Jayson

He's got it dead on here. Hes always out far to wide to be truly effective. We can praise him about his class forever, but its no use if he doesnt know how to make it effective in the pemier league. So far this season, he has only done it three or four times.

Pointless hate on Martins. He still has it, hes just inconsistant. Better than anything else we have though bar Owen, so pointless to criticize. Goals v aston villa & Wigan show he can still smack it. Had that spectacular one against Arsenal that hit the bar & played well against Man United. Once again he lik eowen hasnt had the service, he needs to drop back more to get the ball. But hes not the player he was a few years ago.

Got to win this game, away/home form becomes irrelevant. Its Stoke. Anything other than 3 points and we're not performing to our ability. End of story.

Sad thing is he used to compare to Given, now he really doesnt. Wouldnt be a tough choice atall on recent form...shame. Not to blame for most of the goals he is though, we're just far to used to taking Givens shot stopping ability for Granted. If a player was 1 on 1 you knew Given could save us, Harper doesnt have that.

Two ways of looking at this. The belief that colo, however crap hes been this season....will improve over time with better training...more confidence & be more adapted to the prem next season. Or That he will fail to adapt to the prem, as he has key weaknesses...like his speed...strength...lack of an ability to head....that if you dont possess in the prem...will get you run all over. I think the second is far more likely. Just because other players have taken a while to adapt to the prem...doesnt mean it can be applied to all that fail at this level. To not even be able to head a ball away.....or be fast enough to atleast pressure a striker who's just knocking the ball past you....just isnt good enough. Add to that his reaction speed being average at best. I would love to see these class games he had for us, as i dont really remember any. Someone name one or two class tackles he made, or good strong headers. I can name many for Taylor even, so it SHOULD be easy shouldnt it.

Get Barton back, play Guthrie from the start......get Gutierrez further up the pitch and cutting inside more...hope Butt has a half decent game = completely different Newcastle. Even Guthrie starting against lesser sides than chelsea makes us a much better team, just because hes sadly our most creative player with his passing. Barton is much better defensively though...probably attacking wise also. Hopefully Alan will be talking to Michael & he can tell him himself where he feels most effective. Recent times though it has to be behind a front two, hes to easily marked out of it otherwise.

Beye over colo for me easily. Keep taylor on the right, defensive problems mostly sorted. Beye and Bassong as a central defence = perfection.

He wouldnt stay, he still wants back in the England team. Wouldnt manage it playing at that level. If we stay up and keep Alan though he will defo stay, we might even be able to talk him into a more reasonable contract. Enjoying his football will be key for him & having faith in the management. I dont think barely anyone had faith in Kinnear/Hughton/Allardyce etc....why would Owen be any different. Even Given gave up under those lot, yet owen is the one accused of lacking loyalty. Alan will command far more respect & Owen already looked better today....should have set up a goal. He'll be a much better player under Alan i reckon, someone who can push him & who he'll actually listen to. If you're Michael owen and Hughton is trying to advise you on how to improve your game, you'd just be laughing in your head wouldnt you.

Needs to b eplaying further up the pitch & not so much on the wing as Shearers said, problem is he needs to be getting decent service in that position also.

Running back when you've lost the ball to mark your man isnt about confidence, its just giving up. Lack of determination, if he even half attempts to move whe nhe'd already cocked up Lampard doesnt get that first goal. Who knows what happens.

You can tell the people on here who have any form of observational skills just by finding out who thinks Colo's had a good season. No, this isnt why our defenders are s*** as Bassong is demonstrating. If they're s*** they cannot handle the pressure of the premier league or playing for Newcastle, simple as that. Bramble was a defender who made cock ups but held down a place in a side who finished 4th in the league. No comparisons tbh. Colocinni is a player who is playing in a decent defence, but has been CRAP all season himself. We have conceded the third most goals in the entire league & only he has played in every match. Wake up. Where the hell you saw him being a rock ill never know. I have never seen him even head a ball away all season ffs & i have watched him being beaten for pace endlessly.....losing a player endlessly. Name the match where you saw him being a rock. Seeing as the only games he's looked decent were simply because Bassong was probably clearing up for him. He only looks decent when HE doesnt make any clear mistakes, he never actually does well does he. Its fcking pathetic. That first goal today is a fcking shambles down to him. He may have single handedly sent us down today, the positivity we could have picked up from a 0-0 is now well and gone & you and others are making excuses for this nonce.

2-0 Newcastle Expect Owen to be on top of his game.

Reckon we'll beat Villa last day of the season, dont know why everyones writing that fixture off. Very likely we'll win.

Only thing about the players is that this constant talk of it being a very short term appointment may take away from some of the positivity. Might be harder for them buy into all his ideas etc if THEY think Kinnear could come back. So i hope theyre being given more info than we are on the reality of it.

Very good sign that he brought in Paul Ferris to oversee everything injury wise, maybe we'll finally start sorting that out. Alan more than anyone will want to sort injurys having so many get in the way for him.

To be fair to him, the only time this entire season he had near all of his key players available we went on a good run of results. Before we played Wigan i remember our recent form was about 4th/5th in the entire prem. Still, his timing of substitutions, general level of belief in Ameobi & our ability to defend under him have been awful. Results were prob more down to the players than him. I severely doubt bringing Duff on in the 89th minute v tottenham was down to some brilliantly thought out plan of how well he'd combine with Viduka.

Think he'll be staying. Alan had endless opportunitys to simply say "i will leave after these 8 games" but specifically continued to say it was down to the management & ud have to ask them. His other quote "Im here for 8 games and 8 games only" still doesnt rule out the possibility of this changing at any point. He isnt guaranteeing any outcome, he went out of his way not to. A good sign imo.

Based on.......... Owen being behind the strikers = more space for him, simple as that. Helpful when you have a big lad to hold it up for you, but both Lovenkrands & Martins are good enough at moving with the ball to be able to find owen in space themselves.

Which is what he'd say too. Doesn't make it correct though. Whining about "the quality of defence" is what players who aren't scoring do. Truly great players, like Owen once was, don't need that excuse. The fact he (and you) needs that excuse says it all. What Ian Wright says is absolutely on the nose. Its the mentality on the horses, and the non-stop injuries that have cost Owen his England place more than Newcastle's form. As i said, A LACK OF SERVICE to owen because of that. He has never been a player to make chances out of nothing. Thats called reality. You cannot say level of service and the standard of the rest of the players in the side should have absolutely no effect on Owens form.

He also slips at the beginning of his reply, saying: "Ask me at the end..." He's not going anywhere. Like i've said; this is it. Either suggests his opinion is dependant on whether we stay up or not, or whether he enjoys management i suppose. Have to be aware that he may simply be looking at it in terms of saving our club THIS season in an emergency move. Theres no guarantees he's likely to stay on, especially under Ashley. Hope he does though, think theres about 80% chance that he will regardless. Especially when hes back in it at the touchline hearing his name chanted by an entire stadium. Even the Chelsea lads will be impressed let alone ours to be in that atmosphere.

What if they're bringing in long term & Shearer's just to help us stay up.

He's hardly gonna turn around and say "I want the job full time. I hope the fucker dies" He didnt have to even mention it though tbh. He specifically said, im only looking at the next 8 games. Something in it for me, he didnt need to mention Kinnear.

Said hes only in it for 8 games & looking no further than that. Joe Kinnear still has the job & is still recovering :kinnear: :kinnear:

Point is, no point in cost cutting when you cannot replace what you have with anything better. In Given we had a top class goalie one of the best. So its hard to turn it into a positive, even with his wages being freed up.....its still unlikely we'll find anyone who had as positive an impact on the side individually as him. Owen is debatable. Think he'll improve under Shearer now, as hopefully will the entire team. He'll have more respect for Al, than he would have for Kinnear, Hughton etc i would say. Owen on top of his game = better than anyone else we could get in this position. But if Owen doesnt turn it around, then you'd have to think that his wages could realistically be spent on someone more consistantly productive. Especially with Al here now.

Have to ask what Kinnears going to be doing now. If cant be a coach, if he isnt replacing wise then what...hows he going to have a "big say with the players" as he claimed lol