Lotus

We were very, very lucky at times. Their finishing was worse than ours.

no complaints about shola? i cant take pardew seriously as long as he keeps using shola. offers absolutely nothing. Anita would be much better and then stick sissoko on top for example. this is god knows how many times in row shola gets game time without doing anything. cant run, not even in the box and so on. Shola's rubbish, but without Gouffran he's the only available striker. Sissoko was playing brilliantly, why move him? Shola i can understand, as you say he had no options. But playing at home in a tie you want to win and starting Obertan and Jonas in attack positions. I mean, please.... Should have started Marveaux if he was fit. Obertan is player you can bring on if you score to help counter attacks - well help get the ball up the pitch until he puts it into touch/goalkick/passes it to a defender - but at least the ball spends some time in their half. Jonas offered nothing. Looked like a very keen amateur. He's a 'character' though, maybe that's enough.

He got better as the game went on.

Me too, no idea hows he's found himself out of the team latley. Might just need a bit of a rest.

I know! You could plant flowers on our left with that set up

Player in a contract dispute eh? (nah) Born in Middlefart apparently. Wasn't aware they could come out of the sides !!!

I don't understand that. For a CB to be actually poor as in very, very bad indeed. You would have to want him dropped.

How highly do people rate in comparison to someone like Franco Baresi?

Reckon i'd be tempted to play Mbiwa and Saylor 1st leg and if we win comfortably Willo and Mbiwa 2nd leg. Just to keep Satlor and Colo relatively fresh.

I like that.

I hope that's sarcastic, like. If you can be at fault for 2 goals and still have a really good game overall, Titus Bramble would be winning trophies. Why mention Titus?

Shouldn't have started ahead of Anita today. He'll dropped for next game anyway.

Thought we were a bit unlucky tbh. Bad decision by Colo cost us the game unfortunately. Gouf staying on would have made a big difference too. All in all though, we played better and should have had a point. C'est la vie. HBA back for Soton, we'll win that i reckon.

i'm not sure, i think we'll have the same starting XI as last week. for me it's not just the defensive side but the way perch kept it simple and kept the ball moving quick, which has been tiote's biggest failing recently. as someone said earlier i have no doubt tiote is the better player for that role but perch has been the one in form. Anita is better than both of them put together for that imho. better at keeping the ball moving without doubt, not so sure on the defensive side as i see it with nouse needed to sit in so the centre halves can spread or drop wide to directly cover the full backs. Funnily enough i think that's one he can do! I think it's what he does without the ball, the ability to defend that space in front of the 2 CBs where he needs to improve. Just being able to nick the ball (he's never going to be a heavy tackler) or intercept passes. He gets that to his game he'll be practically undroppable.

I thought the same!

i'm not sure, i think we'll have the same starting XI as last week. for me it's not just the defensive side but the way perch kept it simple and kept the ball moving quick, which has been tiote's biggest failing recently. as someone said earlier i have no doubt tiote is the better player for that role but perch has been the one in form. Anita is better than both of them put together for that imho.

I'd play Anita or Tiote ahead of Perch. He didn't do enough to keep his place imo. Just because we won doesn't mean we can't improve.

Has Vertongen struggled a bit lately?

The one player i would be definitely looking to change would be Perch. Just think Bale will glide past him or draw a foul. Would actually think about getting Anita to mark him, Anita has the pace, not the strength to tackle him or knock him off the ball but he has the pace to keep up with him and hopefully nulify him a bit. I also reckon Sissoko's too much of an athlete for Parker so that's where we'll do our damage.

Tbh, if he was out for 15 mins then i'm glad to hear he's ok. That's quite long actually.

Souness managed the biggest teams in Mickey Mouse leagues. But the point was, comparing only their Newcastle careers, Souness has a higher win % than Pardew.

Mate was telling me Pardew has a lower win % than Souness (at Newcastle, GS's is far superior throughout his career).

Given that he's been out for a while, i didn't actually think Taylor was that bad. There was that instance when he was knocked over fairly easily but on the whole, he was considerably better than Williamson.

It doesn't depress me, like. Though I think I differ from many on here in thinking no game is lost before it's started. Very few think a game is lost before it's started. After half time team talks, subs and tactical tinkering however....... Aye, righto. Have yourself a look at some of the pre match threads, especially after the lineup is announced. Tbf, those thinking we wouldn't get a result must have been right about 75% of the time this season. And the line up is a fairly good indicator (although not perfect) of how we're going to play.