Ted Maul

Completely different players really, I guess it would be a matter of preference who you'd have in your midfield. I would go for Dembele personally.

Thought we weren't too bad on the whole, although it obviously would have been amazing to win the League Cup (any old cup ffs ) at least we can look at the silver lining and say that if we were going to go out it might as well be now - at least now we might stand a chance of playing a half decent side in European competition.

I didn't mean it like that, you can certainly put me down as someone who is just enjoying his every performance and enjoying seeing his special talent. He really is one of those players you watch football for - just want it to go on as long as possible!

He's what, 25, and in the form of his life. How long does he have on his contract because if we could get him tied down the only way we'd even have to consider letting him go is for an absolute king's ransom.

Didn't capitalise his personal pronoun though so it's at least kind of believable.

Danny Rose for mey layk

The Sky Sports updates were hilarious, "Tiote picks up his customary yellow card, it has to be said that the Newcastle midfielder has looked decidedly angry since being brought on"

Such an amazing player.

Didn't have too bad of a week (for me) this week although I'd have done a lot better if Kompany and Hart had held out for another seven minutes, stupid fucking Klingon and his shite clearances. At least Ben Arfa, Kagawa and Fellaini have come up with the goods.

:lol:

Agree with that. You can't expect to play an attacking game at home when you have Jonas on the left and Cabaye who when in a central midfield two naturally seems to sit back. The front two in that formation become horribly isolated which is what we've seen recently when we play that formation at home. It's not as much of a problem when playing away but it becomes a huge one when you're against a team who has set up to soak up pressure - they will be clearing up long balls to Ba and Cisse all day with little trouble. I'd like to see us try Marveaux and Ben Arfa either side of Ba or Cisse at home (with Marveaux on the left as opposed to the right where he looks much less effective), and make sure Cabaye is pushed up forward where he can make effective through balls and pull the strings with two more defensive-minded midfielders like Tiote and Anita/Perch backing it up and protecting the back four. It's vital with two DMs though to have full backs who can actually attack - no problems with Santon on the one side but Simpson on the other is a different story. This is partly why the fact that we missed out on Debuchy was such a bitter pill to swallow.

Have a feeling this is going to be another hard, frustrating slog for us here, hopefully we will pull through it. It'll be interesting to see the line up as I think a lot of it will depend on Pardew's choices.

I do agree with that. While we shouldn't be letting anyone go if that were to happen central midfield would be the one that would do the least damage. Gosling hasn't had that much chance to prove himself so it's harsh to say he's a poor player but getting £2m for a player we signed for free who has shown little promise to this point is pretty decent.

Another poor error that would have been punished by better opposition. While I like the guy he is pretty much a liability at the top level. Much prefer Perch at CB to him.

He's doing absolutely fine, the guy's hardly played any games for us and has spent a year out injured, people really need to cut him some slack. He's very skilful, has decent pace and can pick out a great ball. Quality player.

Thought on the whole his performance was very encouraging, at least he doesn't take 10 minutes to hit the deck like Harper.

Marveaux didn't play particularly well at all but not really any worse than most of the other players tbh. He was stuck out there on the right when he's definitely best out on the left.

Yeah we all knew he has had some issues like that in the past, and he is definitely being badly advised by greedy agents it would seem.

Nobody else ever heard of the tail wagging the dog? Seriously?

Sorry like but we were embarrassing first half and we've been pretty poor all season so far, nowt wrong with pointing that out. Brilliant that we've come away with five points with that in mind.

On the other hand poor first half performances are becoming a worrying trend that needs to be sorted out and fast. Accentuate dem positives man. And there you have my mentality in a nutshell.

On the other hand poor first half performances are becoming a worrying trend that needs to be sorted out and fast.

We didn't half ride our luck there, would be livid with the officials if I was an Everton fan. Considering we've been turd for at least a full half every match five points against Spuds, Chelsea, Villa and Everton is a very very good start to the season.

He's still got a way to go before he becomes my all-time favourite NUFC player (Beardsley holds that title) but he will definitely be in second if he keeps up this form all season.