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Steve McClaren

Dave

by Dave
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TRon

TRon

Posted
Posted

I meant I don't know what the change in attitude first half yesterday was down too. The same happened under Pardew as well, although never under Carver.

I think the front pairing made a massive difference. I've stuck up for Cisse previously but having two front men who can hold the ball up and just as importantly, will run their legs off really does make a huge difference.

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Yorkie

Yorkie

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Our worst performance of the season was Swansea imo. Don't know what it's down too tbh.

 

 

We were nowt flash against Swansea but West Ham and especially Watford were absolutely horrible performances.

We literally gave Swansea the ball and allowed them to continually rape our best player.

 

There was literally nothing redeeming about the Watford game, though. It was one of the most disinterested league performances I can remember. At least against Swansea we put some kind of gameplan into practise having gone down to ten men.

 

Anyway, I thought yesterday was good and a terrific reaction from the players. As I said at half time, it remains to be seen whether or not the 'tide has changed'; it could easily have been one of those gallant performances against a better side, before we ultimately fall on our arses in the next winnable game. That being said, I do have a bit of hope in it being the former, simply because of just how bad we were against Watford and Sheff Wed compared to how well we came out yesterday.

 

I felt positive after the Arsenal game. I thought we'd come through the opening four fixtures having picked up a couple of decent results; and thought we were difficult to judge given the fact we'd played almost two games with ten men.

 

I was prepared to call West Ham a bit of a brainfart. Just a bad performance that come around as they do. But then Watford was pitiful and there was clearly problems. Then Sheff Wed suggested there was something seriously, seriously wrong with the squad at a very fundamental level. I'd been relatively glass-half-full up to that point but that result and performance was, by all accounts, absolutely disgusting and - coupled with the two bad league defeats - you had to worry.

 

Onto yesterday, and I didn't expect to see us come out fighting in the way that we did. We looked really up for it and actually played some really nice stuff in the first half. Mitrovic played a key role, Anita and Colback both had good games, Mbabu looked very efficient and Perez was at his very best. The whole thing was worlds apart from the Watford fiasco and left me thinking that things might not be as hopeless as they seemed. For them to have made such an incline in both attitude and performance has reignited a bit of hope in me.

 

I'm not going to lavish the players with praise for upping their game because it's the least you expect. I know times are changing and I know the club is a heap of shit, but they owe it to everyone to actually try to play well and get a positive result.

 

McClaren, whose task I don't envy in the slightest, does deserve credit. He obviously managed to galvanise them in the latter part of the week, made some good tactical changes and I think his gameplan was pretty much spot-on. I don't even have any real problems with the corner at the end. It's a pretty huge point in the circumstances and I feel that losing the game from that position would have had a catastrophic effect on the squad which is undoubtedly mentally fragile. Sometimes you've just got to play it conservative. It doesn't mean he's Alan Pardew, who simply had a negative agenda.

 

I said this after the West Ham/Watford games:

 

'Everything is terrible and shit forever and we are relegation fodder' is not the reason for those two results imo.

 

I thought he just needed to get them motivated and then we'd start seeing the rewards pretty sharpish. But after the cup defeat that followed, I was starting to doubt that. Things looked pretty hopeless.

 

The performance against Chelsea has reignited a bit of hope for me. I'm not blind to the fact it could've been a flash in the pan. We could get trounced off Man City and then lose the Mackem game. It could happen because they are mentally weak.

 

But yesterday at least proved that the players are capable of playing well when they are motivated. That's a huge relief to me.

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HawK

HawK

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Posted
"“We were close before but we have not had Mitrovic for three games and we need that; the way we want to play, he is such an important part of it.

 

“If you do not have that presence and that ability, Perez does not have the freedom to play like he does."

 

How refreshing is it for a manager to actually use common sense.

 

Been saying this for years that you need strikers to help make space for creative players. The harder working / more physical the better, as long as they provide a threat so they don't get ignored. I thought Riviere after his first couple of games might do this for Perez but he was proven to be turboshite quite quickly.

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healthyaddiction

healthyaddiction

Posted
Posted

"“We were close before but we have not had Mitrovic for three games and we need that; the way we want to play, he is such an important part of it.

 

“If you do not have that presence and that ability, Perez does not have the freedom to play like he does."

 

How refreshing is it for a manager to actually use common sense.

 

Been saying this for years that you need strikers to help make space for creative players. The harder working / more physical the better, as long as they provide a threat so they don't get ignored. I thought Riviere after his first couple of games might do this for Perez but he was proven to be turboshite quite quickly.

 

Had Perez even played for us in Riviere's first couple of games?

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HawK

HawK

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Posted

"“We were close before but we have not had Mitrovic for three games and we need that; the way we want to play, he is such an important part of it.

 

“If you do not have that presence and that ability, Perez does not have the freedom to play like he does."

 

How refreshing is it for a manager to actually use common sense.

 

Been saying this for years that you need strikers to help make space for creative players. The harder working / more physical the better, as long as they provide a threat so they don't get ignored. I thought Riviere after his first couple of games might do this for Perez but he was proven to be turboshite quite quickly.

 

Had Perez even played for us in Riviere's first couple of games?

 

I stand corrected, I wrote about him making space for Cisse. Same logic though. Have we ever seen Perez and Riviere up top in a flat 4-4-2?

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DJ_NUFC

DJ_NUFC

Posted
Posted

"“We were close before but we have not had Mitrovic for three games and we need that; the way we want to play, he is such an important part of it.

 

“If you do not have that presence and that ability, Perez does not have the freedom to play like he does."

 

How refreshing is it for a manager to actually use common sense.

 

Been saying this for years that you need strikers to help make space for creative players. The harder working / more physical the better, as long as they provide a threat so they don't get ignored. I thought Riviere after his first couple of games might do this for Perez but he was proven to be turboshite quite quickly.

 

Had Perez even played for us in Riviere's first couple of games?

 

I stand corrected, I wrote about him making space for Cisse. Same logic though. Have we ever seen Perez and Riviere up top in a flat 4-4-2?

 

One thing I'm thankful for about being an NUFC fan so far is how little of Riviere I'd had to actually see. Please don't even mention his name.

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ilikenewcastle

ilikenewcastle

Posted
Posted

Given Cisse's apparent lack of interest in playing for us and the fact that he offers bugger all at the moment, I'd sooner see what McClaren can do with Riviere than see Cisse line up for us again.

 

A'disinterested' Cisse has already done as much this season as Riviere did all last year.

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Lenny

Lenny

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Given Cisse's apparent lack of interest in playing for us and the fact that he offers bugger all at the moment, I'd sooner see what McClaren can do with Riviere than see Cisse line up for us again.

 

A'disinterested' Cisse has already done as much this season as Riviere did all last year.

 

Whether McClaren can get anything out of Rivière is an unknown at this point (no matter how likely it is he'll be shit), so I'd prefer to see him than Cisse. Ideally neither set foot on the pitch for us, mind.

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