HawK

But the fact remains with this current squad, we can't t seem to win without him.

Waste of what? Am I missing something?

Berahino Ah - didn't know that. Always thought of him as English for some reason.

I love Rafa, I like Mitro. As they cannot coincide, it's easy to be rational. I'd say he'd have been getting games here under any other manager we could hope to attract, but this highlights the calibre of Benitez more than the difficiency in Mitrovic. IMO, I think he's just genuinely too thick to follow Benitez's instructions properly. I'm disappointed that it looks we won't see him any more in a Newcastle jersey as I think he's going to grow into being a very useful striker wherever he plays. IMO definitely PL-standard and currently better than anyone else we have. Hope he has a good career, I always liked the way he played with his head up and was quite unselfish, really good traits for an old-fashioned target man.

Gaël Bigirimana? Only Burundi-born footballer to play in the PL.

Never gonna make it, get rid, should be scoring easily for a Chmapionship club already, doesn't make a difference if he's scored 40 more league goals than Kane at his age, should have scored buckets for Barnsley and Bolton if he got 20 for Coventry, getting 20 for Coventry is easy even Shola could have done it, doesn't fit Rafa's system, he's a jawdie so everyone thinks he's better than he is.

Incredible :lol: The orc's reaction to 'manflesh' tips it over the edge

Shelvey can't directly assist in our team easily because of the poor options we have up top, but the pass prior to the assist? I'd be surprised if less than a third were from Shelvey. Kind of where stats fall down a bit to be honest. Just because there's no official 'stat' to express the offensive impact he sometimes demonstrates, doesn't mean he doesn't contribute offensively. Far from it imo.

Tbf a few of us were exasperated in the 5th finish season, I repeatedly mentioned that we had no viable tactics at all, every game was punt it up to Ba and Cisse after he got here, play Cabaye and Tiote on the toes of our own central defence, and thus not even contest the second ball because Ba and Cisse were as good as target men as Gayle and Perez are. We got 5th despite Pardew, and off the magical form of Cisse were anything he touched went in.

2 losses in 10, both to City. Commendable to be honest, given our striking options.

Would have taken a point at the start, just a shame it's going to leave a bad taste in the mouth. If we'd come back to 2-2 we'd be over the moon. As it is, well this NUFC what else could have happened.

Fuck hope he's Ok

Lejeune having a blinder.

If the other matches all end like this, great day for us.

Yeah, 11 men behind the ball all season long especially against 'beatable' teams is a must.

Colin Murray always seemed to be onside.

How times have changed. I was in much the same condition for KK's first game as manager (1st time), having tried speed for the first time. Was the tracking out on your VCR? Not a bad backup activity tho.

It was returned undamaged?

I don't recall Harry Kane looking anywhere decent until he came back after all his loans.

Yeah I saw that too - Wish I could be relaxed about a 70% chance of footballing oblivion

Wanted to wait until after the Man U game to post here again, I've been 70% chance of us going down at each poll reset. Now I'm a 2. That's the result we needed, and we appear to have got some of the additions we sorely needed. Can't see us fucking this up more than 3 other teams now. Unless Lascelles gets injured, we're safe - hence the 2.

Agreed. We're better with him the team no question. Aye. I don't think he's much good but sadly he's probably the best option we have at LB at the moment, losing him for three months is a blow. He's crap at anything other than defending but he's solid enough that Atsu or Aarons ahead of him will have the freedom to get forward at will. I think for a club in our position, Dummett gets unfairly railed for his on-the-ball (lack of) ability. There's a lot to be said for a solid defensive full back when you're just trying to stay alive in a division. Might be a stretch, but Danny Simpson seemed clueless both going forward and defending. Personally I'm quite worried about our defence without Dummett at left back. I've been arguing Dummett is unfairly criticised since half way through last season if we're playing that game Sorry I'm actually agreeing with you - just failing at trying to be a smug git that I called this back in August that Dummet would be good enough

Agreed. We're better with him the team no question. Aye. I don't think he's much good but sadly he's probably the best option we have at LB at the moment, losing him for three months is a blow. He's crap at anything other than defending but he's solid enough that Atsu or Aarons ahead of him will have the freedom to get forward at will. I think for a club in our position, Dummett gets unfairly railed for his on-the-ball (lack of) ability. There's a lot to be said for a solid defensive full back when you're just trying to stay alive in a division. Might be a stretch, but Danny Simpson seemed clueless both going forward and defending. Personally I'm quite worried about our defence without Dummett at left back.