Away Toon

Stoke are making us look shit, says everything really.

Maybe Rooney is having fitness issues, being as he's an English pleb, probably with a penchant for everything that's great about our fatty cuisine. He's certainly not a natural athlete like CR7.

Proper old fashioned crowd in Bucharest, great noise and atmosphere.

Our problem in this game and then the return leg is we don't have a lot of goals in the team, and we always look like we might concede. O-0 might not be the best result in the world as our last opponents found out in the last leg. The away goal really is the killer.

Not only is Obertan pretty useless, he adds laziness and a general lack of commitment to everything he does.

After De Jong got away with it in the World Cup Final, I don't think too many referees are not going to give a red card for something similar.

Whatever mitigating circumstances there might be, and excuses that the Pardew supporters on here are so happy to make for him, it's undeniable that he's been in charge of an absolutely diabolical season, taking a better squad than the one that finished 5th to the depths of a relegation struggle, that we are not out of yet. Add in the horrible shapeless tactical mess that we invariably produce, and the fact that we can't win when we go behind, can't produce away from SJP, and that every single player barring Marveaux has gone backwards this season, some of them Colo, Jonas, Santon, Krul, Cisse, Tiote for starters, have been pretty near diabolical most of the time. The players fault or the man in charge, who in any case had no history to show that he was a decent or even competent manager when he arrived. No surprises that we are in the mess that we are, or that we will continue to under perform as long as he remains in charge. Pardew's performance this season is indefensible, so why are people on here continuing to pretend otherwise?

Can I be the first to say that I'd rather have Guzon than Krul. And obviously Benteke than Cisse. Provacateur.

Shit season, Shit Manager and mostly shit players. There's not one player who has either really progressed or improved from last season. Such a waste of an opportunity of building on last season.

We've had tons of luck in this game, so let's make the most of it and close this out.

Santon should be told to stay in his own half and defend. MYM covering for him all the time.

Need to see this out now. The penalty was a bit harsh I reckon, so we've had the luck we needed, now we need to defend much better than we have been and get the three fucking points we desperately need.

Santon just can't fucking defend

The problem with commentating on this subject is trying to define whether a player is genuinely rated or not, and who by. Fans in general, the press, pundits etc. The standard of player that gets picked for England squads and is rated by Roy, is in any case appalling. Selvey, Sterling, and the other Pool right back whose name escapes me (he's that forgettable) give me a brake. Wallcott, Clichy, Lennon and Cole (to a lesser extent) are athletes not football players. We as supporters completely overate Santon whose positional defensive play is terrible. Maybe we just have shit coaches. Maybe we overate Krul whose kicking and distribution is absolutely rank. I think Silva is overrated, he's innocuous as is Nasri.

Simpson playing an excellent defensive game

I'm not sure that was a penalty. Close, maybe .....

Decent play at last

Why does Pardew let Cabaye take the free kicks and corners? Grow some balls you twat.

The only thing that makes this bearable is we have a vested interest in the game. From a neutrals point of view, absolute shite.

After a bright start they are all over us like a rash.

The more I see of Anita, the more I have no idea of what kind of player he is meant to be. Runs around a lot for sure, tackles no, fouls a lot yes.

Dire by both teams.

Barca look absolutely toothless. They've never looked like scoring.

Shocking referee, clear handball.

We need to change something, you just know it will be goofball to Shola.