Lush Vlad

Quietly kept - he pulls similar performances at home a few times, although there's a good chance he'll score. He's not a player who seems to want to get on the ball and dictate a game. For sure - SMC is getting it wrong away from home but it's never a tactic to have an invisible player. Well yeah, I'd certainly hope it isn't But the whole team are that bad away from home and we're so negative, I don't see how he is supposed to dictate a game or get on the ball more? You think that isn't contributing to him being an 'invisible player.' He could get more involved, granted. But what if his instructions are to play as a 10 further up the pitch? Is he meant to then drop deep and start looking for the ball? Who knows. We don't have a gameplan away from home, as far as I can see. I think since he's been shifted to play from the left to play as a 10, on the whole, he has been far better. But his away form is a big concern. But then again, the whole team's away form is horrendous. He played well at Arsenal. That's the only away game I can remember seeing where he's done much. I think he has usually been good at home. At least in the last couple of months, anyway.

It is nice that it doesn't ruin your weekend, I agree. Kind of defeats the point of being a fan though, for me and I do miss it in some way. I want to love the team I support and get caught up in all the passion and excitement. Experience the highs and lows and get that irrational anger over losing or something like a bad refereeing decision Now, my stock response to most of our results seems to be: http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view2/1127092/partridge-shrug-o.gif I still get frustrated with how the club is run and how bad our managers have been since Keegan. But on the whole, on match days. I couldn't give a shit. I still see how into it some of my other NUFC supporting mates get and fans of other teams that actually have something to be interested in. I envy them in some way. I miss the feeling of actually supporting the team

Thought so. That 7 in 37 stat you just posted is worrying as fuck. Didn't realise we've only won 5 games all season! There I was, confident of a win on Saturday

St1pe, didn't Derby spend a fair bit when he was there? I'm sure they had some decent players on loan, at least. I thought they had a high wage bill by Championship standards, as well?

Worth another bump. Following the same path at NUFC.

Fuck me St1pey. What have you based that on?! You must be a very optimistic and positive bloke. I was convinced he'd get it wrong, the day we brought him in. By wrong, I mean lower to mid table, whilst playing better football than Pardew and Carver. Maybe flirt with relegation a couple of times during the season. I was still willing to give him a chance. Turns out, after about 5-6 games, it looked like the writing was on the wall. Still, I didn't expect to be in the bottom three all season long

If Colback is fit. You know who will be on the bench on Saturday.... Unless of course he puts Colback at left back.

I'd absolutely love to be in a situation to not give a s*** about losing I've no idea why we do it to ourselves as a fan base. I was at that stage last season. Just apathy at every loss and almost able to just laugh it off. Before that, it would ruin my entire weekend. Somehow, I got sucked back into caring a while back. I'm even going to the game on Saturday, as I'm up in the NE for the first time in ages and my mate still has season tickets. I binned mine years ago and I don't think I've been to a game since February/March 2014!

Such an odd player. Arguably been our player of the season. Yet he for the most part, he is tragic when we're not playing at home. Like there are actually 10 minute spells, where you don't hear his name called or even realise he's on the pitch. Seems strange to drop your top scorer. But I think I'd leave him out for Chelsea. He offers nowt when we play away. Don't think it's all on him, mind. Our tactics away from home all season has been 'don't let the other team score, don't get forward in numbers, don't try and keep possession and defend as deep as possible.' It's been working really well so far.

He is even faster than I thought. That is all.

The problem is, he's been heavily backed (by our standards) in the transfer market. It seems that he's getting players he wants, as well. At least recently anyway. I guess Townsend and Shelvey, are two players he wanted. Ashley spent the best part of £25m to get them. Despite the fact I have no confidence in him getting us out of this mess. I don't think Ashley will give McClaren the ol Spanish archer. Although I do think he's shitting himself about missing out on the big TV money. So maybe he would be open to paying up Schteve's contract and getting someone in to sort out this shit show? I hope so. I don't like either of them. But I'd take Moyes or Rodgers right now and I'd fancy them to get us to safety. Hopefully at the very least. We'd get the new manager bounce.

He was crap, but he must be wondering why he came here. At least Swansea have some kind of style and set way of playing. We just put 11 out on the pitch and hope something happens. There was absolutely nothing on most of the night. Apart from the long ball. He actually managed two beauts through to Mitro, TBF. A lot of people were saying he's a 1 in 4 player and looks for the Hollywood ball all the while. Well he may have to keep looking for that perfect, 1 in 10 pass. As there is fuck all else happening.

If we repeat that performance on Saturday. Then it has to be a 9 or a 10. I expected fuck al last night and our away form has been terrible all season. So for now, nothing has changed IMO. Fail to win on Saturday and it will be panic stations.

Sorry to be so harsh I wasn't even that arsed last night. But I have got to work, gone on here and now I am fuming!

After a spell of looking not too bad. He was right back to his usual self. Cowardly shithouse, that is always out of position. I can accept him getting bullied by Lukaku. But Kone gave him the run around and put him on the weights a couple of times, too. He is fucking awful and as bad as Owen was as our captain.

I'm sticking to this. He is missing sitters and some of them are horrendous. But people make out like he's missing 2-3 a game and if we got a natural finisher, we'd somehow be doing really well. We create on average, about one decent chance for him a game. There have been exceptions to the rule, West Ham for example. He usually then misses said chance and it's magnified ten fold. He's never going to be prolific, but I don't even think we'd have that many more goals with someone like Remy up there. Our supposed gameplan, is not conducive to creating good chances on a regular basis. I still like what he brings to the team. His technique is a bit raw and he looks like a right donkey at times. But if we are going to persist with one up top. Then I'd stick with Mitro. Unless Doumbia is able to train and actually shows up well. In which case, he should get a look in. Can't be much worse than what we currently have.

Same old story. Played like a bag of shit. Didn't look interested. Yet he's the only fucker that creates anything in our team. For that reason alone, I'd still start him most weeks. I've pushed for him to play in the middle in the past. But fuck me, he is bad there. His touch, passing and close control when trying to turn, are all horrendous for a professional central midfielder. He's a big guy, yet struggles to shield the ball and continually gets caught in possession. Every pass to him, is always in danger of being given straight back to the opposition. He obviously doesn't like it there, either. He spent most of his time trying to go and play on the right with Townsend.

Genuinely feel like that is one of the worst performances I've seen in the last 2 seasons. Rivals anything Carver and Pardew served up. If it wasn't for Elliot and some awful finishing from them, it could have easily been 5 or 6. The team is a shambles. When we play at SJP, at least there appears to be a bit of passion and desire. We even look dangerous at times. Away from home, we play like a team that has already been relegated. I think Elliot deserves some praise. I know he's not well liked on here and I'm not his biggest fan. But when he plays well, he deserves credit. Janmaat looked arsed at least and Shelvey was trying to pass forward and constantly tried to direct traffic. Even though no fucker in front of him was actually looking for the ball or making a run. Townsend is rapid and managed a 90, which is more than I expected. As for the rest of them.... Gutless and anonymous. The buck stops with one man, though. The wind burnt, farmer faced, beetroot headed prick in the dugout. Such a wank manager. I really have no idea what we try and do away from home. It seems to be keep it tight and try to score one of the two chances you create all game. Then just hope the other team doesn't score. Sound familiar? Pardew's plan in a nutshell. I'm sure even that fraud didn't have such an abysmal away record, mind.

Aye. Think Swansea are done as well, they look a shambles on and off the pitch (much like us) Currently 5 points clear of us, with a far better goal difference and they have had 2 wins and a draw, which was a last minute equaliser, since the new manager was announced. Shambles.

He really is a fucking mong. Absolutely horrendous away from home and has no idea how to control a game or even implement an effective gameplan. Fluked a win at Bournemouth and actually played well in the second half away to Spurs. But apart from that, we have been pathetic on our travels. Only Villa have been worse, but only by a point. Even they've managed to score more goals than us. 6 goals. SIX?! We create one, maybe two chances a game when playing away from SJP. With our less than prolific strikers, that is just unacceptable. The team was an absolute mess. 2-3 players at most seemed up for it. When Mitro came on, WTF formation were we supposed to be playing? Townsend right, Sissoko centre mid, but still playing on the right? Shelvey just seemed to stand next to the centre backs for most the second half. I'm not sure Wijnaldum was even on the pitch. Perez was stuck out on the left and he was even more invisible than he was up front. The defence was all over the placer, even before the injuries. Players just strolling forward with the ball and losing it. Letting runners go by them for fun and constantly leaving the likes of Kone and Barkely, have a couple of touches unchallenged. Urgh. We are relying on a fair few home wins and Norwich and Sunderland carrying on their equally shit run of form. Otherwise, we're as good as down. Away to Norwich will give them a boost, as I don't fancy us to even manage a draw against anyone on the road. I can't quite get over how shit we were last night. Considering how bad we have been for a long time, that is saying something.

We are absolutely brutal away from home. Against their shoddy defence, it would be nice to see us score a goal or two. Improve on our great tally of 6 away goals At home, I actually fancy us to win quite a lot of the time. But away from home, we are pathetic. McClaren sets us up 'not to lose', we concede and then we're fucked. It's been the case with our club for the last 3 seasons or more. Which is odd, seeing as we have rarely had the players to make this game plan work.

Oh my fuck this is arguably the best week yet! I think this is in the lead so far: Keep up the great work all

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/crystal-palace/top-scorers So I wasn't making it up about no open play goals from their strikers. Between them, in the league, their strikers have managed 1 goal. A Connor Wickham penalty! That is absolutely pathetic. The Palace fan that was commenting on individuals was absolutely spot on. For his whole time here, he was always relying on that one bit of magic, goal from nothing, CHAOS FACTOR etc. Seems like he's doing the same at Palace, but he hasn't got an in form Cisse, Ba, Remy, Ben Arfa. He hasn't even got a Leon Best to weigh in with some match winning goals. Unable to change it when losing, makes baffling subs, blames everyone else. It's all so familiar. I'm sure West Ham, Southampton and Charlton fans are all saying the same right now. Maybe Adebayor will go on one of his mad runs of form, that will bail Pardew out. Hope not, mind.

err isn't that the manager's job? To get a team to respond to you and play the way you want? What a crock of shit! I swear I read that Palace's strikers, haven't scored a goal from open play all season? That can't be right, can it?!

I think the writing has been on the wall for them, for a long while. So they would have been mad to spend a lot of money, or try to get in 3-4 new players, on permanent deals. But I'm surprised they didn't even take a punt on a loan or two, or taking a risk on a player and putting in a favourable relegation release clause for the player. I know they were in for Debuchy and Doumbia. But were there no backup plans? You would have thought any mediocre player, would improve them and give them some kind of a boost. Doing absolutely sod all, apart from releasing a few players. Is shit for the club and the fans. They may as well release a statement where they inform everyone that they have given up hope and they have accepted relegation. Can't say I care, mind. If Sunderland and Villa go down, it will be entertaining. Just a shame we're so shit and we might go with them.