PUNCHLESS AND BROODY
By
Mickey Blue Eyes
Well, not too much to report about the pile of horse shit that was the Newcastle home game, except to say you'll certainly see the usual caravan of knob head, never-go-the-match knee-jerkers sit up in front of their keyboards and squeal like stuck pigs now that footy fate has stood on their tail again. It must be the only "enjoyment" these dick heads get in life. They constitute a sort of footy sewer back-up, the detritus of the new telecom age. You can bet you wouldn't have heard even a fart from the useless bastards if we had started the season well.......which is why you should take the piss out of them as often as you can. But matters will improve and that will be your opportunity to rub their noses in it. Then watch them disappear up their own arses again. The pattern never changes.
Still, we haven't started the season well despite obvious quality in the squad. In most games thus far we have played really well in patches without creating much in the penalty area. However, you couldn't even say that about Saturday's game. There was no saving grace. The display was as bad as any during the Moyesy tenure and I am willing to bet the paint on the dressing room walls was blistered because of it.
I think it basically boils down to the attitude of the players. They know they are good - well, most of them - and that they can knock it around well and look good while they're doing it. So there is a measure of over-confidence. If they aren't careful and determined enough it will sap their will completely. At present we have obvious deficiencies at centre back, wide right mid, and up front. All the superior technique in the world cannot disguise this. Losing Jack Rodwell for three months (to yet another Aston Villa "tackle") was bad enough. Losing Tim Cahill too on Saturday was a grievous additional blow, but served to illustrate just how much he contributes to overall teamwork; without him midfield was almost non-existent. Marouane Fellaini is still not fully up to the mark and John Heitinga patently isn't a midfield player. This left only Mikky Arteta and Steven Pienaar to combat a midfield packed with the kind of opposing players and "tactics" you can see in the Sunday League in Jericho Lane every weekend. Mikky is still immediate post-marriage, a notorious period for pro footy players' motivation. So we were left with only Steven Pienaar. Naturally we were outgunned. But we still shouldn't lose to a side like Newcastle, though they clearly deserved to win this one. We just didn't turn up.
So now we have dropped thirteen invaluable points. That will likely prove decisive for European qualification at the end of the season. If that doesn't concentrate everybody's mind then nothing will. The sooner they get focussed the better. Now is not the time for navel-gazing.
