Lush Vlad

As others have said, it's only really his decision making in the final third that lets him down. He can get it in on his left, he just usually chooses not to and when he does cut inside, he seems afraid to shoot and usually ends up killing the momentum of the attack. Also, his positioning is occasionally questionable, but he has the pace to make up for that. Really like the lad though, improved massively and I rated him last season, so he's one of my favourites. Not sure on the right/left debate, as he looked shakey and less comfortable when he played a couple of times on the right during pre season. But then it's hard to judge players in friendlies and he'd improve a hell of a lot if he played there regularly. Think he looks fine on the left flank.

The whole back 4 seemed a bit out of position and lazy at times I thought, barring maybe Santon. They were solid enough though. There were two occassions where I thought Taylor was miles away from his man. One for a shot second half and another when the guy failed to connect with a cross first half. Someone mentioned on here a week or so ago that he seems to be standing off and hasn't been as impressive as the start of last season. Tend to agree TBH.

You can score from a corner. Thieryy Henry scored one for the New York Energy Drinks the other night and I remember Carlos soring one (in Turkey I think). As for Bigi's set pieces, can't agree. He just lofted them up and they were absolutely woeful against Atromitos. Last night, they really struggled from set pieces. If we had someone like Marveaux on to whip them in, we could have nicked a goal or two from them I reckon.

Good away point, decent enough performances from everyone bar Obertan, Gosling (ran a lot, but never seems to do much) and Vuckic and plenty of positives to take. Fail to see what so many are twisting and moaning about?

He's not 18 surely?! He plays well beyond his years. Doing my best not to get too excited and hype him up, but fuck me, it's difficult when he keeps playing like this!

Ba was MOTM, but over both halves, Santon was our best player.

They actually searched each other out with passes a few times as well. One where Ba played a chipped/flicked through ball, but Cisse was his customary 8 yards offside

Kind of ended up playing like that against Villa. Hatem always drifts about, but he seemed to be staying quite central and then just popping up all over. Worth a shot I reckon. As I can't see either being happy playing wide left. Neville pointed out potential problems with that before the game, when showing footage from the Swansea match.

Not coming up as that on mine. Think I might sit toward the singing corner for this one. Vary it up. Tickets went really quickly for this. I got mine last thursday/Friday. There were no 2 seats together in the singing corner or in the middle of the Gallowgate. Even where I normally sit in the Upper Gallowgate, most the decent seats were taken. I plumped for Upper East Stand on the halfway line. Never sat there before, always been put off by the seemingly poor atmosphere. Not a huge fan of viewing a game from side on either. But I saw some views from there and they looked amazing, so thought I would go with it. £15 a ticket is really reasonable. According to a few mates, Spurs cheapest seats for the Lazio game are £37! There's actually loads of tickets available. I looked last week and like you said there were hardly any, but I think that was just because they were keeping season ticket seats unavailable to wait and see if the season ticket holder bought their seat. I bought my tickets this week and there are absolutely loads of seats free in the strawberry corner, in the east stand next to the strawberry corner and in the gallowgate (lower and upper tiers). Ah fuck sake, should have waited then O well, should be a good view at least. If we got just shy of 30k for Atromitos, would like to hope we'll get similar or more in for this one.

I'll change my prediction from 3-1 to 11-0.

Yeah I understand the first bit. Just unless they check every ticket's barcode to every ticket's passport no. then it would be quite easy to get around it.

Didn't realise that. Positivity gone

I can't see this voucher and passport thing being enforced when there is more time to sort it and a big away following expected. Imagine 5000-6000 fans at Bruges queuing 2-3 hours or more before kick off to collect tickets? It would be utter madness. How many sales windows would they have to have open? It would take forever to individually tick them all off. Same could be said if we qualified to the knockout rounds and drew a big club like Atletico or Inter. I don't even think we used this method for Atrmoitos did we? The close proximity of the game is a factor as well. I doubt they have got time to process all applicants, apply for tickets with Maritimo, get the correct amount allocated and sent over, then get them all out in the post. Or maybe I am just trying to remain positive as I am gambling on getting Bruges tickets through a mate

Not coming up as that on mine. Think I might sit toward the singing corner for this one. Vary it up. Tickets went really quickly for this. I got mine last thursday/Friday. There were no 2 seats together in the singing corner or in the middle of the Gallowgate. Even where I normally sit in the Upper Gallowgate, most the decent seats were taken. I plumped for Upper East Stand on the halfway line. Never sat there before, always been put off by the seemingly poor atmosphere. Not a huge fan of viewing a game from side on either. But I saw some views from there and they looked amazing, so thought I would go with it. £15 a ticket is really reasonable. According to a few mates, Spurs cheapest seats for the Lazio game are £37!

3-1 loss. Not expecting much from this one. Everton are a really good side at home and with it seeming like Krul and Colo will be out, I just can't even see us nicking a draw. We got murdered there last season, one of the most one sided games (not in our favour) I've been to for the last couple of seasons. We were better in the second half after a formation change. Sound familiar...

That bloke really is as thick as mince. Not that I needed twitter to confirm this mind. Just look at him! Herp the derp.

WHOOOOOSH!

Got a feeling I won't get a ticket either. Usually use my mate's ST's, as he has 4 tickets with points ranging from 50 odd to 90 odd. But if you have to give passport detials, then I'll be stumped surely? I'm on his Friends and Family link and I reckon I can defintely get one, just need 2 more ideally. If not, watching it in a bar or on a big screen somewhere will be good. Would consider the home end as well TBF.

I scrolled down the page and skim read this. I thought you were going to compare Ba's fitness to Bernard Manning's I mean I know Ba looks off the pace, but that would have been a tad harsh!

I'm doing that. Hopefully booking it this week. Just waiting on someone confirming the holiday, 3 out of 4 so far.

Assuming loyalty points work the same as always? If so, I should be fine getting tickets. If it's based on previous European tickets purchased, then I might struggle! Isn't it a right ball ache getting tickets confirmed? Have to send in all your travel and accomodation plans, with booking refs and that don't you? Sure I read something similar before the Atromitos game.

Going to go to Bruges I think. Been on about taking he missus for ages and we play them 3 days after her birthday. Another NUFC supporting mate is keen on going with his missus as well. What a result that is! Not that expensive either, heard it's pricey over there, but getting travel and accomodation seems reasonable at present. About £25 each for the Eurostar return from Folkestone and around £40 a head per night in a half decent looking hotel.

Genuinely just started chuckling to myself in the office got some odd looks! I just remembered him on MOTD totally losing the plot, running up and down the touch line and waving his hands about like a loon. That stupid 31 rugby shirt makes him look even worse. I couldn't take him seriously, it was hilarious! Mag at work found this funny.

I was watching on my laptop, so didn't have the best picture, but he seemed to go into a free role towards the end of the first half. Drifted about quite a bit in the other two games as well. I really didn't know what our formation was in the second half. But I do know Hatem looks better when he hasn't got to stick to a set position. His movement is so good and it will either mean he finds space unmarked, or he'll always have one of their players (or 2, or 3) tracking him, thus opening up space for others. Can't believe how shite our movement and 'passing' has been. If anything, it's been worse than last season. Hope it's down to fitness issues and not because we're set on playing Allardyce like tactics.

Nobody on here saw the Leazes Terrace discussion/debate about Ben Arfa yesterday then? Like his stuff and almost exclusively agree with most his tweets regarding formation, players etc. But failed to see his angle here? We need him to drift about, as the long ball game with a rigid, flat 4-4-2 is creating fuck all. Hatem's presence alone draws players all over the shop and keeps opposition defenders guessing all the while. So far, he's been our go to guy and looks like the only player capable of scoring or fashioning a chance for himself or for others. He even got in a decent header yesterday FFS Apparently formation wasn't on the agenda in this debate, but if we played HBA in a free role, or wide in a front 3, with less defensive responsibilities. He'd be the third name on the teamsheet for every game IMO (after Krul and Colo). I know he's actually advocating keeping him in the lineup, but the thought of dropping our best player never even entered my mind TBH?