Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Thanks for the luck. I'll keep it and spend it on something else. If spotting players was a "provable" thing then you would have some sort of point. Baring that you come across as some sort of internet monkey.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! This is too funny. Everyone read the post after mine. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2269284&highlight=skin#post2269284
You have a link? I must say, my first reaction upon seeing the EPL highlights (only once, admittedly) was, "There goes YA again." I thought he was smoked, cooked, cured, and fricasseed. Four defenders in the backline, he was the one closest to Mpenza, rather than close on Mpenza he hesitated and tried to play the ball, too -- although there was plenty of help in that direction. Looked like an elementary error in playing the zone. Just one view, would be happy to be wrong.
Here is the link to the highlights. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T_GkL1J-04 It is around the 3:20 mark. There are four defenders, none of them go to the o mid guy and it seemed, to me atleast, Gooch was trying/expecting someone to pick the o mid guy up and no one did. I see it as Gooch being the only guy to understand that they needed to pick up the o mid guy from that area and the other guys just watching the ball go by. Then again, I am too lazy to play D, so maybe I am wrong....
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! And you can tell how awful he has been by the 3-4 goals NUFC concede every match, leading to a tragic loss of points as their wondrous attacks puts in 2-3 every week. NUFC fans are fun to play with.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Bottom line is he's made Shambles look like an attractive option at CB. That's pretty impressive work.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! This is the kind of thing that's just killing your credibility. It's like you didn't see the game. Now, I happen to think you DID see the game, but you're just trying to bluff Yanks. But I've seen the play, and your description is at odds with objective reality.
Can the Newcastle fans please stick to your own forum? We get it - you think Gooch sucks - thanks for the input. Believe it or not, not every YA fan thinks he's a defensive savior - and for those of us who want to just keep an open mind about his career and see what happens - can you please let us follow it in peace? There's a thread here for the outrage of Newcastle fans at the treatment by the mod (and for those who have been forum banned): https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=11122970#post11122970
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Fine as far as it goes...but it's their attack that's gotten better, much, much more than their defense. Make of it what you will. Me, I think the biggest problem is that that year alot of offensive players were hurt, and losing RVN seems to have been addition by subtraction.
I see the guy closest to Mpenza as being guiltiest. (I think it was Gooch, although I can't tell in that video, so grainy.) The other defenders could mark the ball, and indeed one of the defenders was closer than him. He had to pick up the man making the run, much earlier than he did. Whowever that defender was, he hesitated and was lost.
Wow, how can Gooch be blamed for this. If he was closest to Mpenza stop the video when the midfielder received the ball. Gooch was closest to him as well. The recovering players to Gooch's left did nothing but ran back in line with Gooch even though he was 2v1. Initially Gooch had to cover the dribble up the middle and the pass. If had closed down the midfielder he would have passed. If he had dropped off to mark Mpenza tight, the guy would have ran right up the middle. There was enough time for one of the guy on the left to charge over and cover the player on the ball. He was forced into making a decision. Not many guys are going to catch Mpenza in a dead foot race. I for one don't care if he plays at Newcastle. If they expect a <$5m player to come in and be their savior then their problems run much deeper. Plus, he could be the best defender in the league and it doesn't matter when your team can't score.
This was my assessment as well. I saw the highlights on FSC's EPL review show last night. They played the goal a few times. Sure, Gooch was closest to Mpenza when Mpenza received the ball. But, Gooch was also closest to the player with the ball who was running free down the middle of the field towards NU's goal (or, at least, Gooch was the closest NU player who was still in front of the player with the ball). Gooch didn't have much choice. If he kep running with Mpenza he would have had to ignore the man with the ball. If he ignored Mpenza, the man with the ball would have run right through the space Gooch would have vacated. Maybe Gooch can be faulted for not more quickly stepping up and making the man with the ball make a decision with it. But, in that circumstance, it's hard to believe another defender anywhere would have been able to stop that attack. The ball to Mpenza was right on his foot and he took his shot well.
I disagree. There was another defender back to cover the Man City mid. Gooch should have peeled off and allowed his teammate to cover the Citeh player and tried to close the space on Mpenza. Now, given the pass, which was extremely accurate, it wouldn't have made a difference. But Gooch's tactical awareness was poor on that play. It's like a doctor making a mistake in the OR when the patient was gonna die anyway. You still look bad at the inquest, but you're not liable. EDIT: about what JohnR said in 178.
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! I'd be burnt if Gooch was with Newcastle all year. He hasn't been and I'm not.
The salient point is, Newcastle had numbers back, they f&$ked up once again, and it doesn't look good for any of the center backs. Roeder's -- and the fans' -- strong temptation will be to eliminate everybody associated with the bad memories and to start afresh next season with a new cast.
Actually, if you look at this pic, you see Gooch turning around in, what I bet to be, frustration/anger with his other players for not picking up a guy at the 30 yard line! Edit: actually it probably is more than 30 yards, so hmm... Double edit: the real problem was the lazy bitch in mid who didn't follow Barton (I think).
I like your first explanation better. That's why many keepers yell at their defenders after the keepers have given up soft goals!
Actually, it looks like he's clapping because somebody found his jock about 30 yards back.. Listen, we all wanted Gooch to succeed, NU fans and Yanks-abroad fans.. But for whatever reason he's making some big mistakes and it doesn't look like it's going to work out.. Regardless of how many goals NU have scored or let in during his time, I've seen too many mistakes by Him to think NU will offer a contract. Maybe Fulham will come back in for him during the summer..
Re: Newcastle vs. Manchester City (R) 3/31- No Gooch starting! Well, Mbo Mpenza didn't turn Gooch 'cause he doesn't play at Manchester City .... did you perhaps you can't tell your Emile from your Mbo? (rolling my eyes, wiggling my ears and parting my hair with my tongue - at the same time!) (I'll help you out here - tell us how you were referencing an Anderlicht - Standard match - but don't pick the one before Xmas last season - I saw that and it was a Leige shutout...)
Agreed. As the offensive mid (Barton?) advances, Onyewu should stay with Mpenza, baring some situation that did not occur here like it was purely 2 vs. 1 as opposed to 2 vs. 4. Quite simply, Mpenza found a little space behind Onyewu to drift off, giving Barton a lane for the ball. Onyewu couldn't recover. Not the world's worst error, but you would expect better if you want him to be a starter. Demerit can get away with small positioning errors like this because his team is going down. Newcastle will demand more, especially from a guy with a 4 month try-out.
One of the problems in the argument here is that Yank fans are watching Newcastle when they're on, and the Review show when they're not, and are thinking, he started out pretty nicely, he's been too error prone lately. But, ya know, defenders make mistakes, if they didn't every game would end 0-0. Whether Gooch is making too many mistakes is arguable, but the trendline isn't good. In any event, NUFC's big problem is they haven't scored in, what, a month? NUFC fans, for some reason, lack nuance. They expect perfection. They don't recognize their ************ attack. They don't give Gooch any credit for his good plays. They don't give him any credit for NUFC's decent GA record. And believe me, I've seen that level of expectation. It's what NC State fans are like. And they're like Coach-killer U, to the obvious long term detriment of their sports teams.