Miercoles

These assholes know we have Demba Ba on the pitch right? Maybe try passing it to him once in a while. Fuck.

Colo is such class

What??!??

Why you praying for that? I'd be happy not see Cisse feature at all if all is going smoothly. I really think we're underestimating them. Gosling and Obertan upfront people are mentioning?! I hope we see a couple of first teamers in at the very least. Exactly. You still have to win the game. I would not like to see us come back to Newcastle behind on aggregate, and suddenly there is massive pressure in front of the home fans... Let's get into the group stage at least before we start fucking around.

Praying he starts Cisse. Also praying I'm able to watch the game.

Agreed. At least Jonas puts them on frame.

True enough I'm sure, I was only there for a few days. However, of the major european cities that I spent a few days in, Paris was at the bottom of the list for sure. Not worth much as an analysis I guess, but there you go.

Paris is a shit-hole. Literally. Dog shit everywhere on the streets. When I was there in 2006 they had a ridiculous bum-city right on the street with a ton of homeless fucks laid out on couches, tents, sleeping bags, basically having set up a permanent shanty-town right there on the sidewalk. Definitely one of the low points on my trip. London was cool but so expensive... Highpoints for me were Stockholm and Barcelona. Also Galway in Ireland was a fucking blast, great party town.

I'm with you mate... while I'd love to see a new signing or two (defenders, please) I think just keeping the squad we have is a huge achievement. With Demba and Cisse able to spend a full preseason learning how to play together, and Barfa not coming off that horrific injury, we are only going to be meaner than last year. If we don't get it done over the summer there's always a chance we can bring someone in at the transfer window to provide cover for our African Nations Cup casualties as well. I guess the bottom line for me is I'd rather see us keep the players we have, than lose some of them but bring in new faces. Of course if I could have both.... then I'd have to look harder for something to complain about. I'd be interested to see a 4-3-1-2 with HBA playing a free role behind Demba and Cisse as a front two... I think it'd be a nightmare to defend against those two working together in the area, and HBA could swing out to either side to provide us width as needed.

What was he driving? http://wiki.tarantino.info/images/PussyWagon1.jpg classic

You can't be serious man. They never call that shit. Not saying they shouldn't, just that they don't.

I've never seen a keeper called for holding the ball too long in all my years of watching football. Hilarious. You hardly ever see a keeper actually distribute the ball within the time limit. Like, one out of ten times do they follow that rule. It's like in baseball there's a similar time limit for when the pitcher is supposed to throw the ball, six seconds but most guys routinely take 30 seconds to over a minute. Either enforce the rule or get rid of it imo.

no worries, we'll be alright, we can just have Gutierrez play both side-back positions and maybe some center mid at the same time

what's with the sports bra?

WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! What a game. Got to say if it weren't for Cisse being such a ridiculous bastard Perch would be man of the match for me, though Williamson impressed as well and Colo was as good as always.

WHAT?!!?

man that's the one thing we don't have, depth.

should have been a red

Williamson's stepover blew my mind

shit myself there...

Santon takes it down the left, cuts in, passes along the ground to Cisse near the top of the box, Cisse's first touch pops it into the air and he then smashes it out of the air and in at the far post. Cech had no chance, and if Cisse had taken another touch instead of hitting it out of the air there were two defenders coming to close him down. Top quality goal.

Classy goal that one. Made it look easy. Someday Ba and Cisse will learn to play together, and then we'll really be a menace in the league...

That's what's impressed me the most this season. Players like Jonas, Perch, now Demba Ba, all seem willing and even eager to play out of their preferred positions for the good of the team and I think that is largely down to the manager. It's a credit to the individual players of course that they have that work ethic and team-first mentality, but one of the main jobs of the manager is to develop that in his players. Very nice to see after living through the days of Dyer and Butt fighting it out on the pitch.

A bit north of Sac, in the valley, originally from Humboldt out on the coast. And as for you lot, I stand by my statement. We'd have quite a few more losses without Simpson's defensive quality this season, and as for not being allowed to handle the ball -- don't tell that to Liverpool haha. You can talk all the s*** you want but the fact remains that Simpson has saved quite a few sure goals in tight games and he deserves credit for that. I haven't seen anything that special from Santon in his time here, potential sure but nothing that really blew my socks off, and Simpson has pulled our asses out of the fire quite a few times so I think he's earned his place this season at least. If we end up bringing in a real left back then let Santon and Simpson compete for the job, but I don't think it should be an automatic change.

I like Santon but I would rather have Simpson at right back, having him on the pitch is like having a second goalkeeper sometimes. Doesn't he lead the league, by far, in goal line clearances? That kind of special quality is handier than getting a few crosses in from the fullback position in my opinion.