JonTheMag

An article about twitter followers of the North-East clubs in the Chronicle: "Ah woz there when Liam n Zayn were lookin well fit on tha Nowth stahnd."

Good article - makes some interesting points especially about Bigirimana's value. Will be interesting to see if Bigirimana can keep up these positive stats with a longer run in the side. I have an issue with one of his claims though, which is this: In a recent interview, Sissoko stated that his preferred role was in defensive midfield, but looking at his ground and aerial 50-50s, his statistics look poor. Sissoko won 39% of his ground duels last season and despite his 6’2 frame, he only won 35% of his aerial duels. I think those starts are largely due to the role Sissoko was asked to play rather than his ability as a player. Duels include take-ons and being taken on, so given the amount of times Sissoko was asked to hoof it past a player and try and run into the channel, his duel stats aren't going to look great. Same with aerial duels. He'll have been making those challenges against tall defenders -- not diminutive midfielders and forwards. Those stats reflect his attacking capabilities rather than his defensive prowess, so if anything they provide an argument for Sissoko playing as a defensive midfielder.

Exactly. Emphasis seems more on bringing in known faces who have played the game than smart people who can articulate themselves eloquently. You get lucky from time to time with the likes of Neville -- Lee Dixon can be pretty good at times -- but more often than not they're of the Michael Owen/Jason Roberts variety.

Even if we had outbid Dortmund, I'm sure Aubemeyang would've pushed for a move to Dortmund anyway. I don't see him as much of a loss, there's no chance we'd beat out Dortmund who are technically the second best side in Germany and Europe -- even if we offered more in wages or transfer fees.

Haha I'm talking about zonalmarking.net, the tactics blog not the defensive strategy! You have a great point about the way games are broadcast, but there's a difference in broadcast times and coverage. The scattering of games definitely isn't a positive for the average supporter, but the analysis offered is a vast step up (I presume) from 80's football with the use of slow motion, 10,000 camera angles, and that stupid fucking touchboard that Sky seems to love so much. What Gary Neville's been doing on Sky though is fantastic for the game. That said it's not an across the board increase in quality, you still have morons like Redknapp and Lawrenson spouting shite. For someone who was alive and watched football in the 80s - what was the punditry like? Any better or worse than it is now? The same?

Statto.com is decent for a broad overview, but your best bet is http://www.whoscored.com/Statistics. They get stats directly from Opta and it's the largest freely accessible database (I believe). I get what you're all saying about the game changing in the last decade, and there's a lot of negatives to that. But I think what is changing for the better is that the public is becoming more aware of tactics and the importance of statistics in the game. Just look at how popular Zonal Marking has become. That type of analysis simply didn't exist for public consumption several years ago.

So, I realized there wasn't a dedicated thread for this thing -- Small Time Football Blather seems, well, too small time. This is a place for us all to discuss football in an analytical and in-depth sense. This is more ZonalMarking and Inverting the Pyramid than the Daily Mail and Lee Ryder. This topic is obviously open to all areas of the game, but a focus on NUFC is always welcome. At least that's what I'll always try and add myself. I'll get the ball rolling with this: http://www.optasportspro.com/en/about/optapro-blog/posts/2013/sustainable-possession.aspx It's a quite interesting article that splits the possession metric into unsustainable and sustainable possession. Nothing really ground-breaking here, but it is a deeper look at possession than we're used to. NUFC are well at the bottom end of the scale, with our sustainable possession being quite low. But as with all statistics, you can interpret them however you like. For example, note that Newcastle is above Atletico Madrid, and Wigan is above Real Madrid. Like I said, this article isn't exactly a game-changer. Anyway, feel free to discuss this and post more articles. (HappyFace, this must be right up your alley. Or at least I hope so)

And Remy was bought by QPR for about £8 million, meaning that either we're paying well over the odds or valuing Taylor at just £2 mil. It's probably all bollocks anyway though

Especially given that we passed on Douglas. I'd be ok swapping Taylor and £6m for Remy if we had Colo, Mbiwa, AND Douglas there as back-up.

If only this alternate reality were true!!!

I wonder if we were in the same situation as last summer (i.e. had just finished 5th, would be playing in Europe next season) if Benteke would come to us. I reckon he might've.

The wage demands and the length of contract he'll want are putting me off him. He's 29, so his next deal will be the last lucrative contract he'll sign before it all goes downhill. I'd definitely have him here if the price was right, but I'd much prefer Remy and a younger, more unproven striker.

He seems to be acutely aware of what the deficiencies were last year. He acknowledges too often we were focused on not getting beat rather than beating the opposition, and hopefully this rhetoric translates into his actual tactics. He couldn't have handled this whole Kinnear debacle better really, I'm very intrigued to see how Pardew sets this team up to start this next season.

Dave Williams, according to Kinnear.

Desirable is definitely too strong a word for it. More appropriate would be 'begrudgingly acceptable'.

Exactly. He's the alternative to Ben Arfa that we've been needing so long to link the deeper midfielders to the forwards. Whenever HBA's been we've lacked that incisive player who can run with the ball and create - Marveaux simply wasn't up to it and Sissoko is powerful but not as creative. Would be an excellent signing.

I'm assuming this rape accusation refers to his absolute rape of Newcastle's finances by signing a five year deal when it was plain to see how absolutely rubbish he was? Put him away for life.

We're not usually active on deadline day in any way, at least we haven't been since the whole Carroll saga. I think we'll bring in two or three players, one of which will be Bent and one of which will be a semi-promising youngster worth around £1-2 million. All sorted by August 20th or so.

Sinclair would be a great signing for us. A definite upgrade from Marveaux in both creativity and speed.

He's not a Ba replacement but he's a good addition. He's a better finisher than Gouffran,and has a bit more guile about him. He can run with the ball better than Cisse as well. Kone would definitely offer us a new dimension in attack, but I'd be worried about having him as our lone striker were Cisse to be injured. I'm holding judgement on this signing though, as I imagine the minimum we'd give him would be a 3 year deal, meaning he's 32 when he's in his final year. He's a bit of an unknown quantity having had only one season in the Premier League so £5 mil and the wages required to beat Everton and the Martinez link might be too much. I'd go for him if the wages weren't too high, and I'd prefer a 2 year deal.

1. Chelsea 2. Arsenal 3. Man Utd 4. Tottenham 5. Man City 6. Liverpool 7. Southampton 8. Newcastle 9. Everton 10. West Ham 11. Swansea 12. WBA 13. Sunderland 14. Aston Villa 15. Norwich 16. Fulham 17. Cardiff 18. Stoke 19. Palace 20. Hull FA Cup: Chelsea League Cup: Liverpool Champions League: Bayern Munich Europa League: Tottenham I reckon Southampton will have a similar season to what Swansea had last season.

I don't know how to do the Spoilers but - below are the answers for 12 and 15 are...... Tim Howard, and Claudio PIzzarro

We did. We wore the red away kit in our final match against Everton. As seen in the gallery here: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/everton-v-newcastle-goodison-park-3215019

If Wigan go down I would definitely take Kone off of them. He'd be a good partner for Cisse.

If goes to anywhere in England he'll go to Everton. Not a chance he'd work under Ashley