KaKa

I love the fact Faye is finally being played in midfield. He should be an improvement over Geremi. Taylor and Cacapa should be okay at the back too as the Chelsea strikers aren't particularly physical today. If Milner, Duff and Martins can somehow get the ball played into their feet they could really give Ben Haim and Alex a scare too. Also it looks like Alan Smith will be given the freedom to charge forward from midfield rather than play the holding role so hopefully he will be better at doing this, and should essentially offer Martins support from there as a second striker type. I'm choosing to be optimistic with this. I'm tired of the negativity. I'll at least wait to see how we perform before getting upset about anything to do with the tactics etc. I'm really hoping for a big game from Faye in the middle of the park.

Well we are apparently doing our major signings in the summer so it must be us! Yay!

Quit while your ahead pal.

If this happens and we sign anyone of this type of quality then it will restore some of my confidence in Allardyce. One thing that has to be said about the guy and one thing we ought to appreciate is that he does have a habit of being able to bring top players into his clubs despite the club not looking the most attractive option. Anelka to Bolton being an example.

He says it is becoming a job no one will ever want, especially if we sack Sam. He thinks if anyone can turn us around it will be Allardyce. Allardyce also has a bit to say too and it does seem sensible, but my goodness it is hard to take what we have been served up recently. Interesting stuff ... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article3105861.ece

Shearer wouldn't be that bad if we brought in a very experienced figure to act as a director of football. Someone who Shearer would be happy to work with of course. However, Sheare on his own would be risky. ot sure what kind of contacts he has as far as identifying and bringin in players goes. We certainly wouldn't want him doing a Roy Keane and bringing in championship standard players.

Is that really the guy we are supposedly signing?! This could be disastrous ...

What we need is a manager with some pedigree and experience who has an attacking philosophy. It really is that simple. Any manager with these qualities would get the time he needs.

Oba must get all the ladies in South Korea.

So Sam proposes that the team spend the Christmas period in London to prepare for the game against Chelsea and the players complain about it. So what happens? Barton returns to Liverpool and sure enough gets into trouble after being out till 5:30am. They're like a bunch of kids the lot of them. They freakin' need to be watched over 24-7.

I can't help but feel that the Barton incident has completely changed things. It might be the final straw. Even if it doesn't mean Sam gets the sack, it might certainly mean that he doesn't get any money this window.

Wow ... this is unbelievable. I actually thought things couldn't get worse than they have been recently, but this really does take the cake. Even if he does return to the team anytime soon, how can he expect to get the respect or support of the fans back? We're back on the front pages folks! Everyones favourite soap/drama.

If this is true then Sam is in even more trouble, as this is one of the players he brought into the club inspite of his reputation. Nothing seems to be going Sam's way right now.

HTT this is a great post. A lot of the players have been awfully dissapointing. Ideally Sam should be given the freedom to build a squad of his own and to get rid of the players who are letting him down. However, it's going to be difficult for this to happen now. Will the owners back Sam's judgement and allow him to rebuild? This will be very difficult but ultimately I think it would probably be the best way to go about things. Even if Sam eventually has to leave, I still feel we need a bit of a clearout personnel wise anyway. Too many players still here who gave up on themselves a long time ago.

Emre finally got a start and did nothing with it, which is very dissapointing.

Except Martins is a striker ...

The sad thing is though Wullie, that was as close to an Allardyce Bolton system as you can get with a big-man upfront and two winger/strikers just off him in a 4-3-3/4-5-1. What I don't inderstand is why he put Viduka up top if he wanted to play the long ball more often today. Viduka doesn't have the workrate to play that role if he has to fight for long balls and try to hold it up for the team. I thought we had already figured out this much at least, which is why Alan Smith was given this role recently. However, it appears this isn't the case as Sam went back to Viduka as the lone striker and we were terrible. Baffling.

Although I do agree that the manager could be better as far as tactics and selections go, I am still surprised at how poor the players are sometimes. I mean seriously ... we are talking about the likes of Derby and Wigan?! Unless the manager has told the team to go out and let the opposition walk all over them then there really isn't any excuse to be as bad as we have been. At some point you're pride has to take over and even if it means you ignore the so called tactics while you are out on the pitch, then so be it. I think in general our players are just dissapointing individuals. The players with any ability are not mentally strong enough to apply themselves as they should, and those who are mentally strong seem to lack the ability. Friggin mess really.

That is quite rich from someone who has spent months crying out for a 433 formation. Yeah, but if the players are not suited or are not adjusting then we have to go with what works for the team. The 4-3-3 will never work with Viduka as the lone striker and so I will never be happy with it with Viduka up there. We saw things start to improve with Smith up there and if we had gone with Smith up top today and Faye at DM we would have played much better.

SSN - "Newcastle look more comfortable, more fluent, more effective in the 4-4-2" Why can't our manager see this!!!

I can't understand why we didn't just play Smith upfront with the Duke? Can't believe Sam went back to using him as a defensive midfielder. Why not just play Faye there if he wanted to rest Butt? And then play Cacapa and Taylor at centre Back. Sam is looking really bad right now. This is absolutely shocking stuff really.

Not surprised it looks like we are hoofing the balla lot to be honest. That will be because Viduka doesn't compete for the longer balls like Smith usually does and so the ball will never stick upfront when we play longer passes.

Cacapa is our only defender who doesn't hoof it up all the time. I was really hoping we would have Faye and Cacapa at centre back today. I don't really trust Taylor enough, apparently he almost just gave a penalty away.

Very dissapointed but definitely relieved too as we at least didn't lose. Here is my positive spin on things ... when Faye and Taylor are 100% fit it will mean Roz is our fourth choice centre back. Also, I thought Duff looked very bright and will definitely add something to the team. Lastly, I love Martins but he isn't going to work out for us on the wing. I believe we will actually look better with him at the African Nations Cup. Milner and Duff out wide will improve us a lot. Today was bad but I will at least give Sam some credit for avoiding disaster with good substitutions. We're in the top 10 right now and I think we'll be fine I honestly do. Portsmouth, Blackburn and Man City are also beginning to slow down a bit. Today I am grateful for small mercies. We did not lose the game.

How good is Bianchi! Why are Man City looking for a striker again?! He always seems to score when he is in the team.