Tiresias

He looks too gangly to be nimble, too slight to be strong so he's going to have to rely on speed and such. I reckon he has the ethic to make the most of any talent and with patience he will only improve. If he isn't really good enough in the end oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained, but no way we'll really know for a while

Hate to say it but they didn't look too bad on Motd and O'Neil playing the players Bruce was sidelining liek Vaughn etc will help them. Suspect they'll have a decent second half to the season

suarez it's probably Silva, just annoying he's at Man City, beautiful player

Yeah but I think we got Obertan as second choice to Gervinho, we'd have had Ba anyway.

To be fair Arsenal got Gervinho ahead of us so it's more 1 - 1

lol If we somehow signed Tevez Pardew will just bench him anyway

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/12/18/yohan-cabaye-s-pass-pact-with-newcastle-boss-79310-29971585/ lol

I'd be surprised though, considering think Tottenham Chelsea and Arsenal are probably interested, could well be agent trying to up the price for one of those clubs by saying he'd go here.

Do we need another midfielder? Rather give Guthrie / Abeid / Gosling and Vuckic their chances to break through

There's a difference between having a few criticisms of a manager and calling for his head...the trouble is not sure Ashley understands that... Overall he's been great, got a few niggles, I don't think there's a manager alive without some problems one could pick with their tactics etc.

I don't think I've said it outloud enough for it to sink in lol

Bleh why must we rank, Zidane and Messi are both magnificent and elegant players on the eye, splitting hairs anyway.

My spelling sucks I know.

I doubt Pardew is going to deviate from the 'double pivot' of Tiote and another midfielder both with defensive central duties, the question is whether he puts another attacking midfielder ahead (HBA) or sticks in another striker. If Vucknic is good enough to be challenging properly for first team in attacking midfield position, and Abeid a decent enough player I'd like to see (but won't) standard backline HBA Abeid Tiote Jonas Vucknic Ba (edit) it will be Obertan on right, and best or HBA in front (either alongside or in Vucknic's place there if it's HBA).

I don't think that'd end well, Obertan and Jonas wouldn't stick in middle and we'd have essentally a 1 man midfield and we'd resort to hoofing it up. 4-3-1-2's tend to sacrifice width, can't afford wide players. for getting 3 upfront I'd go with a classic 4-3-3 with usual backline Tiote Abeid Jonas (think he'd be disciplined enough to a new position actually) HBA Ba Best (front 3 interchangable, with Ba and HBA asked to go out wide more than Best who would hold up play) Relies on Abeid being up to it, but I do not fancy only having 1 proper central midfielder.

Do they really need him? Soldado and Llorente surely knocking on the door harder

He's largely ok and getting us playing good footy at times, but it's become obvious sometimes he can be tactically out-thought. He did very well tactically against Stoke, but when he seems to struggle against poor teams with packed midfields, unwilling to withdraw an attacker to bolster the midfield in such cases, but we're not quite fast enough to work as a counter attacking team, which is what you need with a 4-4-2 against a 4-3-3 broadly. He's also puzzling with his subs.

Oh well just got in to look at scores, hopefully get a goal, but at least we're playing well again

Bollocks, expect us to fail to sign a striker again now

I have a feeling Arsenal won't have too much trouble against AC Milan, same deal as last year with Tottenham, Milan are slow and can't deal with pace. Ibrahimovic could wreak havoc on their backline though.

To be fair he's only on stage 2 of his mission, stage 1 was help us stay up, stage 2 damage liverpool, stage 3...ruin sunderland...stage 4 ...stage 5 PROFIT!

5 cabaye / tiote hybrids?