Fulham v Newcastle United match report

Posted on February 3rd, 2011 | 83 Comments |

Damien Duff scores as Newcastle lose 1-0
Toon Duffed up
Newcastle United are sunk by a Damien Duff goal and go down 1-0 at Craven Cottage.

If there’s one thing you don’t want to see happen after you’ve just sold your number one striker and not lined up a replacement, it’s to see your number two striker get injured. Unfortunately that’s exactly what happened to Newcastle as a 14th minute collision with Steve Sidwell saw Shola Ameobi leave the pitch with a fractured cheekbone.

There were few other notable events in the first half, although Williamson was lucky not to concede a penalty after some of his wrestling matches with Fulham players in the area.

Clint Dempsey smashed a shot over the bar and Nile Ranger, coming on for the injured Ameobi, made himself busy enough in the penalty area on the end of a Barton free kick to force a corner, but that was the sum total of first half excitement. It’s halves like that where they should really release a leopard onto the pitch from time to time to liven things up.

Fortunately things improved in the second half when Steve Harper was called into action early on to make a great save against Dempsey and Leon Best had an early chance at the other end, heading over the bar from a few yards out.

If truth be told though, Fulham looked favourites to score and that indeed turned out to be the case when Damien Duff got on the end of a long ball from Danny Murphy, slipped away from the usually reliable Enrique and managed to put one past Harper. It was a tidy finish from the man whose (own) goal relegated us two seasons ago and it proved to be the difference between the two sides.

Dempsey and Dembele could have made it more for Fulham but for a solid display in goal from Steve Harper.

Replacing Leon Best with Peter Lovenkrands on 72 minutes did little to change things for us as way too many passes went astray and poor communication dominated.

It really was a lacklustre display by Newcastle. Our defence didn’t look as reliable as usual, the midfield gave the ball away too much and the forward line looked impotent.

Alan Pardew had this to say after the game:

It was always going to be about the first goal.

Once they got that they sat on it a little bit and then caught us on the break a couple of times. But up until then we weren’t really troubled – we were solid.

It was a game that was tight on a really difficult pitch.

We could have passed it better in the first half than we did, but I thought we started the second half better and had a good little spell when we could have scored.

It didn’t come unfortunately, and then the goal was poor on our part. That was very, very unusual for us as we have defended very well since I’ve arrived.

Speaking about Ameobi’s injury, Pardew added:

It’s a massive blow.

We’re going to have to hope Shola’s injury isn’t as bad as we fear, but losing him early on was significant in the result.

We’ve got to work with our strikers now. There’s no Shola, no Carroll and we’ve got to work to make sure we get the best out of the strikers we’ve got.

Pardew has some work to do before the Arse visit on Saturday.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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83 Responses

  1. I think a few of us, myself included, have wanted rid of Ameobi for a while if only to give the other strikers a chance to get 90 mins under their belt.

    Now that was when they were playing with Andy but I for one look forward to seeing if Ranger, best and Mcloven can score some goals this year. At least at the end of the season we will have a very clear picture of what we need upfront and who is good enough to stay on because between the three of them they should get plenty of game time to prove themselves.

    I thought Bartons link up play today was poor and it seemed we went out with no game plan what so ever. Jonas played like crap although he got one or two crosses in after they scored but we were sleepy all over the pitch.Lets hope with Tiote back in midfield and us playing the Arse at home, that the players will be fired up.

    It was interesting too See Willi and Enrique off their game but I think Fulham had been encouraged to charge forward after their Tottenham win and we never got the goal or the time in their half to pressure them back.

    ………………..Harps
    Simps….Will…Collo…..Jose
    Barton..Nolan..Tiote…Jonas
    ……….Loven and Ranger

  2. Good morning

    I didn’t post last night cause I get usually get too carried away on emotion during the game. Well that certainly wasn’t the case last night. Ten hours on my reflections are that performance was grim and depressing.

    The positives were the form of Harper and the potential of Ranger. The rest was awful collectively and individually.
    Too many long high straight balls against the best aerial centre back in the premier league. What genius between Pardew, Carver and Stone thought of that tactic.
    Even the midfield were chipping head high balls forward.
    Midfield and wing backs as a group showed no invention at all.

    I thought the lads did really well against Spuds and was expecting a similar type of performance. But as I have discovered during my 45 years of being a fan Newcastle United never do the expected.

    I want to put the transfer window behind but we went into the window needing a second quality striker we end the window with no quality strikers. Amazing.

    Finally can somebody tell me where Harris Vuckic is? I seen him put in a classy display against Arsenal in the carling cup in October. Never seen or heard of him since

  3. I know we have managed without Carroll up till now ,but the thought was he was always coming back,but the players looked in a different mindset last night and I’m really worried after this weekend we will be heavily involved in a relegation battle.One last word on Carroll,when his contract was negotiated in October he was valued at about £12m,obviously things have moved on,and when the club turn down an offer of £35m then any agent worth his salt would ask,and probably should ask for more.The club got Xisco off the wage bill and probably most of Routledge’s wage as well,so it’s not like they couldn’t afford it.I don’t think any of us could appreciate what pressure a not very bright 22year old was put under,( by agent and club officials)and I do believe he woke up Tuesday morning and thought “what have I done?”.It’s a pity there wasn’t a cooling off period where he had a chance to change his mind and renegotiate.So those of you who call him a judas should maybe think again.Just a thought.

  4. Rangers attitude stinks, loads of off the ball moaning – arguing with Barton etc – he needs to get his act together – best makes the wrong decisions, never seems to know when to make a run and easily handled by fulham last night
    Enrique was getting pulled all over the place by duff – poor game

    Anyone see me on the telly – apparantly i was miserable get shown during the game – to be honest I was just knackered, was up at 5 for work – son and his mates were with me – am slowly converting his college to all support the toon tho last nights game didn’t help the cause

    Seems that if a team plays against us with a high line and hustles us we’re pretty much fooked

  5. i cannot believe i supportNewcastle with such passion. the game was not shown in India, but by all accounts what a stinker(not talking about the game).

  6. Im willing to give Ranger a chance but for this season at least I just can’t see him being good enough. Lovenkrands has been poor this season and doesn’t look good enough against this class of defenders unfortunately. Leon Best said he wanted a chance and I think he is most likely the one who is now gonna have to step up to the plate. I think he was unlucky when he crashed it against the bar against Spuds. He can shoot well enough but he needs to work on getting into better positions. He needs to improve his hold up play and first touch aswell. But he’s the one at the stage of his career that should be able to. Can he be our main striker for now? He’s gonna have to simple as that. Nolan should move back up into the hole with Tiote and Guthrie in the middle imo.

  7. Well we saw last night what we already know we have no premiership strikers. I just hope that the bottom teams continue to play badly because they are the one`s who will save us from relegation not us.
    Shame about the Enrique mistake because that guy is some player, get some of that 35m spent on offering him a new contract.

  8. I wouldn’t even blame Enrique, it was just one of those passes that was perfectly weighted. Almost like fate that the ex-mag would score against us. His first this season I might add and probably not many since the one that relegated us.

  9. Thought we out played them in the first half while Filham with Sidwell in particular kicking anything that moved, how we ended up with 4 yellow cards whilst they had none was mystifying and i wont hold my breath on video evidence being used on Sidwell for his elbow.
    Although i thought the game was a nailed on draw, we were terrible up front and as the game went on you could see the midfield getting more and more frustrated with nothing to hit.
    Its going to be grim from here on in, but thats down to the lack of investment and its going to hurt.

  10. 14 games left, how many goals will we score. hope HBA plays many of them could get 1 every game, as a team I.e.

  11. No room for complacency. Anyone see six points from next two games. Pardew bemoans our striker problems. Is this the same Pardew who said, in the transfer window, that he didn’t need strikers? The ability of Llambias and Ashley, who flit from one cock-up to another, has not given confidence from day one. Pardew has lost all credibility this week. Wonder what the next lots will be in “Flog it”.
    Do you think this lot ever have an executive enquiry into their management of transfer windows?
    Shola out for weeks, evidently.
    If only Ashley could see a marked reduction in gates but he can be contemptuous because he know we will put up with anything and still keep turning up.

  12. bbb

    I couldn’t believe some of our cards. Guthrie got one when he got pushed in the back and thrown on the floor, surely if anyone got a card it should have been the Fulham player?

  13. The Newcastle lads heads were down last night. There wasnt quite the same passion. I hope Pardew can get them together again before the weekend. The Caroll sale was definitely a factor in the performance. Ranger had a terrible game, sorry but I cannot see why people keep rating him so highly. Best did his Best (sorry), but the final ball in was very poor. Enrique had a good game but made one very costly mistake. I’d rather see him pushed up the field now we are short on strikers. His pace alone would terrorise defences.

  14. When we manage to avoid relegation we will buy kightley and Doyle from wolves when they go down.
    At the start of the season I would have settled for 17th. I still will.

  15. Off thread but nevertheless relevant to our plight, now and going forward, but I do have concerns about Ashley’s commitment of spending all of the £35m or so received from Carroll’s sale.

    We’ve seen the goalposts move from an ‘assurance’ that the money’d be available for transfers to the qualifed one that it would ‘go to the club’ and used to cover incomers’ transfer fees and wages.

    The result of getting Carroll and Xisco off the payroll along with a part of Routledge’s pay will clearly result in a reduction in costs and now MA wants the pay of any incomers to be taken from the Carroll fee…… not the Carroll fee PLUS the above savings in pay.

    Fair enough, it’s prudent to get costs down where possible but this appears to severly limit any room for manouvre in next seasons incoming transfer negotiations.

    Why do I get the impression that Ashley and Llambias are more concerned with the short term bottom line rather than seeing new players as a long-term investment in, for the sake of a name, Project Europe?

    In that situation, any manager’s being forced to operate with his/ her hands tied!!

    Not very bright eh?

  16. Sillysod @14….. The Newcastle lads heads were down last night

    Inevitable and an impossible situation to manage in such a short space of time!

  17. I think we will be alright, just. I mustn’t panic and bottle it. Tiote and Benny practically beat Everton single-handed at the start of the season and I think there will be more games like that. Im gonna stick my neck out and say Best will score a few along with Nolan, the defense will have to be a rock for the rest of the season though. No more sloppy late equalisers.

    Simpson actualy defended and had a good game last night. Shame he picked a game where it didn’t really matter, nevermind.

  18. Have anyone else noticed that Løvenkrands makes some very good runs that are completely ignored almost everytime he plays? I am starting to wonder if he just dont suit our style or they simply hate him lol

  19. What concerns me most is not that we lost, but how the players reacted last night. The team spirit seems to have gone at least in that game. There were angry glancing looks at each other, barton and simpson were having a lot of words not polite ones either. Team spirit is important for us now we have lost AC, but we need to get our heads up. If not the team will be like it was when we got relegated.

    I cant blame the team for being gutted, every week there is some kind of tradgedy at SJP it has to be hard to cope with and keep sane or motivated to play.

  20. valle

    Lovenkrands is wasted until we can get someone like Ireland who can put the ball through for him. I think it was Murphy who put the perfect ball over the top to Duff. Guthrie and Nolan should have been watching and taking notes.

  21. DJG… True, true… The other strikers do it time and time again as well tho, looks down and completely ignore his runs. We get a contra with say 3 against 3 and Løvenkrands seems to be very good at finding space to make himself totally free on goal in those situations, yet he is never played.

  22. I was at the game last night. More shocking than the poor football on display was the fact that only lovenkrands even bothered to clap the away fans for selling out the away stands on a weeknight game against fulham. Poor attitude and display from everyone on the pitch.

  23. Agree with the Lovenkrands praise, thought he looked the only striker interested at times.

    Ranger was lazier and less bothered than I’ve ever seen him. He’s stepped up and replaced a striker alright, unfortunately it seemed to be Ameobi…

  24. Is anyone gonna kill Cashley yet or what?

    Surely someone has to know where the guy lives?

    This has to end.

    We. Just. Lost. Andy. Carroll.

  25. “Am I a £35m striker?

    I scored 24 goals helping my side win promotion back to the Premier League aged just 22. In my first season in the top flight I had scored 15 goals by the end of January including a goal against the reigning champions, a goal away at Arsenal and a cracker in a home win vs Liverpool.

    My form earned me an England call-up and debut in a friendly.

    Am I a £35m striker? No, I am Michael Ricketts, February 2002.”

  26. ex magpie I agree as I keep saying he would have woke up Tuesday and thought “bollocks”.It’s such a mess.Having slept on it myself I blame ashley for 99% of it.If you buy an item for home you have a cooling of period so you can change your mind,this young man had to make a lifetime changing decision,being advised by people who where going to make loads of money when he was sold,and no comeback or chance to change his mind.I know we should move on but it is going to take a while.

  27. “valle says:
    February 3, 2011 at 9:37 am
    Have anyone else noticed that Løvenkrands makes some very good runs that are completely ignored almost everytime he plays? I am starting to wonder if he just dont suit our style or they simply hate him lol”

    See it every game Valle,

    I feel sorry for the lad, because he wastes so much energy being ignored.

  28. ex magpie

    I think its far more a case of, he wanted to go at the time for the money because he got talked into it by his agent trying to play hardball to hike his wages…

    And now he regrets it because he realises he is no longer a Newcastle player… and he feels a bit out of his element now.

  29. Is Carroll on twitter by any chance? I say we bombard him with messages to make him feel guilty.
    Because I truely hope he plays like sh!t for Liverpool

  30. ewerthon brazilian striker is a free agent! should get him until the end of the season, coleman said we should try getting an emergency loan is that allowed?

  31. why did mike ashley use his helicopter to drop carroll off if he wanted him to stay! money grabbing fat idiot that ashley is

  32. tooneye says:

    “What concerns me most is not that we lost, but how the players reacted last night. The team spirit seems to have gone at least in that game”

    Not really surprising in the circumstances tooneye ? Equally unsurprising is Pardwho’s assessment of his forwards after Fulham.

    “Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has challenged his remaining fit forwards to fill the void left by Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi against Arsenal on Saturday after admitting they failed to do so at Fulham”

    What the f@@k was he expecting ? Did he think they’d suddenly transform overnight into clones of Ronaldo or Eto’o ? They were shite before AC was sold and they’re still shite now :(

  33. @ 38 – big mike had no time to lose – he had to ensure he got there in good time for AC signing the contract so we could dip into the transfer market for his replacement.

    remember we had a £10mil offer in for – charlie boy – that was – knocked back – but that didn’t stop us – we went back in 2 minutes later (10.57pm) with an improved offer of 12mil – again knocked back.

    you carn’t say these lads didn’t try their very best.

    now let’s have three cheers for – big mike – hip hip hooray ect ect..

  34. The only conclusion you can come to after the events of the last few days is that Fatman wants another relegation season so he can offload the other high earners in the summer and we end up with Best and Perch as our top star players :)

  35. since the sale – wor del boy – took his cut headed for old compton street to spend it & still hasn’t surfaced.

    he even missed the game last neet – too busy spunking his bonus away.

  36. Valle & JJ – even in the pre-match warm up Lovenkrands was being ignored when looking for crosses to run on to. Other subs weren’t

  37. The lads spirit was down last night and it was a sickner to see the obvious lift that the Liverpool team had on MOTD.

    And to think we could easily have finished above them…

  38. I thought only losing by 1 last night was sterling. It was good to see Barton getting on teammates to do their jobs. With Barton’s prodding, Simpson really played better and better as the game progressed. If he can keep it up, Barton will not have to come so far back to provide cover. Since NUFC is generally slow from the middle to the strikers, any foot gained helps so much. Last night, what had been diagonal crosses could not even reach the box as they were forced from so far out. Give Joey an extra five yards and his kicks become real danger. Howay, man the pumps!

  39. Lovenkrands con make all the intelligent runs he wants nothing will happen.

    The guy is another jigsaw. Goes to pieces inside the box.

    Not a natural finisher. Five premier league goals in one and a half seasons. Don’t pin to many hopes on the guy. You will only be disappointed

  40. Buda – Lovenkrands has something like 40 goals in 70 starts.. something like that. I know that includes the championship. He just needs balls to run on to and attack.. like what he used to get

  41. pardew looked like a beaten man in his post match interview,in the history of shaftings,i’ve never seen anyone get the ashley treatment as quick as pardew has.
    he is either unlucky or part of the inner sanctum of southern goons who are running newcastle united.
    it should be entered into the guiness book of records,the speed of this shafting,where does pardew go from here?i doubt he will recover from this.
    some will say it’s poetic justice,after reports of pardew stepping into chris hughtons shoes before he was even sacked.
    after ashley’s latest backstreet guttersnipe move,last nights game was from the realms of hollywood,when after 15 mins shola amoebi was carried off with a broken cheek bone.it could only happen under ashley’s tenure,that we end up worse off,after a transfer window shuts.
    the squad needed four good additions imo,without anyone being let go,albeit xisco being the exception.
    barton is wasted out wide,and should have been in the middle looking for killer passes,then again would the front line have been up to it?.
    to cap things off a ghost from the past in the shape of damien duff scored the winner,the likes of lucas,spielberg,cameron would be jealous of the creativity of the script which was unfolding.
    as for michael wallace ashley,it is definatley a case of the emperors new clothes,this idiot has took another gamble which will utimately come back and bite him on his sizable rear end.
    the three unwise monkeys of barrack road,mike ashley=here’s no cash,derek llambias=speak no cash,alan pardew without doubt=see no cash.

  42. Had to go to Sports Direct today to buy the grandson a pair of goalkeeping gloves for his birthday, seems the only place that has them in Ashington, bit like going to the match, you have to go but its not very enjoyable.

  43. Bit like reading your comments more like – you know it’s gonna be a load of sh1te but you just can’t help yourself. :)

  44. “And Lo, through the dark clouds a great voice spoke and said “Smile, things could be worse!”
    So I smiled – and they got worse.

  45. I’m gonna think about this season logically. If AC is out for another 8 weeks as some reports say, that means we would have been without him anyway till early April so the fact he’s been sold doesn’t actually change anything till early April.
    Losing Shola as well and not having bought a replacement limits our “big boy” options. Maybe we will get another striker from Europe or maybe Ranger et al will step up to the mark. Maybe we should go 4-5-1 and hope a midfield with Nolan, Ireland and maybe Ben Arfa will get goals.
    Earlier this season we lost 5-1 against Bolton with AC scoring and we have lost other games with Carroll playing: we have also won games without him – so he’s not the difference between staying up and relegation.

  46. Agree completely there magpie…Carroll aint the loss, Shola is more so imo. I would have gone for a 4-5-1 with Shola leading the line and a more advanced Nolan compared to where he’s being playing recently. Now though, I don’t think we possess anyone fully capable of bringing others in effectively.

  47. Worky – just want to say thanks for all your efforts in making this a great blog.

    I’ve always enjoyed reading your blogs and comments, and have generally found you to be a well reasoned and intelligent fella who bases their opinion on knowledge and facts.

    However, lately I have grown increasingly tired of reading your anti-Pardew rhetoric.

    I was upset as the next man when Hughton got sacked, and Pardew is certainly not the man I’d have chosen to replace him. But replace him he did and, as manager of our football club, I feel it’s important that we stand behind him.

    It’s for that reason that I say thank you and goodbye.

    All the best.

    TC

  48. Toon Chicken says:
    February 3, 2011 at 7:22 pm

    “However, lately I have grown increasingly tired of reading your anti-Pardew rhetoric.”

    TC, If you actually bothered to check who actually writes the blogs, you would notice that I’ve hardly written any “anti-Pardew rhetoric” in any of mine, I tend to restrict that to the occaisional comment. I think that you’re referring to someone else.

    Goodbye.

  49. what a f@cking dick head you are – stop crying like a baby & grow your’sel some tackle – tc.

    am f@cking embarrassed for ya.

  50. Letter to Newcastle United Football Club

    How dare Alan Pardew and Kevin Nolan tell us the fans to ‘move on’, why the f*** don’t you two move on.

    Especially you Nolan, the respect I felt for you has totally gone. How f***ing dare you go on LFC TV and was lyrical about Andy Carroll and how the Liverpool fans ‘deserve’ him. What about the Newcastle Fans you f***ing prick. Instead of encouraging AC to move to Liverpool your should have been talking him into staying. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. How can you say in the Chronicle how delighted you all are with his move to Liverpool, are you implying that he was too good for Newcastle? Why, now that he has gone he showed some of you lot up the useless bunch of twats that you are.

    Pardew, if you had any backbone you would have resigned first thing Tuesday morning. Your were promised that AC would NOT be sold, it now appears that it was the worst kept secret in football that Ashley was looking to sell AC . (source Mark Lawrenson) The fact that Ashley packed him off in his helicopter to Liverpool should have told you something. What happened to you banging on Ashley door for transfer funds? Instead we have lost 3 players from a already small squad. So what have we gained, a crocked midfielder who seems to have lost his way, who tells lies to his National team manager cause he doesn’t want to play for the country of his birth. What does that say about him? No Pardew, you have either been played for a fool or you were in on it from the start, I suspect the latter. It’s all starting to make sense now, sack Chris Hughton, bring in Ashley’s bitch as manager, recognise yourself there Alan.

    Andy Carroll, what can I say about you, except that you are a grasping, greedy shit bag who has dropped the club you supposedly love right in it on the last day of the transfer window. Between now and the end of the season you would have only earned just short of £500,000, christ man what you earned in a week working part time is more that the majority of people earn in a year. Poor Andy, the club didn’t want me, stop whining and admit both you and Ashley saw £££ signs. I hope you do a Robbie Keane and are a total failure. Your quote today re Newcastle ‘its my team and my home club’ f*** off you Judas.

    Hurting, bitter, too f***ing right.

  51. TC did you really have to go or did worky force you to hand in a transfer then lend you his reliant robin to fly away in.

  52. worky,give him as much stick as you like for me,he’s a self publicizing arrogant prick.
    i wonder how long it will be before he starts falling out with everyone at the club.the funny thing is though,he’s had his strides pulled down and shafted good style by ashley,the only down side is that ashley is too fat to give him the common decency of a reach around.

  53. JJ and Wimbledon… Do you guys think he is disliked in the dressingroom? Or are our current players (Bar Barton) simply not smart enough to play through balls and look up once in a while?

  54. budalovesa… Thats kinda harsh mate, he did pretty well both in the champ and also scored a few in the season we went down, he just dosnt get many chances this year, but of all our strikers, if a clear chance falls i would hope he was the one to get to it 100% of the time. He is the most composed of what we got by a mile in my book.

  55. What I loved most about Toon Chicken was his unique timing, some say it was a gift ?

    Toon Chicken says:
    January 31, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    “What you on about now Spewey??
    Fat Ash has rejected the bid so if anyone has been made to look like an idiot it’s you…And maybe Craig David too! :lol:”

    and magically three minutes later…..

    Toon Chicken says:
    January 31, 2011 at 5:19 pm

    “Transfer request accepted

    Reet now feck off Spew u fcuking thick twunt.
    For once and all this shows you to be the total arse wipe you are!!”

    Doesnt get any better than that :) TC will be sorely missed.

  56. Oi Oi radgies!!
    Just been oot clubbing in Liverpool wi Big Mick, Dekka, Pardsy and Carroll. Proper radge neet!
    Carroll and Big Mick were proper off their boxes man.
    A kna what ye’s are thinking like, how’s Cazza knocking aboot in Troys crew after he walked oot on the Toon?
    A kna but the lads never fell oot man. It was aal a plan from the start. It’s part of Big Mick’s ploy to move in on the Liverpool party scene and tek owa the drugs market.
    He’s a proper switched on bloke man Big Mick like and he’s doing it just for aal us in the Toon cos once he takes owa the drug scene he’s ganna ship aal the cheap gear back to the Toon!!
    Pure proper forward thinking that like!
    Anyway Doylems, godda gan, bizzies banging on the hotel door! Better turn the rave music doon and knock Cazza oot cos he’s spinning like plate!!
    Wooo hoo hoo hooo!
    Laters Gaters!
    Toon Toon!

  57. Valle

    In all honesty, I think our side have become so used to bombing long balls forward for the likes of Carroll and Ameobi for flick ons that they forget there is the “throughball” pass option.

    I honestly believe Best and Lovenkrans can form a decent partnership given time IF our midfield realised they have to change their passing style and keep the ball on the deck (passing behind the defenders)…

    We have to change our system to a counter attack style and employ the pace that players like Jonas, Ben Arfa, Lovenkrans and Ranger have.

    None of our strikers have enough strength or a good enough first touch to be holding the ball up.

  58. Magpie6699

    You quite right, but people are going to be looking for an excuse for any loss. Forgeting that we wouldn’t have Carroll for a monthor so anyway.

    Also, the Fulham game apart, we have done well without Carroll.

    We’ve got some tough games coming up… it was not going to be any different with or without Carroll in the team.

  59. JJ, Nolan will play in the hole tomorrow and i can see Ranger leading the line, Best was tripe at Fulham. See TC has hoyed his toys out the pram then, drama queen!

  60. Agree that with the personnel we have now available the high ball to the strikers has to change but not tomorrow. If there is any team that the tactic will work against it is arsenal. Try and play arsenal at football tomorrow and they will just pick us off and destroy us.

    We need a high tempo game putting their back four under immense pressure. Go five in midfield and there is only one outcome.

    Would like to be proved wrong.

  61. budalovesa

    I agree, against the Arse-nal we need to play Ranger and Best up front with Nolan in the hole and bombard them with long balls. Then our midfield need to take shots from range to win as many corners as possible.

  62. I wish I could change my hair that often. I have a prbleom getting to my hair girl. I’m waiting for someone to figure out how to get an online hair cut and color then I’m set. Cute pics!