Chris_R

Yeah, we put paid to that over the summer. The hope now is that we sign people over Christmas that will give us a push for Europe again. Then when we fail to do that we can look forward to next summer instead. It's an endless cycle of hope and disappointment.

There probably hasn't been a clearer booking in the history of the game. Fucking get over it. And there's no such thing as "Justified dissent", as if Webb getting the decision wrong prior to that one suddenly makes it OK for Cheik to behave like a fucking child who's had his sweets taken off him. Call Webb a cunt all you like for blowing for the initial foul, but after Tiote acted like a petulant 3 year old he had no option but to show him a card.

It "opens-up the whole pitch", according to Pardew. Still don't see it. The pitch doesn't need opening up, it's not a f***ing tin of beans. We need supply to our strikers, and they're not getting it under the current 'formation' because 3/4 of our wide players are on the wrong side of the pitch and the other one is incompetent when presented with a football.

Santon is a left back too. I'm sure you've heard the phrase that putting a saddle on a donkey doesn't make it a horse. He's a right back. He can play on the left until the end of his career and it won't change that. The protestations of you, Pardew, or even Santon himself can't alter that either.

Our best right back is Santon. The problem is we simply don't have a left back, and haven't for about four bloody windows. Instead we have to choose between a left winger or a right back. Since Santon offers nothing attacking-wise on the left due to cutting inside and making a mess of things every time, we might as well put Simpson on the left. He'll still be able to defend reasonably well, but playing there will hardly stifle his ability to s*** his pants and pass the ball back to the centre back every f***ing time he gets it. That way Santon can play on the right, where he might actually be able to get past his man and put a useful ball in every now and again.

Cisse, our most natural finisher, who does virtually nothing apart from stick the ball in the net, on the right of a 4-3-3? I need some of what you've been drinking. I'd agree with your backline, but I'd go: Krul Santon Taylor Coloccini Ferguson Tiote Cabaye Jonas HBA Ba Cisse

Fucking knee-jerk-tastic in here. Harper has a good game, he's reliable and a great servant to the club as well as a good backup to Krul Harper concedes goals against one of the best teams in the land, and he's past it and a liability Elliott plays badly in pre-season, he's shit. Elliott plays well in 45 minutes, and suddenly he's a massive loss when he's injured. Obviously Harper's attempt to dribble round Welbeck was fucking laughable and disgraceful in almost equal measure, but people need to get a grip and have some perspective and start looking at things over a period of slightly longer than 90 minutes. 37 isn't ancient for a goalkeeper. He's got plenty still left to offer and personally I'm more than happy with him as backup.

Jonas and Ben Arfa won't hit the byline because Jonas is right footed and gets played left wing whilst Ben Arfa is left footed but is constantly asked to play wide right. Players playing on the "wrong" side can and does work in a 4-3-3 because they're really playing as supporting forwards rather than conventional wingers, but it simply does not work in a 4-4-2 where you're relying on service to 2 out-and-out strikers. I have no problem at all in Pardew wanting or prefering to play 4-4-2, as it can be a good and exciting formation to watch. Keegan played 4-4-2, as did SBR, and let's face it we did OK then and had a bloody good time in the process. However both of them ensured that crosses came in from men getting to the byline or at least being able to whip in an away-swinging cross nice and early - Ginola and Gillespie, Robert and Solano. Every team that makes a success of 4-4-2 has players that do this, irrespective of the level they play at. We simply cannot do that with Jonas wide left and Hatem wide right, you lose too much. We also lack fullbacks who can overlap and get crosses in. I remember under Keegan seeing Beresford and Venison bombing forward past their wingman repeatedly, and it undoes teams. Santon's a great player, but he cannot get past the winger to support attacks and cross from the line as again he's right-footed and playing on the left. Simpson is playing on his natural side, but he's terrified of a football and can do nothing in posession apart from panic and play the ball back to Mike Williamson every single time he gets it. Watch him next match, if he wasn't playing for us it'd be fucking comical how often that's what he does. We've got some great players. Cabaye, Coloccini, Krul, HBA, Santon, Ba and Cisse. Tiote I don't rate as highly as many on here and haven't since day one but he's decent enough, as is Steven Taylor. However, we need a few new faces if we're going to make either 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 work and really be a good team. ------------------Krul Santon Coloccini Taylor NEWPLAYER NEWPLAYER Cabaye Tiote HBA ------------Cisse Ba OR ------------------Krul Santon Coloccini Taylor NEWPLAYER -----------------Tiote ----------Cabaye NEWPLAYER HBA-----------------------NEWPLAYER -----------Cisse OR Ba In the meantime, we have to make do. Either go 4-4-2 with people on the correct side of the pitch, or go 4-3-3 with Ba on the left. Incidentally, I don't think HBA is a left winger (Where I have him in the 4-4-2) but he's the kind of player that's good enough to play just about anywhere and would certainly be dangerous there, especially if he had a good fullback supporting him and we had a threat on the other wing as well. And if we ARE going 4-4-2 as Pardew seems to prefer, HBA simply has to play and I'm not having him on the right wing for reasons already stated. In the meantime the person on the right would have to be Jonas, and I know that people may say they've seen him play once on the right 4 years ago and he wasn't effective, but since then let's face it, he's had over a hundred games on the left wing and been almost completely unproductive. He's not been given much of a chance on the right beyond the odd game here or there, but he's had a multitude of chances on the left and his assists record speaks for itself. If we go 4-3-3, Ba can drop left for now and Jonas in midfield. It seems to work, but obviously Ba doesn't like playing there and Pardew seems to want to shift to 2 up top. That's the situation as I see it. I have no problem with either 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, but if we are going 4-4-2 we simply must have the correct players on their natural sides. It's fucking batshit crazy to do otherwise.

Although we've played better since going 2 down, there's a couple of things to consider: - Man U are 2-0 up, so can afford to sit back - We've created no worthwhile chances at all, De Gea hasn't had a single shot to save Very hard to argue that we should be back in this.

Jonas could have gone for that. Ouch.

No way is Tiote not getting sent off here today.

Fucking hell, did we just do something DIFFERENT from a corner?

This is going to be a proper battering.

He's the only f***er who can put a cross in. Get him out on LM. Pardew is incapable of playing wingers on the correct wings. Ferguson will probably start but on the right wing, be predictably shit then get dropped.

Shola: 13 Sunderland: 5 I think.

Seriously? I'm afraid so. Saying it came off his toe rather than his instep, and some s*** about him being worried after he hit it and having to watch it into the net. Even though all he could do was watch it into the net because he was facing that way and there wasn't anything else to look at, and he didn't have time to be worried because it was in within 0.1 seconds of leaving his boot, and he couldn't miss if he f***ing tried.

Commentators criticising Shola's technique in finishing a 1-yard tap-in into an empty net.

Rob Lee referring to Newcastle as "We".

The only way we could play well with that line-up is to put Ferguson on the left wing and Obertan on the right. Anything else is going to be a shit, borefest.

If you stick your fingers in your ears, close your eyes and shout "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" over and over, then perhaps it'll all go away. Perhaps.

Looks like Roger Milla's grandad.

He's the only player who can though, as the rest of them are playing on the wrong side. Santon, Jonas and Ben Arfa all only have the option to cut back inside or else try to shank one in with their worst foot. Ferguson looking good is for the same reason Anita looks good at right back - He's on his correct side, and can do what fullbacks and wingers are supposed to do. Yes, really world-class players can make playing on the wrong side work a-la Maldini, but we've not got any world-class players. We've got good players, but they're completely hamstrung by being stuck on the wrong sides of the pitch. Ben Arfa's our closest to a world-class player, and he can make a go out of being out on the right, but the rest look turboshit. It's not the players fault, I genuinely believe that we'd look far better by just swapping them round.

Just shows what someone able to cross with his best foot can do. So fucking obvious and simple, yet week after week we set up wrong and look ponderous and shit as a result. As Skirge says, get Ferguson on to start. Either at LW for Jonas, or LB with Santon switching to the right.

Oh look, a goal from a cross from a winger on the right side.

Reading causing chaos in our area, simply by being able to cross the ball into the area because they've got a left footed player on the left and a right footed player on the right. Fucking genius that McDermott is thinking of that.