Hughesy

He's made some decent saves, but then every PL keeper is capable of making some saves that look good. He's still made a fair few errors in my opinion, so I don't think this is quite the loss it is being made out to be.

I think the fact that their penalty came straight after the penalty appeal we should have had made it all the worse, given its debatable nature.

Really hope that's true. So glad that run has ended. Gabbiadini was saying on Total Sport one night that if they got the 7th win, that would be a record that would probably never be broken. That was in response to Howey saying the other 6 wins were in the past, and Marco arguing that they were still relevant until the run was stopped. Lets see if he tries to spin it another way tomorrow. The whole 6 in a row thing is somewhat flawed anyway, given that there are quite a few seasons where we have been in the top 6 in the Premiership and they've been in the division below (93-94, 94-95, 95-96, 03-04) - I think you'd back the NUFC teams of those years to get a fair few victories.

Yep - the fact he is genuinely two footed makes a big difference.

Hadn't realised how much Pardew loved DNA. Can't get enough of it, it would seem.

Improved a lot in the second half when he got the ball in a bit of space.

On the replay it looked like the shot was very close to him and it wasn't hit that hard - but maybe being a bit unfair. Just looked like one that in slow motion looked saveable.

Agreed- thought he should have done better with that.

Love the fact he actually makes subs that you can tell he has thought about and make a difference.

His suspension is the biggest positive to come out of this.

Shelvey seems to have fallen into our trap of not moving the ball quickly enough.

Easily deserved a point - not sure how that can be questioned tbh.

Fucking great header.

People do seem to be painting Defoe as some sort of latter day Van Basten who is bound to score (probably will now I've said this). Of his 11 league goals, 6 were against Swansea and Villa.

Me neither, he played well. Obviously needs a goal but his all round play was pretty good on Monday. His link up play is very good, if he can add a few goals to that he'd be a top class old fashioned centre forward. I think that'll come in time, he needs to develop his instincts in front of goal. Not just the finishing but the movement and anticipation too. He's not there yet and probably shouldn't have the responsibility of leading the line at this stage but that's what we've got and we'll just have to hope Rafa can get a bit more out him quickly. Getting Shearer in to give him some coaching would be interesting, I think he'd benefit massively. I'm sorry but this is just absolute rubbish to think this guy will ever be a top class forward is ridiculous. This guy is 21 yet has absolutely no characteristics of a striker at all.1. He can't score, 2. He's as slow as s*** no pace at all. 3. He never seems to jump for a header so no threat in the air, 4. He has no positional sense what so ever, 5. He can not think ahead or anticipate where he should be to be a dangerous threat to the opposition If you watch him it's like watching a Sunday league player who's trying his hardest. The guy isn't even as good as Shola was and that's a damning indictment Top class forward my Arse some of you on here need to remove the blinkers Over-exaggeration like this does you no favours. He's undoubtedly had a tough first season, despite bugger all service, and has played poorly at times. Fact remains he should never have been brought in to be our main striker (although interesting to see that Austin, who loads of people thought was the answer, has done very very little at Southampton) and should have been understudy for a year or two to find his feet and get used to the league. But he has shown quality at times and I think he will improve over time - for example, he dominated Smalling in our 3-3 match with Man Utd when everyone was raving about Smalling being the best English defender around. There was a reason why he was on nearly every list of the best young players in Europe - he hasn't suddenly become crap. http://inbedwithmaradona.com/100-2014-review/2014/12/2/aleksandar-mitrovic http://inbedwithmaradona.com/100-2015-2/2015/12/10/aleksandar-mitrovi http://www.theguardian.com/football/gallery/2014/dec/30/transfer-window-20-premier-league-targets-for-january-2015

I'm not sure how anyone could have watches the Leicester match and thought he was shit.

I assume the regularity and quantity of training is based mainly keeping the players in the best condition possible for the games, but you'd think you could do a hell of a lot of tactical work/walk throughs of tactical moves and/or set pieces on days where they should be "resting".

Yeah - but he's got such a handsome face.

They seem weirdly confident of a victory. Not sure how either team could possibly be that confident.

Quite interesting if you look at the stats from our 6 losses - we've had more shots/possession than them in the majority of them but still managed to lose.

Anyone here know what the rules are on the purchaser of the tickets giving them to someone else to use and not being present in that party? Is the risk (if there is one at all) on the person using the tickets that aren't in their name, rather than the person who bought the tickets? I thought I read somewhere that you might have to show your passport on entry to the stadium and given that there will no doubt be some heightened security, I wasn't sure what the deal was.

I know every team does it - but I hate the way that for about the last five minutes of the game last night, the ball was probably in play for about 1 minute and that minute was spent mainly in the corner with two Leicester players making little attempt to actually play the ball. Not sure what you do about it - maybe in injury time, the ball actually needs to be in play for the full allotment of injury time?

The problem is, he wins the ball and holds it up it in non-dangerous areas. In the penalty area he doesn't actually create any assists or finish. That's got as much to do with the quality of our balls into the box as Mitro's ability. I don't think so, he very rarely finds space in the penalty area in any case. Even on corners he's rarely winning any headers. Our crossing is abysmal - can't expect him to score goals on scraps. How many decent balls did we give him today? One.

Looked far far better. Could easily have got a point and deserved one on the balance of play.

The problem is, he wins the ball and holds it up it in non-dangerous areas. In the penalty area he doesn't actually create any assists or finish. That's got as much to do with the quality of our balls into the box as Mitro's ability.