ponsaelius

What a prat.

On the bright side he's not Boumsong-bad... he's young and there's a chance we can work on his weaknesses (i.e. jumping in when he shouldn't and backing off when he shouldn't). I haven't given up on him completely. The fact he's young is the biggest positive, he'll never get the coaching to iron out them aspects of his game while he's at this club though.

I made the earlier post about who we could get to improve the right back spot simply because I don't think we could - good full backs are hard to come by and it would cost a good few million to upgrade on Simpson, which just isn't gonna happen. He's certainly seen as our long-term RB

I'd be very surprised if we buy a RB now we have Simpson permanently. I agree. We've given him a long term contract for a reason.

Who are we realistically gonna buy next season that will improve the RB spot though?

By lord does that post sound familiar. 'Where would we be without his goals?' - lost count of the number of times I've heard that. It's just a ridiculously narrow minded way of looking at it, maybe if he wasn't in the side and we had a competent proper central midfielder the likelyhood is that while we have been without his goals the performances would have been far better overrall and maybe goals would have came from other areas of the team instead? Too much to comprehend I guess, the fact that people can't see past his scoring record is mind numbingly infuriating.

Funny, I was just saying on Saturday that I generally think Colo would cope better in midfield than any of Nolan, Butt or Smith. Obviously it's never gonna happen because it's vital we have him at CB.

I'm pretty sure the Eredivisie (Dutch) had play-off systems for all their European qualification but scrapped it either last season or the season before.

Pompey for the Cup.

He was very highly rated in Korea I think. Not that much of a coup, but still a very good signing aye.

Every time I see highlights of Xerez's games that pitch is truly woeful.

Montpellier won again I see. Surely they can't really win the title?

Xerez 0-0 Real Madrid at half time, surerly Madrid will break down Xerez?

Geet in fucking Donny.

I gave Nolan a 1. It's the first time I've seen a performance that justifies such a rating.

Harper 7 - Pretty solid, very little he could do about the goal Simpson 5 - Half hearted in the challenge, let Cotteril run at him time and time again, but still managed to be one of our better players. Coloccini 7 - Won nearly everything thrown at him, probably a better passer of a ball than anybody else we have in midfield. Hall 6 - Unspectacular, but again fairly solid. Van Aanholt 4 - Looks defensively naive, didn't show for the ball enough when he's the only left sided player out there. Routledge 6 - The only midfielder to actively try to create anything, starved of the ball but looked more dangerous than anybody else we had. Nolan 1 - No fucking hyperbole at all - worst performance in a Newcastle shirt, can't pass, no brain whatsoever. His wild punting of the ball into the air the highlight of his shitness. Smith 2 - Fucking rank aswell, gets a slightly better rating than Nolan due to being moderately less frustrating. Guthrie 3 - Left wing? Fuck off Hughton, he's a right footed central midfielder. Anyway, ponderous on the ball, poor passing but looked slightly better when he got fed up and came central. Lovenkrands 4 - Didn't see him all game, but how's a player of his kind gonna cope with that midfield behind him? Carroll 4 - Good header, shame he was positively disgraceful the rest of the time. Would have been a 2 if he hadn't of scored. Best 6 - Set up the goal with a delicious cross. Overall though, what an absolute fucking mess of a performance that was. Our midfield is the absolute worst. Yet we're still top the league, unbelievable.

What a pile of utter, utter wank. Why can't they pass a ball?

This game: 1. Swansea have possession - Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. 2. We get it, fuck it up. Repeat.

Lovenkrands on the wing then. Urgh.

Surely they'd only be able to have 1 star name nest season - the designated player slot rule thing?

Since they brought in a new, young manager who's made wholesale changes to their squad and tactics. They're no longer just shameless cheating bastards, they're shameless cheating bastards with loads of pace and skill. That plus us lacking our foreign-based players, not having trained together almost at all, not taking this tournament seriously, and a f***ing blind ref. (Is it just me or is it a terrible idea to assign a ref from Hong Kong to a China match?) Still an absolutely shameful performance though. That sounds increbibly fucked up

Welcome aboard, you silly fool

Well my Dad was never that hugely into football so I was only a passive football fan for most of my life - watching the odd big game, never really that interested at all though. Strange that I ended up liking football really, started about 03/04ish when I really got into it. Can't remember really why I suddenly got hooked with it. This is my fourth season with a season ticket Funnilly enough my Dad got a season ticket for the backend of last season and now he's turning into a proper fan, so it's kinda worked the other way round to what it should have!

Muntari and Stankovic are dm's? Stankovic has always been naturally an attacking midfielder, but in Mourinho's system I think he's played more often as one of 3 defensive minded midfielders. Muntari plays the same role at Inter aswell, but he's proving more and more that he just not Inter quality whatsoever anyway. Anyway, neither of them are technically astute enough to take Inter to the next level. Without Sneijder they often look toothless in midfield. Look at their team. In goal they have the arguably the best keeper on the planet, in defence they have Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Zanetti..all top class players, and upfront they now have Eto'o, Pandev and Milito - who have all been superb this season. From what I can see the midfield is their 'lacking' area - it's just not dynamic enough. Then again Mourinho won the Champions League playing with this system, so who am I to argue!