Beren

Aye, Newcastle famous for not losing to lower tier opposition in cup competitions

Sir Les was bricking it for us. Nice to see.

The ignominy for Forest, losing to wor Longstaff Great pen, fair play Sean. Overall though... blimey, pretty concerning. Notwithstanding the future potential of Tonali in club colours, the two most influential players Isak and Bruno seriously struggled to get involved in that game. Bruno was more or less exclusively recycling the ball back to centre backs. Isak was running almost exclusively for nowt. When he did have the ball to his feet, he was either knackered or did quite poorly (tough to apportion blame from my couch). Grateful to be through but quite worried about Howe's control over the team atm. Looking distinctly less than the sum of our parts so far. On the positive side, Tonali was excellent in his time. Barnes wasn't fantastic, but it was promising to see shoots of creativity and chemistry between him and Tino down the right.

It's just so annoying we play this way. We've not got a huge squad, or quality depth. Playing in the most taxing way possible is so mad.

Good post Kaka. His vision and spatial awareness was faster on some of his one touch plays than me watching on TV with an aerial view of the pitch.

Feel really bad for Willock. Looked gutted. Tonali looks bloody class. What a return. Hall needs to study film for six hours a day. He loves losing possession when not under pressure. Pope is Pope. Can't command the air in the slightest. Isak is running pointless wind sprints as usual (not his fault). Looking like a fucking slog against their second string. Going to be gassed vs Spurs. Shame.

Pope is weak as piss on crosses for a big man.

Lot of pressure on Tonali to play like Maradona this evening

No issue with him playing three times a week occasionally - so long as he isn't pressing by himself and chasing lost causes for 90 minutes.

"Hardest shot at the club" sounds good. Feels like we haven't had a decent striker from range in bloody ages. Schar isn't bad I suppose but doesn't have a crack that often any more.

This looks like his Arrested Development "chicken". Koo koo ka cha!

The Champions League qualification season indicated we were somewhere between the dominance of the "big 3" and the increasingly competitive middle of the pack. Last year indicated, NUFC were closer to the latter than the former - with the disclaimer that prolonged periods of crippling injuries had something to do with this. There's a few absences to start this season, but nothing to convince me that Newcastle are closer to Liverpool than Bournemouth. A generous appraisal would point to four points from six being a decent start, but results ultimately follow performances so I think it's a bit deceptive (albeit with a few minor extenuating circumstances). Bournemouth should have been out of sight yesterday but for some casual finishing. Recruitment and coaching needs to focus on controlling games IMO, rather than improving as a shootout team in basketball-style contests, which feels like low-probability stuff over the course of 38 games when you have some great midtable counterattacking teams. Someone pointed to Newcastle scoring a buttload of goals last year, but I think that overstates our attacking prowess if that's achieved through being as open as we were defensively. Desperately hoping there is an intention from Howe to shift the team dynamic, and Tonali is instrumental in effecting this. We're due a bit of an evolution in style of play. I'd persist with Hall while he learns to defend. Play Big Jo, Tonali and Bruno in the middle, with Barnes and Gordon wide - as our main starters. Barnes deserves a run of games now he's healthy. Hope we can get a new keeper, CB, and RW when financial constraints permit.

100%.

Pope kicks like Andre the Giant. Can't command his area for toffee either.

Credit to Bournemouth. Better side after the first 15 mins.

Do we have a sell-on clause for Minteh?

Both teams really risk averse. Villa won't have four players in Arsenal's half at once, and Arsenal won't pass forward unless there's four Arsenal players behind them.

How does everyone but Newcastle absolutely pull Everton's pants down

Bloody delighted

Quite looking forward to watching him in the island game tbh, thread-lockers be damned. Wish the guy well, except against Newcastle. Hopefully can help take some points off Man Utd.

I try not to watch Liverpool because it annoys me - so only see him vs Newcastle really, and have a similarly skewed view of him.

I'd take a Liverpool double over that. Can't imagine we've got a worse record against any other team in the last 20 years. The average margin of defeat must be 2 or 3 goals at least.

What happened at the end of the move on 33 seconds

Cuba's rubbing one out as we speak.