Stoke City 0 - 0 Newcastle United - 06/01/08 - post match reaction from page 22

[thomas]

How can u give Duff and N'Zogbia ratings of 7 when they created nothing?!!!!!

They constantly got into good positions, n'zogbia had a decent corner or two as well as the odd good cross.  Duff started out like a house on fire, glad to see he hasn't lost much.  He does appear short of fitness though and no, didn't look that great in the 2nd half.

 

and Butt 4 when he won most our tackles and had most of our shots?!

I think his last one just sailed by my house.  Honest to god he probably concussed four or five poor bastards in the stands.  None of his shots resulted in the keeper making anything resembling a save.

[ChezGiven]

Given - 7

 

Roz - 5

Faye - 8

Taylor - 6

Enrique - 7

 

Duff - 7

Smith - 3

Butt - 4

N'Zogbia - 7

 

Viduka - 5.5

Owen - 5

 

Allardyce - 2

Spot on

 

So all the players had reasonably good games and we lost because of the tactics?

 

Utter bollocks. The fact that Smith and Butt as a partnership offers no creativity or pace means that we are not much better than the opposition in the most important area of the park.

[ChrisJbarnes]

well duff and zog 7 is fair. i do think butt deserves a bit more seeing as he was the only one who would actually have a shot! fair enough they were rubbish, but i wish someone else would shoot as well as nicky "goal machine" butt

[Dokko]

btw, people criticise ITV and five coverage? fucking hell. i've never seen such one-sided crap in all my life from the BBC.

 

Don't take it personally, its the 'magic' of the FA cup. Broadcasters are allowed to take sides and nail their colours to the smaller team, its tradition.

 

 

[Rich]

taylor was better than 6 surely?

 

Not his biggest fan, but if we're rating him as a centre-half then he probably does. Numerous last-ditch stops, putting his body on the line. Only real issues were a couple of times from corners when he lost his man, which is probably a couple of times too many.

 

Thought he put in a very solid performance otherwise and was more key than Faye in us keeping a clean sheet, although Big Abdoulaye makes things look a hell of a lot easier and is undoubtedly more assured/composed than Taylor.

[thomas]

 

So all the players had reasonably good games and we lost because of the tactics?

We what?

 

edit:  If you follow my post history you'll note I'm one of Sams bigger "give him time" cheerleaders.  Today, however, I think he got it all wrong tactics and selection wise

1) Roz at RB?  If ANYTHING, start Tayls at RB -- at least he has experience there at the senior level and loads of it for the U21

2) Smith and Butt in Midfield.  No.  Just ... No.

3) Swapping Duff/Zog on the wings at halftime.  Recipe for disaster.

4) Drop one of Viduka or Owen for Smith/Carroll.  I don't think that partnership can or will work.

[Dr Venkman]

faye and taylor were great, enrique looked promising but made a few mistakes, typical foreign youngster

 

smith was rubbish, butt was defensively better but creatively rubbish

 

zoggy, not as effective as when playing from deep, duff looked dangerous but still looks like he needs more speed, whether its there or not i dont know

 

owen looked good first half, didnt waste a ball, faded second half, viduka was average

 

lua lua looks very promising

 

pleased we're still in the draw, now can we buy some creative players please?

[Guest mobiius]

just sat and listened to the most biased comments which are typical of the BBC. we get a draw and people on here are talking about relegation for fuck sake. look at all the teams that have been knocked out and we are still in it. admittedly we didnt play well but we were away to a decent side and its a cup game. No mention what so ever of any of the chances we had just the stoke ones.Thought shearer would of at least mentioned the fact that stoke were still in it  by about 4inches when carrol come close in the dying seconds but the BEEB mustnt have put it in his script. The sun will be full of the headlines tomorrow on the back page. God forbid we get drawn with a lower league team tomorrow, there will be a national support campaign for them orchestrated by news international, why don't we just give up and let stoke have  a by.Fuck that bring them to SJP and let them see what 50 odd thousand getting behind their team is like. Bit of a different proposition there i think. 

[Syrette]

Taylor was our best player.

[Guest neesy111]

anyone who thought we played well should have their heads checking 2nd half we got totally outplayed from a average championship squad and deserved to lose

 

i think we're gonna get dragged into relegation dog fight on that evidence

[Cronky]

Given - 7  Pulled off some decent saves

Rozenhal - 3  Horribly lacking in confidence. He can do better than that.

Faye - 8  Held things together extremely well. A real cool head in a crisis.

Taylor - 6 Erratic, but kept going.

Enrique - 6  Seemed to suffer from the general confusion.

Duff - 8  Back to his best.

Smith - 4 The worst I've seen him play, and I'm not usually one of his critics. The combination with Butt was crap.

Butt - 5  Typically won a few challenges, but no leadership qualities and can't pass.

N'Zogbia - 7  Looked likely to make things happen, if frustratingly naive at times.

Viduka - 5  Looked cumbersome and slow.

Owen - 4  Struggled to get involved.

 

Lua Lua 8 - A very, very promising performance. No sign of nerves at all and eager to take responsibility.

[ChezGiven]

 

So all the players had reasonably good games and we lost because of the tactics?

We what?

Sorry , didnt win.

[Gallowgate Toon]

How can u give Duff and N'Zogbia ratings of 7 when they created nothing?!!!!! and Butt 4 when he won most our tackles and had most of our shots?!

Probably because Butt was fucking awful in possession, and most shots... off target doesn't warrant a high rating. I agree Zoggy was useless today, lost the ball alot etc but Duff however i thought looked pretty sharp.

[Optimistic Nut]

What do you get if you cross a crappy little Ford with a legendary Italian keeper....Kazenga. Mwahahahaha. Think I've had too much JD tonight.

[Dave]

What do you get if you cross a crappy little Ford with a legendary Italian keeper....Kazenga. Mwahahahaha. Think I've had too much JD tonight.

 

That's worse than my left-back gag.

[black_n_white]

i dont think anyone deserved a rating above 6 apart from maybe Taylor, Faye and Given. All im saying is that Butt played better than a 4!

[Benwell Lad]

Given Stoke's recent form and the awful conditions I think most Prem teams would have taken a draw down there this evening.

In the context of this weekend FA cup games not a bad result at all.

[JH]

What do you get if you cross a crappy little Ford with a legendary Italian keeper....Kazenga. Mwahahahaha. Think I've had too much JD tonight.

 

That's worse than my left-back gag.

 

Which was?

[fredbob]

The only positive i could get out that match was LuaLua, he looked very confident. Reminds me of Zog a little bit. Would like to see him on the wing.

[Dave]

How sad is it watching Michael 'I'm running in treacle' Owen trying to chase long balls btw? It seems Allardyce/the defenders are also under this illusion that he's still pretty quick. He ain't. At all.

[Ember]

Am i the only one that thinks we played well given our current situation?

[Dr Venkman]

Just what the f*** was Sam thinking, honestly? We were playing well in the first half, it was a matter of time before we scored.

 

"We're playing well lads. We've played some half-decent stuff on the floor, some nice passages of play, some nice quick passes. But our final ball isn't working. I know! Go straight to the final ball and see how that works."

 

 

f****** stupid. Couldn't believe it. Honest to God. Honestly, i thought Sam would learn from his mistakes, but with things like this - jsut what the f***. It was a CARBON COPY of Man City. First half good, on the floor, pacey, etc - second half, all long ball and utter s***. Madness. What's he thinking?

 

I'm not entirely convinced that the manager has that much say over the style of football/way the game pans out once the players cross the white line. It's not like it's just Allardyce who has overseen second halves like that after decent enough openings here recently. The players aren't good enough for one, the conditions were terrible, everything else was against us. I don't believe for a second that he's told our lot to go "more direct" at half-time.

 

If anything, it was plainly obvious that if we played some football then we might win it.

 

 

 

If it wasn't the manager who told them to play direct, it wasn't the players.

 

i'm confused, who was it then, god?

[Ronaldo]

on the plus side, Enrique looked very capable and Duff hasn't lost any pace because of his injury

 

shame about Owen, the guy looks slower than Shola

[JH]

fucking hell Allardyce! "Andy Carroll should have won it for us at the end..." Talk about clutching at straws

 

"It was a draw but a very good draw"

[Dr Venkman]

btw, people criticise ITV and five coverage? f****** hell. i've never seen such one-sided crap in all my life from the BBC.

 

I flicked Five Live on a few times when away from my television, now that was complete and utter tripe.

 

And 6-0-6 is hosted by Steve Claridge tonight.

 

i was getting so in infuriated by how many times the camera cut to sam throughout the whole game, especially the minute long close up on his eye, let us watch the match man!