Isegrim

I am still sure that Mertesacker will play at a top European club in 2-3 years time.

Lahm? Didn't he have a total shitter of a tournament apart from that last minute goal against Turkey? I wouldn't have put Lahm in there myself (he played well in 2/3 of the games though). But he deserves it more than Ballack tbh who was pretty shit apart from one free kick.

Deserved win for Spain. They were the far better team and the most consistent team of the tournament anyway. One (+ a half) good game in a tournament are not good enough, so reaching the final means that we overachieved anyway. A bit disappointing that we couldn't build on the good game against Portugal. I can't understand why we let Turkey and Spain play their football. But going into the tournament with far too many players not being in form always meant that it would be difficult. The axis of Mertesacker - Ballack - Gomez was meant to have to carry other players, but instead they all grossly underperformed themselves. Germany have about 14-15 good player, who can play decent football (like against Portugal), but the depth of squad wasn't good enough to provide cover.

Let them do what they want, I mean if we were to start ethnic cleansing of this board, you'd be fucked Isegrim. I'd console myself with the symapathy of the other south tynesiders then...

It was always a big risk to make him first choice keeper after having not played most of the season. I'd rather gone for Enke or Adler myself. But to be fair to Lehmann, apart from his shakey performance against the Turks he actually did surprisingly well in the tournament. We have to do the same what we did against Portugal: attack them from the start and stop them from playing football themselves. If Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas are given time on the ball (and/or Torres space), they will murder us.

I am not for banning those two numpties, but can we restrict their access a bit? Like their writing rights getting limited to the NUFC Prediction forum or the Punters lounge?

Head says Spain, heart says Germany...

You started as a WUM and have not really changed since your first post tbh.

Plenty of trouble is overstating it. It never kicked of big style, probably down to good police work. There were enough clashes between various set of dickheads though, who are no better than English fans in this regard (most notably the German "fans" against Poland and Austria). I am really surprised all went peaceful against the Turks. Us winning and them playing well (morally winning) helped a lot I guess.

Spain are of course the big favourites as they have been the most consistent team at the tournament so far. It will all depend if we are able to up our game again. A performance like against Portugal is needed. The pace of Torres could be a problem, hopefully Mertesacker rediscovers his normal form. Another performance like against Turkey and it will be an easy contest.

Individually we're head and shoulders better than the krauts, it's a crying shame that ginger bastard was ever given control of the England team. The two centre halfs are astonishingly shite. The fundamental thing in football is passing the ball, both of them reminded me of Stephen Caldwell in this aspect. The Krauts are underrated and Engurlad are vastly overrated. To say that Engurland is head and shoulders above them in any respect is complete trash. How many of the German players would get in an England 11 ? Only Ballack, Klose, Podolski and Lahm would have any chance. The rest are sub standard. As poor as we were yesterday, but that's utter nonsense. Sorry. I should have used the word average. Ok, it's just nonsense then.

Didn't Modric deny it that he was ever in Newcastle personally?

Hilarious stuff tbh. Demonstrates that the biggest problem of English football is probably the head up the own arse mentality. Too many people (players included) believe the SKY-generated hype. It also shows that players shouldn't be judged on single performances to assess their strengths and weaknesses. For example to say that Lahm is piss poor defensively is ok based on last night's game, but totally wide of the mark when you judge his normal performances. Same for Mertesacker who is normally absolutely faultless and imho one of the most talented defenders in football at the moment. Parky couldn't spot a talented player when getting beaten with one though...

Individually we're head and shoulders better than the krauts, it's a crying shame that ginger bastard was ever given control of the England team. The two centre halfs are astonishingly shite. The fundamental thing in football is passing the ball, both of them reminded me of Stephen Caldwell in this aspect. The Krauts are underrated and Engurlad are vastly overrated. To say that Engurland is head and shoulders above them in any respect is complete trash. How many of the German players would get in an England 11 ? Only Ballack, Klose, Podolski and Lahm would have any chance. The rest are sub standard. As poor as we were yesterday, but that's utter nonsense.

Individually we're head and shoulders better than the krauts, it's a crying shame that ginger bastard was ever given control of the England team. The two centre halfs are astonishingly shite. The fundamental thing in football is passing the ball, both of them reminded me of Stephen Caldwell in this aspect. I've never seen Mertesacker that poor. He's normally far, far better than yesterday - with especially an impressive passing ability. I am still lost about yesterday's performance. It wasn't about the Turks playing that well, but how a team can go into a semi-final and be that poor is beyond me. Based on this performance even the players from Andorra are head an shoulders better than us...

Damn, this was awful. We were the far worse team for about 2/3 of the match and still luckily won it. That's German luck tbh. Lahm did everything wrong and right. I'd kill the Turckish 'keeper personally tbh...

Bastids.

That's occurred to me too. I'm surprised we don't sign more Scandi's bearing in mind the relative proximity. Something I've been saying for ages, but I find it quite remarkable that players from certain leagues seem more likely to adapt to English football than others. The vast majority of them are poor quality though. Who's world class from Scandanavia, many would argue "Zlatan" is, I'm yet to see why. Who else? Poulsen? Poor mans Eric Roy he looks to me. There's no one we could sign who's Scandanavian who would make me think "wow". Well, Poulsen would be a much better and reliable player than Emre imho. It's not always about them having to be "world class" (how many of those players can Newcastle attract from any league at the moment?), but offering good value for money and making the team better, like Agger or Laursen for example. But my initial point was indeed not about Scandanavians paricularly, but more a general one - with especially Germany in mind. I don't rate many players from the German league, but I find it significant that hardly any player coming from the German league to English league has floppped. Even the likes of Santa Cruz, who was distinctly average here, or Samba, who was totally unknown. They are also not "world class" but doing pretty fine jobs for their teams.

That's occurred to me too. I'm surprised we don't sign more Scandi's bearing in mind the relative proximity. Something I've been saying for ages, but I find it quite remarkable that players from certain leagues seem more likely to adapt to English football than others.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

He's just another Torres in disguise tbh.

Fat Sam is the new Chuck Norris tbh.

http://www.toontastic.net/board/index.php?...=19510&st=0 I'd rather say, that the majority thought he would be a good signing depending on the price. Fishing for another bite?

This "lack of end product" malarky sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perfect players are very rare. I wouldn't mind someone like Lennon who might disappoint with his end product often enough, but who can make up for it with other attributes. He'll generally unsettle defences with his pace and win freekicks with his dribblings that only can get stopped by foul.

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