BrettNUFC

Is there a back four among the leagues best 7 clubs you would not swap with? I'd prefer to have the ones we've got being coached correctly before I'd go rushing out to swap anyone. What's the next painfully depressing and wildly incorrect prediction Wullie? Took us 2 games to rise above the 16th position we supposedly wouldn't move from all season. I leave the painfully depressing stuff to the "8th is fantastic" brigade. Brett? He's quoted it like i've said that. Wullie thinks we should be pushing into top 6 but thinks we are in a relegation battle, ambitious pessimistic clown

At this present moment, it's progression, not just scrapping our away to top 8 though, to look a confidenct side who is going places, i'm realistic enough to think we aren't shifting Liverpool out the top 6 but we just need to keep looking at ourselves and improving ourselves to try and move forward as a club. It's difficult under this regime and it's not being made any easier by the top 6 heavily funding their squads leaving us to fall furthur behind whilst teams around us improve to try and compete with us. If we can look back on this year and think we have given a good account for ourselves and played some good football, i'd be happy. What's this about Liverpool anyway? It's not like they've always sewn up that 6th place finish. I'm not suggesting that it's us that will take it, obviously, but I don't know why you keep mentioning them as if there's a always been a massive gap in the way that there was with the top 4. That's just my opinion, i think this year, i can't see anything other than Man Utd/Man City/Arsenal/Chelsea/Spurs/Liverpool. It hasn't always been the case for that, usually one team that might fail but i like the look of all them sides and they will be extremely hard to catch, if someone fancies Everton to bring in this season, or even us, that's their opinion but i can't see it, i think they have improved a ton fold.

I just realise the top 6 have improved greatly over past couple of year and the task of catching them up is becoming harder. It's a tough league, just got to try and keep pushing on and bring the calibre of players like Remy to the club. Not an easy task but we have improved the talent within our squad over the years but just not as quickly as the top teams can afford to do it. Ignoring the semantics of being a very good side for the moment (fwiw a very good side shouldn't be happy with 8th imo) I don't think those sides have improved in so much as the others have fallen away. The collective gap is still the same imo. The only teams that have clearly improved are Liverpool imo. Arsenal look better, but the rest have dropped a level in quality or remained the same, imo. Spurs have just bought themselves a new squad what should be good enough to challenge for title, they haven't even unleashed Lamela yet. Only the champions have really failed to move forward, the rest have done so. Just because i think we are a good side doesn't mean to say i think we are better than Liverpool and should be taking their 6th place finish. We are behind them in terms of quality. You have people on here saying 8th isn't good enough but then think we will be in a relegation battle. Neither of those two things are mutually exclusive. Just because you won't accept one thing, doesn't mean you'll accept another. You wouldn't take a tenner for your car just because you've been offered a quid. 8th isn't good enough in terms of our current ambition. Absolutely not. Never. It's certainly not good enough for a side that I would ever describe as very good. Well what do you want this side to do? Magically conjure up another level of ability and break the top 6? I'm sure our players will give it their best shot in doing so but unfortunately it's going to be hard when likes of Liverpool who are probably favourites for 6th spot aren't going to drop that many points to fall out of it. You can't see any side in that top 6 realistically falling short of it because of the talent they have. It’s not like us and likes of Everton are poor, it’s just the top 6 is very strong this year. Magically conjure? Nah, I'd like us to put our collective playing talent to good use and win football matches with positive tactical game plans, play as a team and go out there and play with confidence. To have an owner that invests into the team and to actually strives to get there rather than just be happy with staying in the league and not bothering with any cups. I'd like a manager that isn't f***ing s****. You know, that kind of magic hocus pocus that we support a team for. The basics. Magically conjure ffs. Jesus. Yes and i'm sure every Newcastle fan in the world would love that? So does that mean because our owner isn't splashing the cash every window and hasn't hired a top manager we should dismiss our talent on the pitch because they aren't good enough for top 6? Players are giving it their all for us, showed great character on Saturday to get us those 3 points, the realistic finishing position for them is top 8, I believe in them to succeed it, what is wrong with saying that? It’s just expectations at this present moment. I'm either confusing what pride and 'very good' mean, or your top 8 prediction in the face of that is really unambitious, imo. Well cmon then KI, where do expect us to finish? I'm not talking about ambition/potential or any of that, where do you see us finishing in the league this season?

At this present moment, it's progression, not just scrapping our away to top 8 though, to look a confidenct side who is going places, i'm realistic enough to think we aren't shifting Liverpool out the top 6 but we just need to keep looking at ourselves and improving ourselves to try and move forward as a club. It's difficult under this regime and it's not being made any easier by the top 6 heavily funding their squads leaving us to fall furthur behind whilst teams around us improve to try and compete with us. If we can look back on this year and think we have given a good account for ourselves and played some good football, i'd be happy.

I just realise the top 6 have improved greatly over past couple of year and the task of catching them up is becoming harder. It's a tough league, just got to try and keep pushing on and bring the calibre of players like Remy to the club. Not an easy task but we have improved the talent within our squad over the years but just not as quickly as the top teams can afford to do it. Ignoring the semantics of being a very good side for the moment (fwiw a very good side shouldn't be happy with 8th imo) I don't think those sides have improved in so much as the others have fallen away. The collective gap is still the same imo. The only teams that have clearly improved are Liverpool imo. Arsenal look better, but the rest have dropped a level in quality or remained the same, imo. Spurs have just bought themselves a new squad what should be good enough to challenge for title, they haven't even unleashed Lamela yet. Only the champions have really failed to move forward, the rest have done so. Just because i think we are a good side doesn't mean to say i think we are better than Liverpool and should be taking their 6th place finish. We are behind them in terms of quality. You have people on here saying 8th isn't good enough but then think we will be in a relegation battle. Neither of those two things are mutually exclusive. Just because you won't accept one thing, doesn't mean you'll accept another. You wouldn't take a tenner for your car just because you've been offered a quid. 8th isn't good enough in terms of our current ambition. Absolutely not. Never. It's certainly not good enough for a side that I would ever describe as very good. Well what do you want this side to do? Magically conjure up another level of ability and break the top 6? I'm sure our players will give it their best shot in doing so but unfortunately it's going to be hard when likes of Liverpool who are probably favourites for 6th spot aren't going to drop that many points to fall out of it. You can't see any side in that top 6 realistically falling short of it because of the talent they have. It’s not like us and likes of Everton are poor, it’s just the top 6 is very strong this year. Magically conjure? Nah, I'd like us to put our collective playing talent to good use and win football matches with positive tactical game plans, play as a team and go out there and play with confidence. To have an owner that invests into the team and to actually strives to get there rather than just be happy with staying in the league and not bothering with any cups. I'd like a manager that isn't f***ing s****. You know, that kind of magic hocus pocus that we support a team for. The basics. Magically conjure ffs. Jesus. Yes and i'm sure every Newcastle fan in the world would love that? So does that mean because our owner isn't splashing the cash every window and hasn't hired a top manager we should dismiss our talent on the pitch because they aren't good enough for top 6? Players are giving it their all for us, showed great character on Saturday to get us those 3 points, the realistic finishing position for them is top 8, I believe in them to succeed it, what is wrong with saying that? It’s just expectations at this present moment.

I just realise the top 6 have improved greatly over past couple of year and the task of catching them up is becoming harder. It's a tough league, just got to try and keep pushing on and bring the calibre of players like Remy to the club. Not an easy task but we have improved the talent within our squad over the years but just not as quickly as the top teams can afford to do it. Ignoring the semantics of being a very good side for the moment (fwiw a very good side shouldn't be happy with 8th imo) I don't think those sides have improved in so much as the others have fallen away. The collective gap is still the same imo. The only teams that have clearly improved are Liverpool imo. Arsenal look better, but the rest have dropped a level in quality or remained the same, imo. Spurs have just bought themselves a new squad what should be good enough to challenge for title, they haven't even unleashed Lamela yet. Only the champions have really failed to move forward, the rest have done so. Just because i think we are a good side doesn't mean to say i think we are better than Liverpool and should be taking their 6th place finish. We are behind them in terms of quality. You have people on here saying 8th isn't good enough but then think we will be in a relegation battle. Neither of those two things are mutually exclusive. Just because you won't accept one thing, doesn't mean you'll accept another. You wouldn't take a tenner for your car just because you've been offered a quid. 8th isn't good enough in terms of our current ambition. Absolutely not. Never. It's certainly not good enough for a side that I would ever describe as very good. Well what do you want this side to do? Magically conjure up another level of ability and break the top 6? I'm sure our players will give it their best shot in doing so but unfortunately it's going to be hard when likes of Liverpool who are probably favourites for 6th spot aren't going to drop that many points to fall out of it. You can't see any side in that top 6 realistically falling short of it because of the talent they have. It’s not like us and likes of Everton are poor, it’s just the top 6 is very strong this year.

Yeah i know what you mean, i'm just generally very happy with how this side is taken shape, there's a lot to like about it and i don't think they are getting the praise they deserve simply because people have issues with management/owners. We have a lot of players other clubs around us would absolutely love to have and we are taken them for granted.

I just realise the top 6 have improved greatly over past couple of year and the task of catching them up is becoming harder. It's a tough league, just got to try and keep pushing on and bring the calibre of players like Remy to the club. Not an easy task but we have improved the talent within our squad over the years but just not as quickly as the top teams can afford to do it. Ignoring the semantics of being a very good side for the moment (fwiw a very good side shouldn't be happy with 8th imo) I don't think those sides have improved in so much as the others have fallen away. The collective gap is still the same imo. The only teams that have clearly improved are Liverpool imo. Arsenal look better, but the rest have dropped a level in quality or remained the same, imo. Spurs have just bought themselves a new squad what should be good enough to challenge for title, they haven't even unleashed Lamela yet. Only the champions have really failed to move forward, the rest have done so. Just because i think we are a good side doesn't mean to say i think we are better than Liverpool and should be taking their 6th place finish. We are behind them in terms of quality. You have people on here saying 8th isn't good enough but then think we will be in a relegation battle.

I just realise the top 6 have improved greatly over past couple of year and the task of catching them up is becoming harder. It's a tough league, just got to try and keep pushing on and bring the calibre of players like Remy to the club. Not an easy task but we have improved the talent within our squad over the years but just not as quickly as the top teams can afford to do it.

It does. Come back with a more reasonable example than Man United and it might be worthy of debate. As things stand, it's totally silly and not worth talking about. Southampton have went from an average side to a very good side side because they have won the last 3 with 3 clean sheets and five goals in the process and one of the teams they've defeated is Liverpool away?

Well i meant a very good side for this league, wasn't talking about world football. I'm sure league 2 fans will be saying we've got a really good side here, but meaning in terms of their targets, not comparing themselves to Barcelona. You must be confident of at least Europa League qualification then? I think we'll finish 8th. Think top 6 looks even harder to break into for how much they have strengthened.

It does.

Well i meant a very good side for this league, wasn't talking about world football. I'm sure league 2 fans will be saying we've got a really good side here, but meaning in terms of their targets, not comparing themselves to Barcelona.

Should have no bother turning over one or two of Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs in the coming weeks then? To be fair to Pardew, his 2 wins against top 6 opposition last season, and the year before that, is more than we've managed since 06/07. We only managed 1 win in 07/08, 08/09 and 10/11 and were in the championship in 09/10. Think it's always tough, but he's been better at turning over top opposition than our other recent managers. He's failed to get as many draws as we've managed previously like. Like I say then, I'd expect a "really good side" to be winning at least one of those games and not losing more than one - and certainly not conceding goals by the bucketful. I think Spurs are a better side than us but they just conceded a bucketful off West Ham, football isn't as simple as you think it is Wullie, saying we should be beating one of the three no bother because we have a very good side is naive. It's a tough league, results this season have been rather random and everyone seems to beating each other and nobody really looking like a class above. With our team there's no reason why we can't beat one of them three sides, but if we don't, it doesn't mean to say we aren't very good. If you're saying that no one looks a class above then why are you saying that we're a very good side then? It makes no sense. I'm saying the results this season have been rather surprising, excellent sides imo have been dropping points to lesser sides but that don’t mean to say because they dropped points that side isn't excellent. I think we are a very good side but just because Hull beat us at home that's not going to change my opinion of how good we are. a few game results doesn't determine the outcome of the ability of your side. It does. How come? Man Utd have been turned over a few times when they shouldn't have been, i still don't doubt how good of a side they are, still got class players within but just underperformed of late. It can happen.

Should have no bother turning over one or two of Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs in the coming weeks then? To be fair to Pardew, his 2 wins against top 6 opposition last season, and the year before that, is more than we've managed since 06/07. We only managed 1 win in 07/08, 08/09 and 10/11 and were in the championship in 09/10. Think it's always tough, but he's been better at turning over top opposition than our other recent managers. He's failed to get as many draws as we've managed previously like. Like I say then, I'd expect a "really good side" to be winning at least one of those games and not losing more than one - and certainly not conceding goals by the bucketful. I think Spurs are a better side than us but they just conceded a bucketful off West Ham, football isn't as simple as you think it is Wullie, saying we should be beating one of the three no bother because we have a very good side is naive. It's a tough league, results this season have been rather random and everyone seems to beating each other and nobody really looking like a class above. With our team there's no reason why we can't beat one of them three sides, but if we don't, it doesn't mean to say we aren't very good. If you're saying that no one looks a class above then why are you saying that we're a very good side then? It makes no sense. I suppose you can have a very good side but have no stand out stars. Not sure that's what Brett meant though. Well we are a very good side, we have one/two players that can win us any game, but we are coming up teams who probably have 3 or 4 of them. We are a very good side but our upcoming fixtures are very tough against sides who are better than us, that doesn't mean to say they will beat us though.

Should have no bother turning over one or two of Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs in the coming weeks then? To be fair to Pardew, his 2 wins against top 6 opposition last season, and the year before that, is more than we've managed since 06/07. We only managed 1 win in 07/08, 08/09 and 10/11 and were in the championship in 09/10. Think it's always tough, but he's been better at turning over top opposition than our other recent managers. He's failed to get as many draws as we've managed previously like. Like I say then, I'd expect a "really good side" to be winning at least one of those games and not losing more than one - and certainly not conceding goals by the bucketful. I think Spurs are a better side than us but they just conceded a bucketful off West Ham, football isn't as simple as you think it is Wullie, saying we should be beating one of the three no bother because we have a very good side is naive. It's a tough league, results this season have been rather random and everyone seems to beating each other and nobody really looking like a class above. With our team there's no reason why we can't beat one of them three sides, but if we don't, it doesn't mean to say we aren't very good. If you're saying that no one looks a class above then why are you saying that we're a very good side then? It makes no sense. I'm saying the results this season have been rather surprising, excellent sides imo have been dropping points to lesser sides but that don’t mean to say because they dropped points that side isn't excellent. I think we are a very good side but just because Hull beat us at home that's not going to change my opinion of how good we are. a few game results doesn't determine the outcome of the ability of your side.

He can count himself very unlucky, probably even more so than Ben Arfa, but the decision to drop them was justified with 3 points, that's all that counts.

Should have no bother turning over one or two of Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs in the coming weeks then? To be fair to Pardew, his 2 wins against top 6 opposition last season, and the year before that, is more than we've managed since 06/07. We only managed 1 win in 07/08, 08/09 and 10/11 and were in the championship in 09/10. Think it's always tough, but he's been better at turning over top opposition than our other recent managers. He's failed to get as many draws as we've managed previously like. Like I say then, I'd expect a "really good side" to be winning at least one of those games and not losing more than one - and certainly not conceding goals by the bucketful. I think Spurs are a better side than us but they just conceded a bucketful off West Ham, football isn't as simple as you think it is Wullie, saying we should be beating one of the three no bother because we have a very good side is naive. It's a tough league, results this season have been rather random and everyone seems to beating each other and nobody really looking like a class above. With our team there's no reason why we can't beat one of them three sides, but if we don't, it doesn't mean to say we aren't very good.

Should have no bother turning over one or two of Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs in the coming weeks then? Well i wouldn't say it's as easy as 'no bother', we've got maybe 1 or 2 players that are capable of winning any match for you, the teams you've mentioned have got 3/4 or more of them kind. I don't see any reason why we can't pick up a good result amongst the bunch though, certainly don't fear them. Tough fixtures ahead but i'm not putting an L beside them already, we are capable of surprising a few people with the standard of players we have, the Cardiff result would have given them a huge boost in confidence.

Very much so. Anyone know what his goal record was for Freiberg prior to the New Year? Is it a case where he comes on stronger as season progresses? he'd scored 9. Well that doesn't hold any weight if he banged them in for them. Guess it's just a case of us creating as many chances as we can for him but it's only down to himself to get his own confidence back.

Gouffran shouldn't be starting ahead of Remy or Ben Arfa. If he is starting then it should be ahead of Cisse. Otherwise, if you're just going to have him competing with Remy and Ben Arfa, then he should be on the bench. It goes without saying, really. Most definitely but i can't see that happening for a while after Saturday's performance, especially with the run of fixtures coming up, think Ben Arfa has a fight on his hands now and is going to need to knuckle down if we wants back in the side.

Obviously the fans at the ground never realised he was injured so was unfair to boo Pardew's decision but Jonas did his job well when he came on.

Very much so. Anyone know what his goal record was for Freiberg prior to the New Year? Is it a case where he comes on stronger as season progresses?

Gouffran gives us a good balance on the wing with his work rate, i'd like to see him stop out there, he's probably unlucky in the sense this is preventing his chances from having a run through the middle but he offers so much defensively that's what is seeing him selected. Cisse is being given more than enough time to turn things around and although his general play on Saturday was much better, he doesn't seem any closer to scoring a goal, confidence in front of goal has completely diminished.

I'd agree with that, fair play. Still doesn't stop me thinking we will do well with him in charge though, still fancy us to have a good season.