Article: Why should survival be our goal next season? | Football, Newcastle

By what exactly? We've lost a character in the dressing room, but from what people in the and around the club have said, the new lads are friends. Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Tiote and Abeid are like peas and carrots. According to Leon Best, Ben Arfa is a proper character, and his English is good.

We've lost a good lad in Nolan, but i reckon the chemistry and the spirit seems as high if not higher than last season.

 

Nolan missed 8, which is enough for it to be pretty obvious we lacked something when he didn't play

 

Is the 'article' and '| Football, Newcastle' thing I see on a few threads recently because they are appearing on News Now?

It annoys me.

If it is, then a lot of Tashes **** get on there.

 

They arent children though, it's not like they lost all motivation and forgot how to play when Nolan wasnt in the side, if someone like Guthrie was playing ahead of him our midfield would have a lot more to offer technically. I think the "Nolan is a leader" thing is overrated, we were on pretty bad streaks in the second half of the season, with or without him.

 

Tash, your problem, like a lot of people, is you hear what you want to hear. In every matchday programme in nearly every league in Britain if not the world, the players say that the team spirit is amazing as long as it is anything above poor. We don't know what it's like. All we can go on is what the players say, but I think the fact that the coaches have clearly been briefed to keep up team spirit says a lot about how much Nolan was liked by the players.

 

OT and BamBams sexual arguement was on one of them i hope people on news now can read the comments

 

Hopefully that will be made up for with the contribution of Ben Arfa, Cabaye and Marveaux though. Each other them i expect to chip in with some goals and creativity.

We never scored directly from a free kick in the PL last season, and Cabaye is apparently a Pen and FK specialist, or at least good at taking them, and Marveaux and Ben Arfa have scored some crackers from what i've seen.

I'd like to see a few goals scored from free kicks. Also we have plenty of threat from creative set pieces. Barton and Cabaye can whip in a good ball, and we have Taylor, Colo, Shola, Best and Ba, how can all pose a decent threat in the air at times.

In don't expect any of the new midfielders to get the same amount of goals as Nolan, but they'll all come together and make up for his loss and then some.

I personally believe Barton and Colo will be able to lead the lads well.

 

I know i'm not exactly in the dressing room right now, so i cannot prove anything, all i can do is make an educated guess, and that is that the spirit is still high in the dressing room, from what i've witnessed and how the players act.

It didn't fall apart when Carroll left, and as much as we hate him, the lads seemed to like him, and it must have been a massive blow to some of the players hearing that last minute he put in a transfer request and basically wanted to leave for Liverpool.

If we can get over Carroll, then we can easily get over Nolan. Carroll's departure i'm sure was more of a shock and upset to the team.

 

I don't actually think we'll miss his goals that much. I think we'll miss his determination to win when we're losing 2-0. Barton has it as well, but generally looking at the games when one of them didn't play we lost, which shows that really we need two players that push everyone on to do their best. Do Ben Arfa, Marveaux or Cabaye offer that? I dunno, but it's doubtful

 

Comments do appear on newsnow.

So my complaint about the article title looking weird because of newsnow will be on newsnow, and Tash & BamBams argument will be too..

 

I would defintely say our team this year has more quality but less grit.

Also I noticed Tash has starting writing more of his 'my opinion is more important than everyone else's so deserves its own article' threads. Is this because of the NewsNow thing?

 

No, i make articles because i am allowed to. If people don't like me or my articles, then they shouldn't click on them.

I don't think my opinion is more important than others, but i'm entitled to make articles expressing it.

Also, we still have players like Taylor, Barton and Tiote. We still have plenty of tough and mentally strong players in the team.

 

Whats with the new article header thing?

 

But the point is we don't have as many! Last year you could add two more players to that (one being the thoughest and most mentally strong player). We have more quality but less determination, we're edging towards Arsenal rather than Man U

 

That's just a stupid thing to assume. I would have accepted, we have more quality but less physical strength and leadership experience. But not determination. You can't just assume things like that.

Determination is all about your mental strength and your passion. Cabaye, from what i've seen, shows a high level of determination and mental strength, plus he isn't weak at all. He puts in tackles, and shows aggression. He also works generally hard and his body language looks excellent. Plus Cabaye offers a lot more than Nolan does to the game.

So yes, we may have lost some physical strength with Nolan, but that doesn't mean we've lost our fighting spirit.

 

I have to side with tash here, Cabaye is a former captain, and Ba is a leader as well (going off Pardew's comments). We might even have more determination and spirit in the side now.

 

So newsnow readers will sympathise with large penis issues?

This is better than Dear Derdrie!

She ignored my penile problems.

 

Actually you're right there 100%. I think we lack leadership. I think every footballer has a lot of determination, but I think you still need one or two people to push you on and make sure you're doing the little things right and putting everything in.

 

Our aim :

To keep Perch away from Barcelona.

 

Agreed. But now we have to prove we're not relying on certain players to carry us. We need to play as a unit.