Hughesy

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.

He just doesn't have a clue to score goals. Obviously the wider problems run far, far deeper and we've discussed them to death - but putting all of our eggs in this basket is one of the main reasons we're at the bottom. Just has absolutely no striker's instinct whatsoever. Yep - although I'm not sure if it's a confidence or instinct issue.

Actually thought he did relatively well tonight against Huth and Morgan. No idea why he passed that cross to De Jong.

Ok - correction - no-one else on the team was at more fault than him and he gets a fair bit more than 50% of the blame.

Gave away a needless free kick and then completely fucked up the header against vardy, which lead to the goal. He's crap.

He was pretty much 100% responsible for the 1st goal.

I'm not sure he'd get much joy out of Huth and Morgan, but wouldn't agree that he always gets bullied by centre halves. It seems to very much depend on 1) the quality of service we give him and 2) his state of mind. For example, I'd say he bullied the supposed best English central defender this season in Smalling and played well against WBA and West Ham (both of whom had pretty physical centre halves). Definitely needs more consistency in this aspect of his game though.

Could really do with getting something out of the game tonight - I think a point would make such a difference going into the Sunderland match.

I so excited about this. Can't actually concentrate on work. Just keep smiling to myself. Feels odd to be happy about NUFC.

OMG.

Can't actually believe this might happen. Just... wow. Having a proper manager. Just amazing.

If he was actually one of the 80 candidates interested in coming to us when Pardew left and we passed up the opportunity to get him in... well, I have no words.

Agreed - I had been thinking that the only way to actually get a proper manager was to be on the verge of disaster. Only thing that would shock them into action.

Don't get why people are giving McClaren crap over not walking - why should he walk? It isn't a question of dignity or morals. I wouldn't walk in his position.

Yeah - he usually seemed to be correct this summer from memory.