Mole_Toonfan

Sandro will be out too. So Defoe upfront on his own, not sure who will play CM for them? Not sure if Sandro will be out tbh. If he's out, Livermore and Huddlestone in midfield? I was under the impression he wouldn't be because of the Olympics. In any case if he isn't they played Jenas and Livermore against Valencia the other day with Sigurdsson, Bale and Lennon behind Defoe.

Sandro will be out too.

Or maybe we need to stop taking pre season friendlies so seriously We need another midfielder regardless of pre-season it has nothing to do with pre season it's to do with the fact we have only 2 established CM's. Of course we need a striker and a fullback too but midfield is another priority.

This

Was going to say this as well

No coverage

Miles Starforth ‏@milesstarforth According to #nufc, Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Cisse and Ba have stayed behind on Tyneside to 'work on their fitness'. All should be fit for #thfc. Chillax

-------------------------------Krul--------------------------------------- Simpson------------Taylor----------Colo----------------------Santon- ------------------Taylor------Tiote-----Jonas--------------------------- -----Obertan---------------------------------------------Marveaux----- ---------------------------Ameobi---------------------------------------- ...at a guess? I would think so. Will score today

Aye, still though i don't see how you need much of a pre-season if you play an important part in the Euros. Even so though, Spurs will missing a lot of players too. Nothing to get majorly concerned over. It's 7 weeks since his last competitive game, man, of course pre-season is important. I'm not sure what Spurs' situation is, nor what exactly it has to do with Cabaye's situation. I'm aware of that but when you play in the Euro's or the World cup normally players don't have much of a pre-season usually as you are playing international football when the rest are on the beach. I think he will start anyway, also i mentioned Spurs because thats who we are playing and even if we are missing players they are as well.

Aye, still though i don't see how you need much of a pre-season if you play an important part in the Euros. Even so though, Spurs will missing a lot of players too. Nothing to get majorly concerned over.

I'm not considering he played a big part at the Euros, i think if you look at players that played a big part at Euros most of them have hardly kicked a ball in pre season. Hatem has to play though. Bollocks. It's about 50 days since his last game for France, the least I'd expect is for him to feature today. Silva and Balotelli havent kicked a ball in pre-season for City, so no not really.

I'm not considering he played a big part at the Euros, i think if you look at players that played a big part at Euros most of them have hardly kicked a ball in pre season. Hatem has to play though.

Hardly 'talks' if L'OM haven't responded tbf.

Yes that would be a concern if come the end of the window those 2 positions have not been addressed but i'm pretty confident they will be.

Majorly clutching at straws, but an unnamed premier league club is in talks with Marseille over the transfer of Loic Remy according to L'Equipe. http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Apres-diarra-remy/305344

How is it any different from signing a striker or a CB then? A fullback is the most pressing need, most people would agree on that. You could make a case that Williamson is a more competent backup at CB than any of our squad CM's would be if Tiote or Cabaye went down. You might make the same case for Shola at CF. I would make that exact case tbh, getting a quality RB is the most important transfer of anything but after that CB, CM and CF are equal in need of strengthening IMO. All 3 need to be strengthened, the only difference is that at CB or CF we at least have some senior back up at CM we have none. Not to say i don't believe in the kids i do but if something happened to one of our CM's like a long term injury then we would be in trouble. That doesn't mean we are signing Anita as a back up, i don't think we are but one of Tiote or Cabaye were to get injured then we wouldn't be affected a great deal.

Who says he wont start?

He means cover if they get get injured or what ever, doesn't mean we are signing him as a mere back up or he wont start just that if Tiote or Cabaye were injured then he could play their role instead and there wouldn't be any real issues. But play alongside them usually, atm if one of them got injured for long periods then we are relying on the kids for long periods and results would likely suffer. But in the main he would be bought to play alongside them i imagine.

Luckily we are not the manager and i'm sure he knows 100% what he's doing

The only reason i don't think we will play 4-3-3 is because Pardew's comments about playing Ba centrally, if we are going to play any system with 3 midfielders it will likely be 4-3-1-2.