tajjuk

We've played 3 games in a month. They can't be tired.

Samba isn't quality, he's just massive, so wins headers. We needed to get the ball moving away from him and in behind him.

Totally disagree, think Ramirez was the only forward who actually moved the ball about quickly on Saturday, he either did quick one touch passes or ran at people and played one-twos. He was also making loads of off-the ball runs that the other weren;t doing. Lambert couldn't control the ball, Puncheon just came inside and didn't offer a pass to Clyne. Against teams sitting deep we have struggled, Ramirez and Lallana are our best hopes in this situation with quick passes or using Lambert's aerial threat, but Samba nulified him. We played ok against QPR, it wasn't a bad performance but sloppy defending gifted them two goals that they shoudln't have had. Let's be honest QPR barely left their half, I doubt Samba moved more than about 20 yards in any direction. Boruc barely had to make a save apart from the two goals. The same errors happened against Wigan and Newcastle. (and even for Man City's goal). Hopefully with Fonte now back fit and Shaw will be starting regulalry again the defensive errors will be less. Just like the start of the season those are what are costing us games. Performances have been average (QPR) to very good (Man City) under MP, but we have started gifting goals again.

Fair enough if he was injured.

Not going to read 7 pages. QPR were sh*te IMO, could barely pass the ball, half the team looked disinterested, most just wandered around. Only Hoillet looked bothered from their forward players, was a constant threat, ran at us, worked hard and pressed. We were complacent from what I could see. Maybe the city game has gone to our heads a bit, at home to the bottom team there wasn't enough urgency, the slickness or our passing was generally missing, the pressing and wrok rate wasn't there. However even playing at what looked like 50% we were way the better team but f*cked up defensively twice to gift the 3 points. Lambert was anonymous, Samba bullied him and won everything in the air and his touch was off. Morgan had an off day, poor passing, didn't hassle well, as did Yoshi and Fox is still suspect. Puncheon couldn't get into the game. I also think taking Ramirez off was a silly decision. He was the only one who was looking for space and making runs, his one touch passing and one twos was at the centre of the few things we created. He was along with Clybe prepared to go at people, no on else in the team seemed to want to try and beat a player. Without Lallana and Ramirez on the pitch we look very very ordinairy going forward IMO. EDIT: Oh and a lot of our fans are idiots, it seems they would be better of supporting stoke, so many people moaning when we passed it around trying to keep possesion.

Disagree on the first point, whilst pace is good to have if the player doesn't have the mental side of the game it's pointless. Look at Micah Richards when he played centre back, pace to burn but he spent so much time in the wrong position it was useless. Positioning, anticipation and a well drilled communicating defence are the key aspects to a high line. Pace is bonus, there aren't that many centrebacks in world football that are actually that quick. Even with top level pace if you f*ck up your positioning in the first place you won't get back. Look at Lambert getting in behind the Man City defene all those times, he must be one of the slowest strikers in the league. A 'sweeper keeper' would help more than fast defenders, especially if teams lump the ball into the channels a keeper who is alert and can get out quickly will be able to clear the ball before the attacker gets there.

An offside goal (resulting from a foul as well), a dodgy penalty and a freak own goal not sure how any of those can be put down to our tactics or style. It's poor refereeing and some poor individual decision making. This is like the start of the season again, people blamed Adkins for our defenders making basic errors, which was silly. You can't blame Pochettino for bad referee decisions and individual errors. (maybe for Fox being on the pitch I suppose but he didn;t have much choice if Shaw had a knock). Yeh long ball is a possible counter to our tactics, but generally it's one of the least effective styles of football and as long as the linesman does his job lumping aimless long balls up the pitch isn't going to be our achilles heel. If teams try it against us they will surrender possession to us far more often than they will cause a threat to us. His tactics worked against Barecelona and Real Madrid, both of whom are probably the best exponents of the counter attack in the world at the moment.

Every style/formation has weaknesses but at the end of the day we only played averagely against Newcastle, in fact we played contrary to MP's preffered style at times(sat deep, din't press etc.). We also got quite unlucky with 3 out of the 4 Newcastle goals. The team wasn't at it's best but Pardew still said we were one of the best teams to go there. Hardly a reason to abandon our plans and hardly we hardly got "found out".

Adam Johnson, cost Sunderland £10 million, premiership experienced (about 6 seasons), 25, England International. Currently this season: - 24 appearances (starts) - 4 Goals - 4 Assists - Key Passes per game 1.6 - Dribbles per game 0.9 - Shots per game 1 - Pass success 79.4% - Average passes per game 28.2 - Dispossed per game 1.5 So in 9 games has 1 more goal and assist, slightly more key passes, less dribbles, less shots, slightly less pass success and same passes per game. Both men have the 'premiership experience' many on here craved for, both are older so have had more time to develop and will be close to their peaks, both are English so have had no language or cultural adapting to do, both cost about the same as Gaston (and I would think are on the same wages). Yet neither have performed better than Gaston.

From the sales of Walcott, Bale and the OX, our academy has funded itself for about 14 years.

Just for a comparsion:- Matt Jarvis, Cost West Ham £10.75 million, Premiership experienced (3 seasons), Age 26, England International. Currently this season: - 19 appearances (starts) - 1 Goal - Zero Assists - Key Passes per game 1.3 - Dribbles per game 0.4 - Shots per game 0.9 - Pass success 73.8% - Average passes per game 18.5 - Dispossed per game 1.1 Gaston Ramirez, cost us £12 million, No premiership experience, 22, Uruguay International. Currently this season: - 15 appearances (starts) - 3 Goa - 3 Assists - Key Passes per game 1.3 - Dribbles per game 1.1 - Shots per game 1.9 - Pass success 79.9% - Average passes per game 28.2 - Dispossed per game 2.4 In more games, the far more experienced, only marginally cheaper Jarvis who has played in this country all his life (speaks the language, used to the culutre, weather etc.) and has 3 season's to get used to the premier legaue has less assists, less goals, less dribbbles, less passes, less shots and is less successful in his passes. He does get disspossed less than Ramirez but that's understandable when you barely do anything in a game.

I think it's fair to say we were a little unlucky in that game, we probably deserved a draw and we could have have easily won and I don't think Newcastle could have had too many complaints. Agree with Barry though we need to get Fox and Hooiveld out of the team asap, both have cost us points and like Davis and Gazza we need to forget about them. Get Fonte back in next week.

Anyone else worried that we batter them for the 90 minutes and they nick a 1-0?

£20 million minimum, he's going to be on a 5 year contract and he knows that playing here is best for his development.

Agree with this.

Probably our worst performance under Pochettino but still probably deserved a point, when we got back to 2-2 I thought we were going to win it, if chances has been taken at this point I think we would have, but our 'weak links' let us down. Fox and Hooiveld can't be relied on regularly and it showed yesterday. The pen for me was a 'homer', I doubt it would have been given if it was a Newcastle player that had done it, and there were a few other debatable moments of refereeing that flattered Newcastle a bit. Overall though poor defending cost us the game, something that we have cut out mainly over the last 3-4 months so I'll put it down to a bad day. A few changes to personell needed next week against QPR which is a must win.

Yawn. Our defence was good enough against the champions last week, We had a bad day get over it.

lol, usual stupid threads appearing after a loss, player comes of the bench for what 25 minutes and doesn't win the game on his own he's clearly rubbish

Lambert is the clear winner. Then one from Cork, Fonte, Boruc, Lallana for me.

lol, yep noticed that as well. Fascist MP.

Pretty much this, as far as I can tell thses are just cleaning/general maintenance issues, with maybe only a broken hob being an actual issue. Got off lightly from the times i have rented properties out and whilst at uni I've also had Landlords try it on with over the top claims after you have moved out. It's why the deposit protection scheme was introduced, to stop landlords just using up all your deposit money on trumped up cleaning costs.

A good read. Probably a case of 'who' for many fans when he signed but the 'committee' obviously did their homwork on him. He's been improving all season, for me he's got a whiff of Cannavaro about him, not particulary dominant in the air or physically, nor with great pace but he reads the game well, add that to good positional sense and marking, and you have the makings of a decent defender. At 24 hopefully he can keep improving.

Bought mine seemed to be plenty of space about.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/thanks-goal-now-club-fine-103434531.html