Gallowgate Toon

I still think i'd rather see him and Guthrie start next game over Butt, who in my opinion put in one of the worst performances i have ever seen yesterday.

I think the hesitancy in distribution was more down to our tactics of containing Chelsea and not potentially getting ripped a new one if we stretched the game.

Agree with the last line, when Guthrie came on we looked so much better. Butt and Nolan yikes, they got over run by a more athletic midfield yesterday, their marking was abysmal.

I honestly think the pressure got to them yesterday though, they were built up to start playing like a CL team, no wonder they flattered to deceive. Stoke will be a much better indication of how the team reacts to Shearer.

Absolutely no point in dropping Martins, otherwise we're as slow as shite and we'll never win (1 in 23 if you need more convincing) and secondly there's no point in playing them physically we don't have the players. Ball on the deck, straight to feet playing Owen and Martins behind and we'll get a result we have to play to our strengths, although Caroll is tall he's remarkably shit at headering the ball and never wins them so there's no point in the 'big man little man'.

He was class against Man City home, the best defenders performance i've seen this season, and bar the goal against Everton i remember Lien saying he looked our best player. Away to Chelsea him and Bassong were both good. People are being fickle really and totally forgetting that he was pretty damn good for the first couple of months, especially considering circumstances. Colo's confidence has dropped dramatically, that is obvious and imo it's because of the way he's been told to defend. He isn't a sweeper, he's a front line defender and before everyone starting bumming Bassong that was the way Colo was playing and he was playing it well. Bassong came in though and Colo gets moved to a sweeper role and since then it's been downhill. Yesterday bar the goal, Colo imo was having a good game, he hadn't put a foot wrong until the mistake (which Duff is avoiding a lot of blame for here), he looked good, he was the leader and Beye was the sweeper, he looked a bit more confident. He probably does need a rest he's played every game for the last 2 seasons and lets not forget how demanding this league is to a new player. Like Rich said you don't lose ability and quality you lose form and confidence, and Colo has a chronic case of that. He just needs time, but all these people who want to see Taylor at CB be warned you'll end up more disappointed than you are now, he might look alright at RB but that's easy compared to CB.

He put a canny good one in yesterday with his right.

I actually agree with that. I love Oba but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with his inconsistency. The lads got a fantastic pair of springs in his legs, blistering pace, two good feet, a thunderbolt of a shot and a good header. So, those said ingredients are a fantastic combination to have a top class striker- but the more I see Martins play, the less I think he is, or will be a top class striker. Like, how many times have we seen Oba use his pace to get in behind defenders and set himself through on goal? Not near enough. Some might argue that we dont give him good enough service but I'd disagree. If he had a real football brain then he'd do this more often and he'd be unstoppable! Now, he can come up with those moments of glory when your least expecting it and win you the game but those moments are few and far between. I'm not going to go into a big f*** off rant about the lad now, I'll do that some other time, but I do agree with David Icke. I'm going to disagree with the bit in bold because Oba's record has been near 1 in 2 this season (7 in 17 iirc) that can't be the sign of a poor standard footballer. And when you consider the games of match fitness recovery etc then i think you're being a little harsh. Nobody played well today everybody looked extremely edgy and tense.

I'd agree that the overall performance was better than most people are saying here. The players looked more relaxed and positive and I think that's down to Shearer. I also thought that, after the goals went in, it was notable that the heads didn't drop and we kept going. We lost because they're better than we are. We were getting the ball forward a lot quicker, and cutting out the timid passing that's only designed to keep possession. It didn't always come off, but at least the players looked like they knew what they were supposed to do. It looked like a team effort all round. Colo was at fault in both goals but shouldn't shoulder the entire blame. Duff put him in a bit of trouble for the first, and the second was mainly caused by Beye losing his header and exposing Taylor two on one. In general though, he's not looked strong enough for the Premiership all season. Beye did better than I was expecting at CB and I imagine he'll keep his place there and Colo will be replaced by Bassong or Steven Taylor when either are fit. Having watched the game, I actually feel more positive about avoiding the drop. There will be a lot of negative headlines because of the result, but Shearer has to keep them confident. Really, i thought we played horribly today. We created nothing and defended ok until the hour mark, which seems to be the story of our season. To me the players bottled it, maybe they felt that all the attention Shearer got was being put onto them and they were being made out by a lot of the media and fans to play like a CL side all of a sudden or maybe they just weren't used to the atmosphere. Speaking of the atmosphere i found it very tense, like an air of expectancy around the place that never quite materialised. We looked so much better when Guthrie came on but i'd rather have seen Nicky Butt taken off. I'm going to take a gamble here and blame Al for the loss today. I haven't seen his interview but i read here on via a previous post that he said he didn't want to play too open so we wouldn't be destroyed. In a way it makes sense because it's his first game etc don't want to get trounced but if he'd been watching close enough this season he'd have seen that we've played well when we've gone at the top 4 opposition bar Liverpool. We can't afford to play it safe anymore it's either cut your losses and go for it or you're screwed tbh. I know we won't probably go down and that Al was the right choice imo but i fear a little bit that if his tactic today was to play it safe, what will he do for the away games like Stoke?

Was a lifeless display tbh. The players looked like rabbits in headlights and it turned out to ne a real anti-climax. Nicky Butt was dire and I'd much rather see Nolan with Guthrie who looked good when he came on. Duff was shocking, that is all.

Thought he was playing well today apart from the mistake, he wasn't at fault for the 2nd either. The first goal came from todays big problem, the midfield, Butt and Nolan were abysmal, the worst CM pairing i've ever witnessed.

It's different when the player loves the club imo, because other great players i.e Roy Keane don't put their heart and soul into it because they love their other club too much, and they're waiting for the opportunity to take that one over instead. Recent history suggests that a Newcastle man is the only one that can really manage the team.

I wouldn't mind Oba taking pens when he's scoring goals regularly, but when he hasn't scored for a couple of months he's the last person i'd want to take one.

It's strange how much things have chnaged when you read the first few pages of this... http://www.deportivo-la-coruna.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6227&highlight=coloccini

Rubbish and how short you rmemory is. A few good games by Taylor and a few bad games by Coloccini and the former is suddenly a better defender. You need to cast your memory to some of the goals we conceded earlier in the season to make a better comparision. Yes Taylor has been good in the last couple of games and Yes Colo has been off form, but to say that Taylor is the better player overall is laughable Colo is weak as piss in the air, in the tackle and at marking players and backs off constantly, ball watches and drops far too deep, often while his fellow defenders are trying to hold their line or trying to play off-side, so yeah Taylor who is good in the air, strong in the tackle, isn't a soft touch physically and who can read play (covering for Colo for example when he goes on his constant walk-about) is a better defender and with it not as much of a liability. As for a few bad games... he's been piss poor all season except for one or two decent games. Nearly every forward he has faced, has given him a tough time. He was absolutely shocking yesterday and showed zero heart on several occasions, turning his back on the man or ball like a tart. I noticed after the break he put his body in the way a few times, something must have been said in the dressing room and rightly so. Harper looked furious with him several times throughout the match. The last line i agree with, he was much improved for the first fifteen minutes of the half until the 2nd goal. I think it was interesting how he changed after half time. He came out and until the 2nd goal went in, he was looking pretty good he made some very good interceptions, won some headers against Bendtner and he looked more confident without Bassong, after the second though his head totally dropped like everyone else's. I don't think it is as much Bassong that is making him play badly but perhaps the way he's being told to defend, it's very possible that Hughton and co. have been asking him to defend a particular way when partnering Bassong. Colo doesn't look like a sweeper to me, he's very much a front line defender, he'll nick the ball head on from a runner and make interceptions and will challenge for headers etc and he did this a lot pre-christmas. Yesterday he seemed to perform this role again after half time and he looked totally different. I think there's a lot more to this than meets the eye with this as he seemed to have settled well at the beginning when he was the 'main' defender but has gone downhill since then.

He was probably talking about leftbacks tucking in to track runs down the left, not rightbacks running across the central defence to track runs down the opposite flank. No because it was when Clichy blocked Lovenkrands who was on the right side of the penalty area, which is the opposite side he was meant to be defending on.

Was he? Was he not? Coloccini was an absolute beast for Depor especially in his last 2 seasons. Last season gets a special mention because he was brilliant. In what way was he beast? Was he making thunderous challenges? Was he dominating opponents in the air? Was he commanding the back four with his lovely perm? Yes.

Some of Taylor's heroics yesterday however prove that the goal against Bolton was his fault. When Arshavin was clean through and Taylor blocked it from the RB position, that's exactly what he should have done with Gardner. And the Setanta commentator Burley? proved that's what Taylor should have done with the comment to do with Gael Clichy 'that's exactly what a fullback should do, be fully aware of runners, not be on their heels watching play from the side instead tracking runs to prevent goals'.

Was he? Was he not? Coloccini was an absolute beast for Depor especially in his last 2 seasons. Last season gets a special mention because he was brilliant.

Depends on the league you're come from Colo has spent his career briefly in Argentina, a little time in Italy and a large proportion in Spain. He was too young to cut it at Milan but in Spain he was seen as a very good player for Atletico and Villereal. He was Depor's captain and best player by a mile and the only reason they didn't finish in a solid European spot was down to the mediocrity of other positions. For them he looked a totally different player, he was their team captain and was very vocal, he marshalled their defence superbly well and looked a top notch defender. The main point with this though is that he's spent a lot of time in the Spanish league which is the polar opposite to the Premiership, it's been ok for Beye and Bassong because the French league is quick, frenetic and young and when they came here it wasn't that hard to adapt. For Colo though the Spanish league is pedestrian in comparison and has a very different attitude which will obviously take longer to get used to. Something else people should probably realise when comparing Colo to Bassong is how differently these 2 must be thinking right now. This was Colo's big move, into a team that was billed to be challenging for a European spot under Keegan for Bassong though he came here to learn his trade and whatever happened was a bonus for him whether we were up in the top 4 or rock bottom it would still have been a step up and considered a personal success, no wonder he looks so demoralised.

yes a proper manager would and it wasn't really a mistake. he's not going to sub someone as soon as they go down injured. taylor should have known he couldn't carry on and said straight away. Suggest you read the post again, as i clearly said he was off the field for a good couple of minutes, they spent all that time strapping him up to get subbed again straight away, they must have known they were going to change him with Geremi getting up then Owen getting up so why waste that time? Whatever way you look at it their dallying was the straw the broke the camel's back. so the player told them he could play on,unless the swelling is immediate or a bone is sticking through it's hard for a physio to tell, the player has the say and he obviously said he could play on. owen got up because lovenkrantz was hobbling about aswell. Don't think he did he was nearly in tears, and if you spend that amount of time strapping someone up then surely it's not wise to put them on. Plus he went on for 1 minute then came straigh off again, surely not the intentions of a lad that wanted so desperately to be on.

yes a proper manager would and it wasn't really a mistake. he's not going to sub someone as soon as they go down injured. taylor should have known he couldn't carry on and said straight away. Suggest you read the post again, as i clearly said he was off the field for a good couple of minutes, they spent all that time strapping him up to get subbed again straight away, they must have known they were going to change him with Geremi getting up then Owen getting up so why waste that time? Whatever way you look at it their dallying was the straw the broke the camel's back.

hughton's ineptitude lost us the game yesterday. Taylor was off the pitch for a good couple of mins but then when he came back on he got subbed immediately, their dallying cost us the game and a proper manager wouldn't have made such an amateur mistake.

looks so under confident atm I actually thought he was having a decent game until the second went it.interestingly when bass went off I thought he looked better making some great interceptions and some nice hwaders. Can't blame the players for yday was the management fault for the 2nd and after that the heads well and truly dropped.

Doesn't matter. If someone shoots from 30 yards out towards the left side of the goal, and another player is in an offside position on the other side of the goal and the goalkeeper saves it but only as far as the offside player and he taps it in, it's still offside. Yeah but that's easily interfering with play. IMO the decision was right at the time, Gallas was no interference at all to the phase of play, yes when the ball was kicked but play was ahead of him. The rule after that is supposed to stand is if it hits off an opposing player then it won't be offside. Good call i reckon.