Jack Colback (now a free agent)

[Varadi]

Please stop comparing him to David Batty. It offends me greatly.

 

Aye. Batty could completely dominate the centre of midfield against top opposition, Colback will never be that player.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Please stop comparing him to David Batty. It offends me greatly.

 

Massive

 

[Guest firetotheworks]

Can't believe some are knocking him for being ordinary. What did you expect from someone who we signed on a free from the lot down the road?

 

For me, I said it last week, he reminds me a lot of David Batty and the role he used to play. Nothing flashy, nothing silky but just a simple, tidy battler whose job is to calm things down and sweep up.When we had Batty, we had Ginola, Rob Lee, Beardsley and Gillespie being the creative players. Now, it's Cabella, Sissoko, Gouff and De Jong. I would add Anita to that list but we know Pardew would drop him when Tiote is back. Tiote is sometimes a shambles on the ball and with his passing and very rash with his tackles though.

 

So because we expected it, we should shut up and accept it?

[Hanshithispantz]

Jack Colback is a guaranteed starter in our midfield and people are actually happy with that. The year is 2014.

[ponsaelius]

He had a good game yesterday in that his game suits Pardewball to a tee, lots of comfortable and safe passing in midfield. Perfect for a side with no movement or dynamism going forward like our lot. No surprise to see fans creaming themselves over his displays while the players entrusted to try to break the slow, tentative, static style of play on their own like Cabella and sometimes Sissoko are coming out with criticism for their obviously poor displays. 

 

Pretty sure it was the same when he was at Sunderland; lots of praise for him playing well then realising at the end of the game they'd scored no goals.

 

His set pieces are an improvement on what we had though, so that's a plus.

[NUFCDoog]

I think Colback is the sort of player every side in our sorta position needs, so around the top 8 mark.

 

He's nothing flashy but he's a good passer of the ball and will get stuck in when he needs do. He's solid and reliable. Aye in an ideal world he wouldnt be a guaranteed starter, but he's definately a player worth having.

 

In saying that I personally think he's been our best player first 2 games, whether that says more about the other players than him I dont know, but im certainly not devastated to see him starting.

 

It's just important that the players in front of him feed off him and ignite flair and creativity, but thats another discussion.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I've come to the conclusion that most of our fans are total mongs like, Ashley completely knew what he was doing when he started methodically lowering ambition.

 

Everything can be summed up with a Futurama image.

 

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090602210843/en.futurama/images/4/44/Brain_Slug_Party.JPG

[Optimistic Nut]

I think Colback is the sort of player every side in our sorta position needs, so around the top 8 mark.

 

He's nothing flashy but he's a good passer of the ball and will get stuck in when he needs do. He's solid and reliable. Aye in an ideal world he wouldnt be a guaranteed starter, but he's definately a player worth having.

 

In saying that I personally think he's been our best player first 2 games, whether that says more about the other players than him I dont know, but im certainly not devastated to see him starting.

 

It's just important that the players in front of him feed off him and ignite flair and creativity, but thats another discussion.

 

Agree with the first line if you consider him as nothing more than cover for Anita who is better. I think there are games where you can play the two but I'd sooner have Anita in his role with Sissoko & De Jong.

[Foluwashola]

I understand the general lack of acceptance towards Colback but too many on here have him marked down as ineffective before the game's even kicked off. Stop being such petty little men.

 

I see we're already migrating towards a 'he plays well because he's a Pardew player' stance.

 

Impressive how creative people can get when performances aren't as expected.

[Guest firetotheworks]

You're happy to swallow all of this though, or at least you're still paying for it anyway. If you think that he's been decent, let alone that it's acceptable to have him in our team then that's your choice, that's exactly what they want. Mint, we have a player that isn't s***, we're not worthy.

[Guest firetotheworks]

We're turning into a club that's being damned with faint praise by its own set of fans man. It's absolutely lifting.

[Hanshithispantz]

He'll start over Anita, which is fucking tragic.

 

He's an average to decent player and I was harsher on him than I needed to be because he seems like a bit of a prat, I'd certainly be happy with him in the squad, although players like him are 10 a penny he's here now and he's bedded in quick.

 

The problem is that not just a squad player, he's pretty much a guaranteed starter, and deciding not to purchase someone significantly better than him knowing this was utterly fucking breandead from everyone involved. We actually looked at our starting XI with the season ahead of us and decided "Aye, Jack Colback is the lad we want in that midfield, we also want Emmanuel Rivière leading the line." I despise every one of them.

[Foluwashola]

Have sat through dozens of performances from the likes of Amdy Faye, Nicky Butt & Alan Smith, KI. Not sure why Colback continues to be singled out as if he represents a blight on NUFC's proud history of central midfielders.

 

He's been a lot more effective than Anita in the first couple of games tbf. If Colback had came through the Ajax youth system and wasn't a dorty mackem I suspect opinions would be slightly different.

[Hanshithispantz]

They would be aye, as people would probably assume that there was more to his game.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Have sat through dozens of performances from the likes of Amdy Faye, Nicky Butt & Alan Smith, KI. Not sure why Colback continues to be singled out as if he represents a blight on NUFC's proud history of central midfielders.

 

He's been a lot more effective than Anita in the first couple of games tbf. If Colback had came through the Ajax youth system and wasn't a dorty mackem I suspect opinions would be slightly different.

 

Disagree that he's been more effective tbh, two weeks in a row Anita has come off and we have struggled to keep the ball in both games.

 

Besides their roles are drastically different, at the end of the day Colback will continue to catch the eye while running around like a headless chicken.

 

Meanwhile Tiote will come in and do what Anita's doing albeit less effectively.

[ponsaelius]

He's not even a bad player, just a fucking dull and average one.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Have sat through dozens of performances from the likes of Amdy Faye, Nicky Butt & Alan Smith, KI. Not sure why Colback continues to be singled out as if he represents a blight on NUFC's proud history of central midfielders.

 

He's been a lot more effective than Anita in the first couple of games tbf. If Colback had came through the Ajax youth system and wasn't a dorty mackem I suspect opinions would be slightly different.

 

We've also just sat through having Yohan Cabaye. You look for progress sequentially, not over a period of time. Doing it that way allows anyone to mention Rob Lee, Peter Beardsley, David Batty, Gary Speed and indeed, Yohan Cabaye.

[mozy]

He's not even a bad player, just a fucking dull and average one.

 

He's capable and willing to make runs into the box, just we don't have any plan to take advantage of it. So yeah after about 3 months he'll not bother making them anymore and turn into Glenn Whelan.

[Guest neesy111]

We lost our momentum yesterday after Anita went off.

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

We lost our momentum yesterday after Anita went off.

We had momentum?

[Revolution Number 9]

People have said he'll do well because he's a Pardew player but I think even he would benefit a lot more from a manager who played better football and actually used our creative players. His main quality seems to be that he's good at retaining possession for us, if we played a system actually capable of doing something with that possession then I think he could be a fairly useful option to have around.

 

Of course, under Pardew all he's capable of is to help keep the ball with no eventual effect. Once again, IMO, the problem at it's root is actually with that slimy fucking prick.

[timeEd32]

 

He had a good game yesterday in that his game suits Pardewball to a tee, lots of comfortable and safe passing in midfield. Perfect for a side with no movement or dynamism going forward like our lot. No surprise to see fans creaming themselves over his displays while the players entrusted to try to break the slow, tentative, static style of play on their own like Cabella and sometimes Sissoko are coming out with criticism for their obviously poor displays. 

 

Pretty sure it was the same when he was at Sunderland; lots of praise for him playing well then realising at the end of the game they'd scored no goals.

 

His set pieces are an improvement on what we had though, so that's a plus.

 

[TRon]

The problem is, he performed better than all other players, e.g. Moussa and Anita ytd.

 

Performing safer isn't performing better. What did he actually do that was going to lead to a goal? At least with Sissoko he will drive forward with the ball, which is usually the best route to getting the ball in the opposition net. Maybe that's not Colback's job but if it isn't his job is obviously going to be a lot easier.

[Ronaldo]

 

He had a good game yesterday in that his game suits Pardewball to a tee, lots of comfortable and safe passing in midfield. Perfect for a side with no movement or dynamism going forward like our lot. No surprise to see fans creaming themselves over his displays while the players entrusted to try to break the slow, tentative, static style of play on their own like Cabella and sometimes Sissoko are coming out with criticism for their obviously poor displays. 

 

Pretty sure it was the same when he was at Sunderland; lots of praise for him playing well then realising at the end of the game they'd scored no goals.

 

His set pieces are an improvement on what we had though, so that's a plus.

 

 

Incredibly rich statement to be made about an NUFC player given all the midfielders we have who seldom contribute to goals.

[themanupstairs]

We lost our momentum yesterday after Anita went off.

 

We lose our momentum every single time Anita gets taken off. He's not a flashy forward so doesn't get recognized as a "match-winner", but he's every bit a match winner when on the pitch due to his exceptional technical ability and reading of the game. The guy just "knows" football. We don't have too many of them in our squad let alone our first team.