing him in the hole. Right now Nolan's deficiencies are blunting our attack - in central midfield those deficiencies will cost us goals because of increased pressure on our defence. Having said that, am I the only person who thought he looked (marginally) better against Stoke in the middle rather than in the hole? (And my better I mean 5/10 as opposed to 4/10)?

Wrong - the turnaround started as soon as the second half started and they started battering a Newcastle team who went to water. They might still have been losing when Delap came on, but we could all see what was happening (hitting the woodwork twice), and no one was surprised when they did eventually equalise (and go on to win) Sure, Delap's throws had an influence, but we'd already psyched ourselves out by the time he came on

I'll bet he goes with Jonas ahead of Ben Arfa at City

I thought Krul was okay. He copped a bit of stick in the match thread, some deserved, and some not. He was criticised for not coming out enough which encouraged Stoke to bomb it in even deeper. Personally, I think it's a coaching problem. Remember how we used to think he was too rash and came for everything? Well, I suspect someone on the NUFC coaching staff has tried to coach this out of him, and if I'm right then people will make the same complaints about Krul as they did about Given and Harper. There's an old joke about dodgy keepers: "You'd never know if he was gay, because he won't come out" This joke could have been made about Given and Harper. If it starts to apply to Krul then he won't be the world class keeper we all hope he will be...

So I've slept on this debacle, and read through 43 pages of angst and anger - there's not much to add. However, I wanted to stick up for Carroll and Barton, who I thought have been getting some unfair stick. Yes, Carroll didn't have much impact in the second half. But that's because all the balls aimed at him were way too high - I remember a handful of occasions where he went up, in competition with a Stoke defender, and got to the ball. Unfortunately, they were too high for knock-downs, but became flick-ons. And we all know there's nobody to run on to these flick-ons. And as for his defending for their first goal - I remember reading Carroll being praised in the Cloud 9 thread about his defensive work. Yes, he made a mistake - against one of the best strikers outside the top 6-7. Why was he marking their most potent aerial weapon? As for Joey Barton, I'm not saying he was man of the match, but ratings of 4 and 5 are out of line. To use FM speak, he's the best player we have in that sort of CMa role, his movement was good and some of his passing was very good too. Yes, his set pieces were appalling. But so were Ben Afra's - and I'm not blaming either of them. Apart from Raylor, how long has it been since we had a genuine dead-ball specialist? For too long we have complained about corners hitting the first man, or free kicks slamming into the wall or into the stands. What is needed is a commitment to improve our set pieces - for a bottom half team (which we are), they can be the difference between comfort and a squeaky bum come May. And the first step towards that is moulding two or three of our players into dead ball specialists. It's not as if it's impossible to learn. How did the likes of Beckham and Zola get to be so good at them? Practice, hours and hours of practice. And if I was one of our younger brigade (like Guthrie, Carroll and even the likes of Ferguson and Vuckic) I'd be thinking there was a chance to carve a niche for myself. We saw yesterday how an absolutely woeful footballer, with a single weapon, has carved a career out for himself. Rory Delap would be League 1 if he couldn't throw a ball in well. And sure, part of that is natural "talent", but I reckon he spent more than a few hours on the training ground (after everyone else has gone home) perfecting his technique. That dedication is something we need one or two of our boys to make. Imagine what it would feel like if everytime we got a free kick we had genuine hope instead of praying for a miracle. Imagine if other teams felt the same dread defending one of our corners - as opposed to us currently fearing every other team every time they get a dead ball situation within forty yards of goal...

Correct and correct - I honestly believe that Hughton will drop Ben Arfa for Jonas in the name of "defensive solidity". Nolan and Perch have to go - and while I'm not part of the Ranger wankfest, he'd have to be pushing Routledge who really didn't offer much at all. Having said that, Ranger and Raylor/Perch down the right fills me with dread. It's times like these we need Saylor back... EDIT: I forgot to make a prediction. 2-0 or 3-0 to the home team

Shocking miss If there's any good to come from this debacle it must be Jonas on the left, Ben Afra in the middle and Nolan on the bench

Ranger for Routledge is a better shout

He's getting his head to them, but flicking them on to no one. In the first half, when aimed at his chest or feet, he looked a lot better. We're not playing smart anymore

Dubious decision from Hughton..

Bahahaha Fuller!

I think I agree with you actually. Lovenkrands would offer more with the balls BA can play. I can hear Ronaldo coming

Fantasy Football fail - I swapped Nolan out for Ben Afra. But I'll console myself with goiing in at the half one up

What was with the celebration - Nolan doing the chicken dance?

Why the hell is Kaka such a weird bastard? I remember a few times now he has said something totally mental. He proper loves Jesus like... "No, it seems like you're in love with Jesus"

OK then, he rests some first-teamers and bloods some youngsters. It's clear he doesn't send out a bunch of 14 year olds and go "pass them to death you fuckers!" I think the side against Spurs was a tad stronger than people imagined, because it was Spurs. I'm sure I read somewhere that the reason Arsenal sent out a "stronger than usual" team against Spuds was not so much because of the derby, but because many of the youngsters he would have used are injured, and thus Wenger played first teamers out of necessity... EDIT: Here it is http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=825678&sec=england&root=england&cc=3436 Having said that, reading the whole article gives Wenger's motives a different perspective - and it's one backed up by Rosicky in this article: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=826138&sec=england&cc=3436&cc=3436

I think when you spend the kind of money they have you expect a little better. If they're 10 points behind after 6 games that's not great. Yep, I can see the mad Arabs making old Jesus Gil look patient...