Have we improved?

Think Sutton hit the nail on the head. Any club success is 99% based on having a strong manager in place, the manager is quite simply the single most important employee at any club as it has the most influence on success. Players he picks, how he trains and motivates them, tactics, signings etc... it goes on and on and when you look at the success forest fans enjoyed albeit 20+ years ago large amounts of fans still remember those days like it was yesterday so it makes it harder to stomach when we perform so pitifully as we did for so many years under the likes of Megson, CC, Platt etc. Teams like Blackpool, Barnsley, Wigan, Watford with far smaller resources and fanbases than us have enjoyed Premiership stints in our absence which was all acheived under highly motivated and tactically aware teams and managers. Thats why getting Billy back makes so much sense as he's a proven motivator and players want to play for him and out of all the managers we've had since Frank Clark he has been the only one who proved himself up to the job as NFFC is currently one of the toughest jobs to be successful in outside the EPL!!

Caniggia, I think your judgement of our current back four is a bit harsh. Since Boxing Day yes they have been dire, but before that I thought they were OK (with Halford at LB). I am looking forward to seeing how well they play when Billy has had a few weeks to sort them out and organise them

How perch is playing in the PL I do not know. he was pretty much awful for us and cost us the Playoff game single handed vs Blackpool!

Red,

So they've been dire for a month and ok before that? That's not really good enough though is it? Collins is a decent CB but is very one dimensional. I think we should give Ayala a longer run in the side. How you can pick Ward ahead of Wes Morgan in your team above baffles me. Morgan had his critics but he is one of the best CBs in the division. Halford does a job at LB but he only looks ok because the alternative - Harding - is so bad. I like the look of Jara although he was a bit dodgy on Sat. I don't massively rate Ward although he's just a carbon copy of Collins really.

SBD,
Perch isn't that bad. He wouldn't be playing for Newcastle if he was. He was never spectacular for us but again, often played out of position. He was brilliant in the final game of League One in a defensive midfield role against Yeovil. He was also quite a good CB. But I always thought he was poor at RB.

Perch was one of my favourite players when he was here. Worked hard, filled in adequately out of position, played pretty calmly. I'd take him now.

Perch was brutal, how anyone can think differently is beyond me. He was signed by Nukey brown Ale coz of CC who was Chris Hughton's Assistant. He now finds himself getting some game time coz of an injury crisis but he's a total liability and has had plenty of stick from NUFC fans. Too weak physically to play central in midfield or defence, headless chicken type player who single handedly imploded our chances against Blackpool as has already been pointed out. To his credit he'll play anywhere and try his best but I'd suggest his best and only role is as right back, his stint as left back for Forest was depressingly bad and every team knew it and targetted him as Blackppol did when they destroyed us in the second leg of the play offs!!!

I seriously doubt you have ever seen him play then Len apart from the Blackpool game when we was terrible. He's been picked ahead of Tiote for the CM slot recently and is well liked by Newcastle fans from what I can tell. RB was his worst position not best. I've never rated him that highly but he's nowhere near as bad as you make out.

He was a centre mid who constantly got played out of position, but still did a pretty good job.

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