merlin

Are you inviting us to 'admire' Ashley...??

No chance of Pardew going anywhere unless we start struggling or Ashley sells the club. If he was going to act, Ashley would have done so last Summer after a dire season. I wasn't surprised that AVB got the bullet because he has spent a lot of money and was getting poor results - the 5-0 by Liverpool obviously was the straw that broke the directors' patience, compare that with our 2 awful hammerings at SJP last season, one from the Scousers and previously, by the Mackems and this after we too had spent more in Jan than Ashley expected in order to survive. AVB is beginning to look a bit of a lame duck as a manager of PL sides now so not unexpected. As long as Pardew keeps us away from relegation and Ashley remains in charge, we will have to hope that we get the odd entertaining game to keep us happy because that is as much as we can expect. I await the Jan window with anticipation, and not much of it is high..perhaps trepidation is a better word. Wonder if Man U are contemplating a Cabaye for Zaha swap....?

Couldn't agree more with this post! Ben Arfa should start ahead of Shola every single time. Comparing the 2 players' respective talents...yes, but HBA is not and never will be, a Central Striker ; he lacks the physical presence to play that role and whereas he has far greater skill than Ameobi, he would be ineffective with a CD(or 2)kicking lumps out of him or clattering him with every aerial challenge. Ameobi is also poor at this, but then he shouldn't be in the first team anyway - he is there because the owner won't spend the cash necessary to bring in a PL standard target man/CF. Even Remy is on loan and he is more of a roving striker playing off a target man rather than a conventional CF. We need more ambition at the top....

Our players stand still when anyone has the ball...that's the problem, nobody is making fast runs into space after passing and it means the opposition have too much time to get back in numbers.

They had enough possession in our half to cause us many problems in the second half....if Anita had not been in the side, I reckon there is a good possibility that we could have lost this match. Southampton DID cut through us plenty of times, the possession was not just in their half of the field and they looked more threatening. We relied on possession in our half and a laboured build up which allowed them time to get back in defence and restrict our options. That's how I saw it.

This - and they do.

This - good summary...I failed to comment on the ref but you are right. At least he didn't send Sissoko off..!!

This - a neutral watching in the second half would have been hard-pressed to say which was the home side. Southampton fully deserved their point - Remy's awful miss was cancelled out by Davis striking the post with a great effort from 25 yards and Southampton were a far better passing side. They do just what we don't, but used to under KK and SBR which is pass and move. It doesn't matter how you try to dress it up, they had 60% of the ball and that means they were able to prevent us building any momentum in the second half as well as creating danger. It is lucky for us that 3 of our defenders are playing well and that Anita is always there to help them. As well as that, Anita created a great chance in the first half with a great piece of skill in their box and there was nobody there to meet his cut-back. We have some excellent players but we are not a cohesive team, esp without Cabaye - HBA was his usual mix of brilliance and over-optimism on the ball...one incident, where he beat a defender and had Haidara over-lapping on his left, with a clear run to the by-line, then instead of passing to him, tried to beat 2 defenders and predictably lost the ball, had me tearing my thinning hair out and I can see why Pardew is reluctant to play him for 90 mins ; this is one of the few things I agree with Pardew about although HBA IS a decent sub when the opposition are tired, provided he sticks to the easy things. Older fans like me have seen plenty of players like this...Alan Suddick and Jimmy Smith come to mind straight away. They could win a game on their own if they felt like it, but they didn't feel like it enough. The club used to think that we fans only wanted a 'crowd-pleaser'...so we did, but we were far more pleased when we were winning matches and you need a good TEAM to do that, which is why Shankly, Revie, Clough and Ferguson built successful sides and we didn't(apart from the fact that the board wouldn't finish the job off). We came close under Gordon Lee, KK and SBR but none of these managers built a team around 1 player. We are never going to challenge for the big prizes under Ashley because we are never going to have strength in depth to do that, but we CAN and should win the majority of home games as well as playing attractive football because we have enough players to do that IF coached properly. A disappointing result but we deserved no better - Southampton seem to have some good young players coming through as well, which is another area we need to address.....

Agreed about the Leazes, the atmosphere was usually brilliant and that was helped by standing and not having loud music banging out before the game started. Some great memories of being in the Leazes for me....being carried several rows forward when a goal was scored etc but the best was during a game v Man C in the season after we won the Fairs Cup ; a dog got into the ground and ran on to the pitch during the game...immediately, the Leazes all began to sing 'Will ye get Joe Baker(Mackem CF)off the field' to the tune of 'She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes...' Brilliant...! In later years(early 76 I think), they all sang 'Happy Birthday' to Supermac before we trounced Coventry 4-0 in an FA Cup replay - Macdonald hadn't scored for a few weeks prior to that, but he duly obliged with a fine goal on the night..!

...as ever.

It won't happen but I would just give Bigi a starting spot now (if Cabaye leaves), he may be a rough diamond but he will offer as much as Tiote and is more likely to improve because he seems to have a brain. I would actually be quite excited tbh. http://i41.tinypic.com/359kcae.png Tiote, you have been very bloody good this season. Just shows how short term we are as football fans, we all do it, maybe we should be more patient and take the rough with the smooth. I think it gets so frustrating sometimes to see players not make the most of their talent and making stupid mistakes. I wanted him sold at end of season we finished 5th mind and my mates were saying you can't sell your best players. I said this season he is maybe but we can get £25 mil for him and I doubt he will ever reach that value again. If Fellaini is worth 27m, Tiote has got to be worth almost 20m.....neither really worth it, but that's the market we are in. Man U need both Tiote and Cabaye enough to pay a decent fee for either.

I've thought this for a while now....he's just the type of player they lack. As for the Speed comparison, I don't think they are similar players but both decent....Speed was 100% a professional and dedicated whereas Cabaye, inevitably, is more of a mercenary. Where do you get that last line from? He played for his boyhood club all his career, then moved to a bigger league. Because he is a foreigner - where do you think..? He played for Lille for many years, yes, but he wants success now. As far as he can, he enjoys playing for us but he feels his time is up now...Speedo would never have left us although he was older than Cabaye. I don't blame Cabaye for his wanting a move either because he is ambitious; he was ambitious for us too, but he sees that the people running the club don't really share his views.

He's a thoughtful and clever player - I would always play him and Tiote with Cabaye on difficult away trips because he helps us to retain possession. Courageous too when going for the ball against bigger players - will become a vital part of the side in time.

He's got a great engine and when he picks his runs properly, he causes defenders real problems because of his strength. Needs to get on top of his first touch and also play the simple pass so he can use his strength and skills to run for the return. A real asset when on his game.

Never doubted that this boy had great ability - it shone through on his first appearance against Everton and I always knew he would eventually recover his form. Can be impetuous at times in the tackle but he is a huge asset in winning balls in m/f...if he keeps it simple he is as good as any defensive midfielder in the PL.

This - he has class and now he is finding his feet in the PL it is showing through. Had a great game today.

A good summary, HTT and I agree with most of it. He IS a class act and won't be here long. We'll miss him when he goes because he has a habit of scoring great goals and not many in m/f ever get near.

I've thought this for a while now....he's just the type of player they lack. As for the Speed comparison, I don't think they are similar players but both decent....Speed was 100% a professional and dedicated whereas Cabaye, inevitably, is more of a mercenary.

I enjoyed the whole game and I can't remember when that's happened last in the league. We have the players, we just need to use them correctly and we can do really well, fingers crossed it's not a one off. This - absolutely. Everyone is entitled to enjoy today but some are going completely OTT...the time to do that is when we have won something or qualified for the CL/Europa League, the season lasts until May. I would have thought that anyone with a few years following NUFC would have realised that after so many false dawns....

Agree with this absolutely - the guy has rightly taken enormous stick at times, but he has been much better this season and was immense today. Well done to him, great show.

Delighted to see the hoodoo finally nailed and every player did their bit towards it. In reality, we should have done them a couple of times at least in the last 15 years....Rob Lee getting pulled back by Solskajer when clean through on goal in the final minutes, leading 3 times over there last season come to mind, but great to see it finally happen. Poorest Man U side for years though - very poor in m/f and Van Persie not fully fit although age will inevitably begin to take its toll. The whole set-up looks lacking in conviction and Moyes has a big job - if he is allowed to finish it. They won't mind missing the title too much, but if they miss out on CL football, the directors won't be happy.... For us, the whole m/f gave everything although despite his goal, I thought Cabaye was not on top form...made up for it with a great strike, not one of his thunderbolts but guided perfectly into the corner out of De Gea's reach. We still don't pass and move quickly enough when we are attacking and that gave them too much time to get players back behind the ball by the time we reached the PL. As has been said though, Remy's brilliant pass to Debuchy was the move of the day and shows what a good footballer he is - cut them wide open and forced De Gea into a great save which nearly took his hand off. Players like Remy are the difference between winning and losing games and we will do well to keep him...looks as if QPR likely to go back up so even if another club doesn't intervene, he may go back there if we don't match the wages. We'll see. Well done to the whole playing set up for a great day.

It was 1972 and we had just been turfed out of the FA Cup by non-league Hereford....some things about NUFC never change....

Santon's 22 until next month. Haidara's 21. Almost as if Merlin has altered the facts to suit his point. Unusual tactic for him. How very convenient for your argument that it is December, so you can put a slant on your numbers as well without being factually incorrect. There is a year and 11 months between them to the day. Time in which Haidara can continue to develop if given the chances that Santon was given. As I said, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Haidara become our first team LB within that timeframe. He looks to have more to his game defensively than Santon. What else can you expect..? He is a trainee lawyer after all and they specialize in economies of scale... I was wrong in saying 3 years, but there is 2 all but 1 month between them....and I stand by my assessment of the 2 players anyway.

Agreed - a dangerous poacher, ever-alert. Would like him in our side..! However, Owen was just as dangerous in his early days..he faded badly after his bad injury at Liverpool.

Said the exact same thing to my mate after the match regarding Campbell, never be a premiership player. Think he might even struggle in championship. Have feared this would be the case for a while now.