Happiest I've been so far - My thoughts on the Brugge game.

Well, It wasn't a great performance, but we did a good job, and the younguns are really benefiting from this competition.

The reason I'm the happiest I've been in a while is because our fringe players and youguns really seem to be pushing their way up and doing a job. We've got a good set of first team players and a solid foundation for the future. I'm so proud of our club.

Sammy and Fergie were superb tonight. Fergusons balls into the box are sexual.

Tiote just needs some time to get his head sorted. We all know he's one of our best players on form.

Ratings -

Harper - 7 - Some shakey moments, but solid mostly.

Santon - 6.5 - Not one of his better games in attack, but a good performance all round.

Saylor - 7.5 - Solid.

Perch - 7.5 - Solid.

Ferguson - 8.5 - Fantastic. Amazing balls into the box, great pace and skill on the ball, a great performance overall.

Tiote - 3 - Poor. Some decent turns and movement, but other than that, extremely worrying.

Anita - 6.5 - Thought he played well. Canny performance.

Bigi - 6.5 - Good passing and good overall performance.

Sammy - 8.5 - Fantastic work to create the goal. Brilliant skill and good final ball. Superb.

Obertan - 6.5 - Not great overall, but scored a good goal.

Cisse - 5 - Good effort, should have burried that header early on from Fergie cross. He's getting there. Some good efforts.

Shola - 7 - Lead the line well, bullied Brugge and put in a good shift.

Colo - n/a - A sexy cameo.

Cabaye - n/a - A decent cameo.

Xisco - 10 - Wow! Easily his best ever performance and made all the difference. Outstanding.

MOTM - Xisco. The boy was superb. I think that menas Obi gets 50,000,000,000,000,002 points in JPF's game. Well done Obi.

OVERALL - We still haven't conceded a goal in the group stages, and were looking promising. Another win and we're through! HTL!!!

 

Santon 6.5? I thought he was one of our best players, Obertan was better than Sammy for me too!

 

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I hope perch starts in Tiotes normal position on sunday, I genuinely think he's a really good player now!

 

Obertan scored a good goal, constantly attacked his full back (getting past him on a number of occasions) and drifted infield at the right times too. He was just as effective (if not more than) Sammy.

All about opinions I guess...

 

Obertans passing was dreadful today. He made some good runs, but all he got was corners. Sammy skinned more players, the enemy had to pull him down all the time, and 80% of the credit for that goal has to go to Sammy, as it was his Ben Arfa like run and skill that made the goal out of nothing.

Ober was good, but Sammy was better overall...

... bitch!

 

Sorry but Sammy's passing was pretty sloppy, his decision making poor at time too. Passing when he should dribble and vice versa...once second half we had 4 on three with Shola, Cisse & Ober all waiting to be slipped in but Sammy kept hold of the ball and got tackled.

I'm not saying he was poor, but just feel like you gave him a higher rating because he's young and a geordie

 

Hey, cheers Tash.

 

Tonight was the first time I have EVER seen Obertan knock the ball past the full back and run past him. EVER!!!

 

THe **** IS THIS????????

 

He quite often beats his man though. The problem is that he never knows what to do after that.

He and Sammy are at about the same skill level. For Sammy he has the advantage of having the last name 'Ameobi', otherwise people would be on his back a lot more.

 

Hmmmm, so if he changed his name to Gabriel Ameobertan...?

 

Mmmmm guess we've found out that George Lucas has a dastardly plot to make more bloody prequels afterall.... Obi Wan has obviously misplaced his lightsabre somewhere and created Tash...

Either that or illicit REP has changed hands... sure you were on 111-ish Tash when I last looked...

But have to be honest, Xisco stood out as world class tonight. They just couldn't cope with him

 

Also thought Obertan was better than Sami. Don't know why they swapped wings mid way through the first half because Obertan had the beating of his full back. Sami's problem is that he tries to e like HBA but has no where near the skill set to do it. Holds on to possesion too long and loses the ball cheaply. Obertan caused them problems all night and won us a string of corners which he never used to do. Keep taking the full backs on, with his pace, thats what he should be doing.

 

You're on to something there.

 

Think you've been harsh on Obertan and Santon although as you say, everyone has their own opinion...

For me Obertan started slowly (he put the ball out of play with his first pass) but got into it, and as is typical of him, improved immeasurably after he did something good (in this case his goal)...Sammy impressed all night and Shane Ferguson showed that we're not all insane when we ask the question why no Newcastle players can cross...Its not that hard, just watch him!

You'd never have known Bigi was 18, his performance though patchy, was more mature than his years and I'd love to see a midfield pick'n'mix of him, Cabaye, Tiote, Anita and Gutierrez as all add their own specific talents, but could potentially compliment each other amazingly!

All in all, a good performance that never needed to get out of 2nd gear...I just can't help shake the feeling that we've still yet to properly perform!

 

Well done on your victory last night guys, 3 games and remain unbeaten. Win the return leg and you are through to the next stage

 

Well, I imagine I'm wrong becasue everyone else seems to think we did quite well, but I thought that was a seriously worrying oerformance. A strongish team passed the ball to the other side regularly and needed them to scorn an open goal with a free headeeer to beat a poor team. I was impressed by Sammuy and Fergie, but thought everyone else looked quite poor

 

Sammi caused problems most the time. But when he tries to run at them acting like hba frustrated me. There was one point cisse held his hand out for a clear cut through ball and sammi disregarded it, lost the ball and bugge attacked and created a chance on the other end of the pitch.

 

I want a rating for Cabaye, if not on performance on his looks!!