Formation / Tactics

Do you blokes honestly believe that Steve Bruce and his team don't bother to work out pre-game tactics? He has scouts watching the opposition the week before and they will come up with a formation and tactics that is designed to get a result. It's all right us sitting in an armchair and then voicing criticism AFTER the event when the tactics haven't worked but these blokes are professionals for gawds sake. Pardew and his gang must have wondered what they had done wrong to be 2 goals down after they had over double our attempts on goal and almost double our possession. We had 3 attempts on target and 2 of them went in albeit both fantastic strikes by Jelly and Diame but after that we got torn to pieces and were lucky to get a draw.
We are all wiser AFTER the event but this was also a 100% better Newcastle side than the one that played Southampton last week. Our side has some bonding to do yet but the signs are there that we will have a very competitive side this season.

Actually some of us were worried BEFORE the event when the news came through that the team hadn't changed, so you're wrong. One post I saw said defeat was more likely. Repeating the same mistakes isn't exactly a sign of great professionalism.
 
Do you blokes honestly believe that Steve Bruce and his team don't bother to work out pre-game tactics? He has scouts watching the opposition the week before and they will come up with a formation and tactics that is designed to get a result. It's all right us sitting in an armchair and then voicing criticism AFTER the event when the tactics haven't worked but these blokes are professionals for gawds sake. Pardew and his gang must have wondered what they had done wrong to be 2 goals down after they had over double our attempts on goal and almost double our possession. We had 3 attempts on target and 2 of them went in albeit both fantastic strikes by Jelly and Diame but after that we got torn to pieces and were lucky to get a draw.
We are all wiser AFTER the event but this was also a 100% better Newcastle side than the one that played Southampton last week. Our side has some bonding to do yet but the signs are there that we will have a very competitive side this season.

We didn't get torn to pieces at all. The introduction of Cisse gave them a cutting edge that prior to that they had completely lacked. Add in a couple of mistakes of our own making, as Steve Bruce said, and we essentially threw away 2 points.

We were certainly not lucky to get a draw.

This league is very close and most games are going to be settled by fine margins. It turned out to be a draw, but if either team had won it by the odd goal, everyone would have said that that was a fair result. Our quality play put us into a 2-0 lead. Their fighting spirit got them back in the game.

Good advert for football, which is why it was first on MOTD.
 
Robertson at the moment is great going forward, but his defending needs working on. However it is work in progress, but feel if Ramirez comes in for Quinn, that will strengthen left side of mid field, and you might find it works better. Quinny is OK, but he is not in the same class as Ramirez. Failing that 352 might be an option to go for, which would give some cover for Robertson's defensive weaknesses, as one of the centre backs can get across to cover behind him.
 
They held the ball well and was just missing a striker for the majority of the game. If Cisse had started I imagine they would have won, easily.

This 442 diamond leaves us far too lightweight in midfield. Thudd isnt mobile enough to play as a single anchor man. I still think we would be much better suited to a 4231. I dont know if Livermore is defensive enough to play as the CDM beside Thudd, possibly Meyler?

McG
Rosie Chester Dawson Robertson
Thudd Meyler
Ben Arfa Diame Ramirez
Jelly

I think Robertson has a case of Elmo'itus. Looks great going forward but is liable in a back 4 due to his attacking nature.
 
They held the ball well and was just missing a striker for the majority of the game. If Cisse had started I imagine they would have won, easily.

This 442 diamond leaves us far too lightweight in midfield. Thudd isnt mobile enough to play as a single anchor man. I still think we would be much better suited to a 4231. I dont know if Livermore is defensive enough to play as the CDM beside Thudd, possibly Meyler?

McG
Rosie Chester Dawson Robertson
Thudd Meyler
Ben Arfa Diame Ramirez
Jelly

I think Robertson has a case of Elmo'itus. Looks great going forward but is liable in a back 4 due to his attacking nature.

Harsh on Elmo, leaving him out. This season I'd say he's probably been our most consistent performer. When did he last have a bad game?
 
We didn't get torn to pieces at all. The introduction of Cisse gave them a cutting edge that prior to that they had completely lacked. Add in a couple of mistakes of our own making, as Steve Bruce said, and we essentially threw away 2 points.

We were certainly not lucky to get a draw.

This league is very close and most games are going to be settled by fine margins. It turned out to be a draw, but if either team had won it by the odd goal, everyone would have said that that was a fair result. Our quality play put us into a 2-0 lead. Their fighting spirit got them back in the game.

Good advert for football, which is why it was first on MOTD.

Possession: Newcastle 63 - Hull City 37
Shots on Target: Newcastle 9 - Hull City 3
They were all over us.
 
Harsh on Elmo, leaving him out. This season I'd say he's probably been our most consistent performer. When did he last have a bad game?

Round pegs and all that... I consider Rosie to be the better full back. Elmo would be the first name of the team sheet in a 352, without a doubt.
 
We were ****e yesterday, we scored two fantastic goals against the run of play and in the end we were lucky to hang on for a point.

The midfield isn't working, it hasn't been working all season and changes definitely need to be made. Brucey may be the expert, but you don't need all your coaching badges to know that 4-6-0 is not a good formation if you want to win a football match. Where was Sagbo, at least he can hold the ball up the pitch?
 
We were ****e yesterday, we scored two fantastic goals against the run of play and in the end we were lucky to hang on for a point.

The midfield isn't working, it hasn't been working all season and changes definitely need to be made. Brucey may be the expert, but you don't need all your coaching badges to know that 4-6-0 is not a good formation if you want to win a football match. Where was Sagbo, at least he can hold the ball up the pitch?

I thought he fielded a 5-5-0 making Hernandez non-existent (that was a joke Madge) but, he's the boss and must have worked this out with his staff.
Sagbo can't be showing anything in training and I personally doubt that he has a future with us.
Jelly proved today that if we get the ball to him in the penalty area he'll put it in the net. Brilliant strike.
Hernandez has only played twice so there is some bonding to do yet.
I will predict that when this team gets it's act together it will be a formidable side.
 
Mac is a great keeper but has let in some stupid goals in this season, yesterday at is near post should never have been beaten, again in mid week West hams second goal he should have done better with and the one against Lockeren when he kicked it straight to their forward. I know he is a top keeper and as made some great saves this season but at this level he as to cut out the daft mistakes, perhaps he needs a bit more competition.

^ this .. goalkeeping errots have cost us two in two and four points .. big mac needs to srart finding some consistency
 
How about a 4-4-1-1 ?

Elmo Chester/Dawson Davies Rosie
BenArfa Huddlestone Diame Robertson
____________Hernandez
_____________Jelavic

Robertson looks great going forward but we've conceded a few goals from that part of the pitch over the last few games and Rosie behind him will make us a lot stronger in defence.

Livermore has looked below average so far this season, as has Huddlestone, but obviously you cant drop Thudd.. So have him with Diame in midfield, Hernandez just in-front of them and Jelavic leading the line.
 
I thought he fielded a 5-5-0 making Hernandez non-existent (that was a joke Madge) but, he's the boss and must have worked this out with his staff.
Sagbo can't be showing anything in training and I personally doubt that he has a future with us.
Jelly proved today that if we get the ball to him in the penalty area he'll put it in the net. Brilliant strike.
Hernandez has only played twice so there is some bonding to do yet.
I will predict that when this team gets it's act together it will be a formidable side.

Quite possibly, but until it does, we probably ought to keep at least one proper striker on the ****ing pitch.
 
I think playing Elmo & Robertson at the back in a 4 leaves us far too exposed. We scored 2 fantastic goals yesterday but I felt we were outplayed and the stats do seem to back this up. Having got lucky to be 2 ahead with 15 minutes to go we should still have closed it out but Cisse proved to be exactly what they had needed all game. Brucie really seemed to spend the start of the transfer window stengthening for the 5-3-2 formation and made a good job of it. He's then ended the window by bringing in an embarrasement of riches in the attacking department and seems to be desperate trying to shoehorn them all in (this will get worse when Ramirez and Ben Arfa are fit). He's going to have to bite the bullet at some point and choose to piss someone off instead of trying to keep them all happy (Europe could have helped us with and its even more of a shame that we got the squad we have now too late to keep us in it). In the meantime; I think we need to return to a similar shape to that which has got us to this point but more of a 5-2-2-1 to use some of the extra attacking prowess we now have :

McGregor
Davies Dawson Chester
Elmo Thudd Diame Robertson
Hernandez Benarfa
Jelavic

reserves not bad either :

Harper
McShane Bruce Figuero
Rosey Meyler/Quinn Livermore Brady
Ramirez Ince/Aluko
Sagbo