Well if you didn't really care about hurting my feelings, then what made you reply? Go on Ickxy_byckxy, admit it...You do care don't you..
Quite interesting reading this thread. Have I got this right...................... Sold a player who was ****e, but still got 12 (?) goals. Bought in a few frenchmen who don't look too bad on the continent, and expect them to hit the ground running, and for those players to replace the goals Nolan scored, even though this is such a massive step up for any new premier league player regardless of their ability. The players we've bought may turn out to be ****e (just like Smith, Butt etc.), Any new signing is a risk for their new club however ours have more of a chance of fitting straight into the premier than any foreign player in their first season in the premiership, but there are always exceptions If you control the midfield then you've got a good chance of winning - but I always thought goals win games, and I'd rather get battered for 90 minutes and not concede a goal and then nick one in the 91st minute, the table doesn't show how well you've controlled the game, but the result. How many times we you ****e last season but nolan popped up and got you 3 points or rescued a point? Nolan, he may have been ****e but he got you goals and smithy in nl is a mong?????????????????? Don't know about this one, I always thought he seemed alright, but as usual I bow to your superior knowledge
Sold a midfielder who was a bit of a naff midfielder, but still got 12 goals. Be great if he was a striker, but he wasn't, so despite his goals, he let our midfield down. Look superb* on the continent, and in pre-season. I wouldn't be so excited if I felt players like Cabaye 'didn't look too bad'. Trust me. It's only Cabaye and Marveaux who have no EPL experience. Ba, Gosling, Ben Arfa and Obertan are all ready. From what I've seen of Cabaye, he looks more than ready to step up, which is good news. Yup. Pretty much. No denying there's a risk. Nolan gifted us points, but his poor CM play cost us points. His odd goal gave us some lucky draws, but our midfield wasn't strong enough with him in it to get more wins. All the while Nolan is scoring a fair few goals, our CM play is weaker, which results in lower possession and a higher chance of conceding, which cancels out any goals we score. As our CM play is weaker, the players who SHOULD be scoring the goals (strikers) get poorer delivery and poorer chances, as do the other players capable of scoring. Nolan was far from the main fault in play which let us down, but he WAS the weak link in a strong midfield with the likes of Tiote and Barton. Cabaye is far better, and even if he can get a fairly average number of goals next season, like 5, we will find that we're missing very little of what Nolan used to offer.
oh vaux, whatever do you mean? when they come on and bitch about this, just remind them it was written by THEIR own people.
Chappaz made some very good points, but in others I think he's wrong. FTMWN; The only ****er who looks silly here is you mate, why not join in with a sensible debate for a change instead of just being a prick?
1st half of the season when carroll was playing were you's playing 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 ? just curious lads
Quite a few 4-5-1 games. Carroll wasn't exactly mega prolific though, and the other players in the team weren't scoring many by then themselves, so there wasn't enough firepower even with him there. Carroll AND another quality striker would have been a different story.
agree with you there vaux, chappaz does make some good pionts but to say "football isnt just about scoring goals" is just wrong, and he can put it in as many words as he likes it still wont change the fact you have to score goals to win football matches!! like you say how many times has a team parked the bus or dominated the game for 90mins and still lost with the last kick of the game?? and then to start with the name calling pathetic...
Here's a tip. READ what I'm saying. Look carefully. "football isn't just about scoring goals" I didn't say "football isn't about scoring goals". It's also about NOT CONCEDING any goals. You could win the Premier League if you avoided conceding any goals but only scored one goal per match. It's very important alongside scoring them. That's why the CM play was so important. Because dispite Nolan scoring some goals, our he wasn't good enough to control the game, keep posession and avoid teams outscoring us or drawing level. A better CM player in Cabaye means we can play better as a team, keep more posession and help other players to score more goals, including the strikers. Cabaye has the exact kind of attribute we need for that, as he sprays around key passes for the surrounding players. If anyone will be our assist engine next season, it'll be him.
I'm sorry, have you read some of the ****e that FTMWN comes out with? he is a total fool, whose aim is to disrupt threads with mindless banality and after so long trying to have normal debates with him, I've simply given up and it'll not be long before I just chuck him on the ignore list (never done it before, I'll give everyone a chance but enough's enough of seeing threads gone to hell cos of him) Sorry if you don't agree with it, but I'll stick with my original statement.
Again, assuming he can sustain (or even become) the same kind of player he was in his previous league, and again if he doesn't, then you may struggle as a team. We can only wait and see how he and the other signings both teams have made. Faith is a great thing to have but how many times has a player badly let the fans down by just not being able to perform at Premier level.
Yes, as I've said a thousand times, there's a possibility he won't live up to expectations. However, I'm talking about the possibility that he will. There wouldn't be much of a debate if we went down the pessimistic route and just all assumed he'd be **** and fail. I've had a good look at him though and I think he'll step up. I was worried he wouldn't be able to play at the intensity, and he wouldn't be able to handle the roughness of the league, but so far he's been very energetic, kept up with the tempo and he's honestly been getting stuck into tackles and rough play more than a lot of the other NUFC players. If he didn't show any of those attributes in pre-season I'd be much more worried, but up to now, it's looking very positive. Much in the same way you mackems think Sessegnon is looking very good.
Totally agree, we have a vested interest in him failing, and we also enjoy winding you mags up by saying he will fail. Sess didn't hit the ground running, he needed from Jan to bed in and in the last 4/5 games of last season he showed he is capable of being a good player in the Premier. Thats why we have faith in him doing it for us this season. Your boy may have looked good in the preseason games against the yanks and whoever else you played against (couldn't say who you played cos I didn't take too much notice tbh), but the true test will come when the first game kicks off (either against the gooners or us), it'll be interesting to see how he does in all fairness, just cos of how you rate him. hahahahaha, hope to god he becomes an epic fail, this thread and your posts will be revived and many jokes will be cracked. (nowt personal, just banter with a fellow fan you understand.)
Fortunately, Cabaye is the type of player who can excel. He doesn't have the job of rounding defenders or anything like that (which is why foreign wingers and strikers seem to flop more than any other type of player). He's a technical playmaker who gets into the right spaces and makes just the right pinpoint passes. Obviously thats tough against the top, top teams in the EPL and their top class midfielders, but that's a given. Against most of the competition though he shouldn't have any grave issues. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
