Shteev - "should I stay or should I go?" please log in to view this image Lucien Favre - please log in to view this image
Long ball is very boring and ****e to watch I have yet to watch a team who play a high percentage of long ball that I enjoy. Its just personal preference. I don't mind a little directness in football. Indeed I encourage it. Both Bobby Robson and Kevin Keegan had a certain directness to their play at times. Mainly the ball was kept and passing football played, but at the right time they could mix it up. Just not to the level Fat Sam employed here, it was crap. He sucked all the enjoyment out of going to watch my team. What's the point in being a fan if you are not going to be entertained and enjoy it? My team provide me with enough misery as it is without someone like that adding to it. It isn't pretentious at all to want your club to have an ethos. Particularly if that ethos is geared towards playing football properly and entertaining. That should be encouraged. I don't mind if clubs have a long ball ethos, if they are entertained by watching Titus Bramble fire 60yr bombs at Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins, good for them. I am not. I wouldn't want to watch tika taka ****e either. I think Newcastle suit passing football with a bit of direct play and wingers. It gets the fans going and when you get the support behind you at either of our clubs I think you have half won the battle. I think that is a Bob Paisley quote. Its easy to sit and say that when you play good football and win everything.
I would love it if we went back to two proper out and out wingers! With Mitro up top and Gini through the middle we would do so much better and the football would be so much better - only issue I have is that I can't think of any wingers!
What you talking about we have Thauvin... And then there is that Obertan and Aarons. Oh yeah injured again aren't they. Well what about that Gilmore Groin? I mean Marveaux. Ok I give up you are right. Seriously though Newcastle could do worse than go to a very compact 451 in defence and wide 442 in attack. Very simple formation which allows players to have very simple roles. Perez goes into Beardo role and simply occupies the holding midfielder. Pardew did this many times with good success when our arse fell out. It was how he found a way of scratching a few results to see us ok. When you have such a clear lack of confidence and lets face it, are a bit spineless, you have to simply the game for them.
I think Thauvin hasn't had much of a chance personally. He's not done well but that's the same for all of them
He was just the wrong signing to be honest. He might do ok given time. I don't understand our logic personally. We had a very similar type in Cabella, gave him a year to adapt and then swapped him for a replica who was going to need a year to adapt. We have sold the lad down the river in my opinion. We didn't need him. If we wanted a winger so badly we should have went and got Redmond, Nathan Dyer, Puncheon or someone of that ilk. Someone who was going to deliver straight away. Not fashionable though is it? Lets go get some young French lad who won't know what's hit and will struggle from day 1. It might not be so bad if we'd had a few PL stalwarts in key positions throughout the team to offer him some protection and help. But no we surround him with other new foreign players with no clue about the league and a bunch of players who have already shown themselves to be not up for the fight. The club just lacks basic common sense in its transfer dealing and sell these young lads out with stupid policies.
In fact you could have got two from Redmond, Dyer and Puncheon for price of Thauvin. I bet they'd have done a cracking job here and the supporters would have taken to them. Especially someone like Puncheon who grafts and is direct.
None of those (barring Aarons) is not what I call a proper winger in the mould of Gillespie, Ginola, Robert, Solano etc
I know I know, these maverick ideas I have after a few sherberts. Mike will keep us right, and Graham Carr is a legend.
Or you could play Rolando Aarons in the hole (behind the striker). He may need have the awareness of Gini or Ayoze but as said already he has pace, power and an eye for a goal.
