LoveItIfWeBeatU

Well Graham seemed to be second choice striker so I guess Luke Moore and Itay Schecter have just moved up the pecking order. It seems a lot of clubs are light on strikers. Tottenham, Man City (unless John Guidetti gets a chance) and ourselves for a start.

Is Michu Swansea's only senior striker now? Strange to sell Graham and have no cover for Michu.

He's a fool if he doesn't want to go out on loan.

http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20130129/aston-villa-v-newcastle-four-changes_2281670_3057766

We have to help ourselves but other clubs keep letting us down when you'd expect them to win. Stoke lost a 2 goal lead and Man City couldn't beat QPR. We could do with a Man U, Tottenham and Chelsea all winning on Wednesday to keep our rivals where they are.

Reminded me of this: -

Seriously though, how does he get away with it? I wish other managers would constantly mention being interested in Redknapp's players in an attempt to unsettle/tap them.

Fuck me! That was a heart attack of a second half. We won a must win game!

The last article I read about Douglas said he wants to run his contract down so he can leave as a free agent. It also said his preferred destination for next season was Germany.

Whenever NUFC are playing lower league opposition the commentators always seem to be hoping for an upset. The same doesn't seem to apply when Liverpool are involved.

From Pardew's recent quotes it sounds like NUFC had been planing (or had already arranged?) to get Gouffran and Sissoko for free in the Summer. Our current perilous league position resulted in their signings being moved forward. Getting players when they are out of contract or are coming to the end of their contract seems to be a major part of our recruitment process. Are there any other decent players who are coming to the end of their contract? That would probably be a good indicator as to who we are watching for this window and the Summer window.

Anyone who thinks Xisco didn't get a fair chance at NUFC should make sure they continue to follow his career when he leaves NUFC. You'll see how good he is then. My opinion of him is that he must be shite. In his time at NUFC, none of the numerous managers have ever given him a run in the team. Even when he went out on loan he wasn't a regular. Deportivo had him on loan when they were in Segunda División and he still didn't impress.

Premier League clubs are expecting other clubs to charge them more in the Summer (due to other clubs being aware of the new Premier League TV deal cash boost), so it makes sense to do our business now. Obviously we also need to ensure our Premier League survival so better to spend now than to get relegated and miss out on the cash. I don't think NUFC can afford to buy an expensive player like Aubameyang and then loan him back to St Etienne. If we spend that money we'll want (and probably need) that player now.

Apart from Jack Butland, is there anyone else worth looking at from Birmingham City? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21126539

Gouffran only has to be better than Ranger and Xisco to be an improvement on our current Striker options. I would imagine he would be more of a goal threat than Shola is too. For 1 million Euros he would be an extremely low risk investment. He'd effectively be the long overdue replacement of Lovenkrands or Best.

Hopefully. If he isn't relying on Williamson every week then that might give him more confidence. Somehow I doubt it though, he's a conservative manager through and through, and it's costing us every single game. To be fair, he wasn't conservative against Man U and Arsenal. We went all out against them. That is what we should be doing against the 'lesser' teams.

Wait until he's photographed in the shirt and then check it isn't a photoshopped image before allowing yourself to be pleased.

This isn't really a criticism of Anita but I'm not sure what his role in the team is supposed to be. He seems to be a link between the defence and the midfield. He comes back and collects the ball from the defence. He then tries to pass it to another midfielder or back to the defence. He isn't exactly a hard tackler so he's not really a defensive midfielder. I think he'd be better used on the right wing (in place of Jonas (or Shola!)). He has pace and can cross the ball. His lack of height wouldn't be a problem on the wing like it is in the centre of midfield. If he was playing right wing he'd also know to do his defensive duties when required due to his experience of having played as a right back.

After Cisse our other strikers aren't even Championship quality. To bring in Gouffran for £3m would massively improve the quality of our striker choice. We had better have the feelers out for players who are available to loan. If NUFC fail to buy the players we need but then also fail to loan anyone then they haven't even tried to save our Premier League status.

If that was the case Pardew hasn't been subtle with his hints all season. "See Mike? Another shit performance! As you must now be able to see we need a bigger squad with higher quality players. No? Well we'll keep playing badly until you take the hint."

We haven't won away from home all season. I sort of know what you mean though. The players are scared of the SJP crowd. The joke of that is until the end of the game yesterday the crowd have been massively forgiving of constantly poor performances.

Unfortunately he'd only really have Cisse to aim for. Our midfield rarely make it into the box in time for a cross.

Totally agree. We definitely need to buy attacking midfielders and/or wingers. We've got Tiote, Anita, Bigi, Perch and Jonas who don't really attack. Marveaux is best through the middle behind the striker/s. He is no winger. Obertan is probably our only winger. We have no cover for Cabaye or Ben Arfa.

We need to go all out for a win. A draw is close to useless. We can't hold on to leads so if we score first we need to keep attacking them. It's now or never for the team to save NUFC from the drop. The attacking players need to practice shooting from range. I'd guess 99% of our goals come from close range. We need to shoot more. Taylor to come in for Williamson. Obertan on the left (he's usually better on the left). Drop Jonas to the bench along with Shola.

Although he's far from being the only problem, I do blame Pardew for not getting more out of the players. I can't believe a different manager would have had exactly the same appalling results that we've had under Pardew regardless of the players available to them. The players also have to take blame. I don't care what anyone says, there is no way Pardew is telling the players not to make runs or show for the ball. There is next to no movement when we have the ball. It also isn't Pardew's fault that some of them can't pass. Their heads dropped after we conceded that first goal against Reading. We don't seem to have any leaders in the team. How often do you see our players talking to each other? I voted "8" as I don't see much fight in this team. There also isn't much resilience or creativity.