Shays Given Tim Flowers

Watching him eat up turf on cole before running round him reminded me of Martin Offiah. Big bloke, doesn't look like he runs quickly but he really does cover the ground.

If Jonas was holding Jose's hand defensively, Jonas has been coddling Davide.

 

Aye Jonas was certainly coddling him on saturday in arguably his best ever performance.

 

Defensively, can you name me a game where he's played well without Jonas on the pitch?

Champions league vs Real Madrid. Seriously though it becomes pretty hard to remember specific games and who played etc. Particularly when talking about 2 of our sides most ever-present players. I'd rather just go off what I have seen recently of Davide irrespective of who is playing in front of him.

Kudos to you if you can remember his specific performances without Jonas in front of him, but any comparison you may wish to embark upon is ultimately going to need to address who was actually playing in front of him as well as who was he up against.

At times he is a good defender. At times he doesn't concentrate enough and can be a little lazy getting back. At times he is a bad defender. At the moment he is playing well and has considerable potential.

EDIT: What I can say without a shadow of a doubt is I have seen some very good defensive play from him that is entirely independent of whether or not Jonas is on the pitch.

It'd be great if he could develop his ability to cross with his left foot. At the moment, defenders can shepherd him down the outside without too much worry about the consequences.

He has said that with the arrival of Debuchy he will dedicate time to improving his crossing with his left foot as he knows now he will be on the left side for the foreseeable future. He did ping across one very good ball into the box with his left in the second half against Chelsea. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

Irrespective of what the letter of the law says common sense prevailed on Saturday with Colo. Also, fuck Chelsea.

That stuff with his wife could be anything. Not worth reading anything into it, she may have said it entirely off the cuff.

What you really notice today I think is the fact that this wasn't just a 10 men behind the ball, frustrate the opposition and try to smash and grab a 1-0. We really took the game to them and went toe to toe with a very good side. Thats incredibly promising in itself.

The f*** is that a penalty kick. Ba has his header, Colo can't see him. He has to go for the ball. Jesus wept can you not have accidents anymore in football.

involving one of the "elite clubs" nope its assault Colo should be locked up tbh

The only reason Benitez mentioned it was to take the heat off his players.

The fuck is that a penalty kick. Ba has his header, Colo can't see him. He has to go for the ball. Jesus wept can you not have accidents anymore in football.

Finishing wasn't there today but his turn and pass for Gouffran for our second was vital. He played the lone striker role very well today and is actually pretty effective with his back to goal. Works hard too.

Havent read the thread covering half time and 1-2 but going to assume the usual anti Pardew bile was in force? Fwiw i dont think it was us changing after HT but them stepping up and the goal in particular we stood off too much. Love seeing us looking to attack so much with Sissoko(unbelievable) and Gouffran both always open on the counter. Great team performance aside from a ropey 5 minutes defending.

 

Sissoko 

Yes, it gets silly at times but emotions run high in matches.

What did Ramires do? I didn't see it.

dived in two-footed on gutierrez, looked like he rolled his studs too so he didn't go studs in. I actually didn't think it was at all bad and Jonas, made a fair bit out of it. Would have been devastated had a player of ours had been sent of for similar. Not even much force in the tackle.

A sour grapes Chelsea ass licker:

 

Former Tottenham striker Garth Crooks on Final Score:

 

"The game between Newcastle and Chelsea was littered with decisions that I do not believe referee Howard Webb got right."

How can you say anything about that game other than that it was a great game?

words fail me.

Ameobi looks smaller...

That counter.

Gouffran is what we have needed for years.

Santon Left Footed Cross btw.

sometimes I think Birtles is actually Sam from Quantum Leap and that only when he makes my blood pressure reach a certain level will he be allowed to leap again.

Feel bad for him. No need to boo him off. He's injured ffs.

pretty classless.

Jonas 

He'll be in the team soon enough if he's as good as everyone is making out.

Oh ffs. I'm going to miss the first 15 mins now, got to pick up my youngest from a roller skating birthday party now.

 

Kids are so damn selfish.

better get your skates on.

he's better than Nicky Butt.

He's a great player and in 10 or 15 years when he becomes the new Maldini or Facchetti, with 200 or 300 Inter games under his belt, in that moment I'll remember his debut," Mourinho says.

 

"In my view Santon is a right-back who can also play in midfield, ­principally in the position currently taken by Javier Zanetti. His versatility will be very important in his career. For example, Beppe Bergomi played as a centre-back, on the right or left and now Zanetti can play pretty much anywhere. All this is because they have character and ­confidence".

 

Mourinho on Santon. Probably been posted before but I just feel its worth reminding ourselves of the potential he still has.

 

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/1964/saylorfeel.jpg

Would've been nice to see him at a team that didn't have so many good strikers.

The games bereft of characters and its a shame he's gone, even if media coverage of him gets a bit sickly.