Gallowgate Toon

I seriously doubt he will actually, if his story that his attack was provoked is true he probably won't get any form of a sentence, just a fine.

I seriously doubt Sam will be sacked for the next couple of seasons.

Not in a court of law though, unfortunately. You can drink until you are paralytic, take as many drugs as you want, play your nintendo ds while driving, and it will still not be murder. True, a girl from near where i live was texting on her phone while driving and collided with another car. The woman in the other car died but the girl was only sentenced to 3 years in prison and obviously a driving ban.

He might be quite good, Park ji Sung is south Korean and he's a pretty decent footballer.

Stick with Sam, he'll come good in the end.

I think we're one dimensional enough without Crouch.

Cacapa certainly isn't average.

Play Barton alongside someone other than Butt then we shall see what he is capable of. Barton has to cover for Butt too much so Barton can't press forward as much and do his thing. Did anyone see his pass on the half volley after a corner, he had his back turned had a defender on him and it was about 40 yard pass but he got it there with pin point precision. Somebody with little talent could not do technical passes like that. Obviously theres alot of s*** going on in his life atm so it wouldn't be too fair too judge him so early.

Agreed. To play effective 4-3-3 you need clever adaptable players. Oba is very instinctive and totally unflexible. Play him as a striker in a 4-4-2 or not at all. Yep. In a 4-4-2 he could basically be played as a luxery striker. Alongside someone who is guaranted to score goals, Martins could provide the 'special' and 'unpredictable' touch. In a 4-3-3, with Martins always wanting to come infield, it in effect nullifies half of any potential width for us, putting more pressure on the left flank. But he has scored the most goals for us this season, while being played out of position alot. Doesn't this make him the automatic starter in a 4-4-2? i think he is the main striker in a 4-4-2 that gets those goals. Another player should support him imo. I've just said, yes, i'd play him in a 4-4-2. But as the luxury striker. Since he has scored the most this season, why shouldn't he be the main starting striker? Does it really matter if I call him a luxury if he's still playing? Well no actually, it doesn't . I thought you meant he should not always start, be brought on for luxury, unpredictable touches. My mistake

Agreed. To play effective 4-3-3 you need clever adaptable players. Oba is very instinctive and totally unflexible. Play him as a striker in a 4-4-2 or not at all. Yep. In a 4-4-2 he could basically be played as a luxery striker. Alongside someone who is guaranted to score goals, Martins could provide the 'special' and 'unpredictable' touch. In a 4-3-3, with Martins always wanting to come infield, it in effect nullifies half of any potential width for us, putting more pressure on the left flank. But he has scored the most goals for us this season, while being played out of position alot. Doesn't this make him the automatic starter in a 4-4-2? i think he is the main striker in a 4-4-2 that gets those goals. Another player should support him imo. I've just said, yes, i'd play him in a 4-4-2. But as the luxury striker. Since he has scored the most this season, he is guaranteed to score goals, why shouldn't he be the main striker.

He has been hit and miss for us so far. Theres been glimpses today and every game that he has played of sheer class. Some excellent passes, good running, skill and tackling. But other times he has made strange choices and lost the ball too easily. His court case will affect him, for obvious reasons and i think that we can only judge him once its passed but when he has also settled in more afterall he has had a difficult start with injuries etc. He is a very good player, but until his controversy is over he shouldn't be in the side.

Agreed. To play effective 4-3-3 you need clever adaptable players. Oba is very instinctive and totally unflexible. Play him as a striker in a 4-4-2 or not at all. Yep. In a 4-4-2 he could basically be played as a luxery striker. Alongside someone who is guaranted to score goals, Martins could provide the 'special' and 'unpredictable' touch. In a 4-3-3, with Martins always wanting to come infield, it in effect nullifies half of any potential width for us, putting more pressure on the left flank. But he has scored the most goals for us this season, while being played out of position alot. Doesn't this make him the automatic starter in a 4-4-2? i think he is the main striker in a 4-4-2 that gets those goals. Another player should support him imo.

We're only afew points away from 5th, Europe isn't that far away.

This.

Why would we buy three players for 10-20m each, all to play in the same position? No, but they would be immense in a 4-3-3.

Sam should never have started Butt imo especially against the likes of Derby, what's the point at home? use Emre and Barton our 2 more attacking Centre mids. Against the Big 4 play Butt as he creates pressure and lifts the crowd, but he leaves holes wide open because he runs around like a headless chicken and today Barnes had so much space to shoot because Nicky was too far away from him.

Criticism is pretty harsh tbh, today how many bad first touches did he have? hardly any that i can think of, in fact this whole season i can only remember one horror first touch that he did. Today he looked disinterested on the right but when he was moved up front with the 4-4-2 he set up our second goal and put emre through, Zoggy through with a back heel and got himself through too but some good defending stopped his shot, and this was all in 15 minutes of being moved up. He's a good striker but not a good right winger. He is not a bad footballer but at the moment he's lacking in confidence but we should be fair he has improved as a player this season, compared to last season. People on this forum are doing what they always do when a player isn't on great form just criticising them making them out to be alot worse than they really are.

1. Van Der Vaart would be excellent, 2. Arshavin would also be very good, 3. i know this last one is pushing the boundaries alot but i'd be ecstatic if Diego joined us.

He ran into blind alleys on a few occasions, and his rating was lowered for some dodgy defending. I've changed the Beye rating though he did have a very good game.

Why swap Barton? For me he was very good today apart from that tackle. I don't think people realise what he does for the team, some of his passing today was brilliant he is always a step ahead which in one or two cases today was apparent. If you watch him closely he is always shouting at players telling them to run into gaps and he is always moving around. We need him in the midfield, without him we would lack vision and finesse in the middle and what's wrong with having a bit of bite? so what, he hacked a player down every midfielder does it. It intimidates the opponent and shows them they aren't going to get past that easily and more importantly allows time for the team to regroup.

A very important result today, and i'm delighted we won. First half we were unlucky to concede, lapse in concentration from Roz. We turned it round though, but in the first half i was worried as for all of our possession and territorial dominance we lacked movement, vision and creativity so i was relieved to see Vid come on for Butt was a good decision imo. After the pen though we had them on the ropes even more and could've got another one in before half time. 2nd half we started off sleepy and inefficiently but after 60 minutes or so, we had them back under pressure and had the game i thought after that then the goal came from Beye with perfect timing. Given - 6.5 - Made a couple of decent saves, lacks some confidence though and its quite evident. Beye - 8 - He is excellent at tracking back and has a good sliding tackle. Godd header at the end too. Roz - 6 - After his early blooper, he became much better won some headers too. Distribution needs work though. Taylor - 7 - Solid performance individually, but he must communicate more with the whole defence. Zoggy - 6.5 - Mixed day for Zog offered a good attacking threat, still shaky defending but he is improving at LB, move him up though for next game, he was born to run at defenders. Geremi - 6.5 - A solid game and very efficient, he does hold our midfield together at times but his work is underestimated. Barton - 7- His vision and anticipation of the game is excellent and his passing is very good too, sometimes he is a bit too ahead of his team mates for example with a long pass to where Milner should have been, but he wasn't. For me a top class player who is always thinking but his rash tackle let him down. Milner - 8 - A typical grinding performance from Jimmy, some good crosses from him and some nice skill, my MOTM. Smith - 6 - Worked hard as ever, some nice short passing but was invisible for alot of the game. Martins - 6.5 - Seemed off the pace but unlike the Arsenal game today he didn't run into blind allies and did the intelligent thing and passed the ball, don't think he likes the right wing very much. Butt - For the time he was on got himself around a bit Viduka - 6 - Looked unfit and strangely his touch was a little off, needs more time to get fit. Emre - 6 - Wasn't on for very long got himself around looked for the ball, His free kick was handballed and decent delivery for Beye's goal. Enrique - Wasn't on long enough to do anything.

He got the assist. Did he even touch it after the Beye cross? He made a nuisance of himself though ill give him that, but in another thread (Post Arsenal thread i think) a poster mentioned he had a poor pass completion rate and if you watch the game again there were countless times he tried to hold up the ball and lost it.

David Bellion, Wes Brown, Kleberson... theres more too i'm sure.

Smith dosent deserve to be dropped Why not give him full 90 minutes tomorrow so he can get a goal and some confidence. Viduka should be our last option in attack. http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/Smileys/Lots_O_Smileys/laughs.gif Even if he dont score a single goal for rest of the season but still plays the passionate style like he did against Arsenal, i still would prefer him instead of Fatman Scoop. Viduka hasnt showed a shiiiit, he just looks fat and tired. wholeheartedly disagree on the viduka comment What kind of a message do we send in this time of revival if we drop or most passionate player though. Unless Smith is really knackered from Wednsday, he has to start. But apart from passion what does Smith offer, come on against Arsenal he wasn't productive at all, quite wasteful at times. A striker with just passion alone doesn't get you goals or create them, its good to play him against Arsenal as they create more space than teams like Brum so you need to defend from the front. Smith is ideal for this role, but Brum we should be in control of the game, with them defending from the front and against teams like this i'd prefer end product over work rate, as its the end product which gets the points. Smith is the best at the club work rate wise but what does he produce? unlike Viduka who in his limited appearances scored goals and will create something, as everyone knows its goals that win you games.

Given Beye Taylor Roz Enrique Geremi Barton Emre Martins Viduka Zoggy Might as well attack, its not as if Birmingham are going to try and bomb down the field. We can afford to have Viduka there tomorrow as Brum will be under the cosh so we need more quality compared to workrate therefore put Viduka instead of Smith. Use our pace too against their relatively slow defence put Zoggy and Martins there and use Barton & Emre's good passing to utilise the pace we have. That defence i feel is strong enough to hold off Brums attack but we must watch their danger man, Kapo. We should win, my guess is a 3-0 win. Martins with 2, Barton with 1.