Manchester City v Newcastle

[McFaul 35]

 

He didn't put Santon up front.

Where did he put him then?

[Meenzer 15731]

Where did he put him then?

 

Left wing. Not that I'd agree with that either, but still.

[Kid Dynamite 7179]

He spends most games there anyway tbf. One of the best shots in the squad too

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3981]

 

Left wing. Not that I'd agree with that either, but still.

 

Just in place of Jonas as another body in midfield who could track back.

[Meenzer 15731]

 

 

Just in place of Jonas as another body in midfield who could track back.

 

 

I don't necessarily mind the idea of him playing there (as J69 says, he's decent on the prowl, and his status as a wing-back has been discussed extensively elsewhere ) but he's also far and away our best option at left-back imo - can't really justify putting him further up the pitch if it means wedging Yanga-Mbiwa in on the left side of defence. Once Haidara is knock-free (if ever) then maybe...

[McFaul 35]

 

Ohh the out of towner line gets trotted out again, going to games doesn't mean you gain have some insightful views if you've no baldy on how the game is played or generally no understanding, there are a ton of regular match goers who know next to fuck all for any club, going to games doesn't mean that changes. Anyway arguably watching a match on the Telly you actually see more of whats going on considering you get a perfect view of the entire thing, "i goto matches so i know better" wise up.

 

Anyway, no i'm not arguing Jonas is some brilliant player who offers us loads, what i'm saying is if it's a choice between him and say Marveux starting i'll take Jonas everytime especially a game like this where our time on the ball is going to be a premium and our defense are in for a torrid day.

 

One thing he offers over some lazy heartless fucker like Marveux is his engine and work rate,he'll be an utter nusicience and asides from that the amount of freekicks he wins us with his awkward/gangly running gait/dribbling lets us get setpieces (to waste normally) and time to reorganise ourselves and settle down when we need a breather.

 

The best we can hope for against a team like ManCity is some sort of miracle display where we get a goal against play or from a setpiece and manage to stifle their ability enough to either sneak a win or more realistically a well fought draw.

 

It's all well and good playing someone like remy/mareveux/goufrann instead of Jonas when you're against a team who you can afford to not track back against constantly "oh wait it's only downing n/m santon/debuchy has him in his pocket"

but against the chelseas/manu/mancitys they've got forwards/AM interchanging constantly and linking up to terrorise a fullback, and every one of them is worldclass... against teams like that everyone needs to bust their balls, and that's what Jonas will do.

 

 

Our whole team was fucking shite last season so it's a bit of a moot point

I couldn't agree less. When you're watching a game on telly you're focussed on the ball a lot more, you only see what is going on around the ball. At the game you can see the entire formation, how we're moving off the ball, how the shape of the team can change through a game, watching it on telly you get a good understanding of how a game is going, and why things are happening but it's a very poor substitute to actually being there and seeing how things unfold from a broader view.

 

Your point about Jonas tracking back would be valid if it actually prevented goals, but it doesn't. You could use the Arsenal game last season as a case in point to prove your point, Jonas was missing and we conceded 7 goals, but that was only 3 till the last 10 minutes. We were very unlucky, as we were at Man Utd. Two games in three days, and for me other than the last 15 minutes at Arsenal, we were fucking excellent in my view. You know why? Because Jonas wasn't there. People think the Chelsea game was the best last season it probably was, but at Man Utd we were fantastic we were fluid going forward, we lost 4-3 and 7-3. In those two game with 15 minutes to go it was 2-3 and 3-3, you could argue the point that perhaps if Jonas played we wouldn't have catipulated, but at the same time we wouldn't have become the first team in 49 years to score three league goals against Arsenal and Man Utd in the same season, let alone the last three days. I'm all for tactics but he's got nowt, I'd rather lose 4-3 than 1-0, I'd rather lose 7-3 than 4-0 as well.

[McFaul 35]

like i said using last season to prove points is a fairly bad idea, our entire team was arguably shite

eg: he played 37 games in the season we finished 5th, it'd be a bad idea to use that season as to why we're the 5th best in the league

 

over his time here, his main issue is his lack of end product and i'm the first to complain about it, but his support for the fullback and his defensive duties have clearly helped us concede less in previous seasons... last season everyone was shit and four wingers helping a full back wouldn't have stopped us conceding with the likes of williamson at centrehalf

Which is all well and good when we're scoring more than we're conceding but last season our goal difference and defensive record is worse than when we were relegated, another team he was part of. If someone bid £1m for Jonas I'd snap their hands on off.

 

I'd go as far to say this was our best away performance in the last 5 years http://nufc.com/html/2012-13html/2012-12-26manu-a.html and Jonas wasn't there.

[Park Life 71]

It all goes through Silva and Yaya. I'd task Sissoko with kicking Yaya and Tiote or Cabaye kicking Silva. If you distract/hurt/upset these two City without Tevez and Aguero aren't the mountain people anticipate they will be. Negredo and Navas look average compared to the Argies. Against pop opinion I think it will be tight game.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Park Life

[ewerk 31218]

There's no doubt that Jonas does his role reasonably well, if we agree that his role isn't that of a creative wide player. But if we're to advance as a team then we need to replace him with a player who can take the ball and maintain possession in order to relieve the defence but at the same time is able to offer much more than Jonas in an attacking sense.

 

That man isn't Marveaux, unless he makes a big step up this reason rather than turning it on in fits and starts. Santon may be an option for that position should Haidara proven worthy of a place and I'd be happy enough to give him a run of ten games to see how he gets on but there's no guarantee it would work.

[Park Life 71]

There's no doubt that Jonas does his role reasonably well, if we agree that his role isn't that of a creative wide player. But if we're to advance as a team then we need to replace him with a player who can take the ball and maintain possession in order to relieve the defence but at the same time is able to offer much more than Jonas in an attacking sense.

 

That man isn't Marveaux, unless he makes a big step up this reason rather than turning it on in fits and starts. Santon may be an option for that position should Haidara proven worthy of a place and I'd be happy enough to give him a run of ten games to see how he gets on but there's no guarantee it would work.

Agree with that. Guti causes as many problems as he solves by being a bottleneck when it comes to releasing the ball or as an outlet for an attacking phase. He brings a lot of pressure back on us with his dithering and swanning (he is our ALICE BAND PLAYER). Think his def workrate has been talked up beyond any rational yardstick. I'd start three frowards and try and play the game in their half as much as we can...City like to camp in the opp half and if they do we'll take a hiding...We've nothing to lose so play Gooofy up front/left channel as an outlet and give Cisse two or three chances via him and Hatem.

If we get one goal then the whole side will be lifted...

Edited August 14, 2013 by Park Life

[ewerk 31218]

He brings a lot of pressure back on us with his dithering and swanning (he is our ALICE BAND PLAYER).

 

A lot of the time though he has to do that in order to wait for the rest of the team to get themselves out of our own third and catch up with him, I'd call it holding the ball up rather than dithering.

 

Is Remy not fit for this?

[Park Life 71]

 

Navas is brilliant tbf and he's lightning fast, he'll be wasted somewhat if they play aguero with silva in behind him... he needs a header of the ball to make the best use... if they play Dzeko, aguero then silva with navas/joetivc/ nasri or whatever out the otherside we're in for trouble imo.

 

 

you think our best away performance in the last 5 years was a 4-3 loss which included us getting an og in a game where we only had 40% possession ? really?

Honestly think this is our best chance in a long while to get something.

 

Aguero, Tevez, Natiscic, Nasri won't be playing. Navas and Negredo are new boys...Yaya is another year older and Silva will be coming back from Ecuador...

 

If we really put it about the first 15 min anything can happen.

[Park Life 71]

 

A lot of the time though he has to do that in order to wait for the rest of the team to get themselves out of our own third and catch up with him, I'd call it holding the ball up rather than dithering.

 

Is Remy not fit for this?

Not fit till Wham game they said.

[Tooj 17]

It all goes through Silva and Yaya. I'd task Sissoko with kicking Yaya and Tiote or Cabaye kicking Silva. If you distract/hurt/upset these two City without Tevez and Aguero aren't the mountain people anticipate they will be. Negredo and Navas look average compared to the Argies. Against pop opinion I think it will be tight game.

 

So we just let Fernandinho run things from the middle of the park instead? Or let them give it to Navas to tear it all up.

[trophyshy 7084]

Awful first game to have, the expected full goatsee experience could see whatever confidence we may have (hopefully not as sparse as I imagine) rapidly dissipate.

[Tom 14013]

Load of utter shite in this thread so far mind

 

We're going to get utterly fucking lashed and it's nothing to do with Pardew or Jonas. It's more to do with the fact that we simply aren't anywhere near on a level playing field to Man City. They've spent £100m in the last three months and over £1bn on player recruitment in the last few years - recently we've spent nothing and struggled to get a suspected rapist on loan.

 

I think they'll put between 4 and 6 past us depending on who's in nets as Pellegrini has them playing some wonderful stuff - their performance against Milan - when they turned it on was nothing to do with Milan being in preseason it was sheer technique, skill, tactical play and athleticism from Man City & I fear they'll do the same to us unless there's some kind of miracle.

[Happy Face 29]

[Tom 14013]

I don't get it

[Happy Face 29]

Breaking Bad thread in GC.

[Tom 14013]

Ah

[McFaul 35]

 

 

 

you think our best away performance in the last 5 years was a 4-3 loss which included us getting an og in a game where we only had 40% possession ? really?

Without a doubt in my mind. A game at a ground where we hadn't won against them for 40 years, we're 3-2 up deservedly against the Premier League champions, we had a depleted side out, against a club who'd been in the three of the last five Champions League finals at a ground where we hadn't scored 3 in 70 years, we hit the woodwork without scoring twice, it could have been our finest hour in recent years. Stats are misleading anyway particularly possession stats, they pummelled us the last 20 minutes, but even then we still had chances to score. In the last five years we've won at places like the Emirates, a shit game against an average team, we won at Chelsea (worst side they've had in 20 years), but for me Newcastle were absolutely magnificent at Old Trafford, haven't felt as proud of a performance in a long long time, just gutting the bastards got the goal in stoppage time.

[OTF 7492]

I maintain that we still owe them a beating from the game where Beye was wrongfully sent off after making a superb tackle on Robinho. We didn't lose it despite playing most of the game with 10. Since that we've been pap against them and the chasm in class between our sides has been ever growing. First game of the season though, so anything can happen.

[Park Life 71]

Seriously guys we all know we're probably on a hiding to nothing....But if football was always about the better side then Holland would have won 5 world cups.

[Monroe Transfer 0]

I reckon we'll beat them.

 

3-1.

 

Just watch.

[Meenzer 15731]

Seriously guys we all know we're probably on a hiding to nothing....But if football was always about the better side then Holland would have won 5 world cups.

 

Why? They've only been the best team once.