Beren

That's really poor from a Newcastle perspective. The CB getting sucked out of position like that because of the ego of winning the battle of tackles is terrible.

Good performance with quite a few people out and bent refs. Could have taken care of the ball a bit better second half but not too much grousing from me.

I'd settle for a one goal victory tbh.

That salty, salty motherfucker

I'm being a dick Although there was one ball that Murphy played in behind, and ordinarily, you'd see a striker trying to get in front of the defender to poke it in - and Wood was legitimately about seven paces behind the defender. The daylight was unreal.

Wasn't a flawless performance, but there were points in the game when Southampton gave up pressing when wor Bruno was on the ball, and tried to reset/get into defensive shape instead. He's earning respect/fear, quick. Cracking finish. What an exciting player to watch. Good job everyone else too, of course (but I like the flair players ). I was going to lay into Wood (I think genuinely he might be slower than the slowest version of stroller-Shola, you know) but he bagged his first goal, so he gets a stay of execution. Cracking ball from Shelvey too. Great all round team effort. Howe is class. Over and out.

Agree with this entirely. He represents the next evolution of this team, the confidence to keep the ball when the opposition goes into swarm mode, and punish them. Shelley did well but he really did look knacked at the end.

He's going a million miles an hour, tiring the opposition out. That's his job as an outball. Brighton had nowt left at the end, partly thanks to him. Loose balls, tired tackles, no life. Not directed at you, but people saying "I wish he'd just pick his head up" as though he's running at Wood's speed and has all the time in the world/players alongside him. It's fine for him to lose the ball up there because one of out every five times it'll be a shot on target or a wondergoal and the same people who berate him will be hanging out his backside again.

ASM getting grief ffs. Some shit never changes.

The Philippe Albert chip of Schmeichel is really underrated. I don't understand why it's not deemed one of the greatest goals of all time.

Decent. Put himself about too which was nice to see when Brentford started getting a bit tasty. Had Chris Wood running on the end of a few defence splitting balls so no luck there obviously One shot with nice intent but poor execution.

Solid af.

That is a fantastic piece of refereeing IMO That bit of refereeing was as good as a HBA mazy dribble and wondergoal tbh. I'm only half being sarcastic, that's fucking brilliant.

The curse of being right well you have to laugh, really

Yeah I don't get it. It's not like he's a wing back and needs to as acutely understand the ebb and flow of attack and defence, I expect he'll sit and hold in front of the defence right? Feel like that doesn't require quite him to be quite as sympatico with the team ethos/way of doing things. Especially as the way of doing things is relatively shite. He's a motor in central midfield, I think that outweighs any tactical advantage given up. Unless he's not fit. Maybe I'm being daft.

It's not like he's not kicked a ball before in his life though. I'm being facetious, but that's not a good reason IMO.

What am I missing?

Huh

Delighted for Senegal

Gutted for Burkina Faso, not sure why

4 - addressing the spine of the team and biggest problems

That's unfair. We spent four times as much as that per season on boreholes.

Okay, hello. Fire the rest of the midfield into the sun. Make space for this guy.

Wew, some of these names coming back after all these years like forgotten powers from Middle Earth