Dickie
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Posts posted by Dickie
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Think we're going to have a lot more of the ball against Villa, also he's likely to get more time on the ball and perhaps that will get the most out of him?
Aye that was my thinking - you would expect them to sit deep so we want to get our skilful (is that really how you spell skilful, can't believe there's not more than 2 l's in there) players on the ball as much as possible. If De Jong is the player we all hope he is you would think this would be the ideal game for him to drop in between the lines, pulling their defenders out of position and picking the killer passes. Of course he might be shocking, get subbed off at half time never to be seen again
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I would start De Jong and Perez next game. I agree De Jong hasn't really done anything yet but he looks like he's got a decent touch and awareness and I'd like to see him given a run of starts to see if he can get used to English football - he had a good reputation in Holland supposedly, but we won't know unless he's given a decent run in the side. Villa and Everton at home should be good opportunities for him to see if he can start stamping his authority on the game a bit more. We should have a fair bit of possession against Villa so let's see if we can get him and Wijnaldum the ball to make things happen around their box. I'd keep Mitrovic on the bench with the plan of bringing him on to put himself about when the opposition (and De Jong) are tiring.
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Great draw for us - it's not going to be easy but they're definitely beatable. Cardozo can be a good player but he blows hot and cold - he's on mega money over there and his ambition has started to dwindle. Aimar hasn't done anything for years. As with all Portuguese teams they're good on the ball if you let them play and they're a bunch of cheating, diving swines, so let's hope we get a ref who doesn't get fooled (although Steven Taylor might disagree with that).
Great trip though - Lisbon's the best city I've ever been to, by miles! Howay the toon!
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As I have said I could see it if we had a more pragmatic coaching/management setup that would encourage it. If you look at a lot of the top teams as well now not many actually play with a destroyer, they want their players to be able to do more than that. I'm a self-confessed Tiote fan and although he doesn't have the all round package I still like seeing him in that role as we aren't at a level yet where we can afford to go without some form of protection for the back four.
Anita's similar to the likes of Carrick and Pirlo as in he plays deep but isn't a defensive midfielder, yet likes to dictate the pace of a game as he has the passing ranging and agility to do so. I just don't think we would ever see it work under this setup. I am also not saying he's comparable ability wise to both of those players but that's the sort of player he is.
Bigi is a cracking prospect and as you have said is probably marked as the long-term replacement for Tiote. He's not as good defensively as Tiote is, yet he has a much sharper range of passing.
Can I just say it's great to actually be discussing selection dilemmas now due to some squad depth we have in certain positions. Yes of course it's not perfect and still lop sided in certain areas but it's potentially the best squad we've had for years.
Great posts mate. Yes, I suppose the idea is that if you're a good team who has the ball more often than not then you don't need someone like Tiote, and that is where we'd obviously like to be. For example for most of the 2nd half on Sat Tiote simply didn't add anything - we're on the front foot, totally camped in Swansea's half and in that situation I'd far rather have Bigi or even Anita from what I've seen of them than Tiote.
I've definitely got my doubts about whether Anita will ever make it in the Premier League, but would love to think he will. I just don't think we've seen what he's capable of, and obviously the fear is that we never will. Hopefully he doesn't turn out to be another Hugo Viana - what a great player, but a classic example of someone who wasn't going to make it over here.
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Tiote seems to have regressed this season. On Saturday I was dreading him going near the ball, either with or without possession. Hopefully it's just a blip, as he was a very useful player for us last year. I wonder if Anita or Bigirama will be able to step in and take his place on a regular basis next season? Neither of them are similar to Tiote though - having one of them plus cabaye and Sissoko would probably leave us a bit light.
Apart from that, another striker is a no brainer, as is a centre half if Colo leaves.
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Well that was just one of those matches unfortunately. We played great for for long periods - they're a good passing team and are always going to create chances at home but we did well once we got to grips with them. Taylor did well against Michu for most of the match, won everything in the air. Unfortunately Mbiwa looked a bit shaky - definitely adapting to the Premier League. I didn't see what happened for their goal cos it was at the other end. Canny trip though - nice people and it was good to see another strong performance from us. If Colo had been playing I've no doubt we would have got at least a draw.
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Exactly - they are team that deserve respect but we certainly shouldn't fear them, the way we've been playing recently. We're starting to look very handy as an attacking force and I can see us scoring more than once down there. If we can stay focused at the back I fancy us for a result.
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Great result and a really heartening performance to get through against a team of horrible cheats on what looked like a difficult pitch in freezing conditions.
Shola put a good shift in and did a job for us as he has done now and again over the last few years. Sissoko is a beast, the two other new lads looked solid enough too. Great stuff, great to see United get through a really tricky tie, especially after we got done by poor oficiating in the first leg. It looks like the next tie will be even trickier - any team managed by Hiddink is likely to know what they're doing. Still, if we can get through that it could be on. Escpecially with Ben Arfa coming back hungry to make an impact.
I'm hoping against hope that Colo will stay for at least another year though - another terrfific performance tonight. What a player.
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Zidane was great to watch, agree with your Maradona comments, he carried two sides to trophies they may not have won without him, (club and country) whilst getting kicked in a way Messi doesn't. Messi is better than Ronaldinho by some way for me though. The original Ronaldo was superb and for a brief spell Romario was too. There's loads you could mention but no 'best ever' would be complete without Billy Askew, though. His partnership with Kevin Dillon in our midfield had me watching through silent tears of awe.
Haha aye I'm sure all of us who were lucky enough to witness their magical brand of football/art were similarly affected. Iniesta and Xavi should think themselves lucky they play in a different era - they wouldn't have got a kick
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I love these arguments even though there'll never be a winner. For me Zidane was a better player than Iniesta will ever be, and he was also better than Platini. That's not to say that the other two aren't/weren't truly unbelievable players.
In terms of magic on the ball I'd put Zidane and Maradona ahead of Messi, and definitely ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo... and although you can compare stats (goals scored, assists made, World Cups won), for me personally it comes down to the wonder of watching them. And that is why, even if they only did it in fits and spurts compared to Messi and Ronaldo, Zidane and Maradona are the greatest footballers I've seen in my lifetime. I am too young to have seen George Best in his Man United prime so can't comment really, but videos I've seen suggest he was up there with those two too.
Of course the old chestnut about the game being slower and less professional when Maradona and Best played is true. Same can be said of Platini vs Zidane. However the flipside of that argument is that I reckon if Maradona had been a teenager in the early 2000s as Messi and Ronaldo were, he would have been similarly expertly managed and given every possible chance to get the most out of his talent. In actual fact he was one of the most mis-managed players in history, starting from his early teens when he was given horrendous medical advice that hampered the rest of his career, and continuing to his infamous come back at USA 94. Maradona's early days in Argentina and then Barcelona were chaotic, absolutely mental. There can be no argument that Maradona, like Gazza, did not fulfill his potential.
That's all pure conjecture though, and just my opinion. And I wouldn't say its ludicrous for anyone to say that Iniesta is better than Zidane or Messi is better than Maradona, etc. They are all valid opinions and are based on sound logic. What is incontrovertible, however, is football's ability to capture the imagination through the wonder of watching it's greatest players. It's something that sets it apart from all other sports (the only exception being Rugby League whenever Andrew Johns was on the ball), and it is the reason I don't think you can compare players in terms of their CVs alone. Maradona and Zidane's talents just seemed otherwordly in a way that Messi, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho's never have to me.
I would add that I agree with David Kelly about Maradona's astonishing achievements with the national team and Napoli. Neither Messi or Ronaldo will ever achieve anything remotely comparable, but that's not their fault.
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I thought that was a decent performance - we were very unlucky not to win by 2 or 3. It will be very tricky over there but we've got a decent chance to go through.
I'm really enjoying how we're playing at the moment and it looks like there's a lot more to come from this team with this new lot of Frenchies. Great to see us trying to play on the deck through the middle - with Gouffran and Ben Arfa in that side to add some wide threat we should be quite a potent attacking force. S Taylor has added a lot since he came back - not just his physicality at the back, but also popping up and causing problems in the opposition box. Hopefully he can start getting on the score sheet.
It'll be a shame if we don't go through now but not the end of the world. It was good see us keep going right til the end - looks like we've got a good spirit in the squad and Pardew has to be commended for that.
At the start of this season I was convinced a number of the better players (Ben Arfa, Tiote, Cabaye, Ba) would be off this summer. For various reasons (Tiote and Ben Arfa's value has probably dropped due to loss of form and/or injury, while Cabaye has his mate here and seems to have cheered up) I'm less convinced of that now, and if we keep improving at the current rate I think we'll give a few teams a bit of a howking between now and the end of the season. That'll hopefully put everyone in a good frame of mind before the summer so we can come back and have a good crack at it again next year. Colo is clearly going to be a huge miss but that other new defender had a decent debut last night so hopefully thats a sign of things to come.
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What about the number of our own attacks he has broken up by putting a simple pass out for a throw in?
Simpson is a horrible footballer. He can't pass, he is terrible at cutting out crosses, he is cowardly when it comes to positioning and has a non-existent first touch. He is incredibly fortunate to have earned so much money from being so poor.
I agree with this - Simpson is a shocking player at this level, absolutely shocking. Can't understand how anyone has seen him play even a handful of times could say otherwise.
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We all have to give Pardew and the players a lot of credit for getting a truly massive 6 points - well done to the lot of them.
I think bringing Shola on was supposed to get us back on the front foot, give us a physical presence up front and try to get us holding on to the ball further up the pitch. That would be alright if Shola could do any of those things!
Anyway, we played well in the first half and were understandably nervous in the 2nd. It was a pity Debuchy gave away the pen - no need to make that tackle but hopefully he'll learn from it. If they hadn't scored then, the enthusiasm they came out with after HT might well have fizzled out after 10 mins or so (how often do we see that with teams low on confidence) and we might have gone on to coast the match. Unfortunately the goal gave them belief and made us very, very nervous.
Nevermind, great 3 points and we can look forward to seeing the new lads backed by a vociferous crowd at home against Chelsea. Sissoko looked very handy, I still like the look of Debuchy, Goufran had a solid enough if unspectacular debut... lots of reasons to be positive there, not to mention Cabaye getting stronger and Cisse taking his goal very very well.
I'd like to think we'll attack Chelsea form the off, and I've no doubt whatsoever that Colo will have Ba in his back pocket for the 90 minutes.
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Bracewell was a top player and I enjoyed watching him for us whenever he was fit - he was well past his best when we got him though. I know what you mean about his passing Gloom - he very rarely gave the ball away and his passes were really decisive and crisp, a joy to watch really. However you can't say his passing was in the same bracket as Hoddle, who was genuinely brilliant on the ball. In terms of creativity and making things happen with a decisive pass, there's no competition. Hoddle used to play some absolutely sublime passes, on a regular basis - not sure anything Brace ever did could be called subime.
I remember him coming on as a sub after a long lay off when we were playing really poorly in one match in 93-94.. can't for the life of me remember what game it was but I've got a feeling it was a against lower league opposition in one of the cups. Anyway he came on, having not played in a good long time (from memory) and just totally grabbed hold of the game by the scruff of the neck, both with his hard tackling and keeping hold of possession, driving the rest of the team forward form deep. As I say, can't for the life of me remember the match but it's my one abiding memory of his at the Toon - a joy to behold. Must have been well into his thirties by then?
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I'm reluctant to criticise Pardew too much based on the evidence of the last two years.
Last year the team exceeded our expectations, this year its been the opposite. I'd say you have to take both with a pinch of salt - last year we were fortunate to have pretty good luck with injuries, given the small squad we had, and then a striker who hit the form of his life for the last third of the season. Pardew however has to take a good deal of credit for that success too - we were undoubtedly well organised, kept a good shape without the ball and utilised what attacking options we had well. For the most part it wasn't pretty but it was perfect for us in our situation.
This season I think its fair to say there's been some mitigating circumstances. Having the Ba thing and now Colo can't have been easy - managers authority isn't what it used to be, these "multi-million pound asset" players are holding all the cards. I can't imagine Pardew had much of a say in Ba's buy-out clause for example (surely he would have been against it), and he is on a hiding to nowt now with his most important player, Colocinni. Clearly Pardew also has take a good deal of the blame for whats happened this season, but to say the buck stops with him just because he is the manager is too simplistic. Chelsea have continually shown that even the very best managers can find it impossible to work under the new breed of megalomoniac multi-billionaire owners, with multi-millionaire spoilt brat players. I'm not saying Ashley is the same as Abamovich and the City lot by the way, but its clear that he and Dekka are really the ones calling the shots. Football club owners have been clueless as long as I can remember but it does seem that managers authority often isn't what it was.
We can say that Pardew should do the principalled (sp?) thing and stand up to them/walk like KK - you couldn't really blame him, but where would that leave us? With Joe Kinnear?
The only thing to do with Pardew at the minute is support him. I think he's a decent manager and whatever you think about him as a bloke, he does seem to be a commited, motivated professional (unlike charlatans such as Gullit and Souness for example). Looks like Ashley is backing him in this window, so it doesn't look like sacking him is in the immediate plans anyway. You never know, this new lot of Frenchies could be class and we might just finish strongly and set us up to have a fresh bash next season.
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Its early days but to me Debuchy has shown signs of being a canny player. Looks quick enough, comfortable on the ball, brave and importantly seems to instinctively look for the positive option. Simpson is a trier but hopelessly out of position so often its not true, and I've got to try hard to remember anyone who looked less able with the ball at his feet apart from Williamson! Something about his performances at fullback put me in mind of his almost namesake Mark Stimpson, what a donkey he was!
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I can't remember if it was 2002-03 or 2003-04 (my recent memory is shocking) but Titus Bramble once played about 5 or 6 home games in a row without making a rick and he was absolutely imperious. I think he might have been playing alongside Woodgate at the time, and for that handful of games our defense looked impenetrable. Was probably Hughes and Bernard at fullback. Woodgate was obviously a real top class defender when he was fit but on his day Bramble was as good... he also had a brilliant long range pass off either foot which you don't see very often from any player, let alone a centre back. Not only that, he was fast, strong, good in the air and used to throw in at least one crowd pleasing monster munch of a tackle every other game. Unfortunately as we all know he was also an accident waiting to happen and an absolute knacker. Pity cos in terms of raw attributes he had the absolute lot, as much as any centre back I can remember at the toon.
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Dickie! And then half the board agreeing with him!? Nee way that's a new poster either. It's Alex or Wacky making a return
Dickie! And then half the board agreeing with him!? Nee way that's a new poster either. It's Alex or Wacky making a return
I was on this forum about 4-5 years ago for a bit, my username was probably Dickie or something similar, only posted a handful of times. Felt compelled to come back this morning to voice my dismay at the people who thought it was a good idea to boo a manager's decision when we were 1-0 up in a relegation 6 pointer. To me that just seems an absolutely mind bogglingly counter-productive thing to do, regardless of whether or not you agree with the decision.
I agree with you by the way - as I said, my heart sinks when I see Shola starting and I'd actually have started Obertan. However Obertan is also one of the players that people seem to love having a go at and what I was saying was there was logic behind the decision as Obertan looks like the archetypal "confidence player" to me, and he's looked low since Brighton I reckon.
I think Pardew's actually a pretty good Premier League manager. I don't like his patter a lot of the time (the full kit whopper in the petrol station story that McFaul mentioned probably sums him up as a person), and I hate Ashley and Lambias as much as anyone else I can remember who's been connected with the club. However I think he and the players (most of whom seem to be pretty good professionals) should be supported as vocally as possible at this crucial time. I honestly think the negativity of the support in the 2nd half contributed to the result and I think the people who booed the decisions shouldn't come back. We did well in the first half, did well for large parts of the games against Man U and Arsenal (fielding a very weak first team - Ashley's fault not Pardew's in my opinion), and the work ethic and spirit of the players who played those games was mostly spot on - that reflects well on Pardew as a manager in my opinion.
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Thousands of clueless glakes booing Pardew's subs, I wish people like this would stop going to the match. Marveaux off was a defensive substitution - we'd been playing shite since half time, Marv hadn't had a kick in the second half, he can be good on the ball but he contributes nowt when we haven't got it (as we didn't for a lot of the 20 minutes preceding the sub). Perch has done an excellent job in shoring up the midfield on numerous occasions over the last couple of years. If we'd held on 1-0 (which we might well have done if back 4 hadn't conspired to let in ANOTHER soft goal) people would have been saying it was a sensible sub now.
Looks like we've got the Montpellier captain, hopefully we can keep hold of Colo til the end of the season (magnificent for the most part again yesterday) and with S Taylor coming back, we'll never have to play Williamson again and that'll give everyone a boost. Debuchy looks a good, positive right back, huge improvement on Simpson.
Got to get behind the team and manager for the rest of this season. Did very well last season by keeping it tight and playing long balls to a half decent battering ram (Best) for flick-ons etc to Ba or (latterly) relying on Ben Arfa & Cabaye's quality on the break in a 433/451. Good tactics given the resources we had. This season he's tried to play more of a passing game (first half yesterday good example of that and looked very good against poor opposition), which is what ideally we would all want to see, but for whatever reason it hasn't come off (injuries and loss of form to aforementioned key players? It's football - it happens!). Consquently we've ended up pumping even more longer balls (many of them aimless from Willo) to strikers who can't hold a ball up (Shola, Cisse and Ba). Anita was signed to help us progress to a more passing game, unfortunately he's found it difficult to come into a struggling side. Still wouldn't write him off yet.
I hate to see Shola start as much as anyone, especially out wide. However what were the options? Obertan by all accounts is low on form/confidence and would have been just as unpopular a choice with the clueless brigade. Unfortunately we don't have a young Chris Waddle/Robert Lee/Bobby Mitchell (delete as appropriate) or even Hatem Ben arfa available to play there, but none of that is Pardew's fault!
If you want to boo someone, boo Demba Ba in a couple of weeks, the ugly bassa.
If you want to boo Pardew for trying to trying to win us a football match, don't bother thanks.
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Me too. What's Wijnaldum's favoured position?Does he to prefer to be a second striker or centre mid? I am assuming he's reluctantly doing a job on the left for now? If we had a really top quality ball winner in centre mid ideally we would get away with having De Jong and Wijnaldum through the middle against poorer sides as you say. Would be very worried about doing that with either Colback or Anita in there though - that would be a proper soft spine of the team, especially with Colo seriously on the wane behind them