Positives

[Barney 0]

Out of European competition before it even began....cheating cnuts.

 

Anyways, some good performances last night, some bad points also.

 

The Good :

 

I thought Bowyer ran his arse off all night and showed a lot of desire & hunger(no Viduka jokes please!) to win the ball, and make things happen. His passing still isn't great, but he is beginning to look a good player.

 

Parker hasn't played this year, yet completed a full 90. He wanted the ball, he covered well, and was always looking to take it from our defenders to start a move. He reminds me of Roy Keane in that way.

 

Emre, looks like we have a set-piece taker to replace Robert. Nice delivery on most of his free-kicks too. He also eems to have a bit of aggression to him, and really worked his arse off to win the ball-be it headers, tackles. Looks a proper player.

 

The majority of Milners set pieces were much better than last season.

 

Taylor-aggressive, strong and a future captain. Good performance from such a young lad. Kept his bottle as well(pretty much), despite getting pinched and dragged all over the shop in the opposition area.

 

Faye was a bit better this week.

 

Shola was his usual self.

 

 

 

The Bad :

 

4-5-1 will not work with the current players. We need a new striker, Dyer fully fit ALL SEASON LONG and a left winger.

 

Squad size. The fact that Robbie Elliott can get a game in a European competition or in an aspiring top 6 team is a disgrace. Works his arse off, lovely bloke, shite footballer. Baba aint much better.

 

Jenas. Lack thereof. Spurs linked with £10m move.

 

Shola was his usual self.

 

 

Not too bad a performance. There were certainly things to take from the match, I think squad size, and our starting 11 aren't as good as they should be though.

[David Kelly 1244]

I agree 100% with that. Emre has certainly lifted my spirits somewhat but unless we get two strikers and a left winger we are fucked this season.

Warren Barton called it perfectly last night. We were totallty devoid of any pace to be able to get behind their defence. If we can get some I am confident Emre will be able to provide them with considerable ammo.

[Guest alex]

Jenas. Lack thereof. Spurs linked with £10m move.

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David Brent, is that you?

[Barney 0]

[LeazesMag 0]

Very impressed with Emre.

 

Unfortunately Souness, when he says "proper player" doesn't mean talented player, he means player who works hard in training and is a yes man. Irrespective of talent or if they bother to turn up on match days as some of his "proper players" don't.

 

At least Emre will be someone for the next manager. However, playing with 4 central midfield players is stupid however good they are, any 6 year old can tell you that, and a "proper" manager would replace like for like if he was stupid enough to dismantle an established top 5 team.

 

What do you mean ... oh Souness has dismantled a top 5 team ? Oh, right then.

 

The only thing to come out of last night was it re-inforced the fact that he has to go before he does any more damage, he may have bought Emre and Parker but overall his sales and buys prove we can't trust him to make any more. Especially as we are approaching a state of desperation to make signings, and it is all his fault.

Edited August 4, 2005 by LeazesMag

[Barney 0]

I don't entirely blame Souness for the lack of signings. He can only tell Pudgy which one's he wants.

 

I think that replacing our 2 most important players(IMO) in Robert and Bellamy, should have been done first and foremost. (But that's a 50page discussion I don't want to get in to!) We now look incredibly weak on the left wing, and up front.

 

In all honesty though, if Emre is Souness' definition of a 'proper' player, then on first impressions, I'm happy enough.

[Jackies the Lad 0]

I don't entirely blame Souness for the lack of signings. He can only tell Pudgy which one's he wants.

 

I think that replacing our 2 most important players(IMO) in Robert and Bellamy, should have been done first and foremost. (But that's a 50page discussion I don't want to get in to!) We now look incredibly weak on the left wing, and up front.

 

In all honesty though, if Emre is Souness' definition of a 'proper' player, then on first impressions, I'm happy enough.

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Is that all we looked weak in, I witnessed a shabby defence as well, JAB played badly and can take some or all of the blame for their first goal, and you can expect that once in a while, but we don't have anything much to support players when they do have an off day, and as for the full backs they were shite.

 

I agree with your views on the 2 new lads in Emre and Parker and when they are 100% match fit they will be good.

 

Overall, nothing much to be happy about, IMO.

[LeazesMag 0]

Agreed, and I think Boumsong is OK, he is quick and composed and a canny tackler, but shite in the air.

[Guest alex]

Agreed, and I think Boumsong is OK, he is quick and composed and a canny tackler, but shite in the air.

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Aye, I've said all along that he doesn't win many headers, which is surprising given his size. He's good as long as he's alongside a player like Bramble who attacks the ball. Likewise Bramble is well-suited to playing alongside someone like Boumsong sweeping up behind him. Mind we paid too much for him, actually we paid too much for both of them.

[LeazesMag 0]

Agreed, and I think Boumsong is OK, he is quick and composed and a canny tackler, but shite in the air.

7344[/snapback]

Aye, I've said all along that he doesn't win many headers, which is surprising given his size. He's good as long as he's alongside a player like Bramble who attacks the ball. Likewise Bramble is well-suited to playing alongside someone like Boumsong sweeping up behind him. Mind we paid too much for him, actually we paid too much for both of them.

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Yeh, saying he is OK probably means I'm happy with him being shite in the air, but I meant it to say he's not as good as I hoped he would be.

 

Fair point mate about partners but really a central defender has got to get to a ball if he is pulled out of position like he was last night, it's the same as a keeper coming for the ball, if he misses it then he's lost.

 

Seems to be a thing with Newcastle, we never have centre halfs or keepers who dominate the box etc

[Barney 0]

Yeah, I must say that I was a little bit peeved at Given and Boumsong for the 1st goal.

 

I think the problem is that we're expecting them to be miracle workers.

 

Boum gets dragged out of position quite a bit, I only realised last night, that it's due to covering for other peoples fuck ups. Example, did you see Elliott losing his man for that corner in the 1st half? Brutal. Boumsong has his weaknesses as well, but the lad can't do it all on his own.

 

Our defence is quite poor. I thought I kind of covered that in the 'squad size' bit of the negatives in my initial post. Robbie Elliott shouldn't get a game in our reserves, yet he'll probably start 20games this season.

[Guest alex]

I don't think expecting an £8million centre-half to be decent in the air is too much to ask really. Of course, the fact neither full back is good enough doesn't really help.

[LeazesMag 0]

Yeah, I must say that I was a little bit peeved at Given and Boumsong for the 1st goal.

 

I think the problem is that we're expecting them to be miracle workers.

 

Boum gets dragged out of position quite a bit, I only realised last night, that it's due to covering for other peoples fuck ups. Example, did you see Elliott losing his man for that corner in the 1st half? Brutal. Boumsong has his weaknesses as well, but the lad can't do it all on his own.

 

Our defence is quite poor. I thought I kind of covered that in the 'squad size' bit of the negatives in my initial post. Robbie Elliott shouldn't get a game in our reserves, yet he'll probably start 20games this season.

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I've noticed quite often that if Bramble moves out of the middle to mark someone then Boumsong seems to follow him quite a lot, too much, whereas if the reverse happens Bramble stays his ground. Surely if one central defender goes to the player his partner should stay in the middle ? Bothers me a lot that Boumsong does this. Maybe you are right, maybe he feels he has to do it, we will only find out if he plays with better players, but other centre halfs we have had ie Woodgate, Howey, Peacock to name 3 didn't do it.

[Papa Lazaru 0]

Positives:

 

Emre, a player with technique who hence stands out a mile in a Souness team.

 

Parker, looks good and knew he woudl be anyway

 

Set pieces, hit and miss but some good balls played in

 

Negatives:

 

Same shit manager

same lack of creativity, goals, variation and pace

same stupid mistakes and lack of organisation due to piss poor coaching

the squad being way too small highlighted when Elliot gets a game at LB

strikers missing sitters when we finally did create something

[Renton 21583]

Positives:

 

Emre, a player with technique who hence stands out a mile in a Souness team.

 

Parker, looks good and knew he woudl be anyway

 

Set pieces, hit and miss but some good balls played in

 

Negatives:

 

Same shit manager

same lack of creativity, goals, variation and pace

same stupid mistakes and lack of organisation due to piss poor coaching

the squad being way too small highlighted when Elliot gets a game at LB

strikers missing sitters when we finally did create something

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Agree completely, but what was a real negative for me was the fact that once again we were in a winning position, only to blow it through suicidal defending. A lot of people seem to think our defence is OK, but the truth is it's not. Boumsong is overated in my opinion, and it shows against big teams. Our full backs are a joke. The only positive is Bramble and Taylor, but they are not enough.

 

So if we have a poor defence, we will concede goals, lots of them. And at the moment I just can't see where our goals are going to come from. We had better hope the promoted teams are as bad as people say they are, because they will have one thing we lack - morale. I really am beginning to fear the worst for this season, we need to replace Souness NOW.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

I've opened myself up for a cyber kicking but I think there were more positives to come from the game than negatives. It was refreshing to see two midfielders who wanted the ball, who showed themselves for it, who wanted to move in a forward direction with it, who were looking to release positive forward passes.

 

I also thought that some of the passing on the deck was better than it has been for a while. Only negative for me was the forward two who showed nowt, although yet again in Europe we had an awful referee who doesn't allow any physical contact whatsoever.

[Jimbo 175]

I've opened myself up for a cyber kicking but I think there were more positives to come from the game than negatives. It was refreshing to see two midfielders who wanted the ball, who showed themselves for it, who wanted to move in a forward direction with it, who were looking to release positive forward passes.

 

I also thought that some of the passing on the deck was better than it has been for a while. Only negative for me was the forward two who showed nowt, although yet again in Europe we had an awful referee who doesn't allow any physical contact whatsoever.

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I would agree to be honest, some very good positives, but unfortunatly the negatives stand out a mile and they need stamping out right now if we are to have a decent season.

[Barney 0]

The reason that I acyually started this thread was for the exact reason that you pointed out SLP, there were some very good resons to be (slightly) optimistic about the coming season. It's not ALL doom and gloom.

 

Papa, you're right about the lack of pace in the squad, but I think if you add in the potential signings(i.e, the players that Souey has identified) we have one of the quickest teams about.

 

Anelka/Owen, Boa Morte, Dyer will give us one of the quickest front 3 in the Prem.

 

And yes, I left Viduka's name out on purpose. Fat git.