Diabolical tactics

[fowlen]

Well I woke up at 2am here in Sydney to watch the game, and except for the first half hour I was very unimpressed at our tactics.

It was clear that pace was the key to success, and in the second half I could not understand how certain players stayed on.

Rafa does not often get it wrong, but he did yesterday.
Sissoko and Kuyt were just awful, and sissoko was probably the poorest player on the field.....I think we would have won, if they were subbed early into the second half.

Besides that i was just disappointed with the effort, but hopefully we'll come back with a good few results!

[Howard_lfc]

Well I woke up at 2am here in Sydney to watch the game, and except for the first half hour I was very unimpressed at our tactics.

It was clear that pace was the key to success, and in the second half I could not understand how certain players stayed on.

Rafa does not often get it wrong, but he did yesterday.
Sissoko and Kuyt were just awful, and sissoko was probably the poorest player on the field.....I think we would have won, if they were subbed early into the second half.

Besides that i was just disappointed with the effort, but hopefully we'll come back with a good few results!

I don't think we're mentally strong enough, or as resilient as we should be.

[Parm]

I don't think we're mentally strong enough, or as resilient as we should be.

think we werent clinical enough, plus martins goal was from a freak error and Taylor went down a bit to easy for the pen.

[Marshy]

Until our squad develops a backbone away from home we'll continue to be abysmal away from home. A lot of it is in the mind and it kills me to say it - the mancs go away from home with the opposite attitude to us without any fear or caution whatsoever.

[saj]

Nothing wrong with the tactics, it was just a freak game. Any tactics were thrown out of the window because of the conditions. Missed Alonso badly - the passing was wayward and this was obviously not helped by the conditions. We had no one that could retain the ball as well as Xabi. Zenden was poor throughout- didn't anything worthy of note the whole game - he didn't put any effort in, didn't tackle, didn't attack. We need to get rid of players such as him if we are to be serious title challengers next season.

[Howard_lfc]

Until our squad develops a backbone away from home we'll continue to be abysmal away from home. A lot of it is in the mind and it kills me to say it - the mancs go away from home with the opposite attitude to us without any fear or caution whatsoever.

Agree with that. We have the potential to lose anywhere away from home.
We lack leadership and agression and we accept defeat far too readily.

[Welhung]

the team didnt look as though they wanted to win and Rafa made no tactical changes that even looked as though it would improve our "****eness".

why the hell start the game with 2 players out from injury for ages and then make subs with 2 players with NO EPL experience. A ****in suicide mission if you ask me. We had no intention of picking up 3 points!

Momo was ****E! yet he stayed on???? Even when he is 100% again we need to start games with Gerrard and Alonso. Momo should be used intelligently and be allowed to develop further. And not be relied on so heavily.

On another note. I reckon that Obafemi is lookin to be quite a shrewd bit of business for the BArcodes (shock horror!)

[John_Gotti]

the team didnt look as though they wanted to win and Rafa made no tactical changes that even looked as though it would improve our "****eness".

why the hell start the game with 2 players out from injury for ages and then make subs with 2 players with NO EPL experience. A ****in suicide mission if you ask me. We had no intention of picking up 3 points!

Momo was ****E! yet he stayed on???? Even when he is 100% again we need to start games with Gerrard and Alonso. Momo should be used intelligently and be allowed to develop further. And not be relied on so heavily.

On another note. I reckon that Obafemi is lookin to be quite a shrewd bit of business for the BArcodes (shock horror!)

Alonso was suspended. Martins is Cisse reincarnated.

[desertscouser]

Alonso was suspended. Martins is Cisse reincarnated.

I disagree re Martins. He's twice the player Cisse is. He has pace, aggression and can finish. He's too good to play for Newcastle.

[Guest]

I disagree re Martins. He's twice the player Cisse is. He has pace, aggression and can finish. He's too good to play for Newcastle.

He certainly is better technically than Cisse but finishing wise I ain't sure.

[tomasjj]

Alonso was suspended. Martins is Cisse reincarnated.

Oh no.
Martins is a much better player.
Strong, works harder, has better awareness and link up play.

[Depth_Charge]

Matters feck all about tactics if you don't put gilt edged opportunities away. Matches like this point to the fact that despite having options up front what we need is a really clinical finisher - someone who can poke a ball into a practically empty net would be nice. There have been numerous occasions this year where we should have been 1 or 2 up and we end up drawing a blank. At some point you end up paying the price.

Newcastle didn't have a shot to trouble Reina and they win 2-1 - go figure that one out...

[cobain]

Well I woke up at 2am here in Sydney to watch the game, and except for the first half hour I was very unimpressed at our tactics.

It was clear that pace was the key to success, and in the second half I could not understand how certain players stayed on.

Rafa does not often get it wrong, but he did yesterday.
Sissoko and Kuyt were just awful, and sissoko was probably the poorest player on the field.....I think we would have won, if they were subbed early into the second half.

Besides that i was just disappointed with the effort, but hopefully we'll come back with a good few results!

I'm not sure if Sissoko was the worst player on the pitch, but obviously you've totally forgot about Zenden

[Jazzmaster]

You can talk about tactics, conditions, anything at all, but the fact remains that we had ample opportunity to win that game comfortably but did not take our chances. I have defended Bellamy on many occasions up to now but I think that his lack of composure in front of goal cost us the match on Saturday. Harsh, but fair I feel.