Hughesy

nowt wrong with 4-4-2 if you have the personnel for it....we haven't. Exactly - the whole idea that, with the right players, 4-4-2 is now obsolete is ridiculous. Each formation has advantages and disadvantages. 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 isn't necessarily a better formation than 4-4-2.

We have had Virgin Money though and there was no Sharia law based uproar then.

I am not really having a go at Williamson - I just would have thought that going out that night wouldn't have been that sensible from a physiological point of view. Happy to leave it at that..

It isn't so much that I never expect them to go out - I just would have thought that the 3-4 hours after a game was a fairly sensible time to be resting. By all means go out the next day or something, especially if you have a 2 week break, but the initial recovery time must be quite important I would have thought.

I know it's a bit off topic - but why is a player, who has just completed 90 minutes of football, out the night of the game? Maybe I am being unrealistic about this, but surely recovering properly is pretty important? I do realise he may have been tucked up in bed by 9.00pm and not touched any alcohol, but still.. it annoys me.

I reckon Krul would have had a good chance with the first. Harper just looks so unconvincing. Rooney hit a freekick about mid height in the goal and Harper just about pushed it around the post. Limp wristed and no conviction. Can't be filling the back four with much confidence. And vice versa. Need Krul and our first choice CBs back ASAP if we want to take anything against the mackems. That dribble. f***ing hell. He did absolutely nothing wrong with the save from the free kick.

It's the calmness and organisation he brings to the defence more than anything. Well, that and him being an amazing defender. Without him, there is no leadership at the back.

I do think he needs to put on a bit of muscle - he really is incredibly small and weak. With the current sports science knowledge around, there must be a way for him to bulk up a bit without losing his agility and pace.

The ball should never have been played back to him in that position. There should also have been a full back for him to pass to.

Whilst I agree with some of what you say, 'relentless attacking football both home and away' clearly isn't the only way to play.

Think jonas pointed out that evra was free on the corner before as well.

Probably our best player today along with santon.

Drives me crazy. Possible can of worms here, but I think man marking at corners and free kicks is a more effective way of dealing with attackers. As do I.

I genuinely must have missed something about Krul's keeping - I think he is a great keeper but I've never been convinced by him coming for crosses or dominating the box with his aerial presence. I appear to be in the minority though.

Again, can't agree there. Harper is far more decisive in coming for crosses - he makes his mind up and commits to it. I have always found that Krul tends to flap a bit and look uncertain as to whether to come or not.

Krul is much better at manning his box, and much better collecting from corners in my opinion. Harper barely moves off his line Can't see that myself. Krul's biggest weakness is his judgment on crosses and coming off his line.

He knows we hate it, so why put it on the stadium, on the season tickets, on the roof, in the tunnel around the 'Howay the Lads' sign... May well be something else, but people must have learned there lesson from all the other times we've said "Ashley wouldn't be that stupid." Because we haven't gotten a good enough offer for the stadium rights yet.. what else would you suggest he puts there as a place holder for the future naming rights? "You're ad here"? We already have a sponsor for the shirts, the only way that's changing is if we find a better deal, it'll be interesting to see what it is, but please get the whole Sports Direct conspiracy out of your heads. You must have missed SJH's comments that Ashley only planned to use NUFC as a platform to market Sports Direct abroad. Not sure I would believe much of what comes out of Hall's mouth to be honest.

Nah, there was a clause written into the deal that allowed either party to end the deal at the end of this season. Fair enough.

They might also had to have paid some sort of penalty for breaking the sponsorship early.

Love some matches more than others, but that's football. I will always enjoy watching us play. Certainly enjoying watching this team play more than any team since Robson's.

Almost the most frustrating thing about it (over than the fact that it never works and is overused) is that the ball should probably be going to Taylor as he is better in the air than Williamson.

I think he's told too personally. It's a little thing but he doesn't join in the attacking play warm-ups they do pre-match, it's only Santon on his side. I agree he is wasted as a winger in a 4-4-2 in games against 'lesser teams' You are possibly right there. It is frustrating to see him either turn back or wait for the Santon overlap - he still has the ability to beat a man I think.

I am a big Jonas fan but he was poor on Saturday. He seems to almost have completely given up any attempt to beat his man and is now playing pretty much as a defensive winger.

For an 18 year old, I thought he was very good. Think he can be potentially be a very very good player. Got a bit lost at time with the awful football we were playing, but held his own.

Yesterday was just the worst of what we have more often than not and the team we put out should have been good enough to beat Reading. Our problem isn't only the personnel, it's as much to do with the way we try to play as a team and that doesn’t come from the players. I don’t believe that our players can’t string a series of passes together against Reading. I don’t believe that our players can’t find or create space in which to accept a pass against Reading. I don’t believe that our players just decide for themselves that they are going to tell Williamson to go up top for every free-kick and attempt to find him every time. That must come from the coaching and that’s what is to blame, I don’t believe that our coaches do that without some input from the manager, in fact I don’t believe that our coaches do that without the guidance of the manager because Carver has been here a long time and that hasn’t been a tactic we’ve used so often before. Our coaching can't be good enough and that’s being reflected in our performances. I’m not even sure that we are set up not to get beat, I think we’re set up to play a style of play that we don’t have the players to execute. I don’t have a problem with 4-4-2 when you have pace on the wings, we don’t have that so 4-4-2 fails before it starts. If we are going to play 4-4-2 then we need to bring two pacey wingers in who can get to the line and put a ball into the box on a regular basis. Blaming our poor performance against Reading on our recruitment isn’t getting at the problem, it’s hiding it because we had enough on the field or not picked, to play better than we did. So you think that our players are capable of passing to each other and finding space, but don't do so because they are told not to do so by Pardew?