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ye great ratings wazim
thought simpson was very strong been the difference lately and in my opinion was motm

Simpson certainly has done well since his return and today was probably his best game thus far. To keep a clean sheet at the Emirates is quite an achievement and credit must go to the team and the coaching staff.



Wasim's Sport Blog

Toon4life

Simpson, Williamson, and Tiote are showing that you can bargain basement shop and find top-class talent. Ashley and Hughton have the right model right now.

a great day, great showing, great effort all round.

but how shola is the fall guy yet again i dont know. ranger can still barely stay on his feet when no-one is even trying to tackle him, but his ten minutes and three touches get him a higher rating than shola?

i just dont get it.

i do like the look of us with simpson instead of perch. makes a real difference to the balance of our play, as he comes out to join with barton the way enrqieu joins with jonas. helps the whole team, when you can build from both sides

Quote:

lostmekeys
a great day, great showing, great effort all round.
but how shola is the fall guy yet again i dont know. ranger can still barely stay on his feet when no-one is even trying to tackle him, but his ten minutes and three touches get him a higher rating than shola?

i just dont get it.

i do like the look of us with simpson instead of perch. makes a real difference to the balance of our play, as he comes out to join with barton the way enrqieu joins with jonas. helps the whole team, when you can build from both sides

I agree with you on Ranger/Ameobi. Shola got a bit lazy at times in the second half, but Ranger didn't do enough to outshine Shola. Sure Ranger drew a red card, but it had no impact on the game.

Bringing Ranger on for Shola was the right move, as he can hold the ball better than Ameobi and has more pace, but Shola deserves a lot of praise for this match. He was playing in the hole more than up top, and he put in some good defensive work that got the ball to Tiote who could get us out of trouble.

Ameobi could have done more with his air shot and although he did not have a great day, he did his job and I felt 6.5 was fair. As for Ranger, he did exceptionally well to win the ball and get in front of Koscielny before running towards goal which led to the sending off. All in all, it was a team effort though and that is what I'm most chuffed about.



Wasim's Sport Blog

Toon4life

i think today we played with the same players as last week but a subtley changed formation. shola wasnt playing centre forward, he was working in front of our deep-lying midfield helping to stem the very talented arsenal attack from further up the pitch. this doesnt lend itself to dashing runs into the box, so if shola had caught your eye more it would probably been in a defeat, as he would have had to leave his temporary position to do more of the recognised duties his usual position calls for.
young ranger will come good, but he was like a border collie on the pitch today, running after the ball but not really threatening do to any damage. his time is not here yet.


another tactical victory for the ever more impressive mr hughton, though the margins were small as arsenal did hot the woodwork twice, as noted elsewhere.

i just cant standard his work rate i find it insulting to see him walking around the pitch he looks lazy but can finish....so why is he sitting in the middle of the park when we have the ball on the wing with nobody in the box

i just feel that ranger if given the same role would make the effort to get up there aswell as defend

as i tried to explain daraghl, shola (or, the odd time when shola was already advanced, carroll) had to sit in to prepare the first line of defence. it was a mature display by the team, sticking to the game plan all day long. we coudlnt go to arsenal and throw everyone up front, but by using players who were ready to attack as chasing mids closing space down, we were able to limit arsenal to just two shots on target in a home match. very few teams will do this, and shola deserves credit for his part in it. he also showed the usual smart footwork, it may appear clumsy but he is very effective at deferring a tackler, moving the ball beyond the guys reach. i imagine in his own way he is one of the most frustrating opponents for a defender.

this isnt me making a case for shola as man of the match, but i'm rejecting the idea that he played a smaller part in our victory than nile ranger, or all but a few of the rest of the team. and hoping he will again on wednesday.

Sky names Williamson and Tiote to TotW.

[www.skysports.com]

They gave both lads a 9/10 score and MotM to Williamson.

Shola had a great game today, put a good shift in.

I can't really pick a man of the match, they all did well, suppose it goes to Carroll for getting the goal.

A word on Coloccini - what a player. Does so many small things and is always calm, sheer class.


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I certainly am not denying that Ameobi contributed to the victory for he put in a good shift. I do however think that Ranger came on and in his own way had an impact and so for the time he was on for I felt a 7 was necessary.

I do agree with you on the fact that Hughton is becoming ever more impressive as a manager Let's hope we can push on from here and continue to build on this good run.

As for Coloccini, the man is a class act and had he been at a top club playing the way he is now, he'd have gotten many more plaudits than he is currently.



Wasim's Sport Blog

Toon4life

u picked a fall guy wasim.

and you picked one i cant agree with, simple as.

he's one of those players who needs to be twice as good as anyone else to be given a fair appraisal. thats not even aimed at you, as i think its common for fans to treat this player harshly when he does perform, however rare that may have been over the years.

i hope he gets another two goals next time out, so he can avoid being the lowest score, including those who spent mere minutes on the pitch and barely touched the ball!

Quote:

lostmekeys
u picked a fall guy wasim.
and you picked one i cant agree with, simple as.

he's one of those players who needs to be twice as good as anyone else to be given a fair appraisal. thats not even aimed at you, as i think its common for fans to treat this player harshly when he does perform, however rare that may have been over the years.

i hope he gets another two goals next time out, so he can avoid being the lowest score, including those who spent mere minutes on the pitch and barely touched the ball!

While I agree with you that Shola deserved a better rating (a 7 in line with Nolan) while Ranger was a 6 at best, I'm not sure that calling him a "fall guy" in this instance is fair. Jonas got a lower score, and Wasim even said, "He worked hard for the team and it's a side of his game which was questioned in previous seasons but shouldn't be judging by his recent performances." Wasim's giving him credit, just not as much as you, I, an probably a few others feel he deserved. But it's not like these ratings are definitive by any means. Perhaps you're just looking to pick a fight with someone other than Tunyc for once?

a fight? no.

surely the point of giving ratings is to invite comment not just on the players but on the ratings they are given. my wider point is that shola doesnt often get the due credit he deserves, its a subject we have turned to regularly on this board, and right now is the time to make the point - shola is playing his best football ever.
i have often thought that the shola ameobi who manages to start a dozen games in a row would be a real handful and a revelation. injuries and expensive signings have both done a lot more to stop him managing such a run of games than his own actual performances, which are often overlooked in terms of effectiveness, often because the observer is stuck on aesthetics or preconceptions - he has to be very good simply to avoid being poor.

have a look around, other forums and media outlets are happy to point out the importance of shola to this win and this run of good team showings, and even on this very thread the vote belongs to shola (so far).

so i'm not picking a fight, rather i'm defending a slight, however small the intention was by wasim to criticise.

it would be a bit dull if we all agreed on everything, but to put your own ratings up, which are read by an awful lot of people, invites comment. this wont always be positive, and i doubt wasim would expect it to be.

and i expect tunyc to be on here saying shola is every bit as good as i always said he was, he always agrees with me sooner or later, dontcha mate?!

Quote:

lostmekeys
and i expect tunyc to be on here saying shola is every bit as good as i always said he was, he always agrees with me sooner or later, dontcha mate?!

But how does Shola compare to Martins and Bellamy?



Shola is for Newcaslte what Garreth Bale is for Tottenham. When things are going well, Shola gets praise. When things go to hell, Shola gets the blame. Every good team has to have one guy who can never just be decent for the day (Berbatov, Malouda, Heskey, Walcott, notice Sunderland doesn't have one). Shola's had that job for 5 years now, and frankly it suits him. When he wants to play, he's borderline undefendable. When he doesn't, his body language shows it and it leads to quick criticism. Most of the time it's overly harsh, but it's easy to see why it comes out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:11:07:22:56:08 by waffles.

much much much ... taller

I have to agree with LMK re Shola. He may have been a little quieter in the second but gave us a very disciplined performance in a great team win. More than the ranger score, I would argue that Shola shouldnt have got the same as Jonas who was the poorest for us on the pitch (not complaining though).

Agree with the Simpson comments. He brings confidence at right back which we have lacked. Not giving Perch any excuses but I suppose Barton wasnt playing in front of him earlier in the season and he must be calming influence. He also Barton rarely gives the ball away especially compared to Routledge.

Still some good scores though Wasim.

I'm not touching this one, guys. I've worn myself out arguing with pub league refs this weekend-two yellows in two games. And I didn't see the game except highlights.

HOWAY THE LADS!

it is no coincidence that our performances have improved since shola has been in the starting line up!

as has been said in previous posts we were not playing with 2 strikers as such yesterday, we were playing 2 strikers but one was always dropping off and playing as a 5th midfielder, ball goes up the wing carroll gets up into the box shola drops deeper to start the defense and pick up clearances and carroll did the same if shola went up top.

Not only this but shola makes a lot of clever runs to draw defenders away making room for other players, he does a lot of things that go unnoticed because they aren't around the ball so the camera doesn't necesarrily pick them up.

He is an integral part of our attack and to give him a lower rating that Ranger is just absurd

im sorry but calling ameobi lazy & doubting his workrate is laughable!

have you not been watching the last few games? ameobi has been a class act thus far & brings the best out of carroll

Just got a chance to check the forum after a busy day, and there are some interesting comments I must say.

As for the whole Ameobi and Ranger debate, they both played there part in the win. I am certainly not denying what Ameobi brings to the team and his work rate has been excellent. I do agree that it is by no means a coincidence that our performances have picked up with him in the team. I suppose what made me give Ranger the 7 was the fact that he came on and got Koscielny sent off through sheer strength and pace despite only being on the field for few minutes.

Just something else I was thinking about earlier, it's amazing to think that we've beaten both Arsenal and Chelsea (albeit in the cup) away from home, something that pre relegation hardly happened and it just shows that with hard work, organisation, stability and team spirit so much can be achieved. Well done to the club, it's been a good few weeks (if not longer) being a Newcastle United fan.



Wasim's Sport Blog

Toon4life

re: simpson vs perch

waffles linked the guardian chalk boards [www.guardian.co.uk] a few weeks ago, and i've been enjoying them since. try comparing the number and position of passes by perch or simpson in the various games each has played. perch simply did so much less with the ball, whereas simpson mirrors the contribution of enrique, making for a much more balanced platform.
in fact, enrique is beginning to see (a bit) less of the ball, as we share the play around, meaning we are less predictable in that all of our play was coming down one side when perch was playing.

Quote:

ash4nufc
im sorry but calling ameobi lazy & doubting his workrate is laughable!
have you not been watching the last few games? ameobi has been a class act thus far & brings the best out of carroll

Well fckn said mate!! Wondering if i'm watching the same game as some others on here. Shola was excellent yesterday. How many times did he chase a ball down the flank, look up an find no support in the middle, and turn, hold it up, before feeding it back in order to keep possession. His hold up play and passing was superb! He put alot of work in that, for some, may not have appeared to result in much, but, for me, he maintained the level of last week. Hope he keeps his place for wednesday.

I've got to agree with that. Simpson has given us good balance and his quickly established himself as our first choice right back. I checked out that link as well and it's quite interesting. Will have a more detailed look at it when I've got some more time but thanks for putting that up.



Wasim's Sport Blog

Toon4life

its great fun wasim, or it is when we win and you want to look again in as much detail as possible!

example, tiote made 44/45 passes yesterday, an outstanding display of keeping possession in a crowded midfield. on this site you can actually see where each pass was to/from on the pitch, which in the case of the fullbacks i mentioned earlier tells a story in itself. i may not have sold it very well here but its certainly worth a look

Didn't see the whole game, heard that shoal was limping a little when he came off, anyone?

From everything that I have seen the whole team done well!

One of my favorite chalkboard stats to look up is the tackling one. For example, Barton had 4 successful tackles (out of 6) which is fantastic. More impressive is that 3 of them came at the corner of the 18-yard box. Shola had 3 successful tackles in the center circle. He also had 2 interceptions in that area.


LMK, great observation on how Simpson's production seems to matching Enrique's (21 Open play passes to Enrique's 23). Interestingly, Simpson put more balls down the touch line, but was more inclined to let Barton cross. Enrique and Jonas usually split the crosses from the Left about 50/50.

Those chalkboards are the s.hit. Noticed Simpson's far more efficient tackling because of them. Perch's last league start he was 4/8, Simpson's first was 6/6 if memory serves.

heard Danny Simpson might get a suprise England call up?!?

Read that too, but I doubt it. He's just back from injury so I'd prefer he stay away in any case. Finally, he'd be cover at RB and unlikely to actually get playing time-just get more opportunities to get injured in training.

fair shout, would be good to see a couple of Newcastle players getting some good media though! ha!

I read that too. He's form has been good thus far and England do lack a good right back at the moment so it wouldn't surprise me if he got a call up. I do think Barton and Carroll deserve to make the next squad and perhaps even Nolan, although I doubt they'll go for him.



Wasim's Sport Blog

Toon4life

breathtaking.

there is no way simpson barton or nolan is getting that call. none.

Gotta agree with lmk. Not that it makes sense. The FA is more interested in image than winning and the squad is essentially a clique that is rarely broken.

Big part of why I can't be bothered to care about England.

Yeah, agree lmk, can't see Barton(especially now!), Nolan or Simpson.

Surely Big Andy does though!!