It is simple you play your best players. The problem is the England team gets picked on reputation not form and it why we always do badly. We also put square pegs in round holes to accommodate people. Cats is the best defensive English midfielder at this moment in time, Huddlestone and Nobel should also get a look in. If Woy keeps playing people out of position we will keep getting beaten. Things going for Catts: He has been with England for a long time through the junior ranks and U21s so I step up to the full team should be natural. He has played alongside Henderson a lot and they had an understanding. Against him is that he plays for Sunderland and his disciplinary record. Yet players like Zidane and Gazza liked a tackle and got sent off and booked a fair amount, the very best players have a big of a nasty streak.
North East standards are sinking when Lee Cattermole wins player of the year award http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/north-east-standards-sinking-lee-8207432
please log in to view this image This sums up Jamie Redknapp's input as a pundit for me, what a monumental ****ing idiot this fella can be. People give his opinions credibility because he was a professional footballer but to me that's a sin, the guy seems to know absolutely nothing about football. Comparing a DM from a (with all due respect) bottom half PL side, with the holding midfielders from some of the top attacking clubs on the continent, is the most pointless thing I've seen illustrated to get an irrelevant point across. Jamie Redknapp needs drowned asap.
I'd love to bang his Mrs mate, more to piss him off than anything else mind, I'd love to see him on my way out of his front door, and just give him the "I've just split your filthy slut of wife in half" nod.
So you think there is zero possibility Connor will make it into the England set-up? I didn't mean in a year, by the way, it will take beyond a year as he needs to listen to his manager, develop his game and apply himself....which is a big if.
He was worse than Cattermole ALL last season. Has been worse than Cattermole all this season - that is a balanced opinion and not based on him ****ting on us for you lot. When Colback played for us he was not as ingfluential and not as good on the ball as Cattermole this and last season. Colback was decent but not overly so. SLightly different positioned players as DM and holding midfielder but I honestly think Catts is better at either role than Jack - but I am biased in that opinion and have always rated Cattermole. He's been pretty poor for you this season Colback "the ginger Pirlo" (who the **** came up with that gem!) He's looked more like the ginger postman than the ginger Pirlo!!
Catts is wiping the floor with Colback this season. Fact. Colback is worse this season for the mags than he was last season for us. Fact. And the mags say we can't judge? They've seen a dozen games whilst we've seen him way over 100 times and know the lad's game inside out. Mags have it in their head we hold some kind of grudge against him and it's clouding our view. If they took the time to look at Colback's contract threads before he moved then they'd a lot of us weren't fussed, a lot of us seeing him as a good squad player and a tiny handful who hold him in as high regard as the mags do after a dozen games. Fact is the mags can't see beyond our rivalry on this one. Thus any negative comments on the lad then out come the accusation of bitterness.
I think there is zero possibility of Wickham ever making the England set up, yes. I agree with most of what you say, and fully accept Cattermole is better than Colback. There just isn't a massive gulf imo, which most mackems seem to think there is. That is probably down to overrating Cattermole a bit and under-rating Colback. He hasn't been bad this season, he's been bang average. 6/10 game in game out, with a couple of anomalies in both directions.
To be fair your club made a rod for your own back with the Twitter post and the official statement, never before has a club been more bitter about losing a player. Hard to look at it objectively after that. The most embarrassing part for Sunderland was getting in such a twist over such an average player.
It was a **** up from our PR department yes, but what's new? But does that represent the feeling of the fans? No, for some it certainly will. Does it mean the club is still bitter? The ice bucket banter and the tradgty that touched us all and our unity against Northumbria Police suggests not. If anything Club relations are better than they've ever been in my lifetime which is great considering the bad relations that proceeded it which spanned decades(Safc Colback statement, newcastle fan trouble, harper push, play off pitch invation) It's seems like you lot are desperate for us to be bitter. Is it because it's all you've got in recent times? Never know, a derby win could give you something else to focus on. But at the moment you're clutching with Colback(esp Gully). We've got two midfielders how are out performing him, he simply isn't missed. He's no Ki who we miss massively imo. I'm happy for the lad. He's no great miss and he's playing for his boyhood club, yes we're about 4m down on a transfer fee but when you look at the bigger picture, at how much money we've pissed up the wall, it barely registers. I will play my part in putting the lad through hell when he comes to the SoL though. As a member of the 12th man I'll be doing my best to intimidate as many of your players as I can. But as far his career goes I'm happy for him. He'll be a good service to you and will remain a solid member of your squad for years to come.
Good post. Of course we are going to use the bitter thing against you. Just like, despite a small, teeny percentage of us NUFC fans actually NOT being animal abusers, you will still tar us all with the same brush I didn't want Colback when he signed, I just have a firm belief that you never, ever switch the divide. Can't see how it can ever work out well. His piss taking of us just compounded that. The only reason I accepted Colback was how much it clearly wound Sunderland up, until then I was dead against it. He should be a good squad player for us, sadly as many of us predicted, with a clown like Pardew in charge he was always going to be first name on the team sheet week in week out.
He's still taking all your set pieces isn't he? His long passing, crossing and shooting aren't his strongest assets. He shouldn't be anywhere near dead balls. I think you play him too deep as well. When Gus came in he started developing him to push further up the pitch and from the Mag game to the end of the season he was immense. He was finally starting to feel comfortable arriving late into the box. He was looking a better box to box player back end of last season than he's ever looked a holding midfielder. Just my opinion like but it's the form that got him a call up and had him delivering the goods. No chance Pards would utilise him that way. But Gus may just have been on to something.
There is a massive gulf though mate, Colback has zero influence on games, Catts dictates to players and controls his area. Catts influences every member of our side whilst Colback influences nobody, he is neat & tidy enough but he doesn't do anything, in reality. Is Catts head and shoulders above him on touch, passing etc, no, he isn't, but leaders often come in the form of a Catts, a player that drives on battles. The Chelsea game the media are all over his balls as it was Chelsea, we know, all SAFC regulars know, that was just Catts being Catts.
Yeah Colback takes our set pieces but it makes no difference, Pardew has this tactic of floating the ball to the back post for Williamson to head down and other players to pounce on, so anyone could execute it. The problem is, bear this in mind, the last goal we scored from a corner I believe was Demba Ba in (I think) 2011. We have persisted with this tactic ever since and never, ever scored from it. That's 3 years of no goals from corners. Honestly, fans of other clubs really do not understand what we go through with Pardew, you really can't understand it till you have to endure it. Colback has been playing as one of a 2 in a 4231, his role has been getting the ball of the CB's and feeding the wingers or punting it diagonal to Perez. He's done is job quietly and efficiently, nothing to write home about. On his debut v Man City he was stunning, since then it has been 6/10's with the odd 5 or 7 thrown in. Well yeah they are different players. Cattermole has the edge on Co,back because as you say, he can influence games. But he's not like a Xabi Alonso type figure, he doesn't do it NEARLY enough. If he did you wouldn't rack up so many draws. Colback is consistently tidy and solid, Cattermole is more up and down imo, although the ups are more signiicant than the downs. That's why for me he is better, but not massively so. There is a place in most teams for someone who can keep a team ticking and do it well.
No way mate, we draw so much because we're not creating from either flank. If anything must of our creativity has come through Catts Via Larsson and Gomez. We've not clicked with the inside forwards. Our goal scoring problem is much further up the pitch than Catts believe me mate. At 81% passing accuracy, considering the amount of diagonal balls he plays is very impressive. It shows he's developing the weaker aspects of his game.
Catts reminds me of Mrs Doubtfire. An outstanding leader at his club but (currently) overlooked by the national squad. Does anyone know how many times Catts has been MOTM this season? It must be about 5-ish at least, in about 13 games or so. How many comparable PL english players would be able to match that?
We got lucky with Colback, he is an average player, if we had signed him on a big contract (which is what he wanted) we would be settling for average players. The fact he has left has improved our midfield. Even with Alvarez and Giacc injured we still have better options than last year. Gomez, Rodwell & Alvarez vs Colback, Ki and Gardner???
