angrypirate71

Batty in, Clarke out - that was as much a reason as any for results dipping that season.  Clarkey played it forward whenever possible, whereas Batty was all about keeping possession and so didnt look for the forward pass as often, or as quickly.  The team was better at attacking quickly, Sir Les especially, and so just didnt do as well after that switch.

Not sure whether Shearer would have done any better than Les in that run in as it was, but I reckon he'd have argued for getting the ball forward more quickly as a basic tactic

I've always thought this. Clarke's contribution to our fluidity was over looked imo. He'd get the ball deep and look for Lee or Beardsley, we missed this when Batty came in.

21st place before the weekend, 21st place now.

64 points that could've been 88 - Captained Sterling over Costa and left Guzan/Hutton on the bench.

Got Hatem tonight though, so a repeat of his debut for us would do.

Ah balls, just replayed that goal in my head and, as with every other current NUFC related thought I've had, this one also ended with " fkn Pardew man..." 

 

"I have learned one thing also since I have been here: that Newcastle fans want to win and they want to win every game, and that's what we are going to try to do."

Thanks Al

Football fans in 'wanting to win', shocker

 

He says it as if trying to win every game is revolutionary

"Learned since I've been here"??

Is he suggesting West Ham and So'ton fans actually wanted to lose particular games?

Palace taking him would be to good to be true, but there's at least three reasons to dream,

1 - Pardew seems a needy fucker and he knows he'll get some love down there, until it goes tits up anyway.

2 - Even if it was only a fleeting idea, Ashley must have at least thought about peddling him this year. He knows that might cost him a year or two compen (1m?), which he could save by letting him go.

3 - Pulis was on around 2m  p/a according to the first source I found, it would take Pardew a bit longer to earn 2m here.

As stated, its a dream but hey, looks damn good on paper.

tl:dr -suits everyone, get it done

I am confused.  What do the stats show?

They show an aggregation of specific events that occurred during a pre defined scenario. They don't show you anything more than that. That is probably why anyone with a grasp of the subtleties of football choose to debate the things their eyes witnessed.

Personally, my eyes saw a manager bring Shola on to eschew genuine ball retention in favour of "containing" a team that had no midfield or defence. Having seen the whole game I would choose to use what i saw to form the basis of my summary. However, if I knew nowt about a sport, stats would be all I had. Were that the case, I'd probably think we had a really good manager. 

Where are they?

That's Grand Canal Basin, Dublin. About 6 miles from where i sit typing this. So probably Temple Bar later, if anyone is around that way...

Was at Claremont from 1980, We had Bill(?) Stephenson for football, although he was a rugby man mainly. I Remember that the 2 years above us were crap, though we were a bit better. Wasn't much between us, C.House, Throckley or Dumpling Hall. Chapel Park were hard to beat, but the best side in our league was easily Denton Park (or Westerhope for those over 45).

Claremont did always have top notch athletics and cross country teams back then though. All fields now though yeah? Haven't been round that way for years.

He didn't quite make it, but I played in the same team as a lad called Mark Angel, who got as far as Sunderland reserves but never broke into the first team and then ended up leaving and going down eventually into non-league.

 

He was, by a long way the best player in our team.

Played with his big brother, Will, cracking defender. Think he'd have made it if not for a nasty multiple leg break around the time lads were getting scouted. Incidentally, around that time, loads of lads from the area ended up on trial at Northampton - their manager at the time? Graham Carr.

I played against Shaun Murray when he played for Westerhope Juniors. He scored a boatload in both games. Also played against a Cramlington Juniors side which smashed us home and away which had a certain A Shearer in it . I think Tommy Widdrington played for Crammy as well

Same as this, for half a season I played a year above for Montagu u14(and was struggling tbf), played W'hope up at the 'tute and Murray took the p**s. As for Crammy, Tommy Widdrington was a year down and played in the same side as a different Paul Gascoigne who looked outstanding at that age. They also had Simon Bird up front, who was hopeless - but he was about 6"5' at 13. Also played against Lee Clark a good few times - who was playing a year up at Wallsend and still looked a cut above.

Who's leading it all? I'm top of all my leagues except this one...

Me. Won't last mind.

Expecting an average GW2 although i'd be on 95 points now if i'd made RVP skipper, double gameweek won out and Ramires had a productive pre-season, so I went with him.

Still got 4 to play tonight.

Bet those aerosols weren't deodorant.

Why not?

When I travel abroad I always like to bring back something exotic that I can't get in my home town.

He'll have got back to Slumland feeling like Walter Raleigh with a pouch of Drum, even if he does only use it to kill flies or huff the fumes.

Also need to phase out Chelskis before they have no GW fixtures.

Aye, same problem here, need to lose 5 players for GW3. Already swapped Ramires for Barkley, got in before he went up 0.1. Lampard and another out next week and i'll be able to work round the other 2.

Don't know how consistent Barkley will be but with WBA at home and Cardiff away I think he might be useful for a few weeks.

So yeah, last nights scoreline isn't the yardstick we should be measured by, and I agree with many on here thinking that City will beat better teams than us 4-0.

Difference is, they might have to graft to get those 4-0's. Granted, we ended up a man short but at no point last night were City hurried into a sloppy pass

or clearance. It was no more than a rigorous training session for them.

Sitting top on 86 with Ramires©, Ivanovic, Lampard and Weimann to play tomorrow, possibility of a 3 figure gameweek.   

I'll probably "Pardew" it soon enough though, couldn't even get in the top 100 in last years N-O league.

Great. Might as well dig up the pitch then, any last hope we'd use it this season has probably just gone.

All the  possible.

The Liverpool club shop will now see it's lowest levels of shop lifting.

Top work that. 

That's what has been niggling away at the back of my mind though, the basics, little things like watching Simpson (ok, bad example) receive the ball from a CB. His ability prevents him from even touching the ball with his left peg, allowing him to face in the direction we're supposed to be playing, meaning his default is to knock it square to a retreating Cabaye, or back to the CB or Krul. Meanwhile, over his right shoulder, another attack remains unfulfilled...

There are so many varying examples of this every game, I'm starting to wonder if AP is actively coaching the 'stupid' into this squad.

Remind me, how many goalscorers have Everton in their squad?

At least two, plus 3 or 4 more that can cross a ball, a few more who can a) find a team mate with a pass, b) attack a set piece and c) keep possession from a throw in. Oh aye, and to a man they have a much clearer idea of their role in the team and the overall tactical plan. We could have a shedload of natural strikers and we'd waste them until we got a manager that can implement the above.

You've misheard .....it's the Nissan main dealer day.

Played. 

Bollocks i accidentally voted  6 

I see your 6 and raise it. oops. Distracted by gf playing SongPop and asking for help. 

Andy Todd    Heard this from a lad who knew him in his Bolton days, apparently he gave Phil Brown a hiding after training one day as PB had been winding him up. Dunno if true, just hope it did happen, especially as the tale ended with the orange fella cowering in a bog cubicle bricking it.

Back to the randoms..

http://www.yaoheng.info/autos/Holland/PSV/Vampeta.jpg

Vampeta - remember him playing against us for PSV at Landsdowne Rd, pre season tourney 97/98(?), possibly alongside Jaap Stam. Part of the Brazil WC 2002 squad.

A quick google reveals, well, a bit too much tbh, don't do it. 

http://www.poteaux-carres.com/images/site/pani_2010_18.jpg

Lubo Moravcik - too good for that pretendy league.

Once saw him trap a ball that had come down with snow on it by turning his back and crouching so he almost sat on it. Great player when he felt like it.

It was aimed at  Wireside, by "Big Fella", after Saint Niall left the mackems. Bad move like, here's what Big Fella looks like now..

You are more likely to hold onto something with your hands than your feet.

Peyter disagrees..

Another goal celebration pet hate, player A dismantles an entire defence with some real skill and sets up player B with an open goal, one yard (0.9144m) out.

Player B taps in and wheels away to soak up the cheers with no acknowledgement of player A.

Player B, what a tw@. 

i presume AP and the staff have calculated on how many points we need to be no 1 & 2.

Then we'll need no slip ups at home then, or a big result at Bordeaux or Brugge, 'cos i don't expect Maritimo to pick up another point. We missed a relatively easy chance of an away win imo.