Bit far in the distant to start predicting line ups for this game, especially as there are international games to come and thus we run the risk of losing more players however...

With Anelka out and surely Hiddink seeing sense and not starting with Belletti again we should see one of Quaresma, Malouda or Kalou start against the Geordies. Admittedly, as wingers or strikers, none of them fill me with great excitement or expectation however all give me more hope than starting Belletti in an advanced position does.

I do think there is something of the Emperor's New Clothes about Quaresma. He seems to be able to come off the bench, put in one good cross, then disappear and yet at the final whistle he is praised for his contribution. However we are unlikely to get more than that out of Malouda either! I would pick Stoch however I know that is not going to happen.

I doubt the rest of the team wil change much - just maybe Mikel will be back in contention and posibly Di Santo may get a place on the bench.

Bit far in the distant to start predicting line ups for this game, especially as there are international games to come and thus we run the risk of losing more players however...

With Anelka out and surely Hiddink seeing sense and not starting with Belletti again we should see one of Quaresma, Malouda or Kalou start against the Geordies. Admittedly, as wingers or strikers, none of them fill me with great excitement or expectation however all give me more hope than starting Belletti in an advanced position does.

I do think there is something of the Emperor's New Clothes about Quaresma. He seems to be able to come off the bench, put in one good cross, then disappear and yet at the final whistle he is praised for his contribution. However we are unlikely to get more than that out of Malouda either! I would pick Stoch however I know that is not going to happen.

I doubt the rest of the team wil change much - just maybe Mikel will be back in contention and posibly Di Santo may get a place on the bench.

I know what you mean about Quaresma Loz, but that one cross you talking is normally an absoulte peach and results in a massive scoring chance for us. He is worth playing just for that moment, certainly ahead of Malouda who as you say continues to offer nothing at all.

Ive lost a bit of faith in Mikel but i would pick him ahead of our German powerhouse for this one. But id pick Darren Wood ahead of our German powerhouse at the moment....

Ive lost a bit of faith in Mikel but i would pick him ahead of our German powerhouse for this one. But id pick Darren Wood ahead of our German powerhouse at the moment....

:D Quality!

Funnily enough earlier today when I was talking to the person I mentioned in Geezer's 'Road Signs' thread ( http://www.theshedend.com/index.php?showtopic=10866&hl= ) he had the cheek to ask if I had supported us before we were successful.

I said 'Put it this way, I have seen Sharon Wood playing for us' - he accepted that as ample evidence.

Funnily enough earlier today when I was talking to the person I mentioned in Geezer's 'Road Signs' thread ( http://www.theshedend.com/index.php?showtopic=10866&hl= ) he had the cheek to ask if I had supported us before we were successful.

I said 'Put it this way, I have seen Sharon Wood playing for us' - he accepted that as ample evidence.

Daz was slightly better than Graham Wilkins in my opinion. It took me years to recover after witnessing his performance in a 6-2 loss away at Man.City in 1979(ish)

Daz was slightly better than Graham Wilkins in my opinion. It took me years to recover after witnessing his performance in a 6-2 loss away at Man.City in 1979(ish)

That is on a par with saying Buckfast is slightly better than Thunderbird fortified wine!

I'd love to see Stoch given a chance, but under Hiddink so far we've not really seen any of the youngsters. Di Santo, what amount of playing time has he had since Hiddink came in? I know Stoch hasn't had any! But if he's really here to just stop the bleeding and make sure we get the CL spot, then I can't blame him...assuming once we get there he lets some of the kids play

Yeah, it seems Hiddink is here not to build the future, but to get results and finish the season as good as possible.

No youngsters policy

Someone has told me Newcastle have the worst defence in the league (WestWay was it you?), so let`s hope that should works.

After internationals all teams would be slightly off the form and off the pace. It`s a chance for Aston Villa for keep the race for 4th CL spot (though, they`ve already failed) using this circumstances.

Manure would have 3 suspended players (Vidic, Scholes, Rooney) and few key one injured (Berbatov). So I think they could fail to beat Villa, but we have another in-form rival now - Liverpool. Few teams have opportunities to take them off the pace and these teams are Arsenal and We (in CL).

So I think it`s still open and everything could happen, we still have chances......

I find it odd that everyone is giving Hiddink the benefit of the doubt on the playing youngsters side of things, when Scolari only gave stoch 10 or 15 minutes here and there everyone slated him and when I said we should cut him some slack because he is trying to get the most from the team in fear for his Job and obviously will show faith in seasoned proffesionals before young prospects I was shot down.

People said if he can't see that Stoch is better than Malouda then he is clueless, Now Hiddink has not given a sniff to the youngsters bar an early taster for Mancienne unyet he is obviously doing whats best for the team..

I think Stoch proved he is worth at least bringing on late in the game but more than that he proved he is a better winger than Belletti as has Quaresma unyet still the boards are fairly quiet towards Hiddinks obvious mistakes.

I think at this Club sometimes if your face fits means more than it should do.

I can understand Hiddink sticking to the usual suspects but being as Stoch did make a couple of game changing appearances under Scolari I would have thought he would have seen the Videos of the early games and at least given him the same sort of chances late on.

I think it's time to either play 4-4-2 and give Anelka a chance in a more comfortable position with a couple of wingers or it's time to play with one main striker and not push Anelka out wide, I know he has his toe injury and likely wont be availlable for the Newcastle game so we will likely see this with something like Drogba Kalou and Malouda so maybe that will be better than playing players out of position.

CHippy the main difference though , and most significvant one, is the results.

Scolari was criticised for not giving youngsters a chance when we were playing badly and failing to win games - the argument often being put by people being that there is no way the likes of Stoch could do worse and may well do better.

Hiddink, until the Spurs game, was unbeaten so the point about bringing in youngsters goes out of the window as he was manging to get results with the same players Scolari was failing to get results out of.

CHippy the main difference though , and most significvant one, is the results.

Scolari was criticised for not giving youngsters a chance when we were playing badly and failing to win games - the argument often being put by people being that there is no way the likes of Stoch could do worse and may well do better.

Hiddink, until the Spurs game, was unbeaten so the point about bringing in youngsters goes out of the window as he was manging to get results with the same players Scolari was failing to get results out of.

I understand that but Scolari never played a right back as a winger with three wingers on the bench and there were a lot of occasions where we won games well early on and people critisised he hadn't brought any youngsters on to give them experience.

It's not like we have been winning games well, we have been scraping 1-0 wins and trying out different players to try and get more control of games would be a reasonable plan, in my book fast tricky players like Stoch can do a lot to stop teams throwing players forward as they know he has the pace and skill to warrent keeping a close eye on...Belletti for one doesn't posess that and I would have thought Stoch was ideal in a game where Lennon was giving even Ashley Cole a hard time.

Hiddink did do that and if I recall there was no shortage of criticism for it.

I still think Stoch shoul;d get a chance, irrespective of whether that is playing for Scolari, Hididnk or the next man.

In the limited time he has got on the pitch he has looked better than Malouda and has done more than Quaresma does in his off the bench appearances.

If there has been critisism of that I have missed it and would imagine had Scolari done the same I could not have come on the site for a minute without seeing the critisism..

Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go at Hiddink although I don't think he is doing everything right, I always try to give Managers the benefit of the doubt on most things as they see more of the players than we do but obviously there are circumstances where I just can't understand the thinking and then I will say so (Belletti on the Wing) what I am saying is we seem to give more leeway to some Managers/Players than others.

The same applies to Drogba, in my reckoning Drogba has been an unsettling influence on this team for quite a time and although I think he is a very useful player when he's up for it and in form I still think he is a big part of the reason we lost the CL last year and a big part of why the whole team was so unmotivated at OT earlier this season..that game had a big bearing on us fading and them going on a good run and although it would be ridiculous to hold him responsible I do think he was a big factor,

Now thougfh as he has sworn alliegance to Chelsea again most are happy to forgive him and want him here next season...I hope he does well the rest of this but as I fear what will happen when he gets dropped a couple of times or subbed and the effect it will have on othere players I hope he is gone in the Summer.

I appreciate what he has done but I am sick of his attitude and can't fall for it again when he says his heart is at Chelsea.

It does again seem like to most his face fits and he can be forgiven everything but I am dreading his next mood swing.

I think one of the huge differences is: Scolari had all season to play who he wanted, and Hiddink has obviouly been brought in to test the waters and then get us the top 4. I think he is over cautious not to play yhe likes of stoch and a few others, but he is rather limited and will probably go for the "safe" option if he's only here for another month and a bit

I think we all felt with Scolari that something had to change, and so we wanted the youngsters brought in, especially after seeing what happened in the Stoke match. But with Hiddink, no change needs to be made yet, except the right wing which Stoch should probably be playing on. But like everyone is saying, he is here for the short term to get results and I don't think many managers would pick a youth teamer when their job is founded on securing a CL spot, we only have to look across the city to see that plan failing.

I think we all felt with Scolari that something had to change, and so we wanted the youngsters brought in, especially after seeing what happened in the Stoke match. But with Hiddink, no change needs to be made yet, except the right wing which Stoch should probably be playing on. But like everyone is saying, he is here for the short term to get results and I don't think many managers would pick a youth teamer when their job is founded on securing a CL spot, we only have to look across the city to see that plan failing.

Precisely my argument when Scolari was slated for not utilising the youngsters more...was his Job not dependent on even higher stakes?

Precisely my argument when Scolari was slated for not utilising the youngsters more...was his Job not dependent on even higher stakes?

Thats very true, good point. I guess since Hiddink has had us playing much better since Scolari's departure, I trust him to play whoever he wants at this point. I would love for Stoch to get a starting spot, I don't think he is too much of a risk, especially when we are currently playing right backs over him.

shearer has been appointed interim manager at newcastle, and thats gonna make things difficult for us. their fans will be on a high and will make a hell of a lot of noise. teams normallly raise their game when a new gaffer arrives, but they have been playing badly of lf late so hopefully we can contain them for the first half hour then hit them. 2-0 chelsea.

Was just about to post the same thing dkw. This match just got a lot harder (although im still not 100% convinced it's not a April Fool's!)

Let's hope our players come through tonight unscathed, with good performances under their belts, as we will need to start this game well and shut their crowd up asap.

Edited April 1, 200917 yr by Tim

shearer has been appointed interim manager at newcastle, and thats gonna make things difficult for us. their fans will be on a high and will make a hell of a lot of noise. teams normallly raise their game when a new gaffer arrives, but they have been playing badly of lf late so hopefully we can contain them for the first half hour then hit them. 2-0 chelsea.

Spot on dkw.

Their players and their fans, (especially their fans), will be 1000% up for it. And, though they are still a poor team overall, it will make a difference. They will play above themselves. We just have to match it.

And seeing as they hate him up there, (and it looks it he is going to get the boot tomorrow), let's win it for Wisey.

Wisey just left the Barcodes.

http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsD...1609507,00.html

Shearer in, Wisey out all in the same week leading up to us playing them! You couldn't script this better. unfortunately, I think they are reading the script better than some of the Chelsea players. I hope Wisey comes in for a "team talk" and gets us up for it. You guys are right though, the Toon Army will be well up for Shearer and he won't want to let them down, so I think the place will be buzzing

Scott

A new manger always gives a struggling team a boost , with the Euro tie coming up and the international week we had , so I expect a tough game. Another grinding result for us, fortunately we wont have Shay Given in front of their goal, so it wont be a scoreless draw.

According to BBC,

Drogs and Bosingwa both out injured, when Alenka is fit.

Should we go 4-3-3 with Anelka upfront, Lamp-Essien-Ballack in the middle and Beletti at the RB? though Mancienne or Ivanovic is more interesting option for RB position.

And I know many of us should scream Stoch, Stoch!!! ;)

i hope we go up there and stuff em tomorrow, i would love it i would just love if we did