Wisdom Body

Reminds me of their game against us; so little urgency. To go with their generally uncreative and tepid attacking play (that Bale masked so well last season).

Paulinho and Dembele shouldn't be sieve-like given those players' reputation and the roles they have played most of their careers. Bastia have been rubbish in the second half. Dembélé, a striker-turned-winger-turned-attacking-midfielder-turned-central-midfielder paired Paulinho with a midfielder whose main qualities are his positioning and runs in attack? That's a sieve.

Spurs' problems today have been more to do with personnel rather than AVB's usual deficiencies. A back four composed of one midfielder and three mediocre defenders plus a sieve-like midfield of Paulinho-Dembélé against Liverpool's movement was never going to end well.

Yet to be impressed by Villas-Boas' spurs really, especially considering the expectations coming into the season. I don't know how well he connects with his players. They were never really able to build any consistent pressure on our goal and pin us into our own area, despite our predictable hyper-negativity in the second half. The game ended on a bit of a whimper rather than with us hanging on for dear life... Really useful 3 points for us though, considering we're in the middle of what should be torrid run-in.

Totò Schillaci in 1990.

I've always just considered him an above-average manager, partly for the reason you've stated. Also had fantastic squads at his disposition pretty much throughout his managerial career. Probably one for the unpopular opinion thread...

And before Sir Bobby, Dalglish and Gullit, not to mention Shearer and Kinnear's illustrious spells in charge later. This list should be given to anyone who accuses Newcastle fans of being impatient with managers. People who have vanished into managerial oblivion after coaching us, apart from Big Sam and Hughton (and even these two are hardly setting the world alight). Just a very poorly run club. Within the boundaries of reality, at the moment I'd still like Tuchel as manager.

Too much of an emphasis on individual errors. Our players operate in a tactical vacuum. Our team defence is inexistent. It's clear to anyone watching the game how much easier it is for Everton to get into our final third than us into theirs. When your back four is constantly exposed it's only a matter of time before the defenders commit mistakes.

Great managers not only write notes but also make excuses regularly as well; I don't have any problem with that. The difference between them and Pards is that behind their excuses they are working to (and able to) rectify the problems with the team. I have to agree though that the 'article' looks like it was dictated in a pub over a pint. Typical betting-site-advisor chatter.

Same here. Wasn't sure whether he's "uncool" or not, but people are often surprised when I cite him as one of my favourite players. Could name dozens of others: Christian Tiffert Andrés Palop Matt Holland Vladimir Jugovic Flemming Povlsen Morgan Schneiderlin Gianluca Vialli Pär Zetterberg Alain Giresse Phillip Cocu Dario Hübner Matt Holland Frank Lampard(?) Zé Roberto Giuseppe Signori Paolo Montero Mirko Votava Shota Arveladze etc.

If I'm honest, unconcerned, just like I've been all summer. Been a lot more worried about our management/coaching than the squad. I think our current team is good enough for a Europa League spot if managed competently (especially with just domestic competitions to worry about).

It's actually become worse, so no.

Inter. Good signing for them. Always risky giving Rafa carte blanche on incoming signings.

Ah, finally. If she lives up to her pedigree we should see a marked decrease in injuries next season, since the problem definitely lies in her area of expertise. Would prefer that it were a long-term solution though.

Sums up our situation very well, in perfect Pardew-speak.

I'm not watching this, but women's football often looks cartoonish. I used to think it would be a good idea to reduce the size of the pitch and goals in women's football, until I saw the US women's team at the last Olympics. They had a higher pace of play and they occupied space well on the field. Their team looked more like a men's team would because their players were athletically superior to the other girls. I now think the rest should try and reach that standard.

Totally agree.

Has to be a goalkeeper. I'd say Jeroen Verhoeven of FC Utrecht, listed at 100 kg (227 lbs). The most visibly fat footballer I can think of. http://www.animaatjes.nl/voetbal-plaatjes/voetbal-plaatjes/jeroen-verhoeven/animaatjes-jeroen-verhoeven-28828.jpg

I'm expecting Rafinha to be this year's Bosingwa and steal the limelight when they raise the trophy.

Plenty of opportunities, but I still don't get the feeling of watching a particularly great game. Too many nerves and defensive mistakes, which would probably have been exploited if it was a regular league game.

Plenty of opportunities, but you still don't get the feeling of watching a particularly great game. Too many nerves and defensive mistakes, which would probably have been exploited if it was a regular league game.

It might seem unambitious (and effectively there's no way this team can grow playing the way it does under Pardew), but I'd chalk this one down to Ashley and Llambias being ignorant about football, rather than a purposeful effort (or lack thereof) so as to hold the club back. -Terrible set-pieces. The illustration here of course being not scoring from a corner over a season. -Inability to turn a losing position into a winning position - only happened twice under this management. -Inability to consistently construct attacking moves and retain possession. -Terrible team defending that results in conceding 68 goals over a league season. -Terrible mental preparation for games. The illustration here being losing in abject fashion at home to your local rivals and Liverpool, in what would have been high-stakes matches even without considering the fact that the team was still in grave danger of relegation. -Terrible fitness. -Never building on leads obtained during a game, and therefore the winning position is always in the balance. -etc. The main excuses used by Pardew (injuries and the Europa League) don't actually excuse any of these deficiencies. The only logical explanation to the above is poor coaching and management. That is, to anybody who takes an active interest in what goes on on the football pitch. The people who run this club don't and therefore these excuses have been bought; with the obvious consequence being that the manager will be allowed to continue, hoping for better circumstances ahead. I think more than Ashley, it's actually Pardew the manager who is in many ways a lack of ambition personified. The only way we can progress under him is if the ghost of Ernst Happel arises and supplants Pardew's soul from his body, or if Newcastle United suspends all footballing activities as Pardew takes a five year sabbatical studying football management under Alex Ferguson while working as his butler and sometimes caregiver or when, after 10 years as our manager, Pardew finally develops the requisite footballing principles, ideas and solutions - Newcastle's probable multiple relegations during this period notwithstanding. In any case we're just wasting our time and our best players' best years.

Imagine that I'd think someone would kill Ashley if that ever happened. We weren't as bad as Stoke this season, we were worse. Negative, physical, rudimentary, gritty, organised Stoke City vs the clueless, gutless, undefined, meandering, amorphous amoeba that is Newcastle United on the football pitch; I'd much prefer the first option. It's no coincidence that Stoke have never really looked like being relegated under Pulis, while we came within a monobrow hair's breadth of being relegated this past season. Of course I wouldn't like Pulis as a manager since, like you've said, it would be a guarantee of watching football being destroyed each week, but under Pardew we neither create nor destroy - which is a far worse situation to be in.

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Moyes won't be any Fergie, but given some time, under him Man Utd should be alright. His Everton side already play a similar brand of dynamic and efficient football to that which Man Utd are known for. At the moment he definitely lacks the broad world view and eagerness to learn that I think Ferguson has always had; but these qualities can be developped with time. Fergie himself made Man U a force in Europe by copying elements from the dominant European clubs of the '90s. I'd be a bit more preoccupied from the Everton point of view. We ourselves know too well how difficult it is for a mid-sized Premier League team to get a good manager. They knew they had a good man and that's why they held onto him for so long. In their case as in ours I think they'd be better served looking beyond the frontiers.