I knew someone would bite. If you have one ounce of knowledge about watching football you'd know that highlights and tv coverage is nothing at all like watching it in person. You miss so many things watching it on tv and as for highlights, that's exactly what they are. You don't see players failing to control the ball or making mistakes. You see goals and chances.
Jesus H ********ing christ do you actually read anything that anyone says or are you too mentally handicapped to understand that EVERY SINGLE Newcastle fan knows we haven't been scoring lately but over the course of the season we have been scoring more than in previous seasons. If you haven't noticed we haven't been winning alot of games lately, this is because we have conceded goals. I'll give you one guess as to who's fault it is we've been conceding goals.....DEFENCE!
Here's an article from a few days ago stating that Newcastle is eyeing Benfica's central defender Lusiao: http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx...title=Magpies+weigh+up+Benfica+pair&channel=&
I think the point of NUFC fans is that Newcastle has had a very, very, very crap defence for the past couple of seasons, and this season they've been particularly horrible (God knows how much worse they'd be if Boumsong was still strapping on the boots, but I digress). It's not a matter of whether the attack has been more problematic in recent games. When Onyewu comes off as one of the worse players in a defensive line that stinks this badly, it's not a credit to him. When you're playing next to Bramble and making more mistakes than him, you know you're in trouble.
Actually, you haven't been winning games lately because you haven't scored any goals - when you did vs. Liverpool, guess what happened. I know this might be tough for you to grasp, but it is impossible to win a game without scoring a goal, something which Newcastle hasn't done in the league for more than a month and a half. Meanwhile, the defense has played quite well, except for a half against Charlton. toon army disclaimer: Onyewu has not played well enough to earn a contract
Ok, Newcastles fans are the angriest, darkest lots I've ever read. Which is thier right, but the idea that one cannot judge a player based on watching a game on TV (not highlights, which are obviously limited) which includes close ups, replays, slo mo and highlights and the option of taping, as well or better than sitting in the stands - which may be on the complete opposite side of the field as a given play - is among the most absurd things I've read around here. TV has Tivo, replays, close ups, multiple cameras, analysis and highlights. Live in person has a Mark Addy clone in a black and white stripe shirt standing in front of you swaying and singing. Sure, the camera will miss things, but much less than a guy in the stands.
...and to think he turned down a multi-year deal with Marseilles. After giving them a yes, then no (as reported) he probably isn't to welcome there anymore.
In retrospect, a loan seems like a poor gamble by Gooch. Given the team's that had some interest, it's hard to imagine his stock doing anything but go down.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Highlighted portions retained 1)Obviously you missed the taped interviews with Gooch this summer at the World Cup where he said he wants to revolutionize the center-half position. If the likes of Richard Dunne and Sylvain Distan can keep Obafemi Martins in check (only about the fastest player in the league), and Gooch's idea of "revolutionizing the position" are to run around out of position, make fouls just outside the box, and get beat consistantly by Emile Mpenza and Darren Bent, then consider his job complete. We have a new definition of center back. 2)If you couldn't smell the sarcasm there, then let me tell you Stuart Pierce confirmed it in his post match comments. He said "They are a big club". Thx, Jay!
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Look at the part I quoted. If you do, you'll see that the answer is "yes."
I can give you a perfect example from the US Guatemala game of what TV misses that the fan in the stands doesn't. Early in the game Spector tried to initiate two or three wall passes, passing the ball to Mapp and beginning an overlapping run. Each time Mapp dropped the ball back to Feilhaber in the middle. The camera angle never slowed whether there was space to complete a pass to Spector as he overlapped, so we don't know for sure whether Mapp made the right decision. A fan in the stands would have a much better idea. The camera follows the ball. A fan in the stands can see the off the ball runs, where space is available and where space isn't available. In that game we never got a shot that really showed us just how clogged the midfield was.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Because clearly your backline is the reason you didn't score. This is like the Howard haters. In the year before they got EVDS, they, Chelsea, and Arsenal were separated from the pack. So I looked at GF and GA for all 3 teams. ManU were 2nd in GA, but worst, by a good margin, in GF. So while clearly Howard was one of the weak points of the team, the notion that he was the weakest point was really silly. The weak point of the team was the damn attack! Maybe Newcastle's defense is their weak point. Who cares, Newcastle is a UEFA Cup club now, at best, but their fans' unwillingness to accept that undermines the club and interferes with their ability to fulfill even their modest potential. THAT'S the weakness of NUFC, the fact that there are 4 CL slots, and 4 superclubs now in England, and they ain't one of 'em, but their expectations screw up the club. But you pointing to a 1-0 home loss as a data point in your favor is funny.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! So Dave, when did you get your degree in NUFC-ology? I'm just curious because you are attempting to cast yourself as some sort of expert when I would bet you didn't see a Newcastle game until maybe a few weeks ago.
I've been watching the EPL for years now. So, try again. But I must add, as a Rovers fan, thank you for taking Souness off our hands just weeks before we woulda canned his worn out ass. 'Preesh.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Since you seem to speak in absolutes, and Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean and all, wouldn't the failure if the USMNT to do anything this past summer be reflective on USMNT's fans overblown expectations? I get the fact that The Toon have been not quite right for a bit of time, but the problem seems not to be as much with fans expectations but more with the management and team itself, of which Gooch is part. So gladly, if you wish to discuss the merits of Gooch, I'd kindly point out that this is probably not a good match to highlight, and you should forget about it because he was terrible. We could tell you 2+2=4 but you would insist that its 5 no matter how hard we try and prove it. And not only will you keep insisting its 5, but you will assume that everyone else who thinks its 2 is a dumb git for not believing its 5. Your atitude towards some of the Toon support in this area is pretty much bang out of order and does not reflect well upon yourselves...and also I'd kindly like to point out that you and others here slagging on NUFC fans with the stupid an irresponsible comments you have posted here reflects poorly on your opinion of the game in general. seriously, I don't think you all are as stupid a your posts? Are you?
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Regardless, there are 4 Super Clubs in the EPL and Newcastle are not amoung them. Is there a plan to get NUFC up to that status and what would it take? Or should we be satisfied to be mid-pack with the occasional UEFA slot? Or should I say the odd UEFA slot?
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Someone who knows the game would never use statistics. That's a silly comment.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Having seen the two most important plays in the history of mankind.... 1. On the goal, OO didn't play it well, he should have peeled back and gotten closer to Mpenza, but to my eye, it looked like the pass was close to inch perfect anyway, so it still would have been a goal. Sometimes, the offense makes a great play. If the pass had been off a bit, and Mpenza had scored, then I think OO would deserve the roasting, because a better angle from him would have cut off a slightly off target pass. 2. On the header...you gotta get that on frame, but there was so much traffic, that it would have taken a quality (or lucky) header to score. So, so many bodies in front. We didn't have overblown expectations. Here's a tissue.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Using goals to compare offenses and defense is silly. OK then. Your assignment, if you chose to accept it, is to prove Drogba is better than Corradi. And you can't use statistics. Good luck.
This and the other post responding to Freisland are absolute proof that people will post things just to be contradictory. There are advantages to both, and neither is better than the other. There is no way that you, or anyone else, has never wanted to see the replay of something that you didn't have a good angle on, or were just too far way to see when being there in person. Replays, reverse angles, close ups all add to the ability to analyze the game, not take away from it. That is not to say that it is better than being there, but one does not need to have been at a particular game in order to have a legitimate viewpoint.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! And the rest of the time it's Gooch's fault.