The College Dropout

We’ll need some collapse to need a result in GW38 to stay up.

Public knowledge on Sven (apparently) and Lingard.

If possible I’d take the likes of Pogba and Lukaku but not Bale. particularly Lukaku, he could make us a top 4 threat overnight. The hardest thing is finding a player that can score 15-20. At Newcastle he’ll play in a counter attacking team that can be direct which I think suits him. but I would understand if we don’t. At his age he might not fancy something that might take. 2-3 years to really get going. And we may not want to destroy our wage structure. I reckon we go for the types of players Liverpool usually go for. Not the types to come in straight on 200k+

3. Just need to maintain decent form now. A point a game and we stay up comfortably. But we should be looking up. 10th isn’t impossible.

The clips remind me of Toni Kroos. Quick feet. Crisp passing. Looking to dictate play but move with it.

Credit where it’s due. He’s doing a fantastic job.

One interesting thing. Can a midfield of Willock - Bruno - Joe maintain control of a midfield. I think ball rentention away from home will be huge. For as good as we've been, we don't play it around the midfield much.

That and a lack of goals.

The composure man. With Targett & Burn in that makes a huge difference.

I'd be delighted if we could finish above Brentford.

I can't shake that video of what Rice did to him.

Much better than I expected tbf.

Left exposed. Did ok.

Burnley a bigger risk than Watford. their previous 2 managers aren’t bad. The team is just not good enough. Maybe Sarr is a game changer. But Claudio can coach a defence and they were hopeless. Couple clean sheets with Roy but not scored a single goal. They needed reinforcements not a new manager. burnley can win 6 of 18 games. They’ve drawn half their games anyway, like us they don’t need a drastic uptick to turn the tide in performances. But they don’t have the points on the board. Norwich don’t score enough goals to win another 6.

Aye but that’s for 16/17th. if we could get close to a point per game I would be happy. 36 points surely keeps you up. Burnley intrigue me. They could be gone by the last game.

I think he’s a weak link personally.

Teams at the bottom don't get a lot of points so games in hand in less important. Points on the board is important. Any team with more points than games after 23 games is highly unlikely to go down unless their form becomes terminal. Palace realistically need to win 3 games and get 3 draws from their next 15 to stay up. That allows them to lose 9 games (when they've only lost 8 all season). Palace vs Brentford on the weekend is huge. Brentford are in free fall losing 5 in a row and losing 8 of the last 10. But the other 2 are wins. Lose here and they are right in it. Norwich - don't score goals. They can nick a few wins but don't score enough goals to stay up imo. They need a lot of their goals to be decisive which won't happen. Burnley - they really need to start winning. 1 in 20 is horrendous. ARe they good enough to do that consistently? Watford - Can Roy get the attack/defence balance right? They couldn't defend for toffee under Claudio, yet to score a goal with Roy. I think it's these 3 plus us and Brentford (if they lose to Palace). Everton could still go full Kinnear era Newcastle but I don't see it. They're in the less points than games played boat as the rest of the relegation battlers tbh.

He's ropey. Not good in the air, slow, not the strongest. Gave away a foul in a bad area that to me, was avoidable.

I like him. Dynamic. Needs to keep being strong.

Electrifying tonight.

22 points from 21 games. New manager, players coming back to fitness. They’ll have to be v. bad to not get the 37 points needed to survive.

But we didn’t and we are currently in the relegation zone. lose to Everton they are practically safe and we are right in it. The margins are v. thin. We need to hit a run of good form for me to keep comfortable.

As I understand. We were £5m or so away from landing Lingard. It was never worth the risk to walk away imo. I have some blame for Howe on this. He should've pushed hard for another attacker.

Thanks - this is exactly what I mean.

I haven't said they can't. I just have no evidence that they can. So i'm not that excited. It's a different level entirely but City brought in Mancini for Hughes and you go - "ok this guy can take us to another level. We've seen it." Or when they got Txiki & co. or Mourinho to Chelsea. They've been to a level that we aspire to get too. Cooke I think, had no experience in football or at least a proven top level track record. And he did a good job for City tbf. That's the appeal of Trippier & Bruno - they've played and looked good for better teams. They can raise our level. SO i'm excited. I thought we needed an attacker of that level too.