The Fish

Language!

You know it's perfectly ok to swear here?

What, confident in your steady reason & rationale, despite all those around you flitting between joy and despair? It's an oddly disquieting feeling, you start to think that you might be living alongside reality, but no, no at the end of the season you were right to be calm.

on RTG "dangermows" said and then said of the rotten core This suspect motherfucker needs a 100yd exclusion zone, iyam

Big bum.

Inherently Moral, dontcha know?

I think he'd be quality as part of a big-man/little-man combo, but I'm not sure that this iteration of Newcastle can play that style, certainly not given where we are in this season's league.

That Secret Footballer is spot on, there's something sinister running through that club. Cut it open and bleeds Wobble Boards and Jim'll Fix It badges.

Would have thought Norwich was the easier game to get all 3 points. The derby is going to be unpredictable, where we're as likely to get an early red & never get back into the game as we are grind out an ugly 1-0. Norwich is another shit team, but without the nonsense that surrounds the derby, they haven't a goal scorer (like sunderland do) and they're just as crap at the back. The Leicester performance shows we can be disciplined away from home and, but for a bit of luck, we would have snatched a point.

and because there's no one within 10 yards of him, he's trying to hold off 2 opposition players while waiting for support. The midfield need to take turns getting closer to him or running past him.

That would be funny if it was so scary.

GIVE SOLDIERS UNNECESSARILY VIOLENT VIDEOS You won't be brave enough to quote this.

Snatched at the chance Mitrovic laid on a plate for him, but that's match-sharpness I reckon. Must be frustrating for Mitrovic, gets few chances and when one falls for him it's either too awkward to get a shot off himself so he lays it off to de Jong, or he's tackled by his own fucking player.

That was something Leicester did all game, Okazaki & Vardy were expecting a flick on and 9 times out of 10 it didn't happen, but 30 seconds later they were busting a gut to get onto another one. Perez does that at times, but Sissoko, Gini and the rest don't. CT thinks Doumbia probably does it all the time Guarantee he was screaming for Gavilan to start.

You're the one too tight to pay for a decent hotel man. You could always try serviced apartments or AirBnB? Or you could try having better taste in music?

Reckon we'll draw or lose, but win enough of the remaining games to survive. Which will be nice, because they'll go down having taken what they want from the season (beating us) and we'll take what we want from the season (not being relegated) and everyone is happy

I've a daydream that the lunches that Rafa is apparently to have with Shearer is about convincing Large Alan to help our strikers with finishing training.

Yup. Also, we face 5 of the bottom 9 in the final run in, we won't face a defence as well drilled as Leicester until we face Spurs. I fancy Rafa's influence and the opposition's limitations bringing us enough points to stay up. Janmaat had an absolute stinker going forward but was all right defensively, Anita was nothing and we looked more dangerous when he went off (though I'd still start a defensive midlfielder beside Shelvey instead of Gini for the derby), Sissoko looked great for the 1st 25 minutes, but when the goal went in, he reverted to type. That type being Perma-shite We lost by 1 goal to the league leaders, a goal that may have been struck off by a different ref. We were denied a penalty that, on another day, may have been given. We went toe-to-toe with them for pretty much 90 minutes. I'm worried about the derby, can see us losing or drawing, but I fancy us to stay up by virtue of facing another 4 bottom half clubs and Rafa having more of an impact on the players (and having players returning from the treatment room). I've worked out why CT demands the unfancied player to start. It's a no lose position; If they don't start and we win he can say he'd hoped to see them get more time and that was the perfect fixture for them, if they don't start and we draw he can say that they would have been the difference, if they don't start and we lose he can say that they would got us at least a point. I they do start and we win, it's obviously because of them, if they start and we draw he can say we would have lost it without them and if they start and we lose, it's because they haven't had enough time. He can state all these things without a scrap of evidence to back his claim. Hence his love affair with Ferguson, LuaLua, Sammy, and now Doumbia. He sees a player that might be better in the wings and pins his hopes on that, despite evidence to the contrary. It's a gut feeling and nothing more.

Yup, and that would have given Benitez 18 days in La Manga to prepare for 2 winnable games before this one and 12 games in total to get us to safety. 4 points from those two would have had us on 28pts, 3pts clear of sunderland.

Really frustrating but I am expecting Moussa to suddenly find his nutsack and play a bit. re: Perez & Wijnaldum, I was thinking it might be worth playing them both and have them trade positions throughout the game and if one of them is getting more joy stick with it longer?

You fucking haven't like. All you've said is that he "seems a natural goal scorer". Well he hasn't scored, and over their career, Cisse has a better record so I'm not sure why you'd pick Doumbia ahead of a someone who's proven they can score in the Premier League. If you'd said you think his pace would stretch Leicester's back line, that he can hold the ball up so we can build an attack around him, of that you believe he can fashion chances on his own... if you'd said any of that I might have disagreed but at least you'd have said something. But you didn't, you just said "he seems a natural goal scorer", well sorry mate but your track record of picking a player is god awful.

Aye I'd agree with all of that. I'd add that I expect the team to play with more cohesion under Rafa and as such we wouldn't see Mitrovic as isolated. Re: Perez, I personally wouldn't play him up front on his todd, I think he works best when linking up with players and he hasn't the physicality to lead the line, nor the energy to buzz around their back line like a Long or Bellamy.

Unfortunately for Gemmill, this wasn't a thread for boys, oh no, it's Just for Men.

horseshit ~ Pony tail? I dunno... Gemmill's not great at punning