robbo_11

This is ridiculous. I'm glad I will be moving away from the madness.

Need to decide between Coritiba or Atletico Paranaense for a team to support when we are over there for the year. Tempted by Coritiba because I saw Alex play for Fenerbahce against us a few seasons ago. Small plug for our new promo video and will release another one soon which is more in depth about the project.

£3 on Wigan 4-2 and £3 on a Wigan win. Definitely won't win now.

Wigan away felt a bit like that Fulham game in the relegation season with nothing going right and not getting a result. Really hope we can get a win against West Ham because otherwise I think the other teams around us will get even more confidence and we are rock bottom at the minute. Pardew is a complete joke. I try to support the team as much as possible, but for him to field negative line ups each week he is clueless. We might as well go 4-4-2 and play a defensive midfielder and an attacking player behind the strikers. We need to get more service into Cisse so have Ben Arfa supporting him just off the shoulder with Sissoko behind them. I would probably put Cabaye and Gouffran tucked inside on the left and right. Tiote with the simple instruction to break up play in the defensive midfielder role and give the ball to a player in front of him. For the defence we need Collocini back to have a bit of leadership, tell the others where to be and keep the fullbacks in check or support them when they are outnumbered. It sounds really basic, but we haven't been doing it.

ironic isn´t it. Almost as if it hasn't been worked on in training over the last week. It has just shown the second goal and you can see Tiote with Perch still in Liverpool's half as Sturridge lays the ball off to Coutinho. I'm not sure if he is in the no 10 role, but surely one of them would be around him to nullify any threat?! Ben Arfa for Jonas and probably Gouffran for Tiote as he will be lucky to stay on much longer.

A huge gap between midfield and defence, as for having two defensive midfielders we have been cut open too many times. It isn't just this game, in the past teams often have 4v4 or even 5v4 when attacking against us. Liverpool goals were quite basic, either two or three passes and then in the back of the net. We have offered nothing going forward bar a shot from Gutierrez and a poor header from Perch. Unless Pardew changes something then its hard to see how we will create any opportunities.

Just thought I would share this in case any of the guys who are based in the North East wanted to take part. There are about 10 teams submitted so far so the more the merrier. I heard yesterday that where we are going 50p can buy a wrap of cocaine so it seems we might have quite a job on our hand to keep young people from getting involved when it costs more to buy a chocolate bar or food. www.facebook.com/ProjectCuritiba Sunday 2nd June 2013 12nn registration at complete football. The cost to enter a team into this tournament will be £80 (£10 per player with a squad of 8, must be 18+). Your team will have access to: • Welcome introduction and 'Team Captains' brief • CFTV - All goals recorded and shown in players lounge • Synthetic rubber crumb turf pitches • FA Qualified Referees • Nike match balls and bibs • Private dressing room with shower and locker facilities • Private car park facilities • Fully licensed bar on site • A winning team trophy, player of the tournament and top goal scorer award Once the tournament has been completed we would like to invite your team to join us in the players' lounge and watch the Brazil v England International friendly which will kick off at 4pm. At half time we will have a presentation for the winning team, top goal scorer and player of the tournament. There will also be some food (a bit of a buffet) to enjoy after the tournament that is included in the entry price. Please share with mates who might be interested or get involved and make a day of it. Many Thanks. http://s9.postimg.org/tbx37b227/Road_To_Brazil_2013.jpg

If only we had that 5th official like in the Europa League!

Not a very inspiring first half. Fulham have been the better football side with some nice slick passes in triangles around our players. It seems our two tactics are to use Sissoko and power through as many players as he can or try and play the ball over the top to Cisse. Neither have worked as Sissoko has had a heavy touch or been crowded out and Hangeland has pretty much won every aerial battle. Set pieces are poor and it seems like Taylor is the target for everything. I was watching Crewe earlier and they at least showed a bit of variety, mixing between short and long. Marveaux has been decent, but he only has player to aim for as we seem to attack with either 2 or 3 players at a time. Fulham at once stage had 5 on 3 defenders as a midfielder and winger joined in the attack, if not for a Mbiwa block Ruiz could have squared it.

More disappointed in the way we gave up the goals rather than how we played which was okay. A bit more luck and we could have had a couple extra goals. Taylor is a decent player, but he seems quite prone to gamesmanship or stupid mistakes. Santon with a bad back pass and they've been crucial in the first leg defeat. Right now I think it will be a tough ask to win 2-0, but next week with a good atmosphere who knows. It does makes a change from AZ Alkmaar (4-2 lead) and Sporting Lisbon (1-0 lead) in the past when we were more positive going into a second leg.

Just drove past Bigirimana and maybe a family member (I think he had a brother on trial recently) doing fitness/running on Westmoor field.

December 1996 Newcastle 2-0 Metz was the first when Tino hoisted his shirt on the corner flag. I think the next game I went to was the 1-2 defeat against Nottingham Forest in the January. Ian Woan man ruined it for me with two quick goals!

Happy to have the second leg at St. James' and we might as well try to get past the better teams now. Benfica will be tough, but we have every chance. Glad we didn't get Chelsea or Spurs.

We managed to get into the Sunday Sun today with a bit about our project http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east-news/2013/01/20/tyneside-pair-bringing-2014-world-cup-to-poor-communities-79310-32637709/ you can follow our progress via the links in our signature. We will try and keep it interesting as much as we can, but with Ben Nevis coming up soon which should be decent...I did hear about the avalanche in the highlands which has caused a little worry for our group. Much appreciated!

Poor season so far and desperately require a forward due to options of Shola, Obertan and Ranger. We agree a fee for player who is coming quite highly rated so excitement builds. News filters through that he will arrive in Newcastle to undergo a medical and possibly be in squad for Reading (excitement builds as not having to rely on Ameobi). News breaks that QPR have late bid accepted and he is going for a medical which results in disappointed/anger. Honestly I hadn't really seen him play, but sounded like he could have been an ideal player given our recent formation. I can understand people being disappointed as it did seem like he was nailed on, but we are just going to have to move on. Hopefully it might spur us on with other targets because I imagine there will be a lot of deflated supporters.

Neither would people making s*** up. To be fair to Ben Arfa it was a club close to him and it would depend on our situation in the summer. I'd rather a player be honest then what we had last time we were relegated when players were going to help us get promoted then left as soon as they could. This will be an important window for us and if Remy does decide to go to QPR we need another option. It all seemed like it was going so well!

Nothing to note. Debuchy getting lots of passing on the go, such a shame it goes to Williamson who hoofs into the stand.

He needs a loan, but we are in a situation where we need bodies and he has had a few chances. He has close control and can take people on, but just needs to learn. It was interesting to see LuaLua today who seems to have done well at Brighton. He spent time on loan and made a handful of appearances for us. Now he has a physical presence, direct and burst of speed, however a couple of times you wondered if he knew what he was doing. I don't think any of our young players will develop playing in a poor team and receiving criticism from the manager.

Well another disappointing display. I saw the game from about 25 minutes in and it is hard to find many, if any, positives. I think Williamson was at fault for both goals, firstly by letting their player turn in the box and then secondly being the complete wrong side of the attacker for the second. We should probably buy another centre back because his performances this season have been poor. I was quite impressed by Dummett and think the spell at St. Mirren has done him well. He looks a bit more confident than Tavernier who struggled in the game and first touch was lacking. Santon wasn't involved much and when LuaLua came on he caused him problems. Something I've noticed over the last few games is he has started to lose his cool (tackle from behind on Osman and kicking the ball away today), but it could be done to those players around him being inferior or he is unhappy with his own game. Sammy needs a spell on loan, he has neat feet but offers little end product. Obertan was ineffective with awful control. Bigirimana and Anita did ok, but they had to drop deep for the ball every time which resulted in a long ball aimed for Ranger or Ameobi. Abeid wasn't really involved in the game, but there was one moment when he just hit the ball first time over his head...he didn't look around or try to bring the ball under control, he just wanted rid of it. Shola offered little to the game and was marshalled out of it by their two centre backs. His sending off was harsh as it was two innocuous chllenges and the referee let the occasion of the cup tie way him/the fouled player theatrics as he took no time in getting out the red card. Nile Ranger was hopeless as if he lost the ball he made little effort to retrieve it and he didn't show for the ball as their defenders made numerous interceptions. Overall I think we were unable to string any passes together in the final third, we offered no threat from set pieces or wide areas and we had no leaders on the pitch. The young players have been given chances and some of them haven't taken partly because they are not good enough or they believe that it makes no difference what they do as once the injuries clear up they are playing development football again. There was no effort from the team either in creating chances or pressing the Brighton players. You could see their attackers chasing down our defenders in case they made an error, but when we over hit a long pass there was no pressure from us. Disappointing and feel sorry for those who have to make the trip to be served that performance.

I think you've made some very good points, but I wanted to highlight that particular one. I'm reliant on the TV, so it's not easy to see the overall picture, but I've been wondering why our back four gets so regularly exposed when we're actually playing with two defensive midfield players. Is dividing the responsibility creating confusion, and are they leaving things to one another? Would we be better off with someone just sitting permanently in front of the CBs? Or is Bigi the only one of the three with the pace to get back? Does having two DMs simply mean a waste of a player, and a greater likelihood of losing the ball? I don't know. I think there's just a general confusion with our shape as Pardew tends to shoehorn our biggest names into the side. Personally I would have played a midfielder on the right rather than Cisse, maybe Abeid, to offer some protection against Baines and Pienaar. Their main players were given the run of the field which is amazing considering we supposedly spend so much time on defensive work. I think you've nailed it with regards our shape. From our seats there was a point in the first half (possibly the Pienaar chance) when Williamson was turned and the player just ran at our defense unopposed. The crowd were wanting someone to close him down, but if Collocini went across there was a massive gap in our box. In the end Collocini back tracked before eventually going to close him down and the chance came to nothing. In the second half the players were tiring and Williamson let the Everton player and run past him, you could see Bigi sprint towards the penalty area to cover the space as it was going to be 4v3. I guess ideally if one of our CB is taken out of the game our full backs could tuck in to reduce the space, but that didn't happen and we really lacked any width as soon as Obertan came off. Ultimately we need to sort the team shape out and that isn't going to happen with square pegs in round holes.

I'm just back from the game, my first actually being inside the stadium and now I can't wait to go to Brazil as I won't have to be disappointed. As soon as the second goal went in you could see the players head drop and then the crowd began to turn on them. We started brightly, there was a lot of passing and building up the play as opposed to Everton who spent the first half aiming balls towards Fellaini who would either flick it on or win a free kick. However we looked poor in the defense and lacked ideas going forward. If the ball went out wide whoever had the ball was left exposed and we had to pass the ball backwards. Not many of our players looked like the wanted the ball aside from Anita. One problem we had was that when Williamson was turned or lost out in the aerial battle we had Collocini caught between closing his man down or holding his position as they often had a runner. It was only when Bigi came on that we had one of our midfielders track back towards our own box to help cover the space. The referee did give a lot of fouls against us, especially the one that Everton got the equalizer from, but I think a lot of the pressure on the referee was the crowds frustrations towards the team. I thought Sammy came on and did well when attacking players, but we don't have many options in reserve to deal with our injuries. Ultimately it is disappointing to watch the team capitulate like that and unless we can strengthen this month (hopefully some injured players return) then we will be in trouble.

It will be disappointed to see him go, but nothing we can do with a release clause. Pleased that it is likely to be over early in the window if he doesn't fail the medical. A while ago there was some talk of Guillaume Hoarau from PSG and it looks like he might be leaving very soon according to Ancelotti (although linked to Everton).

I started watching from 2-1 down. I thought Marveaux looked superb, his pass for the third goal with the outside of his foot was a brilliant assist. Obertan was attacking the fullback and causing problems, but for a couple of goals he just let the Arsenal attackers run at him. Bigi was good, he broke up their attackers and played it simple. I think part of the problem was the substitutions which deflated the team who were tiring and we couldn't deal with the pace. Gibbs, Walcott, Wilshere and Giroud were able to sprint past a few of our players with ease for the final goals. I hope we are able to get a few defenders in the January window as our options from the bench are very limited.

we have every right to slag off anyone who supports their club purely because it's easier to support the clubs that win stuff than those that dont. (goes for 'second clubs' aswell). i'm always interested to find out why people support the clubs they do and i'll decide for myself if th reason is legitimate or not. A few years ago for my dissertation I looked at domestic and national team supporter pride. One of the main reasons for supporting a team was because of family i.e. someones dad supported team A so they supported team A. Not really surprising, but most people would prefer success for their domestic team as opposed to their national team. A very small percentage just followed the national team. A lot of the lower league fans supported a Premiership team as well which was quite surprising as it got more coverage and the chances of success were greater...they must have chosen Newcastle as their team mind!

Much appreciated! If all goes well there might be a spare room in our flat which is two blocks from the stadium in Curitiba should England qualify haha. Hopefully we can keep you up to date and make it interesting. An example of one of the projects we will be supporting the local drug lord drops off his two children carrying two guns in a holster, however he believes in the project because he doesn't want his children turning to crime. Its going to be interesting!