Gallowgate Toon

You've just described 95% of professional footballers there And why would anyone call Beckham a flair player? That's not his style at all. I wouldn't have called Robert a flair player, simply a direct and effective one, which is what Beckham was.

It's easy to forget how good he was at Man U, he was an excellent asset for them and he maximised his somewhat limited ability through sheer graft. Good passer, shooter and crosser with stamina, intelligence and vision. His set pieces were very good too. Never in the top bracket of players.

Mourinho Ref's had a shocking 10 minutes.

Didn't we have all this last year? He'll just say that high offers could come in because we have some excellent players and they may be difficult to rebuff because we're not super rich.

If Cisse's form from January was over the whole course of a season, wouldn't he be on 15 goals or so? There are reasons as to why the first half of the campaign happened like it did for him. Strikers miss chances, I'm sure if you looked over Robin Van Persie's year he'll have missed at least 5 good opportunities. A big difference is that Cisse's misses are highlighted by the lack of good opportunities he has, there have been many games where he's had nothing to work with. With some better service, he'll relax a bit.

Are our heat maps not distorted by changing formations and substitutions meaning players get shifted elsewhere? We swap things round an awful lot. Like Cisse getting move onto the wing in some games when Shola comes on and Sissoko getting shifted back into central midfield at times etc.

Brilliant to see, hope some more get posted.

The biggest potential reason for me is Pardew's mentality. He seemed to get lost in a spiral of negativity this year, with a bad start compounded by his ever-growing fears. Hopefully we catch a clean break for next year, the right players come in (aka they fit into a system so there's no formational tinkering), not too many go out and we can start again. If we get off to a decent start next year, I think we'll do well.

Interesting. I can see us being one of them actually, weren't we linked in Jan? I remember Liverpool were. West 'Am were massively linked IIRC. Shock horror. Hopefully we get him in, need a target man that isn't Shola.

Interesting. I can see us being one of them actually, weren't we linked in Jan? I remember Liverpool were.

What's Bony's situation? Any other decent strikers of his ilk knocking around Holland or Belgium?

We've played better football since Ba left, albeit sporadically, but we were utterly abject in the first half of the campaign in terms of style. While we've been a little slicker, we've still lacked creativity and penetration in and around the box. A big problem has been lacking an intelligent and consistent creative force in the final 3rd. Ben Arfa's been injured a lot, Marveaux's form has fluctuated and Cabaye's often been too far away from dangerous areas.

Boudebouz and Belhanda would be excellent.

Don't Barcelona and Madrid get far more income than other Spanish teams due to TV money?

He's also a player that benefits from more options around him in the middle of the pitch, 4-3-3 encourages that.

It wouldn't be so bad if we played him like we played Nolan in a 4-4-2. Aka let Tiote sit while the other one gets forward. Instead we seem to have asked Tiote and Cabaye to do the same stuff.

It's either play him behind the striker, or go for a classic 4-3-3 with one player sitting and 2 either side. In our case: Tiote Cabaye Sissoko It'd hard to know with Cabaye, he looked brilliant when he came back from injury. He does seem a little less fit, he may still be injured but it's hard not to question his mental state after his comments earlier in the year about depression.

I know most of the Q&A's on there in the past have been pretty well 'managed', but surely they can't avoid the tough questions now? Just you wait They'll probably have that daft bloke on like last time, spouting on about some hats. Might try and call myself, I have an abundance of questions. What's been going on at half time? What are you going to do with Sissoko? Why is Cabaye consistently so deep and struggles to get in games in attacking positions? What is happening with Anita? Are you going to get more coaching staff in? How do you rate your own performance this year? Do you have a blueprint for the side next season? What was the rationale behind the Liverpool selection?

I'd be very sad to see him go but we could invest that very well indeed. I'm not so sure it'll happen but if it did, I'd wonder 'what if?', he has the ability to be an immense player but he's just not consistently been used properly while here. On a sidenote, it would be a strange turnaround considering all the work he seemed to put in to get players to join in January. It would surely be a loss of faith in the management that led to him leaving.

Eriksen at Dortmund would be fantastic. Think he'd be great foil for them.

In Harpers post match interview on Radio Newcastle he said Goufran was his mom and that the lad was absolutely goosed when he was subbed, totally knackered and couldn't have continued. Disturbing.

Players aren't going to kick up too much of a fuss during a World Cup year. If we don't let them leave, they'll just get on with it. I can only see Cabaye attracting any interest.

I don't think we'll be as bad next year. Pardew's biggest weakness is his mentality, he's a poor person to have when the pressure's on and you're playing catch up. Hopefully the Summer and next season's start can be more settled than last year's so he can stick to a blueprint for the team. I'm intrigued to see what his plans are for some players. I'm not, I just want to see the back of him. Well you're going to be waiting a little while longer. I think we'll manage top 10 next year and he'll stay safe.

I don't think we'll be as bad next year. Pardew's biggest weakness is his mentality, he's a poor person to have when the pressure's on and you're playing catch up. Hopefully the Summer and next season's start can be more settled than last year's so he can stick to a blueprint for the team. I'm intrigued to see what his plans are for some players.

Same team as yesterday but using the formation we did against West Ham. Will be interesting to see how the side performs.