Newcastle United 2 - 2 Derby - 23/12/07 - post match reaction from page 15

[James]

But by putting Enrique on the bench, it gives you the option of pushing N'Zogbia further forward or even in the centre of midfield, while maintaining a natural balance at the back.

 

Look at it this way:

 

Steve Harper - Goalkeeper

Damien Duff - Winger who can cover at left back

Emre - Attacking central midfielder

Geremi - Central midfielder who can cover at right back

Taylor - Central Defender who can cover both full back positions.

 

Harper cant be changed, nor can Taylor as he is the only CB option, while Geremi is another good defensive option.

 

It therefore depends on whether you want N'Zogbia,whom has played for 60 minutes and is obviously finding it tough due to the proposed substitution to be used in an advanced position instead of Duff or Emre.

[Wullie]

But by putting Enrique on the bench, it gives you the option of pushing N'Zogbia further forward or even in the centre of midfield, while maintaining a natural balance at the back.

 

It therefore depends on whether you want N'Zogbia,whom has played for 60 minutes and is obviously finding it tough due to the proposed substitution to be used in an advanced position instead of Duff or Emre.

 

What you on about, "finding it tough due to the proposed substitution"? Of course you want him instead of them two, one's a central player and the other one's just rubbish.

[Parky]

What's scary to me is that Big Sam appears to have believed that the last two wins were justification for his ridiculous tactics, when in fact, the games were won in spite of his efforts. Like always, we arguably had four players out there playing outside their best positions. There was no reason to not put Jose Enrique out there against Derby and allow N'Zogbia and Milner to play where they're best suited. How hard is it to figure out:

 

----------------Given

---Beye---Taylor---Cacapa---Enrique

--Milner---Emre---Barton----N'Zogbia

---------Viduka---Martins

 

If that team goes out there today and allowed to just play the game at the level they're capable of, Derby would be beaten, imo.

 

I'd have to agree with this.

[Wullie]

What's scary to me is that Big Sam appears to have believed that the last two wins were justification for his ridiculous tactics, when in fact, the games were won in spite of his efforts. Like always, we arguably had four players out there playing outside their best positions. There was no reason to not put Jose Enrique out there against Derby and allow N'Zogbia and Milner to play where they're best suited. How hard is it to figure out:

 

----------------Given

---Beye---Taylor---Cacapa---Enrique

--Milner---Emre---Barton----N'Zogbia

---------Viduka---Martins

 

If that team goes out there today and allowed to just play the game at the level they're capable of, Derby would be beaten, imo.

 

I'd have to agree with this.

 

Aye that's spot on. Funny, I was assured last night that the team is much better and more creative with Milner and Charlie down the left. One good flank apparently.

[Disco]

Fucking ridiculous. I need to stop going to the matches, the five home games i have not attended this season we have won and we haven't won the 5 i have gone to. So don't get your hopes up for the City game either folks.

 

 

[merlin]

People can make excuses and explore our performance today, talk about what we deserved etc. but at the end of the day, In games where we should have taken 6 points (Derby (h) and (a)), we have instead taken 1 point. That is not acceptable in any way.

 

Totally agree with this.

 

Another very poor performance rescued by two good finishes from Viduka - all this talk about ' we were all over them for 75 mins' does not wash in my opinion as there were large parts of the game when we looked disorganized and Derby played the better passing football.

Much of our pressure came from the long ball/fight for knock-downs football that has been played by the side for most of this season, and that, ultimately, will NOT bring consistent success...

The side looks disjointed and predictable ; many of us have been complaining about players being used out of position, and that was graphically illustrated by N'Zogbia today - once he was pushed forward late in the second half, he caused them all sorts of problems with his pace because IT WAS BEING USED IN AN AREA WHICH COULD HURT THEM and not half-way back down the field.

 

Duff looked better than in many of his previous appearances, and he will not yet be match-fit, and Emre was the only midfielder who could produce a pass which caused their defence problems - unfortunately,he is best used as a sub for he fades if used from the start, and this really highlights what is missing from the side ; a top creative midfielder.

Rozehnal has disappointed me - I honestly thought he looked a good player in early games, but his defensive weaknesses have proved costly and dangerous ; the Defence generally looks uncertain ;  Barton gave away possession with a will during this game, and has not lived up to the hype about him - he wants to get his own game sorted out before moaning about our fans....!

Smith was - well, Smith ; more fightball than football, but then, this IS an Allardyce team..

 

Credit to Viduka for rescuing the side from defeat(for that is surely where they were headed before his excellent second strike(harder than it looked, a first time volley with the outside of the foot) and this was his best game for the club in terms of involvement in the game, but our forwards look mediocre generally.

 

To be fair, Derby have a new manager and fought hard - but that was really no excuse ; as someone on another thread has said, how long can Allardyce`paper over the cracks ?

Any accusations of 'knee jerk etc' are just excuses - one day, people will let the scales drop from their eyes and see that the Emperor has got no clothes..

 

No-one in their right minds expects Top 4 Football but we should be getting BETTER THAN THIS BY NOW -

and NO excuses.

 

[Tooj]

Couldn't get to the match today and haven't had time to watch the Sky+ yet, barring the goal how did Giles Barnes do?

[Mowen]

Couldn't get to the match today and haven't had time to watch the Sky+ yet, barring the goal how did Giles Barnes do?

 

Looked quite good I thought. Very quick, and not afraid to put his head down and run with it. Was cynically fouled a couple of times whilst breaking into our half, and the finish was excellent as well.

[Baggio]

Couldn't get to the match today and haven't had time to watch the Sky+ yet, barring the goal how did Giles Barnes do?

 

I thought he played really well considering the players he had around him, he tried to keep a passing game going and looked dangerous at springing the counter attack.

 

He's a lot bigger than I thought he was too.

[Mick]

Couldn't get to the match today and haven't had time to watch the Sky+ yet, barring the goal how did Giles Barnes do?

 

He did OK but wasn't brilliant, he did clear a header (I think) off the line.

[Zero]

 

A waste of a place?

 

Jose on at half time... no hang on, from the start, for Alan "what's that over there with the net attached?" Smith and we win at a canter today.

 

But no, two games against Derby, two games with Charlie at LB and we get a point. f****** s***.

 

The painful truth so far this season is we get less points when Jose is playing at LB.

[BlueStar]

On the plus side, the fact we've given them more than half their points this season means they've got more of a chance of beating the mackems record-breaking point total.

[Tom_NUFC]

That was atrocious. I was embarrassed by it.

Barton was awful and Smith wasn't much good either. N'Zogbia was desperate to get forward and was frustrated at left back. Martins was wasted stuck out wide.

 

Allardyce - this is shite man!

[Guest Ridzuan]

The performance was undoubtedly poor.In fact,I think poor is an understatement considering the opponents that we are facing and that we were playing a home.Once again,we have conceded an early goal,thats 3 in a row now at home,and that we have to come back from a goal down to climb back into the game.I thought the 4-3-3 formation didnt work yesterday,and most if not all the crosses was coming from the left hand side of the field from Milner and N'zogbia.I think if you want to have more chance of scoring goals,the crosses has to come from both side of the field and I didnt see Barton doing it,maybe a little bit from Beye.But when Duff came on and Milner went on the right,which I think is his preferred position,we look much better,for a short period of time only and I think we should start playing Milner on the right and Duff on the left now that his fit again.

[Northern Monkey]

Match report -

 

Tactics - wrong

Formation - wrong (twice)

Selection - wrong

New Players Fat Head has bought - mainly pish

Fat Head - shit.

 

How anyone can continue defending this cunt is beyond me. He is incapable of learning from his many, many mistakes, and he has spunked £25m up the wall. YES, he has sold some players, but he has ACTUALLY SPENT £25m on players HE wanted.

 

He's looking very much like he wants to give the previous couple of managers a run for their money in the obstinacy and patheticness stakes. Well done, FAt HEad, you are exactly the man to take us to challenge the top 4. Now fuck off.

 

[Thespence]

Given beaten with a shot outside the box early doors again.

Giles Barnes was okay, I thought Kenny Miller was there best player.

Roz is getting worse.

Viduka doesn't do much running, plays with back to goal but scores goals.

Smith does lots of running, plays with back to goal doesnt score goals.

Emre came on & was pinging the ball round in there half, it is all I ask.

Duff looked sharp.

Nice to see when we were chasing the game towards the end we moved 442 & we had attacks down both flanks.

 

Statto Sam must know 1 win out 4 games & 1 clean sheet against the bottom 3 equals s**** in anyone's book.

 

 

[Northern Monkey]

Given beaten with a shot outside the box early doors again.

Giles Barnes was okay, I thought Kenny Miller was there best player.

Roz is getting worse.

Viduka doesn't do much running, plays with back to goal but scores goals.

Smith does lots of running, plays with back to goal doesnt score goals.

Emre came on & was pining the ball round in there half, it is all ask.

Duff looked sharp.

Nice to see when we were chasing the game towards the end we moved 442 & we had attacks down both flanks.

 

Statto Sam must know 1 win out 4 games & 1 clean sheet against the bottom 3 equals shite in anyone's book.

 

 

 

No, the Fat Bastard thinks that saving the game vindicates his tactical genius. He's a pathetic cunt.

[Ally]

People calling for Enrique to play must have forgotten he's been pretty shit since he arrived - as read in another thread its another case of a player who gets better in the eyes of the fans with every game he doesn't play.

 

 

[BlueStar]

Statto Sam must know 1 win out 4 games & 1 clean sheet against the bottom 3 equals s**** in anyone's book.

 

Statto Sam hasn't been looking at it that way though, he's been referring to the more positive sounding "unbeaten in four games" stat.

[Thespence]

Statto Sam must know 1 win out 4 games & 1 clean sheet against the bottom 3 equals s**** in anyone's book.

 

Statto Sam hasn't been looking at it that way though, he's been referring to the more positive sounding "unbeaten in four games" stat.

 

He is looking at it really postive as we got beat off Derby

[robbo_11]

I think its time to Rozehnal out of the firing line, starting at Wigan. Taylor and Cacapa should start the next game. We looked alright going forward yesterday, but the defence is still indifferent. I'm sure I read on here that someone else had observed that Derby did most of the attacking down the right hand side in the first half, as Martins was too central and Beye often had to cover two men as Rozehnal's positioning was questionable. Martins is not a winger and this causes another defensive problem, as well as stifling creativity.

[Northern Monkey]

People calling for Enrique to play must have forgotten he's been pretty shit since he arrived - as read in another thread its another case of a player who gets better in the eyes of the fans with every game he doesn't play.

 

 

 

and fans who still want to give Allardyce time forget he's the stupid cunt who paid £6m for Enrique, and is now forced to play our best left winger at left back.

[ChezGiven]

Fucking ridiculous. I need to stop going to the matches, the five home games i have not attended this season we have won and we haven't won the 5 i have gone to. So don't get your hopes up for the City game either folks.

 

This.

 

[Northern Monkey]

Statto Sam must know 1 win out 4 games & 1 clean sheet against the bottom 3 equals s**** in anyone's book.

 

Statto Sam hasn't been looking at it that way though, he's been referring to the more positive sounding "unbeaten in four games" stat.

 

and pretending we played "very very well" in some areas yesterday. Cos he's a cunt.

[Thespence]

I think its time to Rozehnal out of the firing line, starting at Wigan.

 

Spot on, he looks  shot atm. It doesnt help that the non-exsistent DM who has just got a new deal is actuall stopping FUCK all in front of him.