The College Dropout

He’s still learning the role. His short range passing and moving often leaves a lot to be desired. But at times he’ll drive forward welll and play a good progressive pass. Because he’s still new to the position I hope that side of his game can really improve. Physically he’s too much for a lot of midfielders. He even did a good job of dominating Wolves class players through being too much for them.

I don’t think his transition play is good enough to pay that 8 role. And he’s not going to get his foot on the ball and control it. His role today is the best he can do for the team as a starter imo.

Yeh it was half hearted. If Willock is to be a good player for us he has to be a Lionheart 99% of the time. That wasn’t good enough. He was also too deep initially. Thats Particularly poor because it’s Neves. Like the one player in their team you should close down properly on the edge of the area it’s him. Willock should know that.

One thing the boys in midfield did well is make it a physical game for large stretches. Then we got down and played. Neves and co. obviously has their moments and showed their class at times. But they should be disappointed that they were outfought a lot of the time by Joelinton and the boys. And thus outplayed. We didn’t bypass midfield. We were quicker and stronger for large parts and played around them.

Let himself down with that weak attempt at a block. In general did Joe Willock stuff. Which is decent physicality when the game is end to end but poor on the ball.

A few injuries and the lack of quality in midfield and attack is stark. need at least 1 more quality player in for those areas of the pitch.

Aye.

Hardly gifting a goal. but he was v. poor in that moment.

Aye the lads have done well to make it a physical game in midfield. But the quality has paid now.

"Their interest in Pedro has all but ended, though. Watford rebuffed Newcastle’s improved bid of £25million, plus £5million in potential add-ons last weekend. Newcastle saw it as essentially a take-it-or-leave offer and reignited talks with Sociedad for Isak — essentially conducting parallel negotiations."

Eh? Agenda against me aside. The Athletic article says our Chairman was at the City game and after that game he decided to release additional funds so we can get our primary attacking target that we previously deemed too expensive. Within days he's ours. I'm not making anything up here or adding anything to a supposed agenda. It's literally what's being reported in the media. Did you bother to read the article?

I don't think it does. I think we always knew we had the funds to do whatever we want. But the club had a budget and a strategy. And they decided to change approach when the Chairman saw a fabulous game that exposed out fragility upfront

Athletic article suggests the deal was done in a matter of days after 3-3. I am posting this as a bit of a "I told you so". https://theathletic.com/3540281/2022/08/26/alexander-isak-newcastle-transfer-record/ " It was a player Newcastle had initially thought was beyond them given Real Sociedad’s exorbitant demands. But, following the pulsating 3-3 draw with Manchester City, Newcastle’s decision-makers were present on Tyneside. Alongside the head coach at St James’ Park were the sporting director Dan Ashworth, the head of recruitment Steve Nickson, the new CEO Darren Eales, Eddie’s nephew and head of technical scouting Andy Howe and, most significantly, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s chairman and governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Having witnessed Callum Wilson finish the game early because of yet another injury, Isak was identified as the solution to the club’s attacking shortcomings and sources indicate that greater funds were made available. The six-year deal for Isak was concluded at a rapid pace, despite months of declared interest previously leading to minimal progress. Ashworth is believed to have re-engaged with Sociedad late on Monday evening, with an offer thought to be lower than one tentatively proposed last month. Jokin Aperribay, Sociedad’s president, admitted on Movistar TV that, “On Sunday, we did not expect Isak to leave,” but the player’s representatives informed the club 24 hours later of the forward’s desire to join Newcastle. Though Newcastle’s first bid was rejected immediately, it reopened lines of communication and, to show they were serious about reaching an agreement this time, by Tuesday Ashworth was in the Basque country, accompanied by Nickson. Only a handful of people around the club knew a delegation had flown out to hold in-person discussions for Isak, with most still assuming Watford’s Pedro was the top target. The transfer advanced so quickly that Isak trained with Sociedad on Wednesday and his team-mates were unaware of his impending departure. Mikel Merino, the former Newcastle midfielder, was informed of Isak’s exit while live on Spanish radio. More crucial was Al-Rumayyan’s presence at St James’ on Sunday. PIF holds an 80 per cent stake in Newcastle and all large financial decisions must be approved by the chairman. Just as Newcastle agreed to exercise Wood’s £25million ($29.5m) Burnley escape clause in January once Al-Rumayyan witnessed their lack of firepower first-hand, they have also released greater funds following the chairman’s first visit this season. " Which is interesting. It confirmed that the transfer was a pivot from the approach we were initially taking and shows how much power PIF hold. We get them excited and they'l push harder.

Basically played RW here.

They played as a 2 though. They had RM/LM in wide positions. We won't.

Aye but even then.. the iconic 3 has a false 9 allowing the wide players to play more centrally. When Mane played centrally Salah played wider because there wasn't so much space to run into. Wilson isn't that type of player. You can see a world where Wood drops deep and holds it up to link up.... but he's not shown that target man ability either.

Maddison has played a fair amount on the right hand side of a midfield 3 with a 3 man attack ahead of him.

They need to sack him asap. He doesn't care at this point.

Vieira's playing career was super. It would be interesting to rank players from WC 98 and Euro 00 as managers. You have a mixed bag of Zidane, Deschamps, Vieira, Henry, Scholes, Campbell, Simeone, Inzaghi etc.

He's saying Spanish teams are broke. Poor penalty box movement. Doesn't win headers. Doesn't use his size. Not a penalty box player. Wilson's better. Will press well, potential, smart nice lad.

15m euros is hater talk

Would've much preferred to keep him than Darlow. But being 1 injury away from playing for Man Utd at this stage in his career is probably better than the same for us. If he wants it, I hope it happens for him.

Yeh tbf. Currently he's first CM off the bench. If we add another CM this window, Shelvey comes back... he's 1 further signing away from not making the squad. That's likely 12-18 months away.

He's too close to starting games for my liking.

I do think the medical team / club know more about Wilson's body. Whether he has a mental block or they expect hamstring issues to continue. If we have enough depth so that he only plays 30-60 minutes per game but is available more often, that would be great. They said the same thing about Hargreaves, Bale and Sturridge. They thought they had injuries when the medical team couldn't find anything. At a certain point, a player just feels it. Tbf to Wilson he's had 2 ACL's, another serious knee injury, 2 big hamstring injuries and a big calf injury. He's done well to still be this good after all of that.