OTF

<puts hand up>

19 year old one month loanee was clearly our best player. Worrying indeed. Came closest to scoring, put in the best cross of the game and saved what would otherwise have been a goal for Leicester. Other than that Hughton has had a shocker. I can only assume that Jonas was there for no reason other than to fill a bench seat. He would have been the perfect player for this match and no doubt would have linked up nicely with van Aanholt down the left hand channel. As it was Guthrie was yet again forced to play out of position but this time on his much less favoured left hand side WTF Chris? Nicky Butt and Alan Smith in central midfield - what a creative duo that was WTF Chris? Together they couldn;t seem to muster the average contribution you'd expect from a central midfielder. Hughton should have removed one or both of them MUCH MUCH earlier in the match - ie. as soon as they were down to 10 men. Another depressing watch. Put some players into the team who can fucking pass a ball Chris, and then some players who like to run into space. We've now got the players in our side, so use them properly. Lumping the ball forward to Carroll does very little except turn over possession and frustrate the supporters. Stop our players from doing it all the time. Having some players with a little urgency on the ball may go a way towards doing that. Onto the good things - Williamson was solid, the previously mentioned van Aanholt was good, and Routledge looks like he's added some pace and ability on the ball (as well as some good off the ball runs). So our three new players were the best of a very poor bunch.

Needs a rest to rivitalise.

Don't know about quality, but better than expected. It's not good in the championship having a myriad of mediocre striking options. It'd be horrible having it in the Premier League.

The biggest concern I have is that he picks players based on their status/stature within the side, and not on their merits as players and what additional dimensions they would bring to the side. His substitutions sometimes seem to target certain players as though he doesn't want to upset more senior players. It would be harsh to get rid of him that's for sure, but if the right manager was available it may be a consideration. Conversely you might say that he's improving as a manager all along and now that he has done well in the Championship he should be better equipped to face the Premier League. For me though, the key influencing factor is that he previously proclaimed that he did not want to be a manager. If he didn't have that ambition in the first place he's likely to not be a great fit in that position. I'd like a manager who commands the changing room (but maybe not one who throws shoes at our best players) and whose blood boils when players give away the ball unneccesarily.

Unrelated, but Obafemi wasted Nigeria's best chance again Ghana today. Same frustrating player (mind you Nigeria's play was pretty awful - even still they created lots of half chances). It was a very ugly, boring game.

That's bullshit. The easiest position on the field for Newcastle is central midfield. Mosey about making the occassional well timed sliding tackle, contribute nothing else yet still retain your position. Seriously though fullback is possibly a position that can be played ok without too much trouble but takes a lot to be very good. Also a lot depends on the team you're up against. A team with quick tricky wingers quickly shows up the difference between a fullback and a central defender or midfielder playing in the fullback position.

I shudder to think about Nicky Butt in defense. Thankfully Ryan Taylor is back for the next match. He's not a great right back by any stretch, but he's a darn sight better than Nicky Butt, and unlike Butt plays in the wide channels naturally. Could form a good partnership with Routledge. If we had the same sort of play down our right as we have had down our left we'd be a great deal more enterprising (and a larger thorn in other sides) than we currently are. .. can't really imagine Pancrate playing right back though.. would have been interesting.

The ghost of Steven Taylor? (except for the trying to keep things organised part) Good news that both Williamson and Routledge had positive debuts. They'll both be very important for the remainder of the season.

Dodged a bullet on this one? Highlights from the Everton vs Sunderland match:

According to Enrique over at the Newcastle website, Louise Taylor is just a 'toss'.

Our players have now taken to feigning injury in an attempt to get the owner to bring more players in? This will surely shake Ashley into further action before the window snaps shut. We're desperately thin at the back and if Enrique has done his hamstring he'll be out for a month or two. If our defense isn't up to par all the matches where we've been nabbing wins will be draws and all the ones where we've held on desperately for draws will be losses. With the form of Forest and the ever-presense of West Brom (who have been better than us in all three games against them this season) there's every chance that we'd slip down into a playoff spot. From there it's a lottery.

Probably a few reasons on the Xisco front: (i) They want him in the shop window for a while longer so they can hopefully recoup some of the money spent on him (ii) Good enough to bother? (iii) Not exactly a good omen that he supposedly faked injury in an attempt to get out of the club He'd still be very far down the pecking order. Such a stupid stupid purchase.

He's got Nobby's left foot!

Very bad news. Very very bad news. I guess now we'll get to see how Kadar does week in week out. Better to give him a run IMO rather than someone that's new to the club the calibre that is being talked of. We really are desperately short of cover across the back.

Assuming that clubs don't operate at a loss we should easily be able to spend the equivalent of Aston Villa, Everton etc as we well and truly dwarf their numbers in terms of attendance.

Off topic a little but it's clear that a large part of the reason Liverpool are struggling is their lack of creayive options down the middle - I mean Mascherano and Lucas? It's like a younger better version of Alan Smith and Nicky Butt/Kevin Nolan. Xabi Alonso could thread a pass and was very assured at keeping possession and creating attacking movements.

Thoughts on the performances of our players. Harper - Was fine. S. Taylor - Solid game. Coloccini - Solid game. Enrique - Played well, not his best game but clearly a class above. Simpson - Average game. If he asks for more wages show him a replay of his being turned inside out by a West Brom player. That should have cost us the game if Miller didn't horribly mess up the finish. Guthrie - Overall a good game. Still played out of position, but not his fault. Smith - Not really an option in attack, decent enough in breaking play down. Nolan - Poor game. Lazy defending let them get their cross in for the first goal. Slow in getting back. Jonas - Good game, beat players over and over until they figured out that we have no right hand side so put 2 or 3 players on him. Shola - Failed to defend Olsen which allowed him to finish unmarked. Headed on when noone was ahead, cheste down when someone was ahead. His physical presence was good though. Overall very rusty. Lovenkrands - Had a good game. Great finish for his goal. Could easily have had another if the linesman didn't incorrectly cal him offside. His pace and runs up front add some variety to our attack. He's a good goal scorer at this level. He's shown that he should be starting every match alongside a Carroll/Ameobi type forward. Subs: Carroll - Was ok, didn't have much to do. R. Taylor - No on for long enough to say. Nice effort on goal from a free kick. Overall I still really think we need to open our options up down the right hand side. Guthrie is not the eplayer to do that. He does not deserve to be dropped though, so I'd favour him in central midfield alongside Smith. Nolan can be used in away matches as a additional midfield behind a lone striker. This would mean playing either Ryan Taylor or Pacrate down the right.

Incident packed match that both sides could have won. As it is both managers will be realtively happy with a point each. We're lucky that Miller couldn't tap home that ball in the dying minutes. Jonas' run at the end was the stuff fairy tales are made of except West Brom forgot to read the script (to be fair they defended it well).

In contrast: Tottenham's current shirt deal is worth 8.5 million a season. Everton's shirt deal is worth 2.7 million a season. Sunderland's shirt deal is worth 2.5+ million a season. Liverpool 20 million a season (Effective next season - suckers). Chelsea 10 million a season. Blackburn 1.7 million a season. Aston Villa 0.0 million a season (good on them). Tottenham clearly tried one on and got away with it. Whoever signed that deal for them, they're not paying him enough.

Beckford figured out he could turn the 1.5 mill into additional wages for himself next season. Or he'll be more likely to have a Premiership Club take a chance on him when it's only wages at stake. Assuming he can keep up the same sort of form for Leeds for the rest of the season his options will be more open than they are now.

That's an 'updated' version of an Australian 'joke'.

Don't want to get ahead of myself here - but didn't he get quite a lot of assists for Mallorca in la liga?

Still has a fat head though. His greatest contribution to the NUFC cause were his efforts as a Spurs players in some classic Newcastle victories. But good luck to him. They're in fine form at the moment and I hope they continue to perform.

Lovenkrands making a late World Cup surge?