Wisdom Body

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.

I doubt Van Gaal would have the motivation, patience or ideas to undertake a long-term project with Newcastle. I'd also imagine it would take something pretty special to wrest him from his national team gig. I think we should utilise the same mentality we use to sign players and travel less beaten paths, rather than use the Fat Freddie-type approach of going for big names. Thomas Tuchel should be feasible. Smart, young, tactically-strong coach who brings out the best in all his players.

I'd be very interested to hear how he answers this, mainly because the evidence strongly suggests he doesn't have any football philosophy. If any 'neutral' who watches a lot of games (like a commentator or pundit) was asked to give a short description of how each Premier League team plays, I think he would have the hardest time coming up with one for Newcastle United. Unless Pardew totally rubbishes himself, all the pertinent questions would inevitably receive inadequate answers, and the only benefit(?) of the process would be to see him squirming. It's particularly important that his employers put some of these questions to him at the end of the season.

I've mentioned it before, but I think it's really important to change the strength and conditioning staff to decrease injuries. This change has worked for other clubs and many successful managers have reliable S&C coaches they religiously take with them to every club. I actually agree with Pardew when he blames the lack of results this season compared to the last on injuries. Pardew hasn't changed as a manager but key players like Coloccini, Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Tioté, Saylor have either been injured or in poor physical shape for most of the season. These injuries have exposed the cracks in Pardew's rudimentary style of play that had previously been tidily papered-over by good form. I however would like a manager who transmits the required concepts during training to ensure a cohesive, constant and easily identifiable system of play regardless of the personnel on the pitch, and whose team's effectiveness isn't completely reliant on individual player form and therefore completely destroyed by a few key injuries. This is the only way to ensure consistent long-term success.

l think due to a lack of discipline and concentration Spurs (and Chelsea as well in their tie with Rubin) committed basic errors they never would in a Premier League match. A penalty shoot-out isn't totally controlled by chance either. With more or less equal technical ability, the fitter (and therefore more lucid) side usually wins. From the 30 mins of extra time I saw the Swiss were clearly in better form and controlled the game, while spurs had lost their shape. And it showed in the quality of the spot kicks. Vertonghen's lazy challenge that got him sent off is symbolic on both counts.

As soon as the shoot-out started I said out loud that the Basel players would score all of theirs. From what I've seen they looked a lot more prepared for the competition than Spurs, or any other English team for that matter.

I'd give Leonardo Jardim a shot. It would be nice to get a better English tactician, but the scene for domestic managers is a wasteland. I'm not a fan of Jol at all (if he would even want to manage us) and I don't think Roberto Martínez is competent enough for any team aiming to finish in the European slots each season. My preference among the listed coaches would be Montanier, by some distance. The rest are mediocre/unrealistic.

I think the Benfica boys have seen enough to realise that they're already in the semis. I would like to ask them to humanely stop watching NUFC games, since it's mortally embarrassing to think that some other people are actually watching and studying our matches.

That's it really. Most of the players, and more importantly, all the managers that implement this style of play well aren't actually English.

Underrated - Asmir Begovic Overrated - Ashley Young

"When you're down at the bottom sometimes things don't go your way..." When he's done here I actually see Pardew ending up as one of the talking heads on MOTD or Sky, he's already spouting all their usual clichés. His chatter is indicative of him as a manager. A total lack of footballing ideas.

I think it's a bit too convoluted a ploy for the minds at NE1 4ST to have come up with. He probably just wants to go back home.

Is (was?) one of the most overrated players around, must have a particularly active agent. While I'm not tearing my clothes off about it I also still think Gervinho would have been a decent signing for us. Same way I'm not going to start wearing a sackcloth because Rémy didn't sign here. We were already risking it by offering more than he's currently worth - due to a poor attitude and lack of motivation - to OM, and his decision to go to QPR confirms these issues. I think we'll get over him soon enough.

One of our best signings of recent times. Top class player and excellent professional.

No problem with his pace, but rather with his motivation and attitude I'd say, so for me it's a bit of a risk at that fee. I hope this move gives him a boot up the postérieur he needs. Should be a valuable asset if that's the case, due to his ability to play in the middle and on the wing (his best position I think), good finishing with both head and feet and tendency to attack space. Not a particularly creative player so I hope we're not expecting another Ben Arfa, but hopefully he'll be well utilised and we'll see less static attacking (though this is more a problem with the coaching than the players' characteristics).

I think your avatar pretty much describes how I would feel about having Balotelli at Newcastle. Probably the thickest player to have played in the Premier League and exactly the type of narcissistic, schizophrenic, prima donna we don't need in our current situation. His inflated price tag was a result of the ludicrous hype he got from the Italian media and his odious agent, which City obviously fell for.

We'll definitely sign a defender in January in my opinion. Probably a centre-back as it seems to have been in the plans for at least a year now and the situation has worsened with Saylor's injury. I get the feeling the club put it off for winter in the same way they did with Cissé last season. I'll be very (pleasantly) surprised if anybody else arrives though.

Technically modest, but yeah, pretty much the exact type of attacker we lack. Good to see Marveaux and Anita delivering something close to what I'd consider their normal performances, bad to see the usual injury problems. I'm not particularly keen on the Martínez love-in though. Good manager if you want your team to play visually pleasing football, but if you want to regularly finish the season near where we did last season, he wouldn't be the solution IMO.

The strength and conditioning coach. We might not be able to sign world class players, but I don't see why we shouldn't employ the best one available, especially with the people running this club seemingly being insistent on us keeping a tiny squad. It's no surprise to see NUFC topping the injury table again this season. I'd like it if our players got injured as infrequently as possible, were out for the shortest time possible when injured and were better conditioned and fitter than the opposition. This would also paper over the tactical deficiencies of the coaching department and the technical deficiencies of the playing staff, in the short term. Long term, the way the club is run. We can talk about getting a manager with some actual footballing ideas and implementing a positive philosophy, but with the makeshift, improvisational manner the club is run, should we change the manager the best we're likely to get is a toady from the lower leagues or an exhumed, poorly embalmed, mummy looking for two coins to rub together, à la Kinnear. I'm not sure any ambitious manager would stand basically putting up and shutting up with what he's given (what he's given being whoever the club could get for cheap; if even cheap is too expensive: too bad) or having to put his face in the press to take the heat for his employers' cock-ups. Should we fluke a good manager he'd likely be off as soon as possible, to work for someone with a long-term vision for their club. We're basically what should be a supermarket being operated like a kiosk.

Getting hard to justify spending money and effort to be tortured twice a week.

Almost all of Chicharito's goals are ugly. Weird second half.

Sacchi's Milan is generally thought of as having introduced zonal marking to Italy in the late '80s. Before that Italian teams were famous for particularly grim, rigid man-marking, with most games being decided by personal duels between defenders and attackers. http://www.corriere.it/Media/Foto/2007/08/09/zico--140x180.jpg

Unless it's non-english commentary, I watch all our games like this. Despite all their fans' moaning, Liverpool , along with Man Utd, are still the club with the most sympathisers in the media. I still remember John Murray practically praying for Liverpool to score during last year's FA Cup final, and his audible depression at the end.

Walker should have taken advantage of the chance today to watch Cole today and see what a full-back should be doing in defence. Chelsea using the Man City formula and relying solely on their bags of attacking quality to get them through, but I doubt they'll hold up to sterner tests as the season goes along. Their defending today gave a glimpse to some of their weaknesses.

Better musician than he is a commentator.