No point blaming Roeder. Our players are awful...

[KaKa]

In our whole squad we have only 2 players who can pass the ball consistently well, when on form, and therefore positively affect the game going forward.

 

Emre and Solano.

 

Nuff said...

 

Roeder's biggest test will be getting in more quality players who can do this and who also have the character to galvanize the team. Our captain can't lift the team with his play enough.

 

We completely bottled it tonight and not a single one of the players could take responsibility and get our players going...

 

:'(

[Syrette]

Erm, the other players are on the whole decent and have proved that elsewhere. A decent manager would be getting far more out of them.

[shido]

I agree to some extent...i think parker played his socks off for us and sib worked very hard....

 

nobby was SHOCKINGLY bad tonight as were quite a lot of them....

[Skirge]

ROEDER GOT IT WRONG 100%

You could see they tried top lay to how he wanted them to, they were like rabbits caught in headlights, froze with not a fkn clue about what they should be doing.

Glens fault all the way!!

[Lenny]

Solano's passing was shit today. I think the players are as much to blame as Roeder since they were a bunch of gutless fucking clowns, but Roeder just sat and watched and gave absolutely no guidance!

[chicago_shearer]

Erm, the other players are on the whole decent and have proved that elsewhere. A decent manager would be getting far more out of them.

 

I'm so tired of people saying that.

 

Why don't they play like it then???  Does the manager tell them "dont pass the ball to your team mate?"

 

 

[Mr. Snrub]

Well considering how we played, it would have seemed his HT team talk went something along the lines of;

 

"It's ok, lads.  We're still winning 4-3 on aggregate, let's leep things as they are."

 

Yeah, I think I will fucking blame him.

[SEMTEX]

Solano was fucking shocking today. Touch, composure and distribution of a young Titus Bramble.

[Nate]

I really thought nobody would be thick enough to come out and defend him after that display. Evidently I was wrong.

[Mr Logic]

No-one to blame but Glen, the players only reflect his instructions and mentality on the pitch.

They picked up once they'd gone behind, too little too late. Roeder tactical nous has been exposed once too often.

[Lenny]

Also, didnt Solano say the other day that you cant pump balls up to Dyer and Martins because they are small? wtf was he doing all game!!!

[Guest sicko2ndbest]

Roeder cannot attract top players. He is getting by on the top names he has been left with at the club.

 

If Roeder had been manager for the past 3 seasons, there would be no Owen, no Parker, no Duff, No Emre etc. It is the big name players we have that make us an attractive option . Roeder has no clout.

 

I am blaming Roeder, he is the boss, he sends them out with a game plan, he sends them out in the right frame of mind.

 

Roeder out!!!!

[ElDiablo]

There's plenty of potential for a decent manager to come in and turn us into a good team again.  We're not a team, we're groups of 3/4 individuals at a given time on the pitch.  This is down to the manager, so therefore I shall blame the manager.

[Karjala]

Every player should be ashamed of themselves. How much do they get paid, they are supposed to be superstars on superstar wages, and they regularly put in performances like that.

 

Loose on Sunday, and the rest of our away games. Nobody gives a fu*k.

[KaKa]

That's my point! Solano has to be brilliant every game or it looks like the whole team can't pass the ball!

 

Every good thing comes from Solano or Emre when he is fit to play!

 

Did you guys not see Roeder shouting at them to play the ball along the floor in the first half??? The players were incapable of doing it!

 

I respect Parker for his heart and determination, but I have rarely ever seen a player lack so much composure in the attacking third. He looks a shockingly limited footballer!

 

I'm nnot sure any manager on Earth could have done better with that team...

 

To make matters worse, when things go bad we beome so withdrawn and we play scared. We have no bottle as a team.

 

The team needs so much work done on it and the players we have to bring in need to be first team players who have achieved things and are very confident. I'm not sure if Roeder's youth policy will be appropriate at this point in time.

 

He needs to be careful...

[KaKa]

I really thought nobody would be thick enough to come out and defend him after that display. Evidently I was wrong.

 

My point was that you could blame Roeder all you want but the actual team of players also needs a lot of work as well.

 

We are a poor team throughout, from top to bottom.

 

Me thick? Your having a laugh...

 

I is propa educated dude!

[chicago_shearer]

You are all totally deluded if you think a top manager could come in and make Titus Bramble, Stephen Carr, Huntington, Ramage, Taylor, Babayaro a good team.  Personally, I'm past caring if Roeder is sacked or not.  But you are all pretending this is a good side and that - despite all evidence to the contrary for about 4 or 5 years - they are ready to rocket up the table when Hitzfeld or Hiddink or whoever rides in on his white horse.  The players aren't there at the moment.

 

Even when they win they look poor most of the time.  This magical turnaround under a new manager theory is based on the notion that players like Parker & Dyer will suddenly pretend its 2001 or 2002 again and return to form they haven't found consistently since then.  The squad is about 60-70% utter wank.

[Newcastle Fan]

Roeder takes most of the blame,our players take the rest..

 

[KaKa]

You are all totally deluded if you think a top manager could come in and make Titus Bramble, Stephen Carr, Huntington, Ramage, Taylor, Babayaro a good team.  Personally, I'm past caring if Roeder is sacked or not.  But you are all pretending this is a good side and that - despite all evidence to the contrary for about 4 or 5 years - they are ready to rocket up the table when Hitzfeld or Hiddink or whoever rides in on his white horse.  The players aren't there at the moment

 

 

Even when they win they look poor most of the time.  This magical turnaround under a new manager theory is based on the notion that players like Parker & Dyer will suddenly pretend its 2001 or 2002 again and return to form they haven't found consistently since then.  And

 

 

A man after my own heart...

 

OUR PLAYERS STINK!!!

 

[Skirge]

Nobby has beenc lass at winning the balla nd bringing it forward, tonight you could see he had been told to not push on just get the ball up field. That makes Novvy a different and less effective player to what we are used to.

Play to your strengths not your weaknesses, our strengths are attacking our weakness is deffending.

[YankeeToon]

Oh, there's plenty of blame for everyone. Why not spread it around?

[nazza06]

Roeder- gutless, pathetic, wrong tactics, wrong team - Sib (not subbed) and huntington????

the team - passionless, to some extent mislead, nervous?, shite.

me - rather depressed

[J7]

I like Glen Roeder, but its a simple fact that he isnt a good enough manager to manage a team who want to challenge for trophies and up towards the top of the league. Tonight went exactly the way I thought it would. Glen picked a without any plan in the slightest. We should have either went there and attacked, with a 4-3-2-1, or went and put 5 across midfield to stop AZ. We did neither and it was predictable.

 

Fat Freddie wont do anything though. We will have ANOTHER shit start next season and the gutless fat cunt will sack him then. Pathetic really!

[Mr Logic]

There was a point near the 68th minute where Butt had the ball in an advanced position. He was looking for someone to pass to and then gestured with both hands as if to say 'Nowhere to pass to', he turned and gave the ball to Bramble.

 

Bramble looked for all the world as if he considered passing it to the nearest AZ player, but the ball went slightly astray and went back to Butt. At this point the camera pulled out a bit and I saw the three front players. They were stood like statues without a ficking clue, waiting for the ball to their feet when they were all marked like a man on a walk to the gallows. Not one of the muppets thought about moving to get it, or to create space and movement.

 

Now players can be tired, they can be disinterested and disheartened, but that was abysmal application at this level.

 

I don't know whose fault that is, but hopefully there is video dissections going on tomorrow and those three get a proper bollocking.

[Guest Magic]

First, let me just say I think Glen did a very good job for most of last season, I don't want to take that away from him. I also think he's a decent bloke and I don't blame him at all for taking the job, and I'm sure he's working very hard and generally doing his best, (and I'm sure some will say this is kneejerk - and perhaps it is to an extent) but...

 

Being from Watford I remember when Roeder took them down. They were rubbish, boring and going down without a fight. Then Graham Taylor took over and the whole attitude changed. Won one game 6-3, one 5-2 and a couple of others. Couldn't save them but at least they went down fighting. This was a while ago of course, but I don't see much of a change now. It was this memory and especially the Man City game last season (I think it was them, the penultimate game anyway) that made me opposed to his appointment:

 

At the time it looked like we'd need a win there for a chance of the Inter-toto, otherwise a win against Chelsea. With the game level did we go for it and try and win the game? No, we sat back and played out a boring draw. As it happened things worked out, so fair play, but generally that attitude was, and is, wrong. It's indicative of Glen's cautious nature that doesn't suit Newcastle.

 

All season long we've been playing boring, hoof-it-long-to-Sibierski football. Long ball can be effective, but we're not even any bloody good at it; we hardly ever win the second ball. Must be about 30 times a game we give it straight back to the opposition through this tactic, and the most frustrating thing is that we have some good midfielders who can do something with the ball. Emre, Butt, Parker, Duff, Zoggy, Dyer, Solano, Milner, all of these guys are good players. They don't get nearly enough ball though because we're too busy hoofing it long to Sib. When we do get the ball then some people try and do too much. I appreciate that we've had a lot of problems through injuries, but most of the time we've still had a pretty good midfield, with at least 3 of these players being available, but we've still done nothing to try and use them, even when they were our strongest unit on the pitch.

 

Look at tonight's game (or most others). Their defence wasn't very good but we hardly tested it. We spent the whole first half whacking it down the middle. When we finally went behind, then we started passing it and actually made one or two opportunities. We can be a decent attacking side, but we still haven't grasped that fact yet. To me this is Roeder's responsibity.

 

Our team has no movement; when one of our players has the ball in midfield everyone's standing still. When we win it back people aren't streaming forward to cause problems, they saunter forward, they turn in circles, they have no options, they pass it back. A lot of this is down to poor coaching. Our team does not flow when attacking, it is not creative. This comes from a cautious mindset and a host of longballs from Shay.

 

Youth - Glen keeps saying he doesn't want to throw youngsters in at the deep end, but then injuries cause him to play youngsters in the biggest matches - Huntingdon (Chelsea?), Edgar (Man U). So far the only young defender who's impressed me this season is Edgar. Against Man U, (even without the deflected goal) I thought he played very well. And not just well for a young debutant, well by premiership FB standard. He was always looking around, knew where his man was, got in good positions, didn't make many mistakes and looked like he knew how to keep the ball and actually kept Ronaldo pretty quiet. Yet despite 2 good games he hasn't been given another chance. I'm not saying he's necessarily destined for greatness or anything, but his performances warranted more games to try him out - the fact he was prepared to go for that shot against Man U surely says something about his confidence/attitude.

 

Substitutions - I'm a believer that you can tell a lot about a manager's tactical ability from his use of substitutions. Substitutions aren't just to replace injured or tired players, they're used to change the pattern of the game, counter the opponent's tactics and gain the upper hand. Roeder rarely seems to change anything until the last 5-10 minutes of regulation time, and often by then it's too late. He waits and waits and waits, even when it's been obvious for half an hour that we're producing nothing. Look at Hiddink, almost all of his substitutions at the WC seemed to produce something, or Mourinho - if his gameplan's not working he's shown several times he has the confidence to change things by the half hour mark. Admittedly Roeder hasn't often had a strong bench to work with, but leaving Huntingdon on for 85 minutes??? Why? We needed to change things by 70 mins at the very latest, we needed pace and width and creativity, why wait to bring Zoggy on? Why take all the width out of our team when our success against them in the first leg came from taking on their fullbacks? Roeder in my opinion is very poor with substitutions and to me that reflects badly on his tactical prowess.

 

I'm not going to talk much about transfers; I don't have a problem with the ones he has made and to be honest I very much respect that he's more interested in waiting for the right long-term player than in panic buying to secure his position (assuming it was Glen and not Freddy who decided this). I just don't think Glen's the right manager for this club; he's too cautious, he doesn't appear to want to take a chance and he doesn't seem to be able to turn us into a decent attacking force- because his mindset is too cautious.

 

Again, I have nothing against Roeder personally, he seems like a good bloke. Indeed I hope he proves me wrong because that would mean success for United, but I just can't see him as a potentially successful long-term manager of our club. I can take us losing. I can take us getting knocked out of Europe and trophyless for another year. I can take us playing badly. I can't, however, take us playing badly with so little ambition, flair or fight. We're Newcastle United. If we lose a game we should lose it with a bloody big cannon volley, not with a pathetic, hoarse whimper.

 

Sorry for the length but I've been needing to get that of me chest for a while.