Attacking Intent

[Ihaters]

For me the real evaluation of our team begins from the next game onwards.

I agree, its fine blowing our tops but to be fair, despite our start we move to 8th if we win our game in hand and we have played everyone aiming at the top.
Now its time to start picking up the points to get us moving upwards. Best place to start is Newcastle who will finish pretty close to us this season, could be a big 3 points come the end. I am still very optomistic about this team.

 

[Neiler]

Newcastle will get badly found out and soon mate!

 

[billycopper]

Newcastle will get badly found out and soon mate!

I would expect them to drop away, as they're relying on a handful of players and don't have much strength in depth, but the job that Pardew has done, despite having to sell Carroll, Nolan, Barton and Enrique (and only having a modest amount to reinvest), flies in the face of Moyes's argument that you need money to be able to compete.

 

[Rugby Toffee]

I think in the long term money does make the difference. Newcastle's challenge will be short -lived and will drift to mid table. The real challenge is all season and without the funds to strenghten , injuries etc will take their toll.
But what do I know.

 

[Arteta10]

I don't think it's down to not getting enough players into the box. That's all we tend to do, and our main supply route is that angled cross into the box from left or right. It's predictable and easy to defend against. Good teams tend to get around there man in possession and give him angles, and they slowly work there way up the pitch, exploring different avenues. Our midfielders tend to lay the ball off and run towards the box, completely taking themselves out of the game. We might have two players active in 'linking up' and the rest are either static or beyond the play, waiting for that inevitable cross into the box.

We don't have a consistent footballing philosophy and we now lack players intelligent footballers like Arteta and Pienaar who have masqued our problems in the past. The only thing I could recommend to Moyes is to involve the creative players he has at his disposal (Drenthe, Osman, Barkley, that's about it, really) and get them on the pitch as much as possible.

THIS EXACTLY! We dont seem to have any game plan any more and it shows when the players are out on the pitch. We dont have the intelligent players to craft an opportunity when teams sit back and it seems that Moyes doesnt drill a philosophy into the players to give them a specific way of breaking teams down