It's absolutely crucial we stick by Sam during this period.

[Guest JamesD]

I honestly haven't seen anything to prove to me otherwise.  What he did at Bolton was very good, but hardly brilliant. Is he better than Souness and Roeder? Probably,  but not by much.  He seems very arrogant in the souness vein , and that hubris is whats hurting us.  Maybe he'll wake up one day and realize he's not at bolton anymore, but he hasn't really shown any indications that he'll do so.

[Parky]

I honestly haven't seen anything to prove to me otherwise.  What he did at Bolton was very good, but hardly brilliant. Is he better than Souness and Roeder? Probably,  but not by much.  He seems very arrogant in the souness vein , and that hubris is whats hurting us.  Maybe he'll wake up one day and realize he's not at bolton anymore, but he hasn't really shown any indications that he'll do so.

 

How many tier one players do you think he has to work with?

 

I can only think of one and he seems permanently crocked.

[Guest JamesD]

I don't think we've got a team of world beaters, but when I see Derby county give chelsea a better game then we gave sunderland I can tell somethings wrong. 

[Guest Sniffer]

Exactly.

 

Like England, the individuals are not bad players but the team is a shambles on the field because they are totally disorganised. And that's down to SA and his staff.

[EthiGeordie]

Either way we can't judge Sam right now we were 14th when he came and we are 11th right now so no matter what we say thats an improvment and we have to give him more time. I am not disapponted with the long ball and false tacticts but I am more disappointed we sign lots of defenders yet stiill we leake goals for fun. No matter what he should have made us more solid and it is not happening at the moment. No matter what we have to wait until the summer make a good assessment and then decide what we can do with different manager. Unless we can bring in CL winning manger with extra caliber we might as well stick with Big sam.

[hakka]

Big Sam will turn things around.  We must be patient. 

[Parky]

I don't think we've got a team of world beaters, but when I see Derby county give chelsea a better game then we gave sunderland I can tell somethings wrong. 

 

Nearly the whole Derby side have played together now for 2 years. See the differance?

[colinmk]

We certainly sould stick by him, i can't see any progress on the field thus far though but im sure he has had to work hard to try and sort things out behind the scenes. I wouldnt be too bothered if England came in for him though as I think Newcastle could attract a manager of at least his quality and probably better with the board we have now.

[Parky]

Exactly.

 

Like England, the individuals are not bad players but the team is a shambles on the field because they are totally disorganised. And that's down to SA and his staff.

 

Brand new def

Rookie left back

No more than prospects for wingers

CM full of rejects..

 

I think you're enjoying ignoring one truth to play on another lie.

[Guest JamesD]

are you trying to describe newcastle or england?

[Yorkie]

Exactly.

 

Like England, the individuals are not bad players but the team is a shambles on the field because they are totally disorganised. And that's down to SA and his staff.

 

Brand new def

Rookie left back

No more than prospects for wingers

CM full of rejects..

 

I think you're enjoying ignoring one truth to play on another lie.

 

And the fact is, he's trying various things out simply to see what his best team is. He shouldn't have done that against Liverpool though, with the injury problems we had, granted. Like i said in another thread - if he tries every different permutation just to find the perfect one, it'll be worth a shoddy first season/half season.

[Parky]

I'm farily sure that Milner hasn't told him he's a right winger.

 

I'm not so sure he won't be on the trnf list come Jan either.

[Toon Amy]

I'm farily sure that Milner hasn't told him he's a right winger.

I'm fairly sure he has scored quite a few goals from the left though, including one against Sunderland, and I'm fairly sure he played there a lot for Leeds in the past.

[Yorkie]

Well, i'll stand by my previous post, but i don't think i'd go as far as to say "his only option was to play the team the way he did at the weekend", like you're suggesting Amy. It was a joke of a line-up.

[Guest JamesD]

Exactly.

 

Like England, the individuals are not bad players but the team is a shambles on the field because they are totally disorganised. And that's down to SA and his staff.

 

Brand new def

Rookie left back

No more than prospects for wingers

CM full of rejects..

 

I think you're enjoying ignoring one truth to play on another lie.

 

And the fact is, he's trying various things out simply to see what his best team is. He shouldn't have done that against Liverpool though, with the injury problems we had, granted. Like i said in another thread - if he tries every different permutation just to find the perfect one, it'll be worth a shoddy first season/half season.

and you've got confidence in someone (who's 'experianced') who needs to experiment with rediculous formations, most of which lead to poor preformances?

[Toon Amy]

Well, i'll stand by my previous post, but i don't think i'd go as far as to say "his only option was to play the team the way he did at the weekend", like you're suggesting Amy. It was a joke of a line-up.

I removed my post but in any case, what alternatives were there?

 

Bear in mind he had 1 fit central defender to choose from.

[Yorkie]

Well, i'll stand by my previous post, but i don't think i'd go as far as to say "his only option was to play the team the way he did at the weekend", like you're suggesting Amy. It was a joke of a line-up.

I removed my post but in any case, what alternatives were there?

 

Bear in mind he had 1 fit central defender to choose from.

 

There was a 4-4-2 available.

[Ally]

We played 4-4-2 for the most of it tbf, we were just utter shite.

[Yorkie]

Really? I didn't see it personally - just going off what people have said (and odd bits of highlights). No one had a fucking clue where they were meant to be by the sounds of things.

[Cajun]

If we did play 4-4-2 where was Smith supposed to be in the first half?

[Ally]

Really? I didn't see it personally - just going off what people have said (and odd bits of highlights). No one had a fucking clue where they were meant to be by the sounds of things.

 

The first half hour or so was a jumble, no-one really knew what they were doing. Smith looked like he was behind the strikers with Zog and Geremi as wingbacks in some bizarre thing Allardyce must have created in his sleep.

 

We switched to 4-4-2 but it didn't see any benefit as Smith is turd on the wing and didn't actually bother to play there for a lot of the time, whilst everyone else was just doing their own thing.

[Toon Amy]

Well, i'll stand by my previous post, but i don't think i'd go as far as to say "his only option was to play the team the way he did at the weekend", like you're suggesting Amy. It was a joke of a line-up.

I removed my post but in any case, what alternatives were there?

 

Bear in mind he had 1 fit central defender to choose from.

 

There was a 4-4-2 available.

 

I know it's possible... that doesn't necessarily mean it is the best of all options. Hindsight is always wonderful.

 

Who would be the back four?

 

Carr Beye Cacapa Enrique? No one would like that.

or

Beye Cacapa Edgar Enrique Sam probably didn't want to throw Edgar into a big match.

or

Edgar Beye Cacapa Enrique see above.

or

Geremi Beye Cacapa Enrique

 

Milner was probably rested on the bench by the way because of his U21 commitments in midweek, so playing Geremi as right back would not enable him to use Milner anyway, if he thought JM's energy levels were very low, so it would still be Smith on the right.

 

Did you have a better alternative? I know there are, but I am just trying to say that they don't come with guarantees.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Pie]

I'm farily sure that Milner hasn't told him he's a right winger.

 

I'm not so sure he won't be on the trnf list come Jan either.

Every cloud.....

Sam is NOT the right man. If we can get better then fair enough. If not then Unlucky, we'll have to put up with shit results, shit football and lots of tinkering. Think we'll keep him until summer then see what happens. All depends how ambitious Ashley is. Certainly Allardyce is not in the same league as Sven never mind Benitez, Ferguson etc.

[Toon Amy]

We played 4-4-2 for the most of it tbf, we were just utter shite.

It was 3-5-2, but they did not keep formation very well.

[Northern Monkey]

I honestly haven't seen anything to prove to me otherwise.  What he did at Bolton was very good, but hardly brilliant. Is he better than Souness and Roeder? Probably,  but not by much.  He seems very arrogant in the souness vein , and that hubris is whats hurting us.  Maybe he'll wake up one day and realize he's not at bolton anymore, but he hasn't really shown any indications that he'll do so.

 

How many tier one players do you think he has to work with?

 

I can only think of one and he seems permanently crocked.

 

he spent a lot of money. Are you telling me that he bought players he knew wouldn't be good enough? No, these are his idea of players that can do a job for us. He was wrong.