Dave Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Am i the only one that thinks we played well given our current situation? Similar to the City game. We started out promisingly then faded to a predictably poor level. If Stoke had had a little luck they'd have beaten us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I'll defend Sam over one thing. You can't blame him for the selection tonight. Butt and Smith is a horrible combination but it was about the best we could muster. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Given 7 Roz 2 Taylor 6 Faye 8 Enrique 7 Duff 6 Butt 3 Smith 3 Zog 7 Viduka 3 Owen 2 LuaLua 6 Carroll 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I'll defend Sam over one thing. You can't blame him for the selection tonight. Butt and Smith is a horrible combination but it was about the best we could muster. Could have played Edgar, and Faye in the midfield, but I take your point. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Knightrider Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Shay - 4; Didn't catch a cross all game and his kicking was woeful. Made some OK saves though. Roz - 2; A soft shite who bottled numerous challenges. Weak as piss on and off the ball and constant use of the hoof did us no favours whatsoever. Taylor - 7; Defended very well all things considered. Feye - 7; See above. Duff - 5; Good in parts, inadequate in the main. Clearly feeling his way back to full fitness. Looks quicker at least. Smith - 0; One of the worst performances in a Black & White I can remember in recent years. Abysmal would be being kind. Butt - 4; Shocking passing, tackling and shooting. He worked hard but sorry that's just not good enough. N'Zogbia - 6; One or two good moments but like Duff not good enough in the main. Gets a slightly higher rating for having a few shots at goal. Owen - 2; Slower than Viduka which says it all. Spent most of the game moaning at his team-mates, the linesman and putting his hand up for imaginary handballs and fouls. Viduka - 4; Battled hard and had one or two moments of quality but his movement was poor and his general game just not up to scratch. As for the manager, sorry but he can't be blamed for the players' inability to even control a football. If you can't control the ball you have no chance of passing it well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinho lad Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 well played faye and taylor Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 on the plus side, Enrique looked very capable and Duff hasn't lost any pace because of his injury He's gained it by the looks of things. Very pleased with how he's come back. And pleasantly surprised. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alan Shearer 9 Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I'd start with Kazenga in the centre over Smith, such was Smith's level of shiteness today. Lualua did more in his brief spell than Smith did in the entire game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ember Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Am i the only one that thinks we played well given our current situation? Similar to the City game. We started out promisingly then faded to a predictably poor level. If Stoke had had a little luck they'd have beaten us. Actually yeah you're right the second half we got off lightly. I didn't see the City game so I won't compare it, but thanks Dave for putting me on the right tracks mate Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 on the plus side, Enrique looked very capable and Duff hasn't lost any pace because of his injury He's gained it by the looks of things. Very pleased with how he's come back. And pleasantly surprised. Same. Absolutely amazed by some of the off-the-ball runs he made in the first half, was still going at 60 minutes as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dokko Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I'd start with Kazenga in the centre over Smith, such was Smith's level of shiteness today. Lualua did more in his brief spell than Smith did in his entire Career. FYP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syrette Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I forgot Smith was on the pitch for large parts of that game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinho lad Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Shay - 4; Didn't catch a cross all game and his kicking was woeful. Made some OK saves though. Roz - 2; A soft shite who bottled numerous challenges. Weak as piss on and off the ball and constant use of the hoof did us no favours whatsoever. Taylor - 7; Defended very well all things considered. Feye - 7; See above. Duff - 5; Good in parts, inadequate in the main. Clearly feeling his way back to full fitness. Looks quicker at least. Smith - 0; One of the worst performances in a Black & White I can remember in recent years. Abysmal would be being kind. Butt - 4; Shocking passing, tackling and shooting. He worked hard but sorry that's just not good enough. N'Zogbia - 6; One or two good moments but like Duff not good enough in the main. Gets a slightly higher rating for having a few shots at goal. Owen - 2; Slower than Viduka which says it all. Spent most of the game moaning at his team-mates, the linesman and putting his hand up for imaginary handballs and fouls. Viduka - 4; Battled hard and had one or two moments of quality but his movement was poor and his general game just not up to scratch. As for the manager, sorry but he can't be blamed for the players' inability to even control a football. If you can't control the ball you have no chance of passing it well. Don't think Given deserves a 4. He made a few decent and important saves at least. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 ratings Ouch, not even a mention of Enrique? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unbelievable Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Taylor was our best player. Everybody seems to have forgotten he did exactly the same as Roz did vs Derby, letting the forward in by being halfhearted.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 As much as Lua Lua ran at people and was sort of innovative without direction, he was very controlled and not a headless chicken. I appreciate how contradictory that sounds, , but what i mean is - he ran with it and actually searched for someone to pass to, as apposed to just randomly running absolutely anywhere, and going absolutely nowhere. He picked the ball up, ran, and looked to spread it to the wings. Very encouraging performance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmk Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Alan Smith is a SHITE midfielder. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I'd start with Kazenga in the centre over Smith, such was Smith's level of shiteness today. Lualua did more in his brief spell than Smith did in the entire game. Kazenga looks very promising I'd like to see him on the bench more. Has that much sought after weapon as well...Pace!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keefaz Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 As much as Lua Lua ran at people and was sort of innovative without direction, he was very controlled and not a headless chicken. I appreciate how contradictory that sounds, , but what i mean is - he ran with it and actually searched for someone to pass to, as apposed to just randomly running absolutely anywhere, and going absolutely nowhere. He picked the ball up, ran, and looked to spread it to the wings. Very encouraging performance. What the hell are you on about? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hakka Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Firstly, well done to Stoke. They battled hard and closed us down for 90 mins, and when on the ball they were not scared to pile forward and probably should have scored. I was most pissed off with our overall performance. After 45 mins, there were indications that we could win and signs that it would require us to adapt our style a bit. Instead we continued to play poor and there was only a handful of players in a black and white shirt pulling the strings. The rest were simply there to lose the ball and make up the numbers it seems. Given - 6/10 - Hardly a confidence filling performance, but made saves when he had to. Got lucky when Faye clambered back to cover up Taylors fuck up. Enrique - 6/10 - Didn't do much wrong. Didn't do anything else of note going forward. Feel there is a talented player here who is not being used to his best in the Newcastle side. Faye - 8/10 - Great performance. Often called upon to sort out all sorts of defensive slip ups and generally the man there to save the day at the back. Taylor - 5/10 - Didn't have much to do, but his fuck up neary lost us this game. Rozenhal 4/10 - Wasted possesion far too much. Duff 7/10 - Was lively, just didn't seem to always get the best pass to run on to. Stoke made life difficult for anyone on the ball, but always felt Duff seemed dangerous. Was a great backwards lob when the keeper was off his line in the 2nd half, shame lady Owen couldn't poke a head at it. Butt 8/10 - Great performance from Butt. He worked hard and battled and was always looking to quickly pass the ball around a bit and take advantage of Stoke's "charge at the man with the ball" approach. My biggest gripe with Butt, is that he is being called upon to be the creative man in midfield as well as the tough tackler and protecter of the back four. So many times the ball was given to him to shoot at goal when he has a terrible shot on him. Also he was the only player looking to find creative passes, fair play for trying, but Butt should be used for his best ability, breaking up play and simple passes. Fed up with seeing him trying little dinks over the full back fail etc. Not his fault, as fuck all else tried to find the killer pass in the final 3rd like he did. Smith 1/10 - I honestly have no idea why this man was on the pitch other than to make up the numbers. He is useless. Would rather play with 10 men than have him play in midfield. When Smith is near the action you think "hey we have a player there" but he complete undermines the team by ruling himself out of action through a wasted lunge at the opposition. He can't pass, he can't tackle... no idea what happened to this man as in this game, he looked the worst player on the pitch. N'Zogbia 7/10 - N'Zogbia looks like our most dangerous player. He works very hard and must have been responsible for a fair amount of our shots at goal (bar Butt's row Z'ers). As much as I enjoy watching him run at goal and take shots, I feel too much reliance is on him to get us something out of games. It shouldn't be a 1 man band, we need to create and finish as a TEAM. It's not Zoggy's fault (when say fault, I mean be greedy and go for goal) that he's the only one with some venom when he runs at goal, but its frustrating that our most dangerous man is only Zoggy when we should look dangerous as a unit, especially against a Championship side. Viduka - 6/10 - The most talent played on the pitch skill wise. Great feet and vision, just sadly a lazy fat cunt with zero work rate. 2nd dangerous man on the pitch from Zoggy, mainly because Viduka can pull rabbits out of his from time to time. Need to take advantage of this man more as he can receive the ball and make use of it nearly every time. By his standards in this match, he was average though. Owen - 6/10 - Shame. We have one of the worlds best finishers, yet we can't provide him with decent chances to finish. Think he did well to drop back 2nd half and try to pick the ball up and pass it. Infact, I'd rather have Owen in centre of midfield than Smith. Owen can receive the ball and pass it wisely, something Smith never showed in that game. Of course, I'd never actually want Owen anywhere else than up front. It's also frustrating that we have nobody to supply this man with a decent through ball. Butt was the man trying, but it's not his game to do so. As for our subs... Lua Lua - 7/10 Looked lively, made a few good runs. Why hasn't this man been used as a sub more often while Duff was out? would like to see more. Carroll - 6/10 Did ok to reach a few headers. It was far too difficult to find a goal from that really tight angle (and under pressure from stoke players) right at the death, but again someone that I'd expect to see a bit more of while Martins is out. ------------------------ Again, credit to Stoke, they played very well and made it tough. It was clear that we had the ability to win this game, but we just don't play the type of football to do it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Swift Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Still in it, which is what counts. Terrible conditions, you could see it from the way the ball kept bobbling everytime we tried to pass it around. I'm not excusing the players, but it is pretty hard to pass it around (carpet football) if you're not actually playing on a carpet. We had a few decent chances. Owen really should have scored twice. In the first instance he had to react quicker and in the second instance I just thought he needed to be stronger and head that fucking thing in. Great defending from Faye. Taylor also did quite well for me and I like the way he kicks the ball out everytime it goes loose instead of trying to pass it back to Given or anyone else. That's good safe defending there. Smith was shite. Worst player on the pitch. I don't think I've seen a midfielder disappear like that in a while. It's a joke that he's our 'captain'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Knightrider Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Oops, forgot about Enrique... Enrique - 4; Worked hard but poor. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 As much as Lua Lua ran at people and was sort of innovative without direction, he was very controlled and not a headless chicken. I appreciate how contradictory that sounds, , but what i mean is - he ran with it and actually searched for someone to pass to, as apposed to just randomly running absolutely anywhere, and going absolutely nowhere. He picked the ball up, ran, and looked to spread it to the wings. Very encouraging performance. What the hell are you on about? I don't fucking know. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 That was shite, no matter how you dress it up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keefaz Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Given - 5 Rozehnal - 3 Taylor - 6 Faye - 6.5 Enrique - 5.5 Duff - 4.5 Butt - 5 Smith - 1 N'Zogbia - 5.5 Owen - 3 Viduka - 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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