Mole_Toonfan Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Exactly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 We need more goals from midfield, last time we had Nolan, Guthrie, Raylor, Barton etc who could get the odd one. Richie's a great addition & Diame should add some. Hopefully aarons will step up, we're a bit stuck then though. De Jong perhaps, another would help. Id be suprised if we went for another striker we had nolan, the end. pretty sure barton only got 1 that season (free kick i think?) and i'd back diame to outscore both guthrie and raylor, and ritchie to outscore them all. lets not pretend we had plenty of goals from midfield last time, nolan aside, we really didn't. 35 goals from midfield is quite a lot like, Nolan got just under half of those. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interpolic Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Barton was out injured for most of our promotion season but popped up again towards the end to revel in glory he had little to do with. Wiki says he made 15 appearances but to be honest I'm surprised it was that high. Midfield was generally Guthrie-Nolan-Smith-Jonas before January transfer window and Routledge-Nolan-Guthrie-Jonas once we'd signed Routledge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 8 starts, 7 off the bench for Barton. We were extremely fit that season, picked up very few niggles and were able to pick a pretty consistent XI. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interpolic Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/7480136/Joey-Barton-thanks-Newcastle-fans-and-is-confident-of-club-return-to-Premier-League.html An interview with him on 19/03/10 when he'd been out injured for six months and was just about getting fit. Really annoys me when people (him included) go on like he was integral to our promotion, after a while it becomes accepted fact even though it's bollocks. He was good for us until Christmas the following season and that's about it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayson Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Swap Barton for Jonas. Either way, we did have scoring mids, the guys who got the assists were Guthrie, Jonas & Raylor etc Shelvey & Richie should be competing with them. Richie got nearly the same as our top two assisters put together that season on his own at this level two seasons ago. We could probably do with another attacking/creative midfielder, beyond that we should already have the players at this level. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 A couple of our players in midfield (Richie and Diame) are better than every midfielder we had last time so with another addition or two I think we'll be fine there. There's a better overall standard in the league now though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 A couple of our players in midfield (Richie and Diame) are better than every midfielder we had last time so with another addition or two I think we'll be fine there. There's a better overall standard in the league now though. Maybe better, but not as important as Nolan in terms of his goals and character within the team. Still think we are sorely missing leaders and characters in the squad, in fact I don't think we have any. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Lascelles? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Lascelles? Still too early to say I think. Obviously he was vocal towards the end of last season, but in a way the situation made it easier for him to speak up. Having watched him as captain, he doesn't exactly inspire massive confidence that he is the right man for he job, obviously two games is too early to judge but that's my immediate impression. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovejoy Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 We need more goals from midfield, last time we had Nolan, Guthrie, Raylor, Barton etc who could get the odd one. Richie's a great addition & Diame should add some. Hopefully aarons will step up, we're a bit stuck then though. De Jong perhaps, another would help. Id be suprised if we went for another striker we had nolan, the end. pretty sure barton only got 1 that season (free kick i think?) and i'd back diame to outscore both guthrie and raylor, and ritchie to outscore them all. lets not pretend we had plenty of goals from midfield last time, nolan aside, we really didn't. 35 goals from midfield is quite a lot like, Nolan got just under half of those. totally agree on nolan, but ritchie could quite feesibly hit/surpass his figures. the others mentioned, guthrie got 4, barton got 1, raylor got 4. Diame did that on his own for hull last season. they were hardly prolific. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovejoy Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Swap Barton for Jonas. Either way, we did have scoring mids, the guys who got the assists were Guthrie, Jonas & Raylor etc Shelvey & Richie should be competing with them. Richie got nearly the same as our top two assisters put together that season on his own at this level two seasons ago. We could probably do with another attacking/creative midfielder, beyond that we should already have the players at this level. jonas got 4! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Lascelles? Still too early to say I think. Obviously he was vocal towards the end of last season, but in a way the situation made it easier for him to speak up. Having watched him as captain, he doesn't exactly inspire massive confidence that he is the right man for he job, obviously two games is too early to judge but that's my immediate impression. For me there's a big difference between vocal and being listened to and respected too but you would hope Rafa has enough of that to get us by. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Lascelles? Still too early to say I think. Obviously he was vocal towards the end of last season, but in a way the situation made it easier for him to speak up. Having watched him as captain, he doesn't exactly inspire massive confidence that he is the right man for he job, obviously two games is too early to judge but that's my immediate impression. For me there's a big difference between vocal and being listened to and respected too but you would hope Rafa has enough of that to get us by. Agreed, however there are times throughout difficult moments in our matches, where we lack the personality of players to get hold of the ball and be brave enough with it. That could be down to lack of quality more than leadership/character though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 We need more goals from midfield, last time we had Nolan, Guthrie, Raylor, Barton etc who could get the odd one. Richie's a great addition & Diame should add some. Hopefully aarons will step up, we're a bit stuck then though. De Jong perhaps, another would help. Id be suprised if we went for another striker we had nolan, the end. pretty sure barton only got 1 that season (free kick i think?) and i'd back diame to outscore both guthrie and raylor, and ritchie to outscore them all. lets not pretend we had plenty of goals from midfield last time, nolan aside, we really didn't. 35 goals from midfield is quite a lot like, Nolan got just under half of those. totally agree on nolan, but ritchie could quite feesibly hit/surpass his figures. the others mentioned, guthrie got 4, barton got 1, raylor got 4. Diame did that on his own for hull last season. they were hardly prolific. On one hand you're saying they weren't prolific, then saying we should ignore the one who was. As a unit they were, it doesn't matter so much where they come from individually, in fact it's better if they all get a few as it means we don't lose out so much when injuries hit. Put it this way, I'll be absolutely fucking astonished if we score 35 goals from midfield this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Linked with Nakhi Wells in their local press. Similar to Gayle isn't he? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsley Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 A couple of our players in midfield (Richie and Diame) are better than every midfielder we had last time so with another addition or two I think we'll be fine there. There's a better overall standard in the league now though. Maybe better, but not as important as Nolan in terms of his goals and character within the team. Still think we are sorely missing leaders and characters in the squad, in fact I don't think we have any. Henry Winter was saying similar on the Sunday Supplement. It was certainly the case last season but it becomes a bit of a lazy criticism when you look at our transfer activity IMO. Rafa has clearly sought to address a supposed lack of leadership/experience this summer: Gamez is 31 and has a wealth of experience behind him, Hanley has nearly 200 senior apps under his belt for Blackburn and is their former captain and Clark has captained England and Villa at youth/reserve level. In any case, it takes time for a team dynamic to take shape and for 'leaders' to emerge. Nolan might have been our talisman in the promotion season, but he was fucking guff when he first signed in 08/09 and was guilty of hiding as much as anyone else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattoon Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 We need more goals from midfield, last time we had Nolan, Guthrie, Raylor, Barton etc who could get the odd one. Richie's a great addition & Diame should add some. Hopefully aarons will step up, we're a bit stuck then though. De Jong perhaps, another would help. Id be suprised if we went for another striker we had nolan, the end. pretty sure barton only got 1 that season (free kick i think?) and i'd back diame to outscore both guthrie and raylor, and ritchie to outscore them all. lets not pretend we had plenty of goals from midfield last time, nolan aside, we really didn't. 35 goals from midfield is quite a lot like, Nolan got just under half of those. totally agree on nolan, but ritchie could quite feesibly hit/surpass his figures. the others mentioned, guthrie got 4, barton got 1, raylor got 4. Diame did that on his own for hull last season. they were hardly prolific. On one hand you're saying they weren't prolific, then saying we should ignore the one who was. As a unit they were, it doesn't matter so much where they come from individually, in fact it's better if they all get a few as it means we don't lose out so much when injuries hit. Put it this way, I'll be absolutely fucking astonished if we score 35 goals from midfield this season. I think the argument is that it doesn't matter how few each of them got, it's the fact that they all chipped in. We can't expect one player now to pick up the slack of 3 or 4 other players in a sense of scoring. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 A couple of our players in midfield (Richie and Diame) are better than every midfielder we had last time so with another addition or two I think we'll be fine there. There's a better overall standard in the league now though. Maybe better, but not as important as Nolan in terms of his goals and character within the team. Still think we are sorely missing leaders and characters in the squad, in fact I don't think we have any. Henry Winter was saying similar on the Sunday Supplement. It was certainly the case last season but it becomes a bit of a lazy criticism when you look at our transfer activity IMO. Rafa has clearly sought to address a supposed lack of leadership/experience this summer: Gamez is 31 and has a wealth of experience behind him, Hanley has nearly 200 senior apps under his belt for Blackburn and is their former captain and Clark has captained England and Villa at youth/reserve level. In any case, it takes time for a team dynamic to take shape and for 'leaders' to emerge. Nolan might have been our talisman in the promotion season, but he was fucking guff when he first signed in 08/09 and was guilty of hiding as much as anyone else. Nolan didn't really contribute much to the midfield, in fact we were often outpassed by a lot of teams but they couldn't finish and Nolan could. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsley Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 A couple of our players in midfield (Richie and Diame) are better than every midfielder we had last time so with another addition or two I think we'll be fine there. There's a better overall standard in the league now though. Maybe better, but not as important as Nolan in terms of his goals and character within the team. Still think we are sorely missing leaders and characters in the squad, in fact I don't think we have any. Henry Winter was saying similar on the Sunday Supplement. It was certainly the case last season but it becomes a bit of a lazy criticism when you look at our transfer activity IMO. Rafa has clearly sought to address a supposed lack of leadership/experience this summer: Gamez is 31 and has a wealth of experience behind him, Hanley has nearly 200 senior apps under his belt for Blackburn and is their former captain and Clark has captained England and Villa at youth/reserve level. In any case, it takes time for a team dynamic to take shape and for 'leaders' to emerge. Nolan might have been our talisman in the promotion season, but he was f***ing guff when he first signed in 08/09 and was guilty of hiding as much as anyone else. Nolan didn't really contribute much to the midfield, in fact we were often outpassed by a lot of teams but they couldn't finish and Nolan could. I agree in terms of his play, but in our relegation season Nolan didn't score nor was he this magnificent leader. My point is that it takes time for these things to develop and that portraying the squad as 'leaderless' in comparison to the 09/10 lot is unfair given who Rafa's signed, the extent of the upheaval in personnel and how 'young' the squad is in terms of cohesion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovejoy Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 We need more goals from midfield, last time we had Nolan, Guthrie, Raylor, Barton etc who could get the odd one. Richie's a great addition & Diame should add some. Hopefully aarons will step up, we're a bit stuck then though. De Jong perhaps, another would help. Id be suprised if we went for another striker we had nolan, the end. pretty sure barton only got 1 that season (free kick i think?) and i'd back diame to outscore both guthrie and raylor, and ritchie to outscore them all. lets not pretend we had plenty of goals from midfield last time, nolan aside, we really didn't. 35 goals from midfield is quite a lot like, Nolan got just under half of those. totally agree on nolan, but ritchie could quite feesibly hit/surpass his figures. the others mentioned, guthrie got 4, barton got 1, raylor got 4. Diame did that on his own for hull last season. they were hardly prolific. On one hand you're saying they weren't prolific, then saying we should ignore the one who was. As a unit they were, it doesn't matter so much where they come from individually, in fact it's better if they all get a few as it means we don't lose out so much when injuries hit. Put it this way, I'll be absolutely f***ing astonished if we score 35 goals from midfield this season. I'm not saying that at all, I'm saying the ones in the example, Nolan aside, hit fairly average figures. I've qualified my point on Nolan by saying I think Ritchie will match him, which i do. Then, as long as we can match the relatively average (pathetic in Bartons case) figures the rest of the players in the example hit, then we'll do as well as we did then. Put it this way, Ritchie can match Nolan and diame, as I said earlier, hit as many as the others in the example combined. To suggest the midfield last time was better equipped to score goals than the midfield this time, isnt correct, imo, for the reasons above. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Nolan was essentially a third striker in midfield who escaped being marked because of that. Bit of a catch-22 situation because up front he'd get fewer goals and in CM he'd often be overran. Ultimately because of the rigidity of Championship teams and our quality in defence he was an extremely useful goal threat with weaknesses that could generally be overlooked. Shame we don't have someone like him now because you can guarantee the likes of Perez won't be getting 17 league goals this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 We need Diame and Ritchie to score at least 20 between them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovejoy Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 We need Diame and Ritchie to score at least 20 between them. Yep, very feasible. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neesy111 Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Nolan was essentially a third striker in midfield who escaped being marked because of that. Bit of a catch-22 situation because up front he'd get fewer goals and in CM he'd often be overran. Ultimately because of the rigidity of Championship teams and our quality in defence he was an extremely useful goal threat with weaknesses that could generally be overlooked. Shame we don't have someone like him now because you can guarantee the likes of Perez won't be getting 17 league goals this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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