OTF

He has the habit of flinging himself in recklessly when going forward for set pieces - too many fouls given away and knocks incurred without a goal return. Don't forget he was the one that put in the on-target volley that won us the corner that Martins scored off. He can carry on like a bit of a tart at times (ie. being snipered) but I'd like to think that's not what happened when he went off after our goal. If it is, then someone (I nominate Papa Bouba Diop) should give him a massive slap. You're right though, quite often he gives away needless fouls on our corners just by flinging himself aimlessly towards the ball and careening any players out of the way that happen to be in the area.

I presume you are talking about when Duff plays wide left rather than up front where he did today, if so, where do you put Gutierrez ? I was referring to both positions really if Duff is playing (I'm not a fan of his), obviously Duff won't be getting any games up front when Owen/Viduka are back though... basically I'd love to have N'Zogbia on one wing and Gutierrez on the other. There's a few differences between Gutierrez and N'Zogbia in the way that they play. N'Zogbia could learn a LOT from the Argentine (and yes I'm basing this off having seen Gutierrez play a grand total of three matches). Gutierrez will only take on an opposing player if the situation presents itself. N'Zogbia will take on an opposing player almost everytime he gets it. Gutierrez is working for the final product. He gets past a defender to make a quality pass. N'Zogbia is working for the the play. He gets past a defender to try to get past another defender to get a shot off. Gutierrez can make a long pass. N'Zogbia's on field vision isn't even looking for long pass options. Gutierrez really values possession. If he takes on a defender he does it in a way that is unlikely to allow them to disposses him. N'Zogbia will force the issue. He'll try to just get past a defender, meaning that they'll have a good chance to nick the ball. The skills are all there for N'Zogbia to be an excellent attacking exponent, however currently I think he's too one dimensional. Bringing in a player like Gutierrez will only help him develop. I don't think he'll gain much from Duff, who seems to be stuck in a rut and playing in a similar manner to N'Zogbia. This post was largely off topic. I really don't want to see N'Zogbia played out of position at left back again. He's good there in attack, but is a liability in defense. Lets work on Enrique's ability to get forward (which I don't think is that poor to be honest, he just doesn't have the ability to move with the ball at a pace like N'Zogbia does). I'm a big fan of Enrique's.

Have to give plaudits to Taylor as well. I think he had a very good game - just a shame he picked up a knock in the Martins goal.

He did look like he lost a lot of weight - but I had read that he was told to do so (funny though, I don't think he was ever what I would consider overweight). He's a much better defender than N'Zogbia, but I get the feeling that they just want to fit N'Zogbia into the team. He is very good going forward, but he made a few mistakes that could have been extremely costly in the match (and you could say his marking for the goal was poor). I'd play Enrique there against Bolton, and move N'Zogbia up into left wing forward or to the bench (depending on the availability of a second forward for that match).

To be fair I don't think the second one was easier. Damn hard to head a ball in the right direction when it's moving at pace from a standing start on the ground.

Yep, Zog was our worst player, but even he did some things well (going forward of course - he's not a defender). Duff was ok at times, but poor when he tried to hold the ball up. Someone of his size and strength is going to be easy pickings for any defender worth their salt when he tried to use his body to shield the ball. if that was Viduka in the same position we do even better today. Jonas Gutierrez had a wonderful first game - from start to end. I think we can all agree with Mike Riley's assessment:

Geordie Lad = Half Full sandman02uk = completely fookin empty Man U (A)....Loss Bolton (H)....Win Arsenal (A)....Loss Hull (H)....Win West Ham (A)....Draw Blackburn (H)....Draw Everton (A)....Loss Man City (H)....Draw Sunderland (A)...Win WBA (H)....Win 15 points.

...and how many in the second half? It's a tough question as to whether you would throw Colo out there for this one. Next up we have Bolton at St James' which would be the perfect match to ease him into the new league. With Cacapa under an injury cloud (and seemingly past it anyway) I say we stick him out there and see what he's made of. If it backfires give him a haircut, stick Fabricio on the back of a shirt, change his number and send him out with a clean slate against Bolton.

Yes please. Loan with the option to buy would be optimum.

Good to see him back in training. We all have the right to be sceptical about his injury record, and I think we're going to continue to see him pick up this and that throughout the season. Him coming back into the side gives us a dimension that we don't have with any of our other players. They try to use Smith to hold the ball up (to both our detriment and Smith's) but everytime a long ball comes through Smith either fouls the opposing defender, doesn't get it, or has a shocking touch. Viduka is one of the best players in the league at holding the ball up, and has great touch to boot. i think when he's available we'll see more goals than when he isn't - both Owen and Martins have both explicitly stated that they love to play alongside him.

Officially Not Available due to work permit: Jonas Gutierrez Not Available due to not being signed/no work permit: Fabricio Coloccini Not Available due to training with Stoke: Abdoulaye Faye Not Available due to on-going transfer negotiations: Shola Ameobi Not Available due to Injury: Michael Owen Mark Viduka Andy Carroll Kazenga Lua Lua Obafemi Martins Not Available due to incarceration problems: Joey Barton Not-Available due to not being Newcastle players: Joao Moutinho Tiago Mendes Not available due to laundering problem with #46 Shirt: Sebastain Bassong Not available due to pending swap deal with Arsenal for Senderos: Shay Given Charles N'Zogbia £40M Not available due to pending deal with Aston Villa: James Milner Not available due to pending swap deal with Blackburn for Warnock: Damien Duff Not availble due to shirt name being too big to fit in the designated black section on our home strip: Jose Enrique Unfortunately Available: Alan Smith Actually Available: Claudio Cacapa Danny Guthrie Steve Harper 'Ron' Geremi Habib Beye Nicky Butt Steven Taylor David Edgar Fraser Forster Tim Krul Mark Doninger Ryan Donaldson Jonny Godsmark

As long as we hijack their Moutinho plans, it's all good. Of course it's all just paper talk anyway!

I'm happy for us to be getting offers for Milner. Won't be happy if he leaves though Unless we get a tidy sum, and use it wisely reinvesting in some creative talent.

Should definately keep him. No way we could get in anyone half as good for that price given the current climate. Also gives us cover for Butt. He's a very valuable member of the team - I guess the media is playing up on the fact that he hasn't been involved in the pre-season. I'd like to know why that is. With love, OzToonFan

He's not exactly a flyer though, is he? Seems reluctant to get forward on the evidence so far as well. Agree about the options. Enrique is far and away our fastest defender. Gerrard who is no slouch when he flat foots it was easily outpaced by Enrique last season when we played Liverpool (Gerrard consequently grabbed a hold of Enrique's shirt, then dived to the ground claiming a foul - Enrique was still standing with the ball safely in his posession and the ref called the foul against Gerrard :icon_lol: ... that was the one saving grace from that match). Warnock is a good player though. He was never spectacular for Liverpool, but he always did his job. It must have been tough for him there seeing as he was only used very sporadically and in a few different positions. I'd honestly have Enrique in the side over Warnock, because Enrique has shown that given a solid run of games he is continually improving. He's biger than Warnock, stronger than Warnock, and faster than Warnock. Warnock has the edge in other areas, particularly experience and is probably a better defender at the moment. The experience side is only natural given that he is 4 and a bit years older than Enrique. It can't hurt to get him in though, because if Enrique has any injury problems we don't have a lot of depth there - Bassong can play there but I get the feeling that he is more of a future project. They could always use N'Zogbia there (as they have in the past), but he's a pretty horrible defender IMO. For the reported 5 million it's not the best value in the world, but he shouldn't be on massive wages and seeing as we got rid of Babayaro and Carr it's only logical that we bring in some cover in the fullback region.

The sad part is last season that game was close... that is until Ronaldo belted in that free-kick and our players heads dropped. All thing are possible. But I certainly won't be making any bets!

20-25! I thought it would be somewhere around 10 to be honest. Just did a quick bit of rumour research and mooted to be around the 15-17 million mark. Next! PS - Moutinho please.

8 million is a lot for Inler... I wonder how much you could get Xabi Alonso for... Liverpool would pump the money straight back into their Gareth Barry approach.

Have to agree with you Glen on this one. It's all well and good to hypothesise about what formation we would like to see out there, but you have to remember that we haven't seen Faye at all this pre-season, and Coloccini has only been training with a youth side (according to reports) to maintain fitness. He'll surely be short of match sharpness. Taylor and Cacapa have been our pre-season central defensive partnership, so to think that it will change now is pretty hopeful. Coloccini is better than both Taylor and Cacapa, but without having played with our side at all and without a pre-season match under his belt, throwing him into a Premier League match against Manchester United at Old Trafford could be a big mistake. Much better in my opinion to 'blood' him against Bolton at home the following week. Anyone remember who our last recruit from Deportivo played his first match against? Milner and Jonas will swap sides on occassion, and Duff will sit deeper (and wider) than Oba. We'll mainly be looking to catch them on the counter attack, trying to get Martins behind their defense. Hopefully this doesn't mean that we play long balls, but instead use our wide men to advance the ball. Owen could play some part, depending how he gets through a mid-week behind closed doors match. I would imagine that Faye will feature in that, and Coloccini too, if the papers are signed by then. Taylor and Cacapa make a very slow central defensive pairing, I worry about their ability to contain Tevez and if he plays, Rooney. Beye and Enrique will no doubt be called on to assist. Enrique was our quickest defender last season, and having lost some weight in the off-season should by my calculations be even faster now.

Coloccini is not in the Argentina Olympic Squad ???? Their three senior players AFAIK are Riquelme, Pareja and Mascherano. Keegan didn't 'deny' it, he just failed to confirm it - and why would you until it is actually done - this is a big signing, be nice to make a proper announcement.

According to Arsenal (and that's according to the press) you could buy 3 Shay Given's for one Gordon. A fit Given shits all over the lanky bastard IMO. 9 million was about 7 too many.

He's not a bad player, but we don't really need a left back. Enrique should be first choice (he has slimmed down, and was already IMO probably our quickest first team player excluding Martins last year). Bassong and N'Zogbia give us enough cover there, plus if there is some sort of epidemic (hey, it is NUFC) right footed Edgar could fill in... maybe against Manchester United

Would it not make sense to announce it at (before/during/after) the PSV match?

It would be nice to have their lack of options.

And my personal favourite compliation...