Sean

He's a bit of a weird one like. Works hard now (which was always my biggest gripe) but still gets muscled off the ball too easily and gives away possession cheaply too often still. He's almost completely unable to shoot from distance or put in quality delivery when he gets the chance. I think he's actually a large reason for why we have such a poor pass completion percentage / low number of passes. Against that, it was obvious how much we missed his workrate and pressing when he went off. Rafa's got him drilled as to what he wants from a number 10, just think a slight lack of quality on the ball is the issue now.

Pardew "I signed Lascelles" :lol:

Amazing news!

Good explanation, thanks I don't actually have anything against the name just think it's a shame it's had to be changed at all really. If we see more displays of the same quality thats the main thing, great work.

Knowing Ashley it'll be £380 million + his 'loans', making the total price around £500 million. Plus any purchaser agreeing to keep the Sports Direct ads for 10 years probably.

The name is massively important, maybe not so much to us fans but in order for this to be able to grow and gain/keep national publicity etc. Marketing and brand identity is huge. But whats the point in gaining national publicity only to change the name days later? Massive own goal and seems very petty from the "owners" of the name.

The performance against Liverpool was as good as we could expect given the players we have, but I'm taking it that I'm one of the few who felt like they could have scored 4 or 5 if they actually finished a bit better? Salah especially seemed to be constantly running into acres of space to exploit. Alot of their shooting on the day was straight at Elliott, or we had somewhat fortunate goal-line clearances. Don't have much a point to this mind, beyond saying that I don't think we're quite as solid defensively as many seem to think and that we'll most likely get a couple of pastings this season by teams less forgiving in front of goal. They had 2 shots on target IIRC. That can't be right unless stuff that looked on target wasn't. - Lovren had a shot at goal from 6 or so yards out (after Wijnaldum's flick hit the post) cleared by a defender. - Coutinho scored with a shot. - Sturridge had a shot on goal straight at Elliott after being put through by Clark's sliced howler. - Lovren had a header that looked to be on target cleared a few yards out by Shelvey. That's 4 that I can remember, a couple of which should really have been goals (especially Sturridge being put clean through). On top of that they missed a fair few other chances with shots or headers off target, and then on top of that you have a fair few attacks which didn't result in a shot but were highly promising situations for Liverpool due to the gaps left by our defense. I dunno, maybe I'm being overly critical, but I felt they could have scored a few more but weren't clicking on the night. We're better defensively for sure but I don't think we're "solid" just yet, which was my only point. You do know blocked shots don't count as on target right?

He's missed a few easy chances no doubt, the thing is as a striker those misses affect your confidence in front of goal. Especially at a new club, in front of new fans (especially when a sizeable percentage are now writing you off after a few games). It's too early to tell if that's the issue or if his finishing is always terrible. However good strikers will overcome this problem fairly quickly...

:lol:

Good quotes from Robbie Fowler regards Rafa in the Mirror and Liverpool Echo: "I have a story that tells you everything you need to know about Rafa Benitez , the manager. He lived down the bottom of my garden – or at least just a Peter Kay clearance away. And when I went back to play under him at Liverpool , I was often asked to drop off bits and pieces at his place. I was at the training ground on Christmas Day and they asked me to take round some videos and info on opponents. Rafa’s family had just gone back to Spain, so when I called round, he invited me in. We went into a room where there were massive TVs on the wall, tactics boards all around, and he was in there, poring over the plans to combat the teams we were playing over the holiday period. It didn’t matter what time of year it was, he was just ­immersed in the detail of what he was doing, plotting the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. For me, it was massively ­obsessive. That is not a ­criticism, just a mark of the manager. It’s the one thing Newcastle fans can bank on – Rafa will not leave a single thing to chance. Every detail, every point down to the smallest of pieces of information everyone else would assume wasn’t important, will be analysed to get to the ­deepest ­understanding of the mindset of ­opponents. Let’s be clear about this, I will ­always be thankful to him because he took me back to Liverpool and, for me, that is one of the most important events of my career. The chance to go back and right a few wrongs is ­something I cherished. He can be cold, no doubt, ruthless. I remember a ­statement he made to the team once, where he said he wasn’t here to be liked – and that’s spot on. It was his job to create the ­environment to win matches, no matter what it took – and that was the approach he certainly believed in. Rafa won’t let ­anything stand in his way, at ­Newcastle or any other club. With little ­investment and an owner who seems keen on reducing his ­financial input, that ­attitude is ­undoubtedly their best chance of ­surviving in the Premier League. Their only chance, ­probably. He will be ruthless in doing whatever is possible to keep them up."

Unbelievable post

Also I don't think the atmosphere around the club helped at all. Also, the fat cunt hiring Joe Kinnear as manager. That whole season was destined to end in relegation the moment Keegan was forced out. So yeah it was down to Mike Ashley, surprise surprise.

Great post.

It's hilarious, just imagine the reactions if we lost!

Theres a video on twitter of our second goal, after he takes the corner he jumps up and pretends to head it in, what a nutter

so true. Anyway, Merino is absolutely immense

nice to see he's getting noticed Think Thompson actually likes us tbh. Especially compared to the rest of the lot on the panel he shares. Yeah just seen this as well, being pretty reasoned about our performance today too: http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/teams/newcastle-united/11039204/newcastle-2-1-stoke-thompson

Phil Thompson raving about Merino on Soccer Saturday now.

:lol:

What a hit that was

Please be ok!!!

Fucking joke of a yellow, when are we gonna get a break from officials man.

This. Don't really think theres much chance of it happening on a large enough scale while Rafas still here unfortunately but if he goes it has to happen.

Just make it up as they go along. This bit here shows how he's stealing probably in the region of £20 million a year from the club, and it's only one of many ways: To put things in perspective briefly, according to Newcastle United’s last set of published accounts (for the 2011-12 season), Newcastle United received slightly less in commercial revenue (£13.8million) than Norwich City (£14m). As for the Premier League ‘big six’ above Newcastle, Tottenham received £41.5m over the same period, Arsenal £52.5m, Liverpool £63.9m, Chelsea £67m, Manchester United £117.6m and, finally, Manchester City received a whopping £121.1m according to the estimable football finance website, the Swiss Ramble. With Ashley’s insistence that the club must stand on its own two feet, despite serving as a huge free billboard for his more important business interest, this shortfall could make it very difficult for the club to move forward both financially and on the pitch.

No-one should give him the benefit of doubt over anything, so people saying things like 'we pay less interest so he's being good to us' is pretty unbelievable. We could be paying the loan back with interest and have a more competitive squad than we do now if the club was ran self-sufficiently. The problem is we have an owner who's asset stripping and doing everything in his power to move money out of the club accounts. But lets give him the benefit of doubt eh? No.