Article: Newcastle 0-0 Fiorentina - My thoughts and video | Football, Newcastle

Cba to keep bumping the other thread, please read through this whilst my video uploads. I've rendered the video so hopefully it will be available for viewing in HD, but it's going to take over an hour to upload. Sorry lads. Just comment on this video, and i'll bump it once my video uploads and tell you all. Cheers.

Quite a promising display.

I think we still need another striker though. Ba was good, Lover was good playing on the wing, but Best and Shola were mostly poor. We need another striker, or i think we'll suffer from the same frustration as last season.

We played excellent in midfield. Cabaye was excellent in attack and defense yet again. Marveaux looks really agile and a nippy little passer. Demba was much better today, made a good run into the box, played a good pass back but no one could make a connection to put us 1-0 up.

Krul was excellent, Forster was also good.

My ratings -

Krul - 9 - Fantastic performance and some brilliant saves.

Forster - 7.5 - Some good saves. Decent performance.

Simmo - 6 - Ok but a bit shakey. I'm starting to go off him a bit mind, he's been really shakey all pre-season. Lets hope he shapes up for the Arsenal game, because if Arsenal attack us on the right side with a Arshavin or god forbid Gervinho i think prayers will need to be said.

Taylor - 8 - A couple of sloppy moments but was due to the conditions. Mostly solid though. No concern of mine for him, defo starter for Arsenal.

Colo - 8.5 - Great

Enrique - 9 - Awesome. WE NEED TO KEEP HIM. This was a pre-season frienly, and he didn't show a lack of heart or interest, and i personally believe that he knows that he'll need to keep playing well if he's to maintain interest from the top clubs. Lets keep Jose!!!

Lover - 7 - Good on the wing. I've always thought he was a decent player, and i think he's under rated. His passing and movement was great at times, and he was an inch away from scoring. He was about a millisecond too slow to Demba's pass. If not a striker, he could be an impact attacking mid. In my opinion.

Vuckic - 6.5 - Some good runs, decent passing, seems a bit stronger in the air now. Not much to say about him today though. He didn't do all that much.

Jonas - 7.5 - Some fantastic runs and passes, good play all round.

Cabaye - 8.5 - Great in attack, in the middle and in defense. He's proving to be what i hoped he would be. A good all round, hard working mid. Bargain for 4 million. What a signing!!

Best - 4 - Really disappointing performance from him. A few decent knock downs, but he missed two great chances. Lets hope it was just a one off, since he was good in previous pre-season games.

Marveaux - 7.5 - Impressed. Very agile indeed. Some great passing, good link up play on the left with Jose, and he seems to track back well also. He can go forward and defend, he has the pace and the aggression to do so. Not very big, but shows good spirit and will to fight. A bit annoyed that i only saw 25 mins of him since the game was called off.

Shola - 5 - 1 good dribble, some decent passes, but overall, same old Bambi.

Summary - It's going to be very interesting to see what the line up is on the first day.

Very good everywhere on the pitch, except we lacked another goal threat up front. Ba was good, but no one else seemed to threaten apart from Cabaye from midfield.

HERE'S THE VID!!!

[video=youtube;NraykrLFo5A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NraykrLFo5A[/video]

 

Worried about Simpson. I hope he improves because he will be up against tougher opposistion this season but another worry is we don't have a backup.

 

The time when Jose chased the striker who was one on one was sensational! Summed Jose up. We will miss him.

 

Typical biased player ratings, while putting Gutierrez's slightly higher so people wont rip him about the waving thing.

 

No Arsenal game predicted line-up? You're slacking boy.

 

Who do you think Arsenal will play on the left? Arshavin? Gervinho? Walcott? Simmo needs all the help he can get from his right side partner.

 

This, but to be fair, Gilardino is like 70 and moves at a snails pace, not to take anything away from Jose, was a cracking piece of defending.

 

you're behind the times mate his new hate figure is Vuckic

 

I hope it's Arshavin. He does not have the same quality as the other two but if it's Gervinho I think we will need fingers and toes crossed.

 

Maybe José was just playing well to show his appreciation for us and to seal a new contract! Or to make sure he's noticed in the shop window... Or to say goodbye

 

Makes you wonder why he was in that position anyway!

 

Ah yes my mistake, I didnt hear Lovenkrands name once on the radio but somehow hes more highly rated than Vuckic?

But hey ho, I wasnt actually there so its hard to comment I suppose.

 

Was Jonas out the left or right?

 

How can you hate Haris

 

Vuckic had some nice touches.

It was a horrible game to be fair, weather was terrible. Kind of glad it was called off, could see a big injury.

Hope the 15-20 Fiorentina fans hadnt come far and were working here.

 

Jose was good but very sloppy in possession, gave the ball away many times, don't think he was a 9 but more like a 7. Don't know how you can give Shola a 5, he did nowt wrong and looked alright today

EDIT: I would like to point out I did think Jose was good at other points, particularly very strong and fast, and also the weather conditions can't have helped

 

well he doesn't really hate him just doesn't rate him unless the last few friendlies have changed his mind ......over to you tash

 

Just the kind of thread I was looking for , cheers Tash.

Sounds very promising but as you said we are in DESPERATE need of another striker or we will be in trouble. I don't think Ba's knee will last an entire season and if it goes in September we'll be ****ed , unless we have someone like Long or goodness knows who.

Pardew has done little business but the the business he's done has been very shrewd! Cabaye , Marveaux , Abeid and Ba all sound very promising.

Would also like to bring in another RB to compete with Simpson.

Not holding my breath on the Jose situation , looked ****e at the end of last season and also a few pre season games but now that he is pretty close to signing for someone else , he's stepped up his game. I think his move is a matter of when not if.

 

For the 18 minutes he was on, he did quite well. Some lovely touches and getting us into good positions.

A lot of positives.

 

i love these threads but hate them as well
love them for tash's efforts/vids and commentary
hate them as he always posts them about 20mins before the vid goes up.whether this is for dramatic effect who knows