Lenny

Yep, did well overall.

Hold on, he's the central midfielder; shouldn't he be contributing to us having more than 30% possession? Seems fairly likeable, but he's had more than enough time for us to determine that on the whole, he's a very average player.

Yep.

Looks like he's happy that he was only one yard offside as opposed to the standard 10 yards.

He really wasn't. He played fine. He did fuck all and we had 60% possession while he was on the pitch. He covered Janmaat all half so he could push on, and I don't recall him losing possession. Didn't do anything wrong IMO. It's not a Premier League central midfielder's job "not to do anything wrong". He should be influencing the game, not just trying to get through 90 minutes without making a cock up. He is absolute trash. I'm not saying he's a good player. I'm saying he did his job fine today. Whether you agree with the tactics or not, we have 2 holding midfielders. Colback did his role fine today.

Btw in spite of all of this he does need replacing

Aye that was unlucky. I just thought he had no drive going forward as usual. Yeah I'll agree with that, but it looked like it was as per instruction. He was constantly in the right back position covering Janmaat. Maybe McClaren is trying to keep him playing wihin his limitations so that others (Janmaat pushing on) can excel in their strengths.

He also made a good run and decent effort from Janmaat's lofted pass.

He really wasn't. He played fine. He did fuck all and we had 60% possession while he was on the pitch. He covered Janmaat all half so he could push on, and I don't recall him losing possession. Didn't do anything wrong IMO.

And he was fine until he was (wrongly IMO) sent off. There weren't any poor performances in the first half.

He really wasn't. He played fine.

We do need to start making our own luck otherwise we'll go down.

It's baffling, I was calling for a booking for persistent fouling after about 3 minutes

I'm sorry… but how doesn't it? A red card is a game changing decision. Hughesy: Blaming Mike Williamson (and others) for Coloccini being utterly shit since 2013. Ron: excusing shit refereeing decisions when it suits his insane opinions since 2012 (at least) Bored to tears with it tbh, it's as if he doesn't think everyone knows his opinion.

You can argue that the third goal is a direct result of the red card as well. We were over committing late on and there's always the risk you'll get caught, and unfortunately we did.

That's fair enough, but over the entire game you can't deny that we had a much greater than usual/expected amount of bad luck.

Problem is, we can't keep having these unlucky days or we will go down, regardless of how talented our players are.

It feels like an injustice that we didn't win the game. To lose 3-0 is insulting. We are/were significantly better than them.

Even if it was a penalty it's not a red as Elliot had the ball.

Happy now?

Some of the responses on this thread are pretty amusing http://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/pva-liking-newcastle-photos-on-instagram.1148617/

Would rather see what McClaren can do with him for a few games than put Cisse in.

http://www.thesportbible.com/articles/the-best-sam-allardyce-pictures-from-last-night

Our team selection criteria should be to pick the most competent team using the fewest players that were in the first team last season as possible.

He seems quite an intelligent player. Has more of a brain than Haidara.