Game On! Newcastle v Aston Villa

Game on at SJP!
Welcome one and all to our ‘Game On’ article which this afternoon will feature the visit of Paul Lambert’s Aston Villa outfit to St James’ Park.

Newcastle head into this game on the back of a narrow victory in the Europa league on Thursday night. Narrow it might have been, but ultimately it was enough to see us secure a passage through to the group stages of the competition, meaning we can look forward to more odd kick-off times as the season progresses.

I say odd kick-off times, because this one is odd. It’s a 4pm kick-off on a Sunday which usually means we are being shown on Sky, but not this time around. In fact we aren’t scheduled for any live TV broadcasting here in the UK today so you know what you have to do if you can’t actually get to the match…

As an interesting sub-plot today, there is a chance that we could see some history being made by witnessing our 1000th Premier League goal being scored. For that to happen we need to score two today, so the scorer of the second goal will be written into history basically.

As ever team news will be published below as and when it becomes available and if you haven’t already done so I would suggest reading Connor’s match preview which details injury news for both sides plus some other titbits such as previous history and likely team selections.

Which just about neatly wraps it up. We saw a largely second string side once more in midweek so I think it’s pretty safe to assume that we’ll see more of what are our “big hitters” for this match. Plus the transfer window is closed now so hopefully those players that do remain can get their heads in to gear, focus on the match, and send the fans into the international break on the back of a win.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Time Krul, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Vurnon Anita, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba

Subs: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson, Dan Gosling, Gael Bigirimana, Sylvain Marveaux, Romain Amalfitano, Gabriel Obertan

Aston Villa: Brad Guzan, Matt Lowton, Ron Vlaar, Ciaran Clark, Eric Lichaj, Brett Holman, Karim El Ahmadi, Stephen Ireland, Barry Bannan, Andreas Weimann, Darren Bent

Subs: Shay Given, Nathan Baker, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Charles N’Zogbia, Graham Burke, Jordan Bowery, Derrick Williams

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

388 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Aston Villa

  1. Shamrock-To an extent, yet as Dave says, when players don’t give a **** and perform terribly-see Cabaye (a key factor in how well our 4-3-3 worked) then Pards can only do so much and a formation only makes so much difference. Someone else mentioned when in the last 5 mins or so Anita had a thrown in and Cabaye was spitting his dummy out on the floor and showing no urgency. Pathetic really.

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  2. We are an one man team and he wasn’t playing today. Tiote is irreplaceable.Santon for me our stand out performer

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  3. Agreed Newkie, Cabaye needs to man up. Got a feeling he’s sulking due to a transfer offer rejected by Arsenal plus his mate Debuchy not being signed – only a feeling mind… We have plenty of midfielders and if he’s not up to scratch he should have a spell on the sidelines as a wake up call.

    Re: the player’s attitudes – I listened to Pardew before Kick Off – He was basically bigging us up talking about how fresh and quality we are – how we are really gunning for Top 4 this season. Absolutely no acknowledgment of the problems Villa may cause us. Reminded me of his cocky days at WestHam when nobody liked him. No doubt that kind of disregard rubs off on players and we let our guard down. He needs to sort that side of himself out and concentrate on the job at hand.

    Re: the comments made by most about 4-4-2 – I agree. We dont have the crossing ability for it. Cisse & Ba are just not good enough together. We need to play one or the other – or change formation…

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  4. SHAMROCK agree ie Ba and CISSE not being able to play together ,their national team coach hasn’t played them together in their last few matches . Its time for Pardew to chose which one starts and revert to 433

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  5. Shamrock-its a double edged sword though mate. We’ve been ***** for a while now and perhaps he felt the players needed a confidence boost. I agree that usually I like managers to play down our own chances, but sometimes players need to be told how good they are. Bobby and KK were masters of it.

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  6. Shamrock ,I agree about Cabaye .You would like to think they are professional yet I suspect he is a bit pissy about the Debuchy issue and maybe the bigger clubs linked to him has turned his head. Thing is if he doesn’t step up and get on with it all those big clubs will lose interest in him anyway.

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  7. (THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND  DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)

    @toby

    Do you not think Bigi stood in for Tiote fantastically ?

    He was our stand out player for me.

    Let’s not forget that we played some dire football last season and it was the brilliance of Ba & Cisse who scored from half chances that saved us.

    We need them to spark into life or we may well struggle.

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  8. The thing is, that was Bobby’s and Kevin’s style. Pards does better when he plays the undedog – just goes about the confident routine all wrong and makes himself look smug.

    Kim – He will realise that sooner or later. Just needs to roll his sleeves up and get on with it. Reckon this International break will do us some good. No doubt Pards will be telling them in no uncertain terms to come back with the right attitude if they carry this on…

    Not the end of the world but they need to wake up quickly. We should be taking advantage of Spurs’ and Liverpool’s poor form but we are not. That could cost us once they wake up.

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  9. Shamrock-But we were heavy favourites today, our own fans, the press, Villa fans….Expectation is something that Pardew and the squad are going to need to deal with at some point, right now we can’t handle it-we get ****** over in all the cups because of complacency. Pards tried the confident route because we should be confident, yet many players showed complacency and perhaps he did as well for being confident. But imo the players deserve a bollocking.

    Plus he needed to try something to resolve the Ba/Cisse issue imo, his main priority atm is to get those two firing and managers need to say whatever they can to get their players to perform. Clearly it didn’t work this time but i’d hardly place the blame at his door.

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  10. I also think one of the problems we have is that our players feel safe in keeping their position in the starting 11, I was watching a Vidic interview at the start of the season and he stated that most players perform better if they know there is another player at their heels waiting to take there spot if they fall short.
    I tend to agree with that and I think that could maybe be a factor in our problems, like who in our starting 11 has someone else snapping at their heels ❓ ❓ we are far too weak as a squad but sure almost everyone knows that and it seem’s that quite a few fans are happy enough with that 😯

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  11. Well I would. He’s the manager and today he didn’t manage to get a positive result OR get our players to put in a convincing performance as a unit at 4-4-2. Something was fundamentally wrong with us today and that points to tactics and approach in my mind at least… ❓

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  12. Fair enough. I agree with the tactics, I’ve said I didn’t understand why we’d been doing this **** unless it was to keep Ba happy. Three CMs with Benny behind those two strikers was what I suggested/called for when Anita was brought in and that’s what we tried-although obviously Biggy was in place of Anita due to the simmo injury.

    We changed the formation and became more effective, some players such as Jonas improved and showed yet again why he isn’t a winger. Some players stayed just as *****-Cabaye, and for me that’s as much his own fault.

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  13. Wont get any argument from me re: Cabaye mate. He looks like he’s sulking and that can’t help things either.

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  14. Troy
    Apart from blocking Bent’s shot bigi looked ****, his passing was dreadful. Agree with toby, tiote is irreplacable. Santon looked great apart from his final ball, but everyone was ***** at that today.

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  15. Shamrock-that’s what I meant by not placing the blame, I meant not the whole blame because some of them need to pull their sockies up.

    Dave-Know what you mean, but I don’t think its the case all the time. For me Tiote has been the one and only real holding midfielder we’ve ever had. He had no competition when he came in and really doesn’t have any now, he’s someone who I think always gives his all. Colo is similar, imo he had a good game today although the defence as a whole were a bit erratic. It may be the case with some people like Cabaye though, but to be honest if he keeps playing like this, I’d play Anita and Biggy over him 😯

    Benny faces competition from a variety of wingers but he’s the only one with true magic. Ba and Cisse are supposed to be competing with each other, they are (in that they’re greedy sometimes) but it’s just not clicking.

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  16. (THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND  DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)

    Cabaye looked no different to last season to me.

    Creates very little for a midfielder. Are you’s not just seeing what I’ve said all along ? 😯

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  17. Cabaye hardly had competition last season mind, Guthrie only ever stepped in and never replaced him yet he found his feet. Subs should have been made earlier though, to show players aren’t safe and give those coming on a chance to stake a claim for first team, esp marv.

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  18. Sham I agree Cabaye has been **** and that he needs to sort it out, but I can’t help feeling for the guy because he has made a bit of a di*k of himsel after coming out and publicly tapping up another teams player in Debuchy and stating that we needed to bring new blood in.
    I have said it before there is no way that he would have done that without being given the go ahead from the club that they would swoop in and take debuchy.
    Yeah players are professionals but they’re still only human and if the players think that the board doesn’t give a flying fuk will you can hardly expect the players to give their all, because they probably feel as if they gave their all last yr and look what they got ❓

    Andy I don’t think Bigi was that bad and was a lot better than some of our top players

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  19. Troy-Not really. Even at the beginning of last season when he was alongside Tiote in a 4-4-2 he was putting himself about, often covering more distance and putting in more tackles than Tiote himself. He took hold of the midfield and while he may not have ratched up many direct “assists” he dictated play from the centre.

    Today he was just *****.

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  20. Newkie TBH I thought that Cabaye was pretty average for most of last season except when he played a more attacking type game and then he looked like a top quality player

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  21. Dave-Fair enough. I thought he was a great partner for Tiote, but because we had absolutely no creativity from the wings (Benny isn’t too suited, Jonas isn’t a winger, Marv was crocked, Obertan was *****) then he was extremely limited because of those around him. Won us the game vs Wigan with a superb strike, brilliant free kick to seal the points vs manure and he constantly got the ball out to the wings where the creativity is supposed to come from with both long field balls and short passing. Unfortunately jonas/obertan let him down.

    Performed brilliantly in the second half as an attacking midfielder where he could link up with the more creative Ba and Benny and provide goals for Cisse. Same player, better players around him.

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  22. (THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND  DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)

    Having read some comments on Bigi’s performance I will have to reassess. I was at the game and I thought he stood in for Tiote without a problem.

    I thought there were far more players to criticise than Wor Bigi.

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  23. I thought Bigi did very well as well. I have to admit his last showing in the europa had me a bit worried but he did alright. Probably the tackle of the match in preventing Bent from scoring, I’ve no doubt Bent would have netted from that area otherwise. Passing was generally pretty good. Made a few errors but so did everyone. Santon one of the best shows, and even he kicked a free kick in our third sideways straight to Ireland (I think it was Ireland?) so there ya go.

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  24. A bit of a reality check needed in that dressing room. Agree with the points about over confidence and Pard’s cavalier gob.

    Villa at home in the form they have been in should have been a banker and the toffees away next. Holiday time is over, 5 games in and crazy to think we are really missing Ryan Taylor at the minute….

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  25. Tend to agree with Big Dave that it wouldn’t have mattered what formation we played Villa showed more commitment than us and that was the difference. They were first to most balls and were quick to close us down. Andymag @ 316. You weren’t at the same game as me. At times Bigis first touch and pass showed great vision. I think you are way off the mark.
    I am a big fan of Jonas but I would have subbed him midway through the first half. It was clear he was going to have an off day. And why wait until 5 minutes of normal time remaining before making subs when we were so poor. I also think Anita gave us something a bit more positive down the right that has been missing.

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  26. Had a look at one of the Villa forums earlier on and one of the bloggers posted the passing accuracy stats up. We had about 6 guys on 93 to 97% apparently while they had 5 or 6 between 70 odd and 83% ,plus we had the bulk of possession too. Looking forward to our stats going up.

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  27. I know some people on here feel we just played badly and too many players (cabaye, ba, cisse,) arent at their best right now, but really do feel that the system and formation we play is vitally important. Especially at home ive watched us play a straight 442 on a number of occasions and every time we are pap, too predictable, the opposition easily shut us down and we just end up humping long balls up to Ba and cisse which inevitably doesnt work. BA and cisse want to play the same position and just end up cancelling each other out, jonas isnt a great winger and never has an end product, and cabaye always gets caught in limbo between going forward and getting back it just doesnt suit us. 433, 4231 or 4312 would be much better, jonas is much better as a work horse in the centre of the pitch with him and tiote gives cabaye more freedom to get higher up the pitch, and these systems force BA and cisse to play different positions hence not getting in each others way. Come on Pards enough is enough no more 442

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  28. We were usually ok up to the half way line but then we would just lump it forward as though Andy Carroll was playing. I’m sure Ba and Cisse will score more with their feet than their heads. Colo should have had a penalty in the first half but for the most inept linesman I’ve ever seen.

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  29. Ice yeah mate I said that @ 43 keep up but then again I suppose at your age its hard 😆 .

    INSTRUCTATOON yeah your right about formations etc but professional players should be able to put a decent shift in in any formation, and most of our players didn’t put a decent shift in so they for me need to take most of the blame otherwise they get away with a performance like that.
    And yeah Pards and the formations he plays have to take blame aswell but for me the players are the ones that didn’t perform

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  30. DAVE i only repeated it as i know your memory span is so small now with age so just helped you oot 😆 😆

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  31. DAVE i hes a miss,had e-mail from him,says hes still reading the blog but not in right frame of mind to comment yet,everything is ok i think 😉

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  32. I’m with Big Dave and it is so frustrating that most fans can see the issues that our manager refuses to address:

    – 442 doesn’t work and we will never dominate games with this formation. Ba needs to be sacrificed out wide, or Cisse dropped so that Ba can play CF with Marveaux out wide.
    – We desperately need a pacey striker that can run the channels as Ba and Cisse will never be a top draw partnership. Their styles are far too similar.
    – Cabaye is wasted in deep midfield and should play ahead of a CM partnership of Tiote & Anita/Jonas.
    – After starting the season playing out from the back we have reverted to type and started hoofing the ball long.

    Until Pardew addresses the above we will continue looking a mediocre side. He needs to man up…but the thing is, i’m not too optimistic about this. Pardew is a known lover of the 442 and used this formation at both West Ham and Southampton.

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  33. Bigirimana had a good game once he settled down. He grew into the game and was spraying some fantastic balls across the pitch under pressure. If we are 1-0 up I would love to see a 5 man midfield of Jonas, Bigi, Tiote, Bigi and Perch. There’s just no getting through that, ha!

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  34. Instructatoon-we changed to 4-3-1-2 after about 35mins I think it was. We improved for sure, but formations aren’t a magic formula. I agree if we’d started it we may have found fluidity earlier and scored more or perhaps not conceded but meh, the players didn’t do enough regardless.

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  35. Big Dave – I haven’t had time to read all the posts so I don’t know whether you saw my last one on the “due diligence” matter, and whether you have come back?

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  36. Newkie ,what a terrible thing for such young lads to now have to live with and the two young teenagers are still critical as well ,so it could get worse.

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  37. Do the Simpson fans still think he is worth his place in the team. Don’t want any player not playing because of injury. For me he is not good enough

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  38. Toby-What did he do wrong today 😕 thought he did alright to be honest. Anita does show promise going forward though, I’d like to swap Santon and him over so they’re both playing on the right side, will take a few matches to test Anita fully.

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  39. *We were lethargic and disinterested for most of the game.
    *Ba and Cisse were awful, especially Cisse.
    *Cabaye gave us nothing, strolling around at half pace like he was on the continent. His corners were simply embarrassing.
    *Anita was so ordinary and unadventurous. A goal down and he was just laying it off and then watching when it was crying out for him to get further forward and look for it back.
    *Simmo with his hands behind his back was woeful for their goal. And where was the marking in the middle from Taylor and Colo?
    *HBA was brilliant, the one man playing his wick out to get three points. He was giving Cabaye a lesson in how to close down the opposition. And what a goal!
    *For a young kid, Bigi had a great game. I can’t believe that Troyer was delighted by Anita’s signing, when he normally reserves judgment, and he has completely overlooked Bigi’s purchase, save to say he was either rusty or completely out of his depth against the Greeks.

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  40. Newkie – I have to disagree that Anita shows promise going forward. He never ventured forward when it was crying out for him to do so. When he got the ball just in their half with space in front of him, he would just lump high and hopefuls into the box, which came to nowt. When Bigi took over in the middle of the park, he showed Anita up. Great game by the young man.

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  41. Troyer, I’ve read your recent post on the previous thread. I must sit down one day for the benefit of etymologists and do a dictionary definition of the new word “Troyerism”.

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  42. 1) Formation.
    2) Cabaye’s contribution last season is massively underrated. I would wager that a lot people that belittle his performances last season also drooled over Santon before he actually started playing well. He was awesome without being flashy or registering the “assists” (look up Modric’s number of goals/assists)
    He dictates the play.
    Controls the game through his defensive qualities and his eye for a pass. Even though he was more impressive pushed forward, he was still absolute quality as a holding midfielder.
    Not surprised at all that with him playing **** so far this season our whole team has looked ****.
    3) Set pieces. Fcking hell.

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  43. I don’t believe the theory that Cabaye is underperforming because Debuchy didn’t come. But if it’s true the board have dropped a clanger for the sake of a couple of mill. And if it’s true Cabaye should stop being pathetic (IF it’s true).

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  44. Blackley-I was mainly referring to anita going forward as a full back in response to Toby. In the centre it must have been hard for him, given to fill in for Tiote as a holding mid yet alongside Cabaye who did sweet **** all. He didn’t look good, but then nobody else did. At full back he showed more composure and ability going forward than Simmo, however he was on his weaker foot and his crosses generally poor. I’d like to see him switched with Santon so they can both cross properly.

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  45. To everyone bar Troyer– I suggest you scroll past this post if you’re not interested in club finances or dunderhead arguments.

    Troyer – At last, you have dropped the woo hoo hoos, and come out of your corner, albeit with your gloves up. Pity I had to call you a liar before you would do so.

    You say, “The whole point of my argument was, I didn’t not believe the cash had been used the way they stated. I did not fall for the agent fees, signing on fees ****. I explained that the board conveniently failed to mention the savings on Carrolls wages, Barton’s, Smiths, Enriques et al.”

    Troyer, my position was, and is, simply this. It is true to say that the transfer world changed dramatically following Bosman, and a lot of the money spent does not go on headline transfer fees anymore. Also, it has become increasingly clear that money hemorrhages from football clubs where transfer deals are concerned, especially in big brown envelopes. If you were confident that Llambias is completely bullshitting, I was keen to listen to your figures. I therefore invited you to give them in detail, although I did not know how you would know them and was interested to see your critique and analytical reasoning. It was soon clear that you were just doing back of the envelope calculations, and smelling the odour of bullshit.

    My own position was and is that there is undoubtedly an element of truth in what Llambias was saying, although it was stretching all credibility to make it cover anywhere near £35M. However, it really wasn’t a “cause celebre” for me because the bulk of the Carroll money was, according to the accounts and Llambias, used to pay off debts owed on previous player transfers, leaving only a few million to account for. That’s why I pointed to the accounts, which include the Carroll profit, and which show an overall operating profit of £5M. This is the real issue, and the stumbling block for you, as a Llambias basher, but you clearly do not see it. It is too easy for you to jump on one facet of an argument, the simple part, and ignore the rest.

    You have still not addressed Llambias’ previous debts argument or explained why you say those accounts are “irrelevant” when considering the amount of money available from the Carroll sale. THESE QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED BY YOU.

    Unfortunately, I can’t even get you to see that these issues have any relevance. You just see it as twisting and turning. You said to Big Dave that I was “absolutely clueless” on the “due diligence” issue that I am currently discussing with Big Dave. This is all a part of what I am talking about here. IF YOU THINK I AM ABSOLUTELY CLUELESS ON THE DUE DILIGENCE ISSUE, STAND UP AND GIVE ME YOUR REASONS FOR SAYING SO.

    This is all what you failed to grasp in the pub because your pair of little brain cells can only cope with so much. Seeing everything as “simple”, as you do, is clearly your problem. You cannot cope with anything that’s a little more complicated.

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  46. Newkie – I agree he was better at full back, but you cannot make excuses for him in midfield because Bigi took over from him and he had a stormer.

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  47. Troyer – You say, “… the spin put on the Carroll money being spent was never going to be accepted by me.” You go on, “Now whether they have pulled the wool over my eyes, quite possible, or they really were prepared to spend that money, at this moment in time I’m not sure. What I do know though is, the money should be there and I won’t accept any excuses in the future, on the lines that the Anita deal used up most of the pot cos of hidden costs.”

    You do sound really muddled as to what is happening, despite your protestations, Troyer. Seemingly easy to pull the wool over your eyes; I would just nick your stool to achieve the same effect.

    You pointed to bids for various players totalling £25M as proof that the money is there. That is ridiculous. What world are you living in? In the end they bought one player. There is nothing to say that that money spent on Anita was not the same money that they were intending to use to buy Douglas or Debuchy. But your silly argument, that events show has clearly backfired, misses the real point anyway.

    All I have been saying is that my take on the little rascals is that they don’t want to spend a lot of money; they want to strike a balance on the field and off. When I cut through the bullshit and misinformation and read between the lines, I see them wanting to tread cautiously in the transfer market, and to actually make money in it using the 10 guiding principles mentioned recently on this blog. Certainly, when they said the money has already been spent, I believed them. Little or no money for transfers, unless they see an absolute bargain that they can make good money on. To find one of those, they do a lot of research, and in many cases, because of lots of uncertainties in the market, their time and energy has been wasted. Whether you agree with this approach or not is another matter. But not to recognize it is simply naïve.

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  48. Troyer – You say, “So Please answer why you would be happy why you would be satisfied if everyone tried their best and we achieved premier league survival bearing in mind we finished 5th this season. ?
    The only response in relation to that question was for you to suggest that you are happy with the squad and all you want from them is to do their best. You ask me what is wrong with that?
    are you really going to leave it like that? Have I missed another post where you answered it better? If so, I apologise but I genuinely haven’t found it.”

    Troyer, you must have missed it. As I recall, it was when I said that you have completely misrepresented what I have said, putting words in my mouth and shooting them out. I explained exactly what I meant. I would try and find it, but I’m losing the will to live. I even think I am going to lose my family if I don’t get back to the real world and try and stop highlighting your inadequacies.

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  49. Troyer – you ask me to explain what I meant when I said, “I see Troyer’s indirectly claiming credit for the Cisse purchase now. His reality train helped Dekka come to his senses and bring it about.
    Wasn’t that deal done in a January window, Troyer?”

    First, it is ridiculous and delusional for you to claim any credit for the Cisse purchase, so I take you said that wholly in jest, although it is difficult to tell with you as you inhabit a deep hole.

    Second, you were keeping your powder dry to hit Dekka after midnight if there were no incoming transfers. My point is that Dekka pulled off the last masterstroke in the January window so why are you so keen to bash him in September?

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  50. It’s 7 league games since we actually scored a goal that wasn’t the result of some individual moment of magic.

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  51. ST-355. Agreed. Maybe Cabs number of “assists” weren’t sky high, but he dictated our play, basically all of last season.

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  52. Fair point Big Dave, they should, and im no pro so i dont really know how much difference a formation makes, i just cant help but think about the amount of times we have lined up that way and not performed compared to the results we got when we played 433, time will tell i guess.

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  53. Blackley-Had a stormer? He did well, don’t get me wrong, but he grew into the game just as the team did, well, generally speaking. Anita didn’t have much time to show what he could do there imo, 35 mins or so? Too little to write him off in my book.

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  54. Still not seeing much from Ba and Cisse. Villa worked hard but we should beat them at home. We need more from several players as others have said. Injuries already mounting up but Derek knew that so he strengthened us where we needed it most didn’t you Derek? Derek? Nothing to say as usual? What happens if Colo goes down Derek? Ah well a little break now so hopefully Perch recovers quickly. Bigi looked ok and I thought we played better after Simpson was off.

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  55. Newkie – For a young kid (18?), on probably the biggest stage he has ever played, he had a stormer. He made a couple of game saving tackles by reading the situation brilliantly, broke their play up consistently, and was calm and measured in setting away attacks. Moreover, he did a noticeably better job than Anita. Don’t get me wrong I am not writing Anita off; I’m just saying I was really disappointed in his performance today – in particular his lack of authority and ambition.

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  56. As you will have gathered I’ve been a little tied up with other matters, but I note there is a mention of formations.

    I happened to be talking about formations today to a member of NUFC’s most successful team in my memory, a really nice fella. I said I don’t understand why people make such a big deal about formations. A manager should aim to put out ten outfield players whose attributes complement each other’s as much as possible; the ten should be adaptable and fluid, using skill to know when to be in the right place at the right time. When you watch a game, you don’t want to see a rigid 442; no, you want to see fluidity throughout the game between all formations so that in effect you don’t have any formation, just ten players working as a team.

    My man agreed, saying you don’t see Man Utd in 442 – look at them when they’re breaking out from defence. He said formations are simply useful in helping people learn the game.

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  57. Anyway, I’ve got MOTD on pause, and wor lass off to bed in the huff because, when I come in, I’m busy on here. 🙁 So I’m off for now. I get the feeling I might be alone here anyway, a bit like Rodz after 12 until the ozzies wake up.

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  58. He had a good game, made one match saving tackle which was brilliant fairplay but I don’t think he made much forward contribution, passing was generally good but several set pieces went straight out, several passes were far too long. Promising for sure, just think stormer is too strong a word. Nobody played well really.

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  59. Can’t really remember much of Anita, which says a lot, but I think Biggy was helped by the formation switch and the fact he didn’t have shackled wingers and instead had Jonas to do some of his dirty work and lend a hand. Much better than Cabaye tho..

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  60. We’re bottom of the league in terms of tackle success. Speak’s volumes of Cabaye’s play so far, and how Tiote was missed.

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  61. Ivan Klasnic is a free transfer?

    Seriously, the goals he was getting in a woeful Bolton team mean he’d do serious business here.

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  62. @Newkie
    Cabaye is the heart beat of the team when on form. He might not of Tiote’s fire or HBA’s skill but he is our very own Xavi.
    We need him to find his form asap.
    Tricky with Demba’s, they’ve missed chances, haven’t had great deal created for them though.
    I’ve got a feeling Ramadan may have affected them. I know it ended a couple of weeks ago, but it must be hard to have an effective pre season if you’re fasting/
    It was after the international break last year that Ba hit his purple patch.

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