Not being a regular attendee, I at times feel a wee bit of a fraud when summunizing the `Toon`, The bits I do see, I re-run and disect , in fact I do the same on here, read avidly the reports from our regulars and attempt to piece the postings together to form a nucleus opinion on how we are faring, no way do I take onboard the pundits and soccer journo`s in the main leave me cold. Therefore I trust you lot as my eyes and my football knowledge to get me through , very rare will I get into a heated debate about individual players as I am not playing with a full deck so to speak. Laurent Robert has been the subject of much discussion on here, lazy,non team player, attitude problem etc , prior to signing him he was labelled all these things , inconsistency appearing to be the main one. His club knew this, the French manager knew this,and I am certain Bobby knew this , his talent was undoubted , the potential is still there , he has provided balance and when I have seen the team play he has the knack of making things happen, providing/scoring etc, not a lot of players have that in their make-up. How to accomondate him is the worry, Mac is not far off the mark on why he does not get the ball tech wise, ask some of the auld gits on here the quality of Jimmy Scoulars balls (football down screach!!) crossfield from right to left to the feet of Bobby Mitchell. As someone pointed out on here neither Dyer/Solano play that type of game so we are looking for better service from the back , Distin can provide, can Elliot?,or do we look for a more footballing left back, Bernard?. as always no easy answer , we can have our opinions and but at the end of the day its all down to Bobby and his staff, rest assured a lot of comments on here will have been discussed, Al 90% turning to his favoured right, can bellamy make more runs in the inside left channel etc, trust.

Whoa Buff, steady on pal, away with the mixer you daft auld buŁŁar, nowt at all to do with the title, ok here we go, here we go,here we go Prior to the Arsenal game Premiership on Monday where Bobby was on the couch, The Newcastle fan when asked a question replied that he would like to see the Toon play with more fluency over a more sustained period and not in patches at present. Bobby gave the most simple and perfect of answers, he said" Do not forget Chris there are 11 other players out there attempting to stop us being fluent".

I have looked at Newcastle lately with this principle in mind, ie put myself in the mind of the opposing team coach, knowing that he is up against the form team, an astute manager , a goalkeeper who is having his best season ever, a back four who are playing with more confidence and are defending free kicks so well that Pit Bill has ditched his diapers. Since the return of Dyer , a midfield that has pace, inventivness and no mean goal scoring ability. The front two combine pace, strength, experience, behind the team will be 52,000 willing them on , pitch could be heavy, go on folks talk the talk, you are Claudio Canary of Chelsea , what would your tactics be against the toon tommorrow, putting it down on here may tell you things you did not realise about your own team in other peoples eyes. Love to give a Chelsea team Talk, been on too long, one thing tho, I would have John Terry spare at the back to counter pace of Bellamy and balls over the top or down the channels. Try it , will be interesting.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Answers

good on ya buff.... enough meat here ta chew on,nice views on the side and all, but for me the only problem is that we'll see the next game (Manure) as the important one and could be do a let down prior.

Surely we seem to have hit form and we need it to continue for a while (lord knows we have been mediocre for too long). The scary thing is admitting to myself that we are as good as we are and this position is merely a bench warming project for one of the "big three".

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

That's the difference between you and me skims......I don't mess around with facts and full decks before putting folk straight.....

..3 decks is enough for me.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Yes Buff, all down to nerves, so now that the source of the nervousness is not so apparent, I've dispensed with the emergency measures.:-{E}

Know just what you mean about Jimmy Scouler and Bobby Mitchell, but for long enough our idea of long balls has been purely defensive and desperate. I think Arsenal are probably as close as you can get to a team that can play the sort of ball you're on about.

It would be a good art to master, because high balls I reckon are a waste of time for the likes of Dyer and Bellamy, although for a little un, Bellamy does sometimes get up a lot further than might be expected.

Distin looks like he could be useful in that respect, although I've seen signs of others making passes with some thought, rather than the 'hoof the bliddy thing as far up field as possible just to relieve the pressure' style that was the norm for long enough. A lot are still being overhit, but hopefully it'll come eventually.

I hope Ranieri won't try to cope by giving instructions to the appropriate players to try to take out Bellamy and Dyer, because the last few referees we've had would probably see nowt wrong. That's the biggest worry for me. I hope I'm way off in this, but I think, because there's so much hanging on the game for both teams, it could be a bit of a blood bath tomorrow. But regardless of that, let's hope they can keep up the good work and give us something to savour at long last.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

I'll rise to it Buff ....

As a team we suddenly have pace going forward. That would concern me as a manager. If I had confidence in my own players pace it would be okay but lets assume NUFC have more than my team.

Issue then is to stop those fast players. Two ways, either stop the ball getting to them in the first place, or negate it when they do have it.

Against Arsenal we didn't touch the ball for the firts half hour. Arsenal passed it around us, ackled us the second we had it, and looked faster, and more powerful than us. That worked well in the way we stopped Man U playing at our place, just hassle them out of it. It goes back to the point about physically winning the right to play football. NUFC are potentially vulnerable to being kicked off the pitch, as I'm sure Peter Reid will have noted :0)

The other option if this doesn't work is to get men behind the ball and play us at our own game by breaking at speed. Drop the defensive line back 15-20 yards from the half way line, plant 4 midfielders infront of them and then have your forward buzz the NUFC defenders when they have the ball.

Liverpool did this, with the comfort of a one goal lead and we just didn't have a clue. Playing against such a defensive block we haven't the guile in Solano to get around the back, and that leaves Robert to do it. If you clatter him a couple of times early on he'll disappear.

Shearer is always going to take up a defender as he keeps the ball so well. He doesn't worry me though as all his work is around the box and his lack of pace can be coped with.

At the moment I'd not be bothered about pushing for a win at Newcastle, much rather soak up the pressure and look for a lucky break. The Newcastle full backs are fine but may be susceptible to a fast turn or the ball played in behind them. Distin is a new centre half, won't have played against our lads and I'd be looking to let him know he's in a game and also keeping my forwards mobile to try and play on any lack of understanding between the centre halves.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

My concern about tomorrow's match is to do with superstition not football. We have a blinkin' dreadful recent home record against Chelsea. We haven't scored in the last three games against them at SJP. Indeed, if you count the Worthy Cup and the semi-final I think it's 9 games since we've beaten them. Mind you, we are in the business of stuffing hoodoos at the moment!

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

I don't think Chelsea will be overly concerned about dealing with us in their preparations. They have beaten us recently, when they handled the speed merchants pretty well. They arguably have the best defence in the PL right now, and importantly, all their dfenders are pacy. I expect them to try to dominate possession, stifle us in m/f, and try to get us to hit long balls over their defenders that they will feel they can deal with. They'll be prepared to be patient and wait for JFH or Gudjohnsen to knick one or two.

Because of the aforegoing I think the game tomorrow could be a real test for us, and that we will need to be very patient. I fancy us, but only by 1-0 or 2-1.

Laurent Robert could be the key man for us tomorrow - either positively or negatively. I expect Chelsea to attempt to whack him and try to needle him into reacting and getting sent off. If he plays, Mario Stanic is a real sly git, and he'll probably be the designated 'irritater'.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

That's what's worrying me, Jacko, too. They are mint at the back and fairly useless elsewhere. We have held them at bay before - I'm not sure their side is that much better than the one we held to a 0-0 last season (although Goma and Hughes were on the form of their careers that day). Scoring against them is the issue. I'd imagine Chelsea would be very confident coming into this fixture.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

I meant "useful" not "useless". Wishful thinking.

As I keep saying, though, if those Makems can get a draw out of them so should we.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

For some strange reason I have the same feeling I did against Arsenal and leeds. I am not overly worried about chelsea, although I do think it will be a test equal to the leeds one. I agree with clarky inasmuch that I expect them to hit us on the break with JFH and that other lad G?????son. However I do feel the key will be to use the whole pitch, that means pulling them all over the place. Balls into the corners, diagonal balls just pull them all over the place and make them chase us. Shearer will be key tomorrow since he will always require the attention of at least one defender, so why not have him pull one therefore creating a hole as it were. One thing I used to do when being marked so closly was to go and stand right next to another defender therefore taking up two. Of course this won't work most times, but if he is being sat on then take the sitter and sit on someone else. Keep the faith lads n'lasses and heres to another satda on top (steady on)

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

For me the game hinges on the performances of the defence. Our centre backs are going to have to play well - hopefully Distin as he can deal with high balls excellently. However, we need Elliott or Hughes to really play out of their skins if we are going to break down Chelsea.

Le Saux is the man to target. A whinging tosser, and one who will get aggravated. He will be after Bellamy's blood no doubt, but getting a Laurent Robert with a kicked arse running at him will scare Le Saux.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

I hope the temperature drops below freezing. That has to be more familar for wor lot than Chewsee. If we can take it on the terraces (well, seats), they can take it on the pitch. And gloves should be banned ;-)

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Good shout Mac, that`s what I was looking for, its hard to talk about your own team as the oppossition but by doing so you learn a great deal about their strengths and weaknesses. Dougal (I think) made a valid point in that we have played Chelsea recently so they will in all fairness know a great deal about our team, Agree to a point, I will argue, different competetion, different ball game. At the start of the season Chelsea`s objective as with probably six other clubs w was to win the league long term. Each game home and away present a hurdle to surmount in the quest , as the season wears on the aim will remain the same , its how you achieve the results which will help in the long run. IMHO that due to recent results and positions of top 6-8 , Ranerri will feel he requires a win ,nothing less, ok how can he achieve it, away from home, 52,000 etc,mmmm, play open attacking football, nah he will stay clear of that line, he knows Toon are awesome on break, yep I will play them at their own game , drop a man spare at the back , pack midfield , look to get fb (Melchott?) past Robert onto Elliot and look to JFH to steal us a win.

Screacher feeling the cold kid !!, well I walked a mile off the hill to where my car was parked last night at 6am this morning thro 7" of the white stuff, made it to work along with 14 others , ok dont forget offshore but 14 are producing 38% of the UK`s gas needs ,with Esso Shell next door and Total/Fina/Elf that rises to nearly 75%, so in the words of Winnie, Never,Never in the pursuit of warmth and aids to cooking has so much been owed by so many to so few, brrr Buff

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2001

A very inetersting read with the benefit of hindsight. Being the away team against ManU might suit our game better, be we will still be vulnerable to Giggs/Beckham getting behind Solano and feeding Van Nistelroy coming in with pace. Similarities between Gudjohnson's goal and JFH at the Worthless game, and LvN is deadly at those finishes too.

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001