newcastle united 2007-2008 thread

what an utterly uninspired effort. good christ.
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bumping shamelessly back to the top. HUGE win against tottenham yesterday, marked ultimately by big sam being basically forced by injury to put owen and martins out there. hopefully we see more of the same on saturday v reading.

i don't want to get to ahead of myself here, but a win against reading on saturday, and suddenly newcastle will find itself in a position to play for europe. we got a hell of a streak going, and if we can at least pull a point from reading, then we have a great showdown looming with portsmouth on november 3rd.

suddenly i'm feeling a lot less bleak about our season's chances.
 
nothing like a cold bucket of water over your head. good christ, there's something wrong with the team. our last two goals were really opponent own goals. we cannot muster any semblance of an offense. what's worse, we cannot muster any semblance of a defense either. 3 massive defensive breakdowns within minutes of each other on saturday. we were down 3-0 before i could get my breakfast and first beer in me. ugh.

by the way, alan smith started alongside michael owen and duly earned a yellow card. he's got more yellow cards than our leading scorer (obafemi martins: duly noted - yet again, he did not get a starting nod) has goals.

i'm beginning to feel as though sam is a fraud of a manager. i don't see any changes than when roeder was leading the team, except that maybe sam is working with a full arsenal of players and is suffering less from injuries than roeder did last season.

either way, we're 10th in the table. could be worse, but it should be better. roeder had us in the middle as well. i think that sam is playing bolton tactics at newcastle. ie, a club with a smaller payroll who needs to play long ball - newcastle should have the talent to eschew these bush league tactics. i'd like to see tighter passing in midfield. i'd liketo see the ball ADVANCED. we kick back to given more than we attack, it seems - all so he can boom the long ball and hope one of our short forwards can corral it.

bah. i'm grumpy.
 
you know, i realize that this thread is completely self-serving, as it appears i am THE newcastle fan on this ******* board, but whatever.

i have a bad, BAD feeling about allardyce. that feeling is rooted in the fact that tactically he is a ******* moron.

i say this quite confidently, as a follower of EPL soccer for almost 3 years. i have confidence that i would play guys in the correct position on the pitch. i have confidence that i would actually, i don't know, ******* PLAY OUR LEADING SCORER FOR THE PAST TWO SEASONS.

of course, i'm american. i don't care if he is english or not. i wonder about this. i think sam is a bit of a nationalist. i think sam knows that owen is englands golden boy, and i think that allardyce still has designs on the national manager-ship. playing owen is the safe move for that aspiration.

but for newcastle, playing owen is a complete disaster, as much as england sticking its head up its *** and picking sam as national manager.

sam is still playing poor club tactics at a rich club and its ******* infuriating. even further, it seems that sam is playing ******* jr high tactics (us based critic here) at a ******* epl team.

hey, let's ******* kick it as far as we can and hope someone finds it and does something with it.

**** all that. and **** all that with owen. he's not a long ball player. owen is a finesse guy. if you're going to play the ******, put a midfield out there that is capable f stringing more than two ******* passes together. owen is a finisher, not a creator. viduka may seem like a likely compatriot out there, but **** that too. get viduka and martins out there. owen hasn't done ****.

i'm convinced that sam is playing players based on reputation. oh, ******* wonderful! our owner ******* loves smith! his attitude is "smashing." well, his styl eof play is also smashing, you ******* ***. he smashes his way to a ******* yellow card every other match. wonderful. i'm glad he's out there doing that. he's contributing.

in short, i think that sam is a pile of ****. i don't want to fire him (YET) but if we get a taste of the relegation zone, then ************ has got to go. i'm not watching a different team than last year. roeder was a coward, but he had the balls to play martins - a very talented striker.

oh, sam is ******* fond of pointing out how strong our start was. but look at the ******* schedule. a bunch of ******* patsies, some of whom we lost to! DERBY ******* COUNTY? are you kidding me?

that, in and of itself, it unforgivable. but couple that with sam desiring a clean sheet draw against inferior competition for an away game - WTF.

and now we get to face the top of the table. liverpool (h), blackburn (a - oh ****), arsenal (h - nevermind we lost in carling to their under 12 team). we'll be lucky to get a ******* point.

i'm done with this gum chewing bastard. i wish england would just ******* hire him, so we can hire someone, anyone, who can play players in position and who are fit enough to play. **** all.
 
Well, Owen's now out with a thigh strain.

He'll definitely miss the England qualifier v. Croatia and possibly the Liverpool game. Guy can't catch a break.
 
I dont feel too bad for him. Since the day he set foot in newcastle all he has done is care about england. I like a guy that cares about his country and national team, but at some point you have to care about the guy paying you the big bucks.
 
yeah, is it bad i'm happy he's out?

it's my inexpert opinion that we play better soccer without him on the pitch. ewing theory.
 
apparently they were chanting "you don't know what you're doing" to sam today. ouch. also chanting "big sam for england." heh. **** country for team, right. kind of the bizarro owen.

its one thing to lose to a good side like liverpool. almost expected. but to not be even remotely competitive? pains the heart.
 
i'm done with sam. before now, i had some hope for the man. i think it has become obvious that he's lost the team and he's lost the fans.

god knows what's going to happen away at blackburn, not because its blackburn, but because sam's ******* clenches up when he so much as takes a few steps outside of st james, and i'm frightened as hell thinking of what arsenal is going to do to us at st james.
 
just ended a 3-1 loss at blackburn

tied at half

Martins scores the first goal a few minutes into the second half

it all goes to **** from there

blackburn ties the game within 7 minutes and scoes two more later

this team is mentally weak, they are complacent with a one goal lead and give up when they are down, its like they try to find a reason not to give full effort

I know a lot of people are down on big sam and I am one of them but Jesus, these are professionals, show a little heart

rant over
 
Man. Newcastle United 2007-2008 = absolute disaster. Not one really good win (well one, if you count the one against an equally woefull Tottenham club). Fat Sam seems to thrive better with a Bolton which simply hunkers in their own box playing defense and kicking the **** out of their opponents. FS seems to not know how to manage and get the best out of better players. Tough going. I always liked watching Alan Shearer score great goals.
 
after that disaster against blackburn, i watched some of arsenal. i cried into my pint and left, thinking that surely big sam fines his team for good midfield passing.

i will say this: that effort was better than any other i've seen this season from this team. i'm still not sure why geremi is on the team, much else captain. i'm still not sure why smith sees the field, unless sam thinks that table points come from bookings. and his substitutions are still like peering into and trying to understand the thought process of a schizophrenic.

wednesday against arsenal should be a bloodletting. after that, i'm sure the pressure will be on sam big time

nevertheless, i felt that this line up was one of his most lucid out of the past 10. perhaps its because martins actually started (hey, sam - he scored a goal! ******* play him!) and because the team came out with some semblance of attacking soccer.
 
No bloodletting today. Newcastle had a pretty good showing. It could have gone downhill fast after Adebayor scored in the 4th minute for Arsenal. To Newcastle's credit, they didn't give up. Good comeback to score in the 60th minute.

I wish Arsenal would have left the northeast with 3 points to hold Man. United at bay, but a point is a point.
 
I am pretty surprised. I didnt see the game but I did read that big sam was accused of having the players dig in on D and play physical. Of course big sam denied it. Either way, Im happy to have a point.
 
Arsenal's banged up, but they played one of the worst games I've seen them play in some time. Adebayor had a moment of brilliance in the first 4 minutes, then it was all Newcastle the rest of the way.

They could have easily won 3-1. Big Sam knows how to nick a point from l'Arse; he did it pretty consistently with Bolton.
 
nevermind that newcastle just got jobbed out of a point and chelsea gifted two points from an inexplicably inattentive linesman.

i'm trying to figure out a team that struggles with derby and wigan and then plays worthy of a draw with aresenal and chelsea. i'm trying to figure out a team with a rotating captaincy.

i'm trying to figure out what the **** sam is trying to do. how can he coach this team up to play the big boys and struggle with the **** of the league?

i think i know why. he's an underdog coach. that's why he was so successful with bolton. he can motivate a clearly outclassed team to compete with superior talent. he can't however, seem to pick line-ups or manage his team to compete with equal or shittier competition.

it's frustrating.

i'm also trying to firgure out what's going on with obafemi martins. i understand he's frustrated. i understand that sam has **** all over him all year despite his being our leading goal scorer. i've been his leading supporter on this board and a few others.

but after watching him quit on a play when a call didn't go his way (a call that SHOULDN'T have gone his way) when the ball was still very live and very in play - well, i actually applauded when sam subbed ******* useless michael owen for him.

that's a first. oba blew a chance in the first half trying to get his better (left foot). that i can forgive. he alsmost assisted a brilliant goal that was well defended by the blues.

but when he threw his hands up and basically quit in the middle of a live play, i was done with him, at least for the game. and apparently sam was in agreement.

martins, i know you've gotten the shaft from sam. but when on the pitch, ******* play like you care.

frustrating game all around. should've gotten a point at stamford, got screwed by the officials in a clearly offside instance, and saw the team play like they gave a **** for the first time since the arsenal game.

the only positive i can take away is that the game might have either fired up the players or gotten the coach fired.
 
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