gjohnson

For any other club, this would be a banker home win.... This is Newcastle United though...wherever there is bad luck we'll be there. Wherever there is ineptitude we'll be there, wherever there are stupid mistakes we'll be there, wherever there's a suspect referee we'll be on the end of his decisions, whenever a team on a bad run shows up we'll be there to help them out, whenever we win other results go against us....and the list goes on. Any I've missed other than the obvious like science, spies, Notting Hill, Europa?

Is that with or without the ball? I seem to remember Jose Enrique rarely been beaten for pace, and often making up distance on supposedly quick wingers when he was at his best for us, but wasn't particularly quick with the ball at his feet.

I understand where you're coming from but when you throw in those "top 10" calibre players, and there's a fair few of them, with the likes of potential league-crushing strikers like Lukaku, and Barkley - they could be a force in the league. Barkley should be their Alli, Lukaku should be their Kane. They're severely underperforming under Martinez, there's no getting away from that. He seems unable to either sustain an inherited defence or build his own. Similar to Pardew in that way (which sounds more vicious than it was intended to) - without that, the rest of the team and his good attacking coaching abilities crumble on his foundations of sand. NUFC fans have been called deluded incorrectly. I think they're performing at a reasonable level for the majority of their squad. In my opinion there's too many weak links in there to be covered by the talent of their best players (which I admit is damn good): Tony Hibbert, Brian Oviedo, Darron Gibson, FunesMori. The rest of their squad is decent/good, but the better ones are starting to show their age (Barry, Pienaar). Then again I could be talking nonsense as I don't watch Everton.

Be that as it may, I've not heard rumours of Chelsea putting in massive offers for either of the Leicester duo. Why not, they're the foundation of the third meanest defence in the league? At the same time, stick either/both of Huth/Morgan in our team and they'd be back down to relegation form before you could say 'midfield protection'

Glenn Whelan has started every game for Stoke this season There's always an exception, or two. Wouldn't take Huth or Morgan over Stones either

No. My own inability to properly use the quote function. Consider it this way....if it was NUFC sitting comfortably and we were protesting at our manager imagine the typical reaction. There's a list of things that would be aimed....deluded geordies, know your place, high expectations, never give managers a chance etc etc Yet Everton (arguably) a club of similar stature are right to want better? Maybe just a press/pundit thing but unfortunately that is how the majority of fans form their opinions on other teams.

Not at all, I just don't agree that they've had a top 4/6 squad for the last two years

Quote from: gjohnson on Today at 02:18:03 PM To be fair, we've had almost 2 years of a side that should be challenging for top 4/top 6 being midtable or bottom half, while the press didn't raise an eyebrow. It's only because fans have started protesting against Martinez that they've picked up their pens. The press were happy to go along with his Mr. Nice Guy image without questioning his horrific results because they don't give a s*** about Everton. Compare our coverage to the mass hysteria in the papers over dips in Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool's form. Why's this? Apart from Stones/Barkley/Lukaku there's nobody in the Everton squad thhat screams top 6 to me. Who screamed top four/ six for you in our squad for two years then? No-one in our squad as it's dire, but I'm talking Everton not us :-)

No argument that they're good players, but I still wouldn't have them as top 6 material. Solid top 10 at best in my mind. Leicester aside would you really take Everton's players over the likes of Tottenham, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea or even Stoke? We are called deluded for wanting a team not to be threatened by relegation, yet Everton fans with a team who are sitting comfortably in the league are right to be demanding Martinez's head? Nah, sorry not having that!

To be fair, we've had almost 2 years of a side that should be challenging for top 4/top 6 being midtable or bottom half, while the press didn't raise an eyebrow. It's only because fans have started protesting against Martinez that they've picked up their pens. The press were happy to go along with his Mr. Nice Guy image without questioning his horrific results because they don't give a s*** about Everton. Compare our coverage to the mass hysteria in the papers over dips in Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool's form. Why's this? Apart from Stones/Barkley/Lukaku there's nobody in the Everton squad that screams top 6 to me.

Will Leicester start a trend of teams trying to win without the ball? We've seen lots of teams trying to copy the Bayern/Barca method of possession based winning, but both Leicester and Athletico Madrid have shown you can be just as if not more effective without the ball than with it. When Chelsea first got their money, everyone tried to copy them for a few years (and still are to a certain extent). Is this just a trend, or how successful teams will set up in future?

.com reporting that he will be confirmed in the next few days

Sammy Ameobi in Metrocentre Primark yesterday afternoon. With blonde woman about two foot shorter than him.

When players let the ball roll out for a throw in for themselves when they could have easily got to it. Slows down play, and invariably (for Newcastle) lose possession