did someone speak, was it an echo, did you hear it, the sound of wind forcing through a newcastle buttock and into the air.
I do actually worry, believe it or not. This match won't be a walk in the park whether we win, lose or draw. Personally, I just think our team needed warming up a little more after the ****ing crap pre-season. Players like Cabaye and others now have some EPL gametime under their belt, and overall we'll go out much sharper against you guys I think. It was also the first time that 11 actually had a chance to play together properly in a high quality match, with Barton not getting a visa, Tiote being stuck in Africa and a whole host of other problems. The quality in Cabaye and Tiote, and the CM partnership they will form is absolutely VITAL to our success this season, and the match against Arsenal was pretty much the first time they've ever had an opportunity to play together - such was the disaster of pre-season.
80% of it was actual facts, with 20% of it my opinion that we'll be sharper this weekend compared to last weekend. And you think it's all a load of bollocks? Grow up man.
do you think that you will be as sharp as us? we looked fantastic in the second half against liverpool! and almost all of are players have had a great pre-season playing a full 3/4 games..
Well chappaz will be a touch biased like all of us, I try not to be but yes, even I am a bit. I never seen anything in their new players to say "they may be a threat" "they will get them up the league this season" at the weekend, Ba was pants, and before any mags say anything, I never wanted him. Cabaye wasnt exactly threatening, or spraying balls all over the pitch and finding team mates, Tiote just looked like a big oaf, he was really slow and lethargic, and just didnt look interested at all, only 2 players that really stood out for me were Oberton, who looked fast and had a bit of skill about him, and Collocini, who did play well. For us, Brown was outstanding, after all the negative crap on here for months, he prooved most wrong, yes it was only 1 game, but he was still outstanding, Larsson looked good, goal was great, but his play was good, Cattermole looked up for it, without looking like the red mist would decend, Ricco looked like Ricco at LB for me, never will be one, not only the pen, but quite a few times Brown had to cover for him, when he was upfield and they played a ball into the channels behind him. Sess looked on the ball apart from his shooting, Gyan tried but never happened really, Ji looked a threat, but too early to tell. Anton was Composed for 90 minutes (how many times have we been able to say that since he joined, not many i know). Like i said though, the derby is a completely different game, whatever form we have, which isnt much, goes out the window, as long as the lads battle and show commitment, I will be happy (even though i really want us to hammer them)
I don't know. We'll definitely be sharper, but compared to Sunderland, who knows. It'll really come down to how the players are feeling on the day and who wants it more, I reckon. All I'm trying to say is that I'm confident we'll play better against you guys than we did against Arsenal. Ba = He did look rusty, but he was having fitness troubles even towards the end of pre-season. He scored 7 in 12 in a ****ty, ****TY West Ham side though, so there's no denying that there's something in him, is there? Cabaye = Played very well for his very first EPL game, and showed the glimmers of how he'll be as he gets used to it and develops into a top player. First time with Tiote too, so hopefully they will have gelled slightly. Tiote = Wasn't his best game, but you know as well as I do that he's a top, top player. Plus, being stuck in Africa for weeks hasn't helped. Obertan and Colo = They did play very well. Coloccini was an absolute rock, and Obertan surprised me. If we bring him on in the derby you'll have to get his pace under control because that ****er is freakishly fast. You guys did have a good game. No denying that. However, players fluctuate all the time with on and off days. It's only going to matter how the players are on the derby day itself. I do agree sir.
Top 6 is crazy talk for you guys. My personal opinion is nobody has signed anything like what would be needed to shift Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Man C, Liverpool, Spurs. These 6 teams have quality far beyond all the teams below. None of them are in crisis (despite what the media would have you believe about Arsenal) You'd have to hope one of them has a real stinker to disturb them. Liverpool did last year and still managed 6th. Everton I expect will get 7th if they can keep their team fit. They have a very thin squad but do have one of the best youth systems in the country which always seems to bail them out. As I said last year when some Sunderland fans felt Europe was a possibility because of Villa/Liverpool/Everton struggles, class always rises to the top in football. After that I think its a free for all. I do think if Sunderland were to sign Krancjar and a left back they could be the team to fill that 8th slot or 7th if Everton are unlucky with injuries. (begrudgingly) Saying that I think they're one of a few who would have designs on that spot. I'd watch out for Bolton and Fulham because I rate both managers highly.
Ba 7 in 12 = a good stat, but sometimes stats can be deceiving. He scored 5 in 2 games, 3 against WBA and 2 against Wigan, and i think they got 1 point (it may have been 3 but cant be arsed to look it up, as they got beat off Wigan). So that leaves 2 goals in 10 games. Its like SAF dropping berbatov at he end of last season, everyone was, huh! he is the top scorer why, he started 20 games, came on as sub in 8, scored 20 goals, but he got 13 in 4 games, 7 in the other 24 so he wasnt exactly prolific. Same with Ba for me, and even leon best got a hatrick last season. You may come back with well Gyan only scored 11 in 33 games, which is fair enough he did, but he scored in 11 games, not sure how many points he got for us, but maybe 17-18 with those goals, he also works hard and puts defenders under pressure when they have the ball. But looking at it from a fans point of view, i would much rather have the 11 goals = 17-18 points, than 7 goals = 3 points for the team.
If you score 7 goals in 12 games, and you have a consistently superb scoring record in every club you've been in, you've got something in you which means you can score goals. I'm not saying he will keep up the same goals/apps ratio at all, but he's more than capable of being a real threat when he's fully fit. Just like Berbatov is. Ba is not a better than 1 in 2 striker, but he's a good striker, and he's more of a threat than the likes of Ameobi or Lovenkrands who are consistently ****. 1 in 3 is good. Do I think Ba is capable of doing that and spreading it across far more games? Yes, easily. He'll definitely have much more support from our squad now compared to West Ham, who did keep switching on and off themselves. It's one of the reasons why they got relegated. Ba is a target man type of chap. I honestly don't know how he got 7 in 12 with such a crappy West Ham team behind him, but with Jonas, Barton, Cabaye and (eventually) Ben Arfa all feeding him, I'll expect him to do fairly well, and definitely better than last season when it comes to scoring more goals over more games.
Sorry i just dont rate Ba at all, maybe he will proove me wrong. in 4 years with hoffenheim he had 97 apperances and scored 37 goals, hoffenheim probably played in 152 games in that time, but he only managed 97 (30, 33, then 17, 17 the last 2 seasons). and thats a goal every 2.62 games. if you add cup games its 103/40 2.575 goals per game. His earlier career definetly helps boost that up though. 2005–2006 Rouen 26 games 22 goals but i believe they are in the Beligian 3rd division. 2006–2007 Mouscron 12 games 8 goals and i believe they have gone bust now, but were not exactly top flight. I just dont think he is any good im afraid.
A few Mag mates at the game against Arsenal reckoned Ameobi was the better striker of the two. I don't know much about Ameobi (bar the fact he likes playing against us) but from what I hear from other Mags he's certainly not a crowd pleaser. Where does that leave Ba??
dont think there are many sunderland fans that think ba is'nt a good striker, because we were linked with him aswell, i think the only problem with him will be keeping him fit!! Reakon thats the only reason we pulled out of signing him...
I'm feeling good about the squad, but i'm not as confident as some of the Sunderland lads. If Wickham and Ji are not the here-and-now, then we really need to sign a partner for Gyan. I see Gyan as a second striker but he's leading the line, with a winger as the second striker. I think we lack cutting edge because of this. If we threw Wickham in the deep end, i think he'd swim. However, if Bruce doesn't want to do this, then he needs to go out and find another striker to lead the line now and play Gyan as second striker. I also have this horrible feeling that Bardsley is going to go back to LB and we'll have a right footer on the left wing. This will kill our football as it did last season. We've got to have width down the left side, preferably width provided from the full back. We've got have a left footer on the left wing. I hope we don't play John O'Shea at LB, nor ferdinand. ----------------Wickham------------------ ---------------Gyan----------------------- Seb-----Catts-------Gardner-----Sessegnon Richo---Brown-----O'Shea----Bardsley I'd like to see something like this against Newcastle. Colback has played LB a number of times, it might be worth considering him.
