Word on the transfer front

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Unofficial Newcastle United Football Club BBS : One Thread

What better after another hideous performance at the Dell to have a natter about possible 'incoming'.

The Ronnie last night has us interested in Christian Dailly, presently in and out of the Blackburn team. Decent player, and probably a better bet than Marcelino, but he's not exactly Marcel Desailly: and not sure it would be moving us in the right direction.

The S/Sun reckons we are set to bring in two young Argentinian strikers from Boca Juniors - Bonvin & Herrera - in the next few weeks.

The S/Sun also reckons we have made a #2mm offer for Chilean, Clarence Acuna, who was recently here on trial. However, Sportal reckon we could now lose out to Arsenal. They report:
Arsenal could be set to pip Newcastle United in the battle to sign Clarence Acuna.
The Chile international midfielder interested Tottenham Hotspur in the summer and has recently had a two-week trial at Newcastle, but now, according to the player's Agent, Arsenal could land the 25 year-old. "Newcastle have had their chance, but I know Arsene (Wenger) is keen and he could be an Arsenal player by Friday" said Acuna's agent.
The creative midfielder is available from his club - University of Chile - for a fee in the region of #2.5million. Newcastle's funds are short at present, and they may have to sell before they can buy, but such a fee would present no problem for Arsenal.

Sounds like an Agent trying to pressure the Toon into a move to me.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000

Answers

I'd like to get excited about this but I can't...I'm still too depressed at how badly we played yesterday....

Thinking about it we also played badly against Coventry (2 lucky goals!) but were slightly better against Chelsea without ever looking too convincing....

Yesterday was as bad as I've seen us play since Dalglish....

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000


Any feel for what the problem is Gav?

For some considerable time I've had this concern that this group of players can do the biz, but only when they get really up for it, and seem incapable of sustaining the standard of performance that is necessary to succeed in the PL.

After the performance against Chewsee I'd prematurely convinced myself that we were finally moving forward, but we looked right back to square one yesterday - is it complacency or what? Or are we just not good enough?

On MOTD, the defending looked back to schoolboy stuff, with opposition players continually finding acres of space in our penalty area.

Whaddya reckon?

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000


I can't really put my finger on it.....

Defensively I thought Hughes played really well...I'm becoming more convinced with each game that he's our No1 centre back, I also thought that Gary Speed had a reasonable game apart from a couple of late stray passes....he was our only ball winning midfielder as Dyer and Nobby are incapable of tackling and do nothing more than get in the way....

The rest of the team was a shambles, link up play was poor, we had no invention or urgency going forward....no-one wanted to break with pace and take a man on so we became ultimately predictable and easy to defend against....

How do we change the WHOLE team? it seems impossible to me...

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000


Clarky, Dailly is not the answer, looked like being a makeweight in a swop plus cash for Eyal Berkovic but Souness can not afford his wages, A couple of games and we tend to put guy`s on pedastels, >> Cordone, YBR has this need to always play Gallagher when he is fit, but play`s him out of position anyway. I mentioned in another posting the balance of Rangers left side last week, I know Scottish football gets derided down South, straight question, would you take Numan. Bronkhurst, Albertz and McCann down the Toons LHS, ? that`s an easy one aint it. We are disparaging about about the Mackems ,and their only ploy of getting it wide, hoof to Quinn,lay off to the Munchkin, its said its been sussed out from last season!!! 2 games enuff. Unless someone tells me different and I do listnen to you guys and gals who attend, its my only link really that I value, without seeing a game this season I would say, the lads play nice and tight little triangles down the right as their main play, predictable,slow and no 1 on the oppossition m/gers pre match team talk. He will also say that the fans as well as the defence will sh-t bricks when asked to defend dead ball situation anyway near the area. You tell me they all work for each other, good all for that, but is the quality of their work good enough? Geez they are so damm predictable, so precise they need to loosen up and let it flow, vary the pattern, YBR can get them to do all that, what he cannot get is to induce pace, yeah back to my favourite whinge, and until pace is introduced into the team we aint going anywhere. Alan Shearer`s involvement in this may be the subject of another debate,his contribution to now has me concerned, Clarky incoming. I like Russell Latapy a bubbly, player who can score goals. his type are supposedly there already and added to that he is away a lot with Trinadad and Tobago, Surely Bobby can see whats wrong, cos sure as hell the teams we play can, and it does not take much to neutralize, not so long ago Big Al would have been the main man, gotta watch this guy , don`t give him a yard, the only mention he will get now is "Taking a corner, clear first man at near post, that will be Shearer defending, holds the ball up, watch for giving fouls away on edge of box, makes runs in inside right channels, squeeze him out, no pace to get past you, dangerous when time in wide areas to get in telling cross, dont give him time, Al has to have things happening both sides of the park, he has suffered thro lack of this basic facility at Newcastle and England of late/ On re-reading this, I suppose what I am trying to say and making a bad job of it, is that we are as predictable as Sunderland only in a more artistic way.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000

If it's any consolation Gav, I'm sure it is as much of a puzzle to BR.

How did Domi and Charvet play? On MOTD, Domi made one terrific forward run but seemed to be missing-in-action on both goals. In addition, Goma looked guilty on ball-watching on both goals.

Regarding midfield, I've said repeatedly on here that I don't think playing both Solano and Dyer is a viable proposition long-term. I suspect Jamie McGlen may come in for Dyer (rested) in the Worthless Cup on Wednesday, and I'm hoping Rob Lee comes back in on Saturday.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000



Clarky,

Charvet wasn't too bad....apart from the lack of incisiveness and predictability....Domi was very very poor apart from that ONE run and shot he had...he just didn't seem remotely interested, was never tight on his man, rarely tackled and seemed content just to make his man play the ball rather than try and win it....

worst man on the pitch for us was a toss up between Domi, Dyer and Cordone for me.....oh and Shearer wasn't far away either....

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000


Buff -

From what I've seen it's question of movement as much as pace. Same story since Dalglish - nobody runs off the ball, players are caught in possession with no options, predictable passes to static, marked teammates till possession is lost. Hence the regular match report mantra - 'Newcastle had plenty of possession but created precious few chances', blah blah. We have a better chance when teams attack us and leave gaps, but any half-smart tactician will get his team to shut us down. Then we resort to long hoofs, Shearer inevitably ends up back to goal (Robson coaxed him out of that when he arrived, but he seems to have relapsed - maybe having Cort alongside will help) and we offer little or no threat.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000


Dan, Fully agree, pace and movement, with/out ball, I now feel you would learn more about our team by going to the Riverside with Steph and others, something wrong somewhere, always a reason.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000

Thanks for the discussion. Interesting to see the analysis. I guess living 8,000 miles away makes me more cautious about classifying us as very good or very bad. There does seem a problem of lack of quality in depth and a few injuries really exposes us, e.g., Cort, Lee, Barton, one in each area of the park (I guess Dabs as well because Hughes could have moved to fullback yesterday). Robson's continued interest and activity in the transfer market emphasises that for me. He is bringing in young people where he can and that seems his Phase 2 (develop a fast attacking team to replace the older players). I guess Gallagher was a buy to help get the team out of its trouble last year (Phase 1 - get some stability in and keep the team up). I seem to remember Gallagher was only a sub early in this season. I suspect that Dailly (can't remember the spelling) would come into the same category (Phase 1) and Robson is being forced to resort to Phase 1 due to injury - mainly Dabs in that case.

The analysis of Shearer is interesting because Robson has said on a number of occasions that he has four years of football left in him.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000


Shearer still very much has it in him to play at the highest level. However, we're seeing a very much low key and negative performance at the moment.

I put our 2nd half showing down to YBR losing his voice and not being able to verbally spank the lot of them out the changing rooms with a flea in their ears for the wasted 1st 45 opportunities.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000



Funny - Pilgrim and I were just discussing this yesterday after Marian Pahars scored two against us. What has Pahras got? What has YMO got? What have ManUre got in spades (not pun intended - apart from Sheri)? Even the frigin Mackems have it. Movement and pace. We get done every single time we play against a team with movement and pace - Coventry last season with Robbie Keane.
And why can't we defend against it? 'cos we aint got it on the practice pitch. LKD should be able to do the biz, both at the Rivorside and in the EPL, but it isn't working. How can our defenders even begin to learn how to defend against maovement and pace when the only time they come across it is when it hurts?
To be honest, Pilgrim and I both started to doubt Shearer's contribution yesterday. We are too one dimensional, and as Buff says, most managers in the EPL know exactly waht's coming along. Cordone did it against Derby and Sours, but even he is starting to be sussed. He's beginning to look like Kets with hair.
The sooner we can start to rest Shearer and vary the game, the better it will be. Lets see some more of Coppy - I hope he gets a start on Wednesday. Could LKD play up front with him? They c ould run thru the legs of the big defenders.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000

I read that the plane journey to Southampton was a bit scary,perhaps that's why we are always shit down there, maybee the travelling dosen't agre with us.?

As for coppy playing on Wednesday, I hope he gets a better chance than the 10 minutes a couple of games ago. I reckon he and Shola given the right service and a more established defence could get a net full.

BTWwh's goin to the game? and Who's playing in the chatroom?

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000


Moderation questions? read the FAQ