nortoon

Perch is awful, Williamson has been quite good, they were both quite cheap. Noone has seen Tiote play, hoping he will be the next Michael Essien

I like that team, Hughton was never gonna drop Nolan and thats as good as it can get for me (I'd probably pick jonas for routledge but it makes little difference). Looking forward to watching our new signings for 90 mins. I still think we will lose though.

Think we are gonna get battered on saturday. Then again I thought we'd get battered when villa came, and expected a comfortable win against Blackpool. That said I have removed Nolan and benched Carroll and williamson again now (on fantasy football). I actually have a rule about never betting on or relying on newcastle for any sort of game, which i broke shamelessly against blackpool. Jinx is fixed though, so might be we get a win on saturday!

But you'd still leave Barton on though? Who has consistantly given the ball to the opposition. I'm not sticking up for Nolan, who I think is a passenger unless he's scoring, but what you said made no sense. Who would you put on for Barton then? I dont see a clearcut central midfielder on the bench.

Well nolan has missed every chance given him, just like against wolves. And its not like he contributes towards anything else.

smith and nolan off please. Tiote and Arfa on please.

has it started, my shitty paid for norwegians stream service doesnt have a picture?

quality before quantity

He probably saw the photographer and drew his gut in

Not saying Routledge isnt gonna be an asset this season. I just think Ben Arfa should be picked infront of him when everyones fit. Hughtons isnt gonna drop the captain and our left side partnership works with jonas and enrique. Routledge is the only player who runs behind the defences, and i think he will be a very good impact substitute. And with injuries he should still get many starts.

Seems a no-brainer to put Ben Arfa in from the start for me. Routledge was fairly bad even in the Villa game. Watched it again and he created absolutely nothing, every single cross was either blocked or heading to no-mans land. And when he didnt cross he tried moving along the box and was disposessed easily by Villa every time.

Im much more aggrieved at losing out on Cleverley than Gudjohnsen. Wigan ffs . doesnt seem like there were any good value for money strikers out there though, considering gyan went for 13m. I think combined with some of our players seeming to perform a lot better than previous season (Barton, Williamson, Carroll and yes even Smith has been decent imo) these transfers should be enough to make us stay up. Hopefully we can keep working on cheap deals like these and maybe get us a decent rb and striker in jan or next summer.

Has ben arfa ever played in that right attacking position? And even if he has i dont think thats where he'l be wanting to play. I can see houghton switching gutierez on the right but i dont think that would be the right choice (no pun intended) as he's linking well with enrique. As far as tiote and smith are concerned, i suppose you can keep switching between the two, one suspension after another. He did in the friendly versus Norway, also from the youtube videos ive watched ive seen him play right left and centre anyway I agree with Saylor might be a good choice for right back aswell.

here goes: Krul Simpson - Saylor - Williamson - Enrique Tiote Barton Ben Arfa - Nolan - Jonas Carroll Harper has looked shaky and I think he is bound for the glue factory soon. Time to see what Krul is made of. Right backs: Should be in this order. Simpson, Raylor, Perch. I find Perch one of the most awful right backs in the prem I have seen so far, and yes, i'd rather use Raylor. Centre backs. Williamson seems the obvious best CB at present. I have no clue who will prove to be the best of Campbell, Saylor and Colo. Though I hate Saylors pointing as much as the next man, he does score a few goals per season and Colos first season in the prem was awful, Id love for him to prove me wrong though. No idea how good Tiote actually is, hopefully hes better than Smith. Who i dont mind having in the squad to come on in the last 10 minutes to help defend leads. Barton has been a huge plus so far, the most pleasant surprise after Williamson for me. Guthrie is not a bad backup to have. Wingers: From what ive seen of Ben Arfa hes mostly played winger, and as such i just switched him with Routledge who has completely failed to prove his doubters wrong so far. He seems too lightweight and just not good enough for the prem to me. Not much worse than Jonas, but Jonas does have a good understanding with enrique, and his crossing has improved somewhat. Besides they are our only 3 wingers unless you count Raylor, and im sure there wont be alot of bench-time for any of those 3. If we are gonna play Nolan he needs to do the job he is best at. Poaching goals behind Carroll. Considering he is the captain now it seems unavoidable that he will play. And he does provide a goalscoring threat, even if everything else in his play frustrates me. (his inability to do anything but one-touch passes that surprises whoever its aimed at for one). From what i hear of Gosling thats the sort of player he is aswell, so there is the backup for him. Atleast Hughton has given himself a lot of choices. Sometimes he can remove the Nolan role completely and play Routledge/ Ben Arfa / Jonas behind Carroll, or just put lovenkrands in instead and play big and small strikers. Carroll should play every minute unless we lead by 3 or more goals. I worry when he is out. We looked like getting the win against wolves before we subbed Carroll and put the donkey on. I trust none of our other strikers to do his job. Though I think Ranger and Loven will be if not good, at least tolerable solutions if we want a pacy striker on in the last minutes.

When does the window close? at midnight after 1. august or the 31st?

I think harper should have saved the goal, went right through his legs. Never looked liked scoring after we took carroll off and the donkeyshow began. I am happy with the performance though, and whilst the penalty might have been a penalty, Wolves probably deserved 1 or 2 sending offs. I think we'll stay up this season, especially with Ben Arfa and Tiote coming in.

Our defending of set pieces have been fairly crappy aswell.

Dominated the first half. Carroll is winning every duel, even outjumping hahnemanns hands. Our finishing and last passes have been awful though. Also Wolves are flying all over the place getting clear yellow cards and freekicks, and the weak ref seems to wanna placate the home fans by giving them cheap free kicks whenever carroll wins a duel, and then he gives Carroll a yellow card for a tiny bit of mouthing off. Jelle van damme attempts to murder jonas' achilles and gets a yellow

ah cheers. When you said .com my mind switched to .co.uk for some reason.

I cant find the pic. Is it confirmed then? link plx!

A pm would be lovely

My warnock got -1. While on the bench williamson is sitting with 13

Great game. Carroll the man of the match, Was surprised at his pace aswell. He won a couple of headers then ran onto them himself . Amazing assist. Great finishing. Had a sweet volley after the whistle was blown aswell. Williamson looks like the new bassong. Bought for a tiny sum and outperforming colo, who also looked strong. Enrique had no trouble with albrighton or anyone else, and linked up well with jonas to get forward. Great ball to Carroll for the first goal. Barton scored a great goal and looked tidy. Smith did well and should have had a penalty. I cant help but love his tackling, they look so crunchy. Routledge was a disappointment to me. He just looks physically weak and afraid to take a shot on. Even though he can beat his man well enough he needs to read the play better. Nolan did what he was supposed to do. Hunting for goals standing behind Carroll. I worry about him playing when we arent dominating though. Perch, alot of people has said he had a good game. I completely disagree. The few through balls that came through for Villa was from his side, and alot of the time i just saw colo or williamson doing the defending with him not being present. His loss of the ball to young when he dallied at the end could have cost us the clean sheet. Looks uncertain on the ball and still seems like a championship player to me. Harper could have lost us the game at the start, clumsily done. Didnt have much else to do. Pleased with the subs. 2 of them got good assists and Raylor almost got a goal. All in all villas only dangerous player today was Ashley Young, and our whole team played extraordinarily well. Ireland for example never got into the game at all. If we can keep this home form running we should avoid relegation comfortably! Hopefully this wont limit Ashley to think the squad is good enough.

Really happy about this, not because i have any clue about who he is. Just that we actually spent money on a player.

dawson, king, bassong, woodgate AND gallas is a bit much. Ill take bassong back for half the price.