St1pe

For all the doom and gloom this weekend could be a massive opportunity for McClaren. Assuming he has the bollocks to drop some of the players he's reportedly tore into and then goes on to beat our widely hated former manager it could definitely be viewed as a make or break moment.

Would also definitely start him. I'd rather we built a team around our players with a more positive attitude than trying to shoe horn players like Sissoko into the side in the hope to get the best out of them.

Luke Edwards has been desperate to write anything bad about us since his ban and has taken up the opportunity time and time again. I find it hard to believe any of his sourced articles about us are true.

I'm not much of a follower of serie a but wasn't he fairly underwhelming during his spell at Milan?

We'll definitely beat these. I don't want to consider seeing a Pardew win.

I still think he's the right man for the job but I'm increasingly worried we don't have anywhere near either the quality or the mentality spread evenly enough through the team to stay in the league. Before the Bournemouth game we'd massively improved in our attacking play, God knows what has happened in the past two games mind. I personally think we've got two many players in key positions that have had a losing mentality for too long, we lack any form of leadership and we rely on players like Sissoko who blatantly don't what to put the effort on the pitch when it's needed. As this is a McClaren topic, and I'll probably get pelters for saying this, but given the stature of the club now I think he's the best we can hope for until we can stop being a relegation battling club season after season. He needs heavily backing in January.

I'd prefer we persisted with him. Regardless of his lack of consistency during games he looks like our most creative player in midfield which is shameful given how poor his start has really been.

If ever a post summed up my feelings it's this one.

Would love an unexpected win today against everyone's better judgement. I've forgotten what it feels like to win two games in a row.

Just watched that dribbling compilation video. It's hard to be anything other than gutted be isn't our player anymore considering his exit. The amount of chances he puts on a plate for people in that video that they miss is unreal. Anita was an awful miss against Everton.

It's amazing how better a mood I'm in on a Saturday afternoon after a win compared to what it has been like. It's pathetic really

Totally agree with this. I can't believe he wasn't subbed.

Just watched his interview. I like him. I still think he's the right man to take us forward.

I thought that. He's obviously going to need time but he's better than a few on here give him credit for.

Awful performance. Don't even care. Get in!

Another poor sub. Anita has been closing down very quickly in the last 15 minutes.

Setting Thauvin up for a fall here.

Not a fan of this sub.

Maybe a striker off for another player in the middle so we aren't having the piss totally taken out of us?

Well this is painful.

Absolutely this. I'm desperate for a win today, I don't get how it arrives.

Similar to a few others I still believe he'll come good for us. Although I don't think he's massively suited to our counter attacking play style.

I could be wrong but I'm sure there was only one previous 0-0 so far this season. They mentioned something along those lines on the guardian pod earlier in the week.

I'm caught between two opinions on us going down. On the one hand we look a better football team under McClaren than we have for at least 2 years. It was only really the Swansea game where we were completely abject. We'd usually suffer a hopeless hammering at least once a month under Pardew and then Carver. We actually look like we play with a system now and with time you'd hope the team will progress. On the other hand the results are awful. We've created a massive task for ourselves and after the hope of the Norwich win it looks like we're going to be in and around the bottom three until the very end. I don't particularly feel confident going into any game. I don't think we're one of the worst three teams in the league but if we're not winning playing well that's an awful sign, especially at home.

This is probably the least nervous I've ever been for it derby, it's almost as if I'm that used to us getting turned over it doesn't even bother me as much. I think we'll get at least a point today. Hopefully Perez and Mitrovic cause chaos.