oldtype

1. A Premier League Match 18. An International 30. A Friendly 35. A Penalty Shootout 36. A saved penalty 40. Seen a playoff final 50. Travelled more than 400 miles specifically to watch a game. Not much for me. Can't believe I couldn't find the time to make a WC match in 2002

I'll be at SJP again for this one so I'm sort of excited. The way Sam is playing the team I really don't see us scoring though. which is depressing. Ah well, at least I'll be able to check out that nice Italian place again...

Allardyce 7 - don't know what he's thinking tactically but you can't ignore that his decisiveness has made a lot of badly needed fundamental changes at the club. (Identifying less obvious transfer targets/Reasonable fiscal policy/better fitness regimen.) Granted, some of the changes may be down to Ashley and Mort more than Sam, but I still think his contribution can't be ignored. We could sack Sam Allardyce right now and his reign at Newcastle would still have been a positive one for the club. (Not that we should, of course) Beye 6 - obviously a better player than Carr. Hasn't impressed yet but hasn't made any mistakes either. I think he can only get better as he settles in. Enrique 8 - Solid on the defense, dangerous on the offence. Amazing contriution considering that he's a young player that's still getting used to the Premiership. Has the potential to become absolute quality after about a year I think. Faye 7 - Good and solid. Pretty much what we expected when he bought him. Viduka 6 - Huge impact when he's playing but perma-crocked for about half the season. Again, pretty much what we expected when we bought him. Barton 5 - Hasn't been playing well since coming back from injury. Hope he gets back to the level we all know he can play at. We really shouldn't have to be worrying about having a good attacking midfielder with Joey Barton in the squad. Rozehnal 7 - Has been good and solid throughout. Not sure why he was dropped in the first place. Cacapa 6 - thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, necessarily revising my opinion after Reading and Portsmouth. Seems a solid defender who just has bad days sometimes. Lack of physical presence is somewhat worrying. Smith 6 - more of an Ashley signing than an Allardyce signing perhaps? I'm still not sure what he's supposed to bring to the squad. Obviously dross when played in the midfield or on the wings. Decent backup striker and an improvement over Ameobi I suppose, but we could do better with 6m. Geremi 7 - gets some stick because of his quiet, unselfish style and the fact that he's capatain (what is it with us and hating all of our captains after Shearer) but I think his contribution has been generally positive so far. Would do better than Butt in Butt's position imo. Concur in the opinion that his set plays have been shite.

Getting wierd, disturbing premonitions of Sunderland 1 (Chopra '70) - 0 Newcastle I really hope I've just gone nuts.

So basically teams with better players will be more successful? Shocking. On a more serious note, I honestly can't figure out for the life of me why Sam insists on the switching-up-the-wingers thing. Does that make any tactical sense at all?

Completely unrelated to your point, but I've always found it fascinating how Americans tend to pay so much attention to statistics in their sports, while the British couldn't give a toss about stats. Was watching an MLS game once and was flabbergasted by the amount of statistics that was being discussed.. Shots on goals per game, GK save % etc... It was just a completely different way of looking at the game. I wonder where that difference comes from.

Do you think Newcastle's current squad is capable of matching or surpassing them? Or will extensive investment be needed in January? Who, City? I think we could. I don't see us being particularly inferior to them anywhere on the pitch except for attacking midfielders (Elano and Petrov have both been stunningly good buys.) and they would kill to have any one of our best three strikers. Defensively we should be about equal when both teams have good days. ...Not that I wouldn't welcome some extensive investment come January.

You know, if Ashley is actually seriously considering replacing Sam, I hope he's at least being discreet about it. Not so long ago we were laughing at Spurs for tapping up Juande Ramos... If results keep going south we could very soon be in the same situation.

regardless of how good his link up play might be, you just can't play with a striker who can't score.

Well, that was kind of what we were expecting before the season even started, no? true, but they all seem to be really starting to hit their straps, whereas Newcastle are...... Portsmouth, Everton, and Blackburn all had squads leaps and bounds beyond ours last season. I think we're catching up pretty decently. As for City, they've had a lot of luck both on the transfer market and on the pitch. I don't really think they play better football than we do.

Well, that was kind of what we were expecting before the season even started, no?

Bramble? In bramble's case, he's usually like cacapa was today, but every once in a while he seems to be solid.

I think I've figured out why Cacapa has "mistake prone" on FIFA now. It's just frightening, he's usually so solid, but every once in a while today seems to happen.

Yes, like Sven Goran Eriksson. Until you get beaten 6-0 and then you have to sack them, and then 'go British', until that manager gets beaten and then you have to sack them, and 'go foreign'. It's at times like this I wish many fans would go bloody interstellar rather than foreign, and launch themselves into the sun. If they ever get around to simulating realistic Newcastle Fans in Football Manager that might make the game more challenging. Two losses on the trot and you're up for the sack.

Defence still hasnt been sorted our major problem and Sam has failed Again, defence was fine aside from the early few minutes when the shit really hit the fan. There's just nothing you can do about that sort of breakdown. Somebody must have raped Cacapa's dog or something. I'll reserve judgement till next week.

I honestly don't think we played that badly aside from the first three goals. We started off playing very well, picked up nicely after the 10-minute nightmare, and produced about as much as we usually produced for the rest of the game. Honestly, if James(MOM for me) hadn't been making reflex saves and cutting passes left and right, the scoreline could easily have been 5-4 or so. And although Pompey played very well, they were certainly lucky with Pamarot's fluke piledriver and the fourth goal. (Granted, we also got away with handball.) I mean yes, the result is horrible, and but this isn't the one particular game that would make or break my opinion about Big Sam. That would be next week.

No because we are in the UK where the currency is pounds sterling. Besides which the dollars value is dropping like a tarts knickers these days so all those estimates of wealth are undoubtedly wrong. 'We are in the UK where the currency is the pound sterling'....well, I hope you enjoy it while it lasts, pal, because after last Friday's stitch-up by your Govt, your currency will soon be the Euro - you, know, the one that the Frech & Germans are complaining about because its now 'too strong' against the dollar, so they can't sell the Yanks their cars, cheese, wine, perfume etc etc.... Maybe the assets should have been quoted in Euros...!! Is the pound dead weak then? The Pound calling the Euro too strong is akin to Shola complaining about Martins' bad first touch.

yes. It is on the box here in the States. What? Where? (runs to tv)

RIP Will be fondly remembered for his time in my country. Fantastic manager while it lasted.

wrong, it's no problem at all having worked in both these countries. Entering each country is no problem whatsoever if you have the Japanese/Korean stamp in your passport. Aye, I'm Korean and I have about 8 Japanese stamps on my passport. No trouble whatsoever. We're all nice and friendly now. And if you want a real case of countries being in the wrong federation, just look at Australia in the AFC. I'm not saying that it's not a good thing for Australia/Asian football in general, but still, flying out to OZ for an away game is pretty tough.

my God, that team would get relegated.

Has somebody counted the number of "Adriano?" "HELL NO!" threads we've had since last winter? I'd say about 10.

Would not sell Ramage, never mind Taylor. We need bodies. Simple as that. As for Taylor's potential it's certainly useless to be making any judgements right now. For every Alan Shearer banging the goals in at age 17, there's a player like Drogba who's hardly even noticed before his mid-twenties. Players develop at a different pace. Just because Taylor isn't as good as Richards right now doesn't mean he won't be at any point in his career. (Two very different types of defenders, anyway.)

As an outsider, I had nothing but good impressions about the city of Liverpool when I was visiting last spring. Top-class people, certainly a damned sight better than any Londoner I've ever met. Don't understand the stick they get on here all the time tbh. Although to be fair, I've never been to Anfield.

Solano and his wife have been separated for a while. And his wife decided to move to London to try to boost her career! Ah ha. Didn't know that. That's odd as well though, I mean, if they're split up in the first place why's she been living in close proximity with him the whole time? I suppose it's good for the kids, but seems an awkward situation, to say the least.