fredbob

Only if your forwards or others are scoring... In the first half, cabaye only had one decent outlet in marveaux, which is incredibly worrying, even more worrying is that ba is locked in Ali dia's shed somewhere and we don't seem to have much else in terms of forward play bar Ben arfa. There's definitely a superb first 11 in there somewhere but putting youth aside our depth is quite worrying.

I'm not going to sing the praises of our full backs but controlling the ball and making a short pass is basic and our full backs are good enough for that. What isn't good enough is that only marv and cabaye actively looked to recieve the ball... No no no. At least not good enough under a tiny little bit of pressure. They're both proffessional footballers, yes they can. It's a pretty big flaw for any footballer let alone a premiership footballer.

I'm not going to sing the praises of our full backs but controlling the ball and making a short pass is basic and our full backs are good enough for that. What isn't good enough is that only marv and cabaye actively looked to recieve the ball...

Pardew has had the whole of pre season to make them realise that, I remember when keegan took over from allardyce and in his first game against bolton, had harper roll the ball out to the left back instead of launch it to little oba.

True. Who said that? I've seen a number of people whinging about these two leaving without being replaced. Have to say I'm even more excited at the prospect of Cabaye & Marveaux than those two. Going to be much better to watch. Generally speaking, the posters citing nolan goal record as a major loss know nothing about the dynamics of a football game. Their opinions are worth ignoring.

I think Pardew is in danger of being found out this season. One of the basics of passing football is for the goalkeeper to throw the ball out when possible as this keeps possession and you can build from the back. Krul is whacking the ball down the pitch every time and that's because the manager hasn't told him otherwise. With the exception of colo, who is an excellent passer none of our backline should be pumping it forward. My concern is that this 'habit' of hitting it long is bypassing our 2 excellent ball playing midfielders. They can't influence the game if they're constantly trying to pick up knock downs etc. Very unimpressed so far. Still a few more players short than I originally thought.

It's not about the personnel, its about how the side set out to play and how they actually played. A lot of long ball stuff, a bit of individual "blind alley" dribbling and very few give and goes, or one touch stuff, very little movement as well. All stuff which you'd hope would be apparent from a full pre season where he's had chance to implement his philosophy fully.

Aye, really liked him in that role, just tidied things up and kept play ticking over nicely. Great seeing so many left footed players as well.

Maybe its just me but I hate seeing all this long ball football, we were short of ideas for long periods and looked to pump the ball forward from the backline an awful lot. Scunthorpe pressed well but we sould holding onto possession a lot better than we were. If pardew has set out to play carpet football and this is his interpretation of it then I'm a little concerned, I know its early on, but all of the goals we've scored this season have been individual efforts rather than clear cut team made chances. Still no decisive plan of action in my opinion.

With a player like him the sides begging for movement in front of him and on tonight's showing his talent isn't going to be sufficiently used. Class act going by tonight's showing.

Where has this ￡8m magic figure come from?

No excuse on this one, the clubs needs a striker just as much as a left back, goals are the cornerstone of success on the pitch and barring Ba none of our strikers are clinical or good enough to consistently aid the creation of goals through indirect play. Best is still an unknown quantity in my opinion but definitely has the potential, I wouldn't want to have to rely on that potential. We need proven strikers. Full stop. I think one of the reasons we are being so hesitant is that for £7-8m you don't buy proven strikers, there's no guarantee this Maiga will get goals in the premier. But then if that's all you are prepared to spend then you have to take an educated punt. If you do your homework it can pay off big. I'm sure WBA are more than happy with the daft fee they spent on Shane Long right now. That risk comes with every single transfer. I agree, my point was more that we definitely need another striker, preferably one with excellent movement and pace, as well as a ball carrier ideally!

No excuse on this one, the clubs needs a striker just as much as a left back, goals are the cornerstone of success on the pitch and barring Ba none of our strikers are clinical or good enough to consistently aid the creation of goals through indirect play. Best is still an unknown quantity in my opinion but definitely has the potential, I wouldn't want to have to rely on that potential. We need proven strikers. Full stop.

I personally thought it was a fair decision to try and get him to quit international football. I think he thoroughly justified his decision in his book, solano went back on his word which caused problems because he'd be returning from long haul.flights 24 hours before games. Players have been moved on for far less. As for SBR getting sacked, I put the blame on the fans first, then shepherd followed by the players themselves. Really bugs me how people try and vindicate the behaviour and expectations of the fans after he saved us from relegation then arguably made us one of the better sides in Europe. It was one of the best periods in the history of the football club and whilst we didn't play well at all, we still finished in a respectable position. He deserved at least one more year. 5th place was seen as a failure after 2 years of relative success and he wasn't given the opportunity at all to rectify things. Look at what Liverpool did with Houllier that summer. That's what we should have done. The football in Robson's last season, especially away from home was dreadful at times. Although it certainly would have been interesting if he'd have brought Emile M'Penza in as our main striker... Absolutely, had we gone out and fetched in a manager of rafas class and achieved similar levels of success as he had done the decision would have been vindicated but if I remember correctly houllier finished outside the CL places the seasons we qulaified? Wasn't given the push then. I just never appreciated the idea that as a Newcastle fan, we had the right to demand that 5 place was a failure, irrespective of the circumstances of that 'failure'. I'm not saying we should have stuck by him uncodtionally, wenger stylee, only that he deserved one more season. Emile m'penza singing for us is neither here nor there, who knows what he could have achieved.

I personally thought it was a fair decision to try and get him to quit international football. I think he thoroughly justified his decision in his book, solano went back on his word which caused problems because he'd be returning from long haul.flights 24 hours before games. Players have been moved on for far less. As for SBR getting sacked, I put the blame on the fans first, then shepherd followed by the players themselves. Really bugs me how people try and vindicate the behaviour and expectations of the fans after he saved us from relegation then arguably made us one of the better sides in Europe. It was one of the best periods in the history of the football club and whilst we didn't play well at all, we still finished in a respectable position. He deserved at least one more year. 5th place was seen as a failure after 2 years of relative success and he wasn't given the opportunity at all to rectify things.

First game of the season, you'd hope to see some for of style and play, maybe not executed perfectly but a definitive style nonetheless. I didn't, it seemed a little of the same old same old, no real movement, no intensity no width, no general plan from my point of view. I personally think he would have been better off playing a 451, I know it maybe have seemed negative but there midrfield and defence had so little pressure in the first and second phase, allowed their midfield to control the game without even getting out of second gear. Not good enough in my opinion.

Just can't get on board with this Enrique hate. What's he done that's so bad? The fact is that Liverpool are a step up, always have been and because of their history always will be. There is literally nothing about his conduct which makes me want to dislike him. Obviously hate that he's gone to Liverpool of all clubs but I just can't hold anything against him, he's been one the best signings this club has made since 2004. A little bit of perspective, perhaps.

Because the offer was amazing and it helps to improve our finances. I'm not saying we might not spend slightly more now we have extra money BTW, just that it's not such a direct link as people like to make out. ("Would we have spent nothing?", "We still have £30m in the bank" etc etc). I know Pards made the situation worse by saying it would all be reinvested, but you must know he was just reacting to a question and defending a shocking development. 'Slightly more'?! The entire reasoning behind taking that amazing offer was that it would be used to significantly improve the squad. The computer game experts on here assured us all that plenty of better strikers could be bought with the money we were getting for Carroll, for example. I'm reasonably happy with our transfers so far and as it stands I would say the squad is possibly a little better than it was last season, but that's making a number of assumptions about players fitting in straight away (or coming back well from major injuries), hitting the ground running and offering at least the same production as those they have replaced. Not to mention the fact that there are supposedly a number of what I consider to be useful players up for sale. The sound of goalposts being moved grows louder every day. You're obviously not happy with the transfers so far otherwise you wouldn't be constantly moaning like a bitch. It's so painfully obvious here that the overriding issue here isn't the potential quality of player we're bringing in or looking to bring in, its the amount of cash we're spending. The stupid thing about this, is I actually agree with your fundamental point, I think some money needs to spent on the squad, I argued pretty much the exact point you're contesting in the post above. I'm starting to think though that my shot was slightly off Target, instead of spending to improve the squad, I think [ib]we need to spend money to appease fans like yourself[/b]. I can see us spending £12m of the £35m, would that be enough for people? (This might be a trick question) Can't be arsed arguing with this other to say you're wrong and I don't appreciate you misrepresenting my opinion. I want to see some ambition to move up the table and the squad significantly improved accordingly. If that's done on a shoestring then fine. I simply don't personally believe this can be done without spending money however, and the Carroll money should allow us to do so. It needs to justify his sale to satisfy me, because I was against it all the way through. What we've done so far is a decent start but not what I would describe as significant, it's as simple as that. If its not about the money, then how can you categorically say that the improvements we'be made are only 'decent' rather than 'significant'? You openly admit you haven't seen much of them. I'm just struggling to see how you came to this conclusion. For what its worth I haven't seen a great deal of cabaye and marveuax and only seen ba a few times but I'm not the one who's categorically giving these transfer an objective 'rating'. Fully expect this post to he ignored.

Because the offer was amazing and it helps to improve our finances. I'm not saying we might not spend slightly more now we have extra money BTW, just that it's not such a direct link as people like to make out. ("Would we have spent nothing?", "We still have £30m in the bank" etc etc). I know Pards made the situation worse by saying it would all be reinvested, but you must know he was just reacting to a question and defending a shocking development. 'Slightly more'?! The entire reasoning behind taking that amazing offer was that it would be used to significantly improve the squad. The computer game experts on here assured us all that plenty of better strikers could be bought with the money we were getting for Carroll, for example. I'm reasonably happy with our transfers so far and as it stands I would say the squad is possibly a little better than it was last season, but that's making a number of assumptions about players fitting in straight away (or coming back well from major injuries), hitting the ground running and offering at least the same production as those they have replaced. Not to mention the fact that there are supposedly a number of what I consider to be useful players up for sale. The sound of goalposts being moved grows louder every day. You're obviously not happy with the transfers so far otherwise you wouldn't be constantly moaning like a bitch. It's so painfully obvious here that the overriding issue here isn't the potential quality of player we're bringing in or looking to bring in, its the amount of cash we're spending. The stupid thing about this, is I actually agree with your fundamental point, I think some money needs to spent on the squad, I argued pretty much the exact point you're contesting in the post above. I'm starting to think though that my shot was slightly off Target, instead of spending to improve the squad, I think we need to spend money to appease fans like yourself. I can see us spending £12m of the £35m, would that be enough for people? (This might be a trick question)

The spelling mistake is for the benefit of Neesy Your wrong, Sunderland Man U and Norwich have got in more players in than we have so far and we're being out-spent by Man City, Man U, Liverpool, Norwich, the mackems, Wolves and probably Chelsea. We're just ahead of Swansea and Wigan althought I'm not surprised as this is a typical response from you. Aside from the clubs who we can obviously can't compete with, are there any of those clubs who's players you'd want over ours?

For a few people it might be worth checking who spurs actually signed in the early stages of their progression as a club. (I'd start at between 2003/05 although it was really 2004 when things took shape with santini and jol taking charge) Baring in mind they were in a good place financially (ran tightly) they still spent sensible amounts before there positions dictated how much they could lavish. Jenas Defoe Keane These were there major signings during those years. If anyone wants to correlate the spending in comparison to there league positions feel free. http://www.mehstg.com/transfers.htm http://www.topspurs.com/thfc-league-history.htm

Without wanting to delve too much into the debate, what is it that Messi has achieved outright that CRonaldo hasn't? Why is it that Messi is being consider as one of the worlds greatest but Ronaldo doesn't really get much of mention? Is it something to do with aesthetics?

Still don't understand why noone sees Ba as a credible replacement for Carroll. If we're planning to play on the floor I'm more than happy to have Ba taking up Carrolls role, admittedly Carroll was good with the ball at his feet but his movement wasn't great and he had no genuine pace. I actually think ba would be better to suited to how we intend to play.

Yeah that would be really clever. Paying for players available for free is ace. What a stupid thing to say. you know fine well he means that some would have been happier if we'd spent money instead of getting frees and cheapies so to speak. As far as I'm concerned we'be signed 5 very good players by all accounts for £7.8m, yet people still fail to see the subjective nature of football transfer fees. I remember saying how I thought the £35m would be another noose for the club to hang itself with, looks like I may be right. Five? If I'm defending the transfer record in recent times I have ti include others transfers, including Ben arfa and tiote. (My bad maths is off, £12.8m). Fact is we don't seem to be signing utter shit, which for me would be an indication of no ambitions like wigan but genuine quality players who were sought by others. Quite how you can argue past that I'm not sure.

Yeah that would be really clever. Paying for players available for free is ace. What a stupid thing to say. Care to point out where yourself and others have advocated Ba as a credible replacement for Carroll? I cant remember a single post stating Ba as a very good replacement for carroll yet I can see little reason other than perhaps an injury record (and price) to suggest otherwise.