HawK

Our best player before he was injured, but it'd be on harsh on Krafth right now who's in the form of his life. No doubt Trips has had a big hand in that behind the scenes I'd think. I wouldn't mind either way if he plays again this season or not, I trust Howe's coaching team. That aside, I stand by my previous comments just a couple of games into his move that I declared he's so classy he's up there with Woodgate, probably already our best ever right back in the PL era.

Nope, it's just a different opinion. Which doesn't make you insane, btw. Looking forward to seeing what Howe will do.

Guess I'm insane then, ASM had more touches vs Norwich than Chris Wood has had since he moved to us from Burnley. And just him being a nuisance and occupying defenders allowed both our attacking wide players to play freely.

100%, this is how we tore Norwich apart. Allan comes deep, collects the ball, drags defenders with him. He's doubled-up on, so it created huge amounts of space for Murphy and Joelinton for ahead of him to allow Bruno/Longstaff to play into.

Of course, he's orders of magnitude more effective than Wood in that position. Until Wilson returns, he's our best centre forward.

Sure, but anyone who knows anything about football knows that's frankly impossible in real terms. The Saudis may be demanding, but they aren't stupid.

I think you're misquoting me there to be honest. Progression doesn't mean that does it? If we finish where we are now, which is 9th, and then next year 7-8th, following year 5-6th I think that's absolutely acceptable by any measure, by anyone.

@The College Dropout I think Howe needs to be given all the time he wants. As long as we're progressing year after year, that's all we want, stable progression. The time for the short-term manager was after Bruce, and I thought they'd got it wrong with Howe. I hate Gerard, but even I advocated for him only on the basis he would attract names that may help keep us up with their quality. He went to Villa, and got Coutinho and Digne (captain hindsight is wonderful, but at the time when we were linked we were all pretty pumped) etc. Of course there's an argument to be had as to whether they would have come to us with our league position at the time, but you cannot deny that Gerard has/had more pull than Eddie Howe on foreign transfers. Now, that's all water under the bridge, Howe's done the impossible in getting us to the top half, been part of a recruitment team that's somehow managed to Bruno in, and is playing (mostly) very good football. We've not only plugged the short-term gap problem to keep us up, we've also got the longer term solution right here, right now. I've read a lot on Eddie Howe since he's joined, and those posts from @WillDanceForChocolate was just the icing on the cake for me in terms of firmly believing we need to hand the keys to the club to this man, like were prepared to do with Rafa. The owners are new to football, and I doubt they'd be so ready to chop and change if we go through a muddy period, having now been captured in those (in)famous dressing room photos with Howe, his staff and the players. The stage is set, we need to stop thinking about 'what about after Howe', and 'the next step', and just get behind someone who I firmly believe has all the tools to be as successful with this club as anyone we've ever had in the modern era.

C) Getting Pardewed/Bruced

I seem to be coming in with an unpopular opinion in every thread I enter at the moment, but I think he's the most effective right-sided attacker we have on our books - above Ritchie, Almiron and even Fraser. His direct involvement in both of Joelinton's goals aside yesterday, he's a player who can carry the ball and is a good outlet for us. We've yet to see Willock have a run on the right, and if we do end up signing someone like Paqueta, I can certainly see him given a go there instead. Until then, happy for Murphy to continue there.

When he was on the left behind ASM with Willock and Murphy in a team with some actual tactical awareness, I think that was the first time we've seen him in a system that loosely resembled Hoffenheim's. With Willock in the middle alongside also pressing, he looked effective off the ball and on it. I think there might be a spot for him in the long term to be honest... If you caught me saying 9 months ago that I'd be advocating Joelinton over ASM on the left I'd ask people to quietly take me out the back and end me

https://tbrfootball.com/jamie-reuben-and-ghodoussi-react-to-newcastle-win-at-norwich/ Howe so little in that

In addition to this - Krafth looked very solid again, comfortable on the ball. He's definitely gone up a level. And Willock was brilliant off the ball and out of possession. Maxi coming deep to collect allowed our midfielders to bomb on, it looked like we were playing with 10 men for the past 6 weeks rather than 11 - the difference in our approach play was huge.

Gotta fill them home-grown-at-club 4 Champion's League spots somehow...

Willock's been fantastic today, working so hard off the ball and out of possession.

If any of us had come on here and said 'we're from the future, Krafth and Joelinton will be two of your best players in April', we'd probably have thought have the first team was out with long-Covid or something.

We're singing the Coloccini song

Fucking hell we went on that run since Wood signed with basically 10 men on the pitch. How good are we with 11

Definitely something about one of our January signings going on to massive career-purple patches every once in a while.. Cissé Willock Bruno..

Fuckit, even Longstaff should have scored because of this. We look a team transformed we play with someone who can actually hold up the ball and come deep to collect.

Second goal occurred exactly because of this, ASM offers a lot up the middle just from pulling apart defences.

Yep i also want to see what ASM will do up top, he can't do worse than Wood and might actually give us some form of outlet. If he comes deep to pick up the ball, it'll allow Murphy, Willock and Joelinton to run ahead. The issue ASM has is that he's usually leading the line while ball carrying (Wood goes invisible), and has nothing to aim at. I've seen him oftentimes that towards the end of the run as he's approaching a dead-end he's got his hands out, palms up, asking what his options are. If we had runners off the ball ahead of him, it'd pull the opposing defence apart. They have to double up on him in the middle and that creates huge spaces in the channels for our midfielders and wide players to run into.

Eh?

Gotta be something to do with Miggie

Aye no way Almiron can be on at the expense of Willock. Even out of position, he's far more effective.