OTF

It would be nice to have their lack of options.

And my personal favourite compliation...

Guthrie was rubbish in this match. Completely different to the Hertha Berlin match where he was quite good, and didn't turn the ball over. Bassong was the standout player for us. Edgar and Enrique weren't bad. Milner had a shocker really... don't think he beat an opposing player all game. Smith is useless. Duff was ok, but had absolutely no support. Glad to say that not many of those guys will get into our first 11 when we have a full squad to choose from. You would think though that they would have been keen to impress to try to break into that first team. Hope they enjoyed their holiday - I didn't enjoy the bits of it I saw!

So it's a good thing our players looked so good against Doncaster....

On the cheap for sure. He can hit a dead ball, something noone else in our team can do whilst wearing the Black and White*. * - Geremi seems to become a free-kick genius for Cameroon.

Here's my analysis of the match - including the goal. If I had to sum up Newcastle's performance in one word it would most certainly be: toothless. We started the game with Ameobi and Alan Smith up front, and throughout the match neither of them ever looked dangerous. In fact the best chance that was fashioned for Ameobi came approximately 40 seconds into the game, with Milner working down the right side. I make it sound as though there are no positives to come from the match - though that is not the case. There was in fact some promising performances from quite a few of our players, however some typical Newcastle deficiencies plagued our chances of victory. The result, was a 1-0 win to Hertha, with their goal coming quite late in the second half - more about that later. Before I go further this was the formation used to begin the game: GK: Harper RB: Geremi CB: Taylor CB: Cacapa LB: N'Zogbia RM: Milner CM: Guthrie CM: Butt LM: Gutierrez CF: Smith CF: Ameobi Onto the positives - most certainly our best player in the opening 20 minutes was Jonas Gutierrez. Not only did he look safe and assured on the ball, he also made some excellent incisive passing, and worked tremendously hard to cover plenty of ground in defense. In line with that, the opening 20 minutes of the game was probably Newcastle's strongest period overall. Gutierrez played on until around 70ish minutes when he was substituted for Enrique. He did in some ways fall off in the later stages of the game, however whenever he was called upon in attack of defense, he looked to be a highly capable player (including one break where Gutierrez defended as our last man). In addition he also looks to have a healthy turn of pace. The other new boy to feature in the match Danny Guthrie had a solid but unspectacular game. He was conservative and not-wasteful with the ball, forming a decent partnership with Nicky Butt. If anything the two of them played quite similarly, which may partly be a case of Butt's style rubbing off on the youngster. this was not necessarily a good thing though, because despite the fact that Butt too had a good honest game, we failed to see any sort of creativity come from the pair and consequently didn't really see any goal scoring chances (or half chances) created down the middle. The lack of pace, and attack mindedness from the pair also meant that in a counter-attacking situation we far too often missed our chance to take advantage of space, instead preferring to stick with short, safe passes that gave the Hertha Berlin defense plenty of time to get back in cover. One particular statistic really tells the tale of where the majority of this match was played: Newcastle had 12 corners compared with just 3 for Hertha. A large part of the game was spent with Newcastle in Hertha's half trying to break down their stubborn defense. The fact that we earned so many corners is not a bad thing, but the fact that we failed to look dangerous on ANY of the 12 certainly is. Once again our toothless attack, in combination with our poor deliveries, made defending an easy task for our opponents. The inability to get in a good ball was not only an issue with dead ball situations, but also plagued our open play. Milner in particular was what I would call wasteful with a number of half openings that he had. Geremi too failed to get any really good balls into the box, though he was more accurate than Milner. Part of it may have come down to our ineffectual pairing up front of Ameobi and Smith. Smith in particular was virtually anonymous for large chunks of the game - and not because he wasn't working hard, more I suspect because he really has lost the strikers instinct. In the second half Ameobi went off with some sort of injury (which didn't look too serious) and was replaced by Damien Duff. I didn't know what to think at this stage. A minute or so later I was impressed by Duff who showed a real positive spark, and really attacked the defense getting off a couple of decent shots for his efforts. Tim Krul came on for Harper in the second half, and didn't really do anything wrong. Their goal came after Cacapa was stuck ball watching two attacking players. One made a nice run and the other passed nicely into his path. Krul came forward to force the Berlin player wide, however he couldn't stop the ball. A third Berlin player made a break into the box, and the Newcastle defense (namely Taylor) were more interested in defending the goal against the player who made the initial run into the box (despite him now being at quite a tight angle). Consequently an light chip into the path of the third Berlin player resulted in a simple headed finish into the open net. 1-0. To rate the players: Harper: 7/10 - Didn't have anything of that much importance to do. Made a couple of saves, but nothing that should have troubled a keeper of his quality. Geremi: 6/10 - Was quite involved, and showed good initiative to get forward. Did ok in defense, as he wasn't really called on a great deal. Taylor: 6/10 - Our best central defender (there was only two to choose from). Didn't do too much wrong, and broke down a couple of counter attacks. Cacapa: 4/10 - Looks solid and decent in the first half, but really started to slow and his work rate dropped off significantly in the second half. I though Keegan could have brought on Bassong to replace him, but perhaps Keegan is working at bringing the Brazillian's fitness up after a lengthy period out last season. N'Zogbia: 6.5/10 - Looked a lot more comfortable when he was released to play in the midfield once Enrique came on. In fact he linked up nicely with the Spaniard on two occasions. Likes to attack, but sometimes lacks quality on his final ball, or runs himself out of space and options. Milner: 6/10 - Worked himself into space a few times, and made some good incisive runs. He needed an extra yard of pace on a few occasions to get by defenders, but didn't have it to call on. Solid and hardworking (goes without saying), but unfortunately was VERY wasteful with his final balls. The best bit of work that he did had him trick a defender out side before breaking into the box. Unfortunately there was no-one there for him to pass the ball to - though you can hardly blame him for that. Guthrie: 7/10 - Covered ground quite nicely and was never wasteful with the ball. A good passer of the ball hopefully we'll see him up the ante in attack when he has some pacy skillful player to work with up front. Butt: 7/10 - Typical Butt. Looks for the safe passing option in attack, and stifles the opposition players when defending. Worked hard to get in the head of the Berlin players, and did quite a good job of it. Gutierrez: 7.5/10 - Our best player in the first half. Looked to be quality in both attack and defense. Worked hard, and managed to get in behind the oppositions defense at least once. Based off this performance it would be safe to say that he should be a very important player for us this year. Smith: 3/10 - I don't doubt that he worked hard, but even still he was virtually anonymous out there. Figured most in trying to close down the pace for the oppositions defenders when they had the ball. Never popped up as an option when we were in attack. In the second half he dropped into a deeper role where he featured a little more, but was wasteful on more than one occasion. Has lost his way. Ameobi: 5.5/10 - Awkward and SLOW, but he at least half-troubled the defense. It has to be said that the best thing he did all game was come off the field - because it allowed Damien Duff to come on, and he soon became our most potent attacking weapon. Subs Duff: 7.5/10 - Didn't have that much time on the field, but whilst he was out there he troubled defenders on numerous occasions, getting by their fullback more than once. Put in a couple of shots, that lacked the venom to beat the keeper. Enrique: 6.5/10 - Not a lot of time on the field for Enrique, but in that time he made some decent runs forward and linked up with N'Zogbia nicely. Broke down one counter attack with a timely tackle. Only recall one of his long balls (his favourite play it seemed last season) which he over-hit. Krul: 6/10 - Not to blame for the goal. Didn't do anything wrong, hard to judge a keeper with so little involvement.

Besides, to even be involved in a shootout you have to be involved in a important meaningful match.

Fabregas, Bentley, Barry. They're easier to like because they play for teams I don't hate.

Surely for that amount of money there should be other potential targets. We've made out offer to Deportivo, if they want to try to stuff us about to snaffle an extra couple of million we should leave them to stew over that offer and say no more - I think that's what Coloccino's agent is suggesting we do anyway. Chances are they probably think we're a bunch of rich idiots anyway - based off our splurge on Luque.

In theory they're not better than us. But we'll only as good as the players we can put on the pitch... so if a few injuries pop up, we're basically as good as Ameobi and Smith. Honestly though, as much as it pains me to say - they have improved their squad a fair bit. With big changes like that though, there will surely be a settling in period. Plus, they haven't really strengthened their defense (does anyone count a whinging aging Frenchman?) so as much as their attack has improved Tottenham showed last season (and we have showed before) that it doesn't matter if you can score at a healthy rate when you're leaking goals at the other end.

Looking at what Luque has done since leaving Newcastle, you have to wonder who the yes man was on the 9.5 million deal to bring him to Newcastle. I think I defended him on more than one occasion though... he really didn't have the best start with us... and the big manager turn over didn't help as well. I didn't think it funny at the time, but I can now have a laugh at Roeder continually suggesting that Luque would get a look in to the first team.

I wonder if they have a B A S S O G N shirt made up for him for his debut Boumsong is actually a good player - he was just getting the team back for that mishap.. over and over and over again