Newcastle United v Man City Saturday 15th

[Tooj 17]

Simpson has never been good at going forward man. Teams allow him so much time and space on the ball as they know his final ball is abysmal.

[The Fish 10857]

What's this about a Man City player being involved in an altercation with fans?

[IndianMag 0]

Simpson has never been good at going forward man. Teams allow him so much time and space on the ball as they know his final ball is abysmal.

 

And the worst part is how much time he needs to cross the ball. He literally waits to trap the ball ( 1 second gone), sets himself up for the cross( another second gone) and then by the time he crosses, a defender has closed him down.

 

When he doesn't take too long to cross, he doesn't even look up to see who he is aiming the ball to in the box. He just blindly punts the ball which is unforgivable at this level.

[IndianMag 0]

All in all, I felt we played quite well. Movement was good, passing was much better, defending was shambolic however.

 

Positives -

 

Ba - Once again a real goal-scoring threat, worked his socks off, won a lot of headers, grafted.

 

Anita - He's getting better with every game. So calm and relaxed on the ball and hardly ever gives the ball away unless he tries something expansive.

 

Colo, Willo, Perch = all had good solid games

 

Average -

 

Santon - poor defensively, quite good attacking wise. If Pards wants to stick to Jonas in the team, I'd honestly much rather play Jonas at the back and Santon ahead of him in midfield. Reckon it could work against a team that doesn't have a strong right side.

 

Cisse - looked bright, worked hard, some nice touches, but still his end product was disappointing at times. He would have buried that chance last year in his sleep

 

Tiote - fannied about quite a lot on the edge of the box, lots of hollywood shots attempted. Having said that he was still decent at breaking up play.

 

Poor -

Simpson - he is just about ok defensively, but he can not attack to save his life. Why doesn't he ever close his man down FFS?

 

Jonas - Jonas is having a terrible run and I know a lot of people disagree but he needs a spell on the sidelines to show that he's not undroppable. He can not cross, misplaced quite a few 5 yard passes, doesn't work as hard as he usually does, cannot beat his man, has lost his pace. Zabaleta embarrassed him today in my honest opinion.

 

All in all, play the same way and we beat QPR next week but please for the love of God if Ben Arfa isn't fit next week, start Marveaux ahead of Jonas.

 

On a separate note, I never thought I'd say this but I kind of miss Obertan. We were so slow on the break today. We could really do with a little more pace upfront.

[Kid Dynamite 7030]

We have an awful habit of only playing well in the second half this season. We looked fucking woeful anywhere but upfront first half, tiote back to his suicidal worst, Willo looking like he's playing the wrong sport. Totally different second half though.

 

I've come to the conclusion that replacing Simpson and Willo is all we need to have a successful second half to the season. Anita is coming good, marveaux is showing promise, cabaye and Ben arfa to come back, Bigi coming through. Cisse looked eager and hungry today, Ba is this best striker we've had since Shearer. Santon, goal aside, is flying now and Colo is better than Pele. Nearly every goal we concede comes through fucking Willo or Simpson though!!! Simpsons crossing makes me cry.

 

QPR game is massive now

[Monroe Transfer 0]

Man City "eased to victory", were "stylish", "classy" and "dynamic going forward". Nothing about our performance.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20650218

[Tom 14011]

I can see them scoring two goals very quickly (first ten minutes) & beating us by 3.

Not too far off

[The Fish 10857]

I was bang on.

[Tom 14011]

Aye.

[Aeris 0]

I've been very critical of Pardew and some of the players, but that performace was the best in a long, long time for me.

 

Go on and lower you expectations along with everybody else for the level of performance...tbh I'm not sure if it had won us the game had we met another opponent. We are even blatantly sticking to the set up that has lost us most of the games this season. How dumb is that?

[Noelie 103]

Played quite well today but there are still weaknesses in the back 4 and we leak easy goals because of them.

Anita was much improved today, he can put some good balls in from set pieces.

Jonas continues to be a very energetic damp squib.

Ba and Cisse don't seem to be very good at dribbling past men or holding the ball up the way Shearer could.

Don't know if I've said this before, but it seems like the marking I knew in my day is a thing of the past and that has a lot to do with why we leak goals. If I had to mark someone I'd be up his back and in his shorts, even follow him to the netty.

It's fine for defenders to jockey, but it shouldn't be in a back-pedaling manner allowing opponents into the box, it's what Simpson does all the time.

[PaddockLad 17281]

From The Telegraph, Saturday:

 

Manchester City defender Aleksandar Kolarov was at the centre of a race row on Saturday night after a complaint was made to police during Manchester City’s 3-1 victory over Newcastle United.

 

An incident is alleged to have occurred during the first-half of the Premier League match as Kolarov, who started the game as a substitute, warmed up down the touchline.

 

Two fans are understood to have been waving an Albanian flag close to him and Kolarov, a Serb, was then alleged to have been involved in a running verbal spat which went on for around 10 minutes.

 

One of the fans is then believed to have made a complaint to stewards in the stadium and they reported the incident to police at the ground.

 

The fan was immediately interviewed by the police at half-time with Kolarov also being spoken to after the game about the exchange of words.

 

The 27-year-old left the stadium with the rest of the City squad to return to Manchester but it is understood that he will speak again to the police later this week and co-operate fully with their inquiries.

 

Northumbria Police released a brief statement on Saturday night, also calling for any witnesses to come forward.

 

The statement read: “Northumbria Police has received a report of racist language having been used at the St James’ Park stadium during the Newcastle United versus Manchester City match today.

 

"Northumbria Police take such allegations extremely seriously and inquiries are ongoing into the incident

[TheMoog 0]

From The Telegraph, Saturday:

 

Manchester City defender Aleksandar Kolarov was at the centre of a race row on Saturday night after a complaint was made to police during Manchester City’s 3-1 victory over Newcastle United.

 

An incident is alleged to have occurred during the first-half of the Premier League match as Kolarov, who started the game as a substitute, warmed up down the touchline.

 

Two fans are understood to have been waving an Albanian flag close to him and Kolarov, a Serb, was then alleged to have been involved in a running verbal spat which went on for around 10 minutes.

 

One of the fans is then believed to have made a complaint to stewards in the stadium and they reported the incident to police at the ground.

 

The fan was immediately interviewed by the police at half-time with Kolarov also being spoken to after the game about the exchange of words.

 

The 27-year-old left the stadium with the rest of the City squad to return to Manchester but it is understood that he will speak again to the police later this week and co-operate fully with their inquiries.

 

Northumbria Police released a brief statement on Saturday night, also calling for any witnesses to come forward.

 

The statement read: “Northumbria Police has received a report of racist language having been used at the St James’ Park stadium during the Newcastle United versus Manchester City match today.

 

"Northumbria Police take such allegations extremely seriously and inquiries are ongoing into the incident

 

Fuck sake, can a week go by without someone shouting 'racism'? What a load of bollocks, fed up of hearing about it now.

[Gene_Clark 12]

Fuck sake, can a week go by without someone shouting 'racism'? What a load of bollocks, fed up of hearing about it now.

 

alternatively, people can start behaving with dignity & respect towards all races & creeds.

 

i'm delighted we have Albanian fans

[Lake Bells tits 1]

Man City "eased to victory", were "stylish", "classy" and "dynamic going forward". Nothing about our performance.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/20650218

 

we lost 1-3 at home, what do you expect. A pat on the back for good effort

This isnt kindergarden, there are no medals for losing with grace.

[Tooj 17]

A couple of quotes from N-O from people who were sat around the Albanian lads.

 

The Albanian lads are there quite often apparently. From someone who sits a few rows behind, Kolarov saw the flag, started shouting at them and there was a bit back and forth in either Albanian or Serbian. When asked what was going on they say he called them 'sons of whores' and 'gypsies'.

 

Saw this booting off from our seats. Kolarov was warming up then a dude in the front row started going mental, standing up and having a massive go at kolarov, then called the steward over who then spoke to kolarov. No idea what was said cos we sit under the boxes, but the bloke was obviously not happy with kolarov

[Tooj 17]

Fuck sake, can a week go by without someone shouting 'racism'? What a load of bollocks, fed up of hearing about it now.

 

Are you actually for real? It has no place in our society whatsoever and anybody who comes out with any form of racism should be named and shamed.

[Tooj 17]

alternatively, people can start behaving with dignity & respect towards all races & creeds.

 

i'm delighted we have Albanian fans

 

[TheMoog 0]

Are you actually for real? It has no place in our society whatsoever and anybody who comes out with any form of racism should be named and shamed.

Actually yeah, I am for real. While I agree with your sentiment of not putting up with racism it's getting a bit tedious now that pretty much anything anyone says results in the police being brought in, excessive coverage by the media and an all round hype-fest.

[Aeris 0]

gawd, we are speaking about serbian racism towards the albanian "race"...now I know there was/is wars going on between those two, but there is like no race difference going on there...its like norwegians being racist towards swedes -its allowed because you are in theory being racist towards yourself!

 

whites being "racists" towards whites, what a joke. please stop this racist-hyping. if anyone wants racism its the media...

Edited December 16, 2012 by Aeris

[Lake Bells tits 1]

sick of the racism card. Its just a bit of banter, tis all.

Like me calling Aeris a muslim whore. Who shags for cash.

See.. she is not bothered..

 

 

Are you Aeris?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aeris?

[Aeris 0]

Well, your stupidity for saying those things to me bothers me...

[StevenL 0]

Glad we've cleared that up.

 

I hope the society of black lawyers are on the case.

[Happy Face 29]

 

Thought Simpson did alright today. Even tried to take a man on now and again.

 

Didn't think he was too bad, apart from a couple of mistakes.

[nortoon 0]

The problem with Simpson is he gets about 10 good opportunities to hurt the opposition every match and yet never does. The improvement we could have with an actual good attacking full-back would be massive.