Newcastle Utd, Official thread

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im sorry but in what way am i ridiculing newcastle by calling them a big club, and saying sam needs time really. and that with the bad attitudes of fans maybes the club doesnt deserve to win anything.

i have an opinion, get used to it. Im not breaking any forum rules that i know of by voicing them.

P.S. mike ashley ISNT newcastle, he owns them, so im still failing to see your little outburst.
 
whats all this about we want free flowing football...

I just dont get it.... We arent Real Madrid... people say he only ever got Bolton into europe.. big wow..

well we arent even in europe!

Big Sam is the best manager we have had in years... we have had severe changes this year.... I'd rather judge at the end of the season.

Sacking happy needs to be ended... unless we got Mourinho at the club Big Sam should stay :)
 
whats all this about we want free flowing football...

I just dont get it.... We arent Real Madrid... people say he only ever got Bolton into europe.. big wow..

well we arent even in europe!

Big Sam is the best manager we have had in years... we have had severe changes this year.... I'd rather judge at the end of the season.

Sacking happy needs to be ended... unless we got Mourinho at the club Big Sam should stay :)

spot on, hes already started to build a more solid team than you have had for a while. he doesnt put his eggs in one basket like has been seen previously and relies on a team effort of percentage. Maybe if you lot can get a bit of silverware under your belt a few flare players would be attracted to the club, and free flowing football would inevitably follow. Until then wait patiently.. its not like a few seasons longer is going to make a difference after the time already waited?
 
I would forgive the lack of free-flowing football for a bit of stability. However, it's a sad and simple fact that we can't even get the basics right at the moment.

Against Sunderland our Defence:

Left the back post unmarked on all but a handful of set pieces.

Their goal came about because the man marking the goal scorer wasn't goal side of him, he was running in behind him.

Defensive headers are supposed to get height and distance. The majority of ours got plenty of height but no distance which effectively gave the opposition time to re-group and get into an attacking position whilst putting the man with the ball under pressure.

On three occasions the above happened when the defender didn't even have a man-on. It was a sheer panic-attack when he had plenty of time to bring the ball under control and play along the ground to a team-mates feet. Instead we went straight back under the cosh unnecessarily.

Stood off or backed away from the attacker. The amount of time and space we gave them was unforgivable. It's no wonder they had so many shooting opportunities considering we were too scared to actually tackle them.

Our Midfield:

Apart from the long-ball tactics which I don't agree with anyway, when our midfield did actually try and play free flowing football (I use the term in the loosest sense because what I mean is 'string a couple of passes together') they were rubbish.

They wanted more time on the ball than they were going to get, in the Premiership you can't afford to take liberties like this because any decent team is going to close you down very fast (If we are getting closed down by the likes of Sunderland I despair for our matches against the bigger teams).

Then there's the times when we weren't closed down but ran into 3 or 4 defenders. You have to make space for each other, you have to communicate and if a player is getting closed down you find some room for him to pass to you. We weren't drawing out the defenders we were just running into them.

This sounds a bit contradictory but we weren't running at the defence. I don't mean running into them, I mean running at them and I'll try to clarify the difference. In a 1 v 1 or 1 v 2 the attacker should have the advantage because he's running in the right direction, he's got pace on his side and he's not worried about getting brought down in a danger area. This especially true down the wings because you can then get into a crossing position. Instead of doing this we were running without pace into a wall of 3 or more players right outside the semi-circle. There is no way you're going to get through it so why even bother? Unless you intend to pass which we weren't.

Simple passes were either sloppily played or sloppily controlled.

Crosses and set pieces were a nightmare, Emre is (and I've always said it) an inconsistant waste of space. He couldn't produce a cross at a crucifixion. It's simple stuff like beating the first defender, getting the ball in the box at head height, beating the wall, not hitting it right at the goal keeper and we didn't get it right once.

It just shows how badly our crosses were when you consider that our goal was a terrible cross that was lucky enough to go in. :rolleyes:

Until about the 60 minute mark our best two sections of play came from the break with N'Zogbia using his pace to run at defenders who were on the back-foot. The simple fact was these were the only situations in which we had the time and space that we needed to actually play football. I.e when 3/4 of the opposing players were still in our box!

I could go on but you get the gist.

Our Attack:

There's not much to say about our centre forwards because the mid-field weren't supplying them with the ball. However the few occasions they did get a chance they were pretty ineffective. Owen got the ball onto his weaker side and probably would have scored if it had been on his right. Martin's got beaten by the offside trap too easily.

Viduka was the only player who seemed like he actually wanted to win the match IMO.

All of these things I have mentioned are the real basics of football. They are the kind of thing you teach to 5 year-olds playing on a Sunday morning. There's no excuse for it when a bunch of 'professionals', getting paid extortionate amounts of money can't get them right.

Until we start addressing these things I don't give a flying **** about fancy, good-looking football.

I still think Big Sam has made a difference so far because we were worse last season, but we need the basics down to a tee before we start worrying about good looking football.

The final thing (and the commentators mentioned it at the game on Saturday) is that Sam's not really found the balance with the squad yet. I didn't expect him to after only 12 games but I think that when we get that right, we might start seeing some better footy.

Sorry for the essay.

Panzer
 
We were only worse last season due to the fixture list! We havent played any hard games yet, and we still managed to lose to Derby, Reading and Portsmouth, and should have lost vs the Mackems.

Big Sam is awful and has lost the plot, simple as that, anyone who plays a CB at RB when we have natural RB on the bench (Sams own signing!) and a LW at LB when we also have a natural LB on the bench (Sams own big money signing!).

Also, playing a RW on the LW. Joey Barton on the RW!

Long balls for a short striker who likes balls played to feet.

Clueless, team lacking motivation and seems like they have no idea where they are meant to be playing.

Sorry Big Sam lovers/Give it time brigade, you're not right on this one.

It was Souness-esque on Saturday! Remember the 1-4 loss vs Fulham at SJP? We still played better that day than we did vs Portsmouth!

I don't want to have to keep seeing managers sacked, I want stability at the club, but we keep getting the wrong managers so what choice do we have!?

It's about getting the RIGHT manager and giving them time when we see improvements.

So far, clueless football does not show improvements!
What good is signing new players? BS will play them in the wrong position anyway! Round pegs in square holes.

Why sign Riquelme when BS will put him in goal?
 
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I have to agree with Seany. Been to every game this season home and away, and quite frankly the football is the worst i have ever seen. Its only down to our easy fixtures that we arn't in the bottom three. Why Alan Smith is playing in the team i will never know. He is too slow to be a striker and he isnt a midfielder. Starting against the mackems with no fullbacks was unbelievable. Zog needs to be on the left wing with milner on the right. How he cant see this i just cant understand. Viduka and Martins upfront, and sell Owen as soon as possible for as much as possible.
 
Well Yesterday's performance was awful and once again Big Sam's tic-tacs were brought into question. However, I'm not ready to give up on him or the team just yet. Interesting thread on 606 which pretty much sums up my feelings. Here

Panzer
 
not sure what to say now, a lot of people are asking me what I think about NUFC at the mo, and tbh I don't know, I can't decide if I want Sam to stay or not, or how to improve the team

just gutted really
 
Gutted, but knew it, come on when will the people backing Sam, STOP?!

There is nothing now to show we will improve, we have gotten worse over the last games, in fact, we are WORSE than we EVER were under Souness, and that is awful.

Please, Mike Ashley, get rid of Big Sam now.
 
Who will replace him and where do you realistically see yourself finishing at the end the season?

At the moment all of the teams above you either have a stupid amount of money (City, Villa, Chelsea & West Ham) or a manager that's been at his club for more than 3 years (Arsenal, Man United, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Blackburn & Everton).

You're 11th in the league and probably over achieving given the form of Tottenham. 12th is the best you can realistically expect without giving your managers time or a stupid amount of money.
 
It wouldn't matter if we gave Sam 50 Million, he would buy players and play them out of position.

It seemed like a deliberate and spitefull attack on the fans by doing what he did yesterday.

And Steven Carr smiling... Sorry, whats there to smile about lad? 0-3 down?

What a rubbish substitution anyway, a LB for a RB and a player who is never going to change the game.

We are a total and utter shambles and the guy has to go, he has lost the dressing room, and lost the fans in spectacular fashion.

Flores (ex Valencia), Houllier, Van Gaal, Capello etc.
 
how much has ashley got money wise, if he really cares about the team surely he could get a capello in with the draw of 100 mil over two years to rebuild the squad. i'm not a newc fan (arsenal) but like to really see any game in the premiership being good tbh, it took 5 minutes to see what was completely wrong with the squad/formation and tactics against the pool, don't see why sam couldn't and why he couldn't change it.

is there a chance ashley simply knows nothing about football and is imposing his views on the club? smith is clearly ashleys favourite, wears his shirt every game. liverpool spent 35 mins attacking mostly down their left, because smith was no where to be seen at all on the right. every attack, the entire liverpool left flank was empty , completely, which meant they simply didn't have to defend there. smith spent maybe 30 seconds on the right wing till the goal, at which point he moved over for 10 mins, created one chance, and drifted off again. smith was awful(though got man of match, somehow), made another pointless yellow card challenge in their half just barging someone. anyway, question is, did sam want him, or did ashley go get him, is sam wanting to play Smith, or is ashley implying if he doesn't he gets no money or he's out?

might the simple problem be that ashley though a fan doesn't know football at all but thinks he does.

the guy you played left back, he's a left winger? i'm sure i'd seen him play ok as left back in a game or two, but this one, he seemed to just get 20yards from their box, stop bothering and hoof it into the box without looking, the ball went in a couple of times when there was no one in the box, he just didn't seem to care at all.

never been a fan of Fat Sam's, think your best chance for a decent year is to ditch him now, rather than later. liverpool weren't great, you were that bad they didn't need to do anything.
 
I'm not defending Sam exactly, I think he's made some really bad decisions, the most obvious is using players out of position. However we're not going to achieve anything if we just keep sacking the manager after every string of bad results.

The team needs stability if it's going to improve and we haven't had that yet. Some of that is Sam's fault, some of it isn't but the fact remains. We aren't going to attract managers such as Flores, Houllier, Van Gaal, Capello etc. with the state of the club at the minute so why even suggest it?

I'm just as frustrated with the recent performances and results as the rest of you. I just feel that we've been playing the 'lash-out and sack the manager' card for almost the last 10 years and it's got us no where, maybe it's time for a different tack.

Panzer
 
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