BigWalrus

http://www.whoscored.com/Teams/23/Show/England-Newcastle-United The team as a whole. Significant weakness: Defending against attacks down the wings

http://www.whoscored.com/Players/14075/Show/Jons-Gutirrez Stats do the talking!

http://www.whoscored.com/Players/92/Show/Shola-Ameobi

Jonas, if fit, must start. Our midfield is defensively weak as piss.

Keep him for fuck's sake. We finished 5th last season and scored some of the best goals I have ever seen. We should be ok when we have a few of our proper players back. When you are in and amongst that middle group in the PL, you can flit around from 5th to 14th quite easily from season to season. Blame the ridiculous divide that has been created by the huge wealth of bankrolled clubs. It's shit but that is what the game has become.

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=752986 Canny funny really, what a horrendous top

LuaLua was also doing it with fresh legs against 10 men trying to get back into the game. Not really a fair comparison.

And Lee Probert is a fucking tool.

Yep, as the senior centre back, its his line and he should be in control of it. If in doubt, drop deeper and actually defend the ball. No real surprise how it turned out although we were particularly bad. Appalled by Obertan. The bloke has no awareness of his team mates or the opposition. He has no heart. Sammy was a wild card entry, but wild cards should be played alongside a more solid midfield. Shite basically, but we have seen it all before.

I'd be chuffed if we bagged Remy - he's a class act. Instinctive, good finisher and technically gifted.

Can't argue with that, but I'd struggle to hold back a smirk if he did his knee in on his debut.

Agreed. He is useful as an impact sub because of his size and strength, but starting games is a bit of a stretch at this level.

Questions why successive managers have all chosen him for over 10 years despite this "laziness".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Box-Canvas-Print-Paul-Ross/dp/B001N6W8U0 Read the reviews...

Serious question - why does he need to play at right back? He's played at left for 99% of his career, so why (other than him being right footed) change now?

As much as I despise the melty-faced bastard, it was probably widely known within football circles. Ba's "representatives" have no qualms about speaking to anybody and have no doubt systematically told anyone that would listen about the release clause.

As for Santon, as has been said, he is a footballer. Unlike the likes of Simpson, he knows how to kick a ball and he knows how to control a ball coming at him at pace. Positioning can be taught and developed with experience. If you have a shit first touch in your 20's, it's unlikely it'll ever get any better. That said, he's had a few poor games recently, but part of that is no doubt attributable to having very limited understanding with Obertan in front of him.

Replacing Coloccini is no easy task. He is one of the most technically gifted footballers at the club for a start, but he also plays as more of a sweeper. With him as a sweeper, we can play a big lad alongside him to go in for the majority of the aerial stuff, with Coloccini mopping up behind and doing the bulk of the passing. To bring another lad in next to Coloccini, he'd need to be not only strong in the air, but also good on the deck. Douglas could be that man, as he's a lanky bastard but also competent with the ball at his feet. He's nowhere near finished yet mind. His reading of the game is still first class and we are at our absolute weakest when he isn't playing.

His contract will have been written off years ago, so his wages won't even appear in the accounts this year (that's the done thing nowadays at football clubs). I imagine we probably took a huge hit to the accounts 2-3 years ago when we realised he was shit.

That wouldn't surprise me at all... If playing another game triggers another payment to Deportivo, it's possibly a bit silly to play him when we don't plan on keeping him.

Yep - we need a new striker or two. I hope we get them too, but there's bugger all I can do about it, so I'm just going to sit back and let it be.

CT is correct to be fair, the article says we'll sign one senior striker in January. Whether the article is correct or not is another matter...

A new centre back would not have cut out any of the goals we've conceded recently. We're leaking goals because our midfield is porous. [However, I don't disagree that we need a new centre back...]