Does anybody agree that our beloved Geordie saviour seems to be working extremely hard to become a better player this season? He's quite clearly been smashing the gym (no homo), his first touch has improved vastly and his vision of the game has matured substantially. He knows he isn't the fittest guy on the pitch but instead of drifting out of games he has adapted his play to suit it. Today he was pushing Terry off the ball with ease and should have scored one of his trademark 'turn and smash a beaut' wonders. I know in the past he's seemed inconsistent and it could be argued that next week he'll probably be back to his same lumbering self. I would be inclined to agree, however I wouldn't be too bewildered if he was given a start ahead of Best sooner or later.
I'll agree with that, he's annoyed me a lot less in his appearances lately than he did early in the year, and last season
If we are without Colo and Taylor v Norwich I would definitely start Shola. We'll need players up front that can hold the ball up and be strong to take pressure off the defense. Ben Arfa won't be able to play that role. Ba and Shola will be a must.
shola has a lot of haters but when he has his head screwed on he can play class hes a long time servent and i for one liked his performance today hopefully fast runing sammy will do us well in the future
His casual trotting around 'yeah I might score, maybe I won't' swagger is infuriating but he was our biggest threat when he came on and I think he can punish teams more so than Best.
