TRon

What you're actually saying there is he scores some goals, stays fit and runs tirelessly. All true, but there are championship midfielders who can do that. It's what he can't do which is the missing piece in the puzzle: Show for the ball when the midfield is faced with a tight press Carry the ball out of danger when being pressed Look for one twos to evade the press Confidence to perform when the big games come round At the highest level when you are trying to build a team that can play out from the back you need all those attributes.

They've also been worse the more injuries they have suffered. If Hojlund is out for a few weeks would anyone fancy them to continue winning games at the same rate as previously? It's too glib to say all teams have injuries. If you have more injuries and to more key players than your rivals, then you will suffer worse results.

He's a support player at best. When the big lights are out through injury and you need the lesser lights to shine, he goes missing. I can't recall who said it, might have been Ayedoubleyou, but you could replace him with any of the Blackburn players last night and I doubt we'd have looked worse. I get that he might look more useful once all our better midfielders are back, but then who wouldn't?

It's not the full picture of the injuries though, unless the teams above us also have the same percentage of their top ranking players out through injury.

I saw it like this as well. There was a lot of criticism of Bruno in the match thread, but from where I was sitting, he was trying to get a hold of the game single-handedly, everyone else was either hiding or getting overwhelmed by Blackburn's energy. Agree also on the Wolves game, said as much in that pre-match thread.

Injuries are part and parcel of football, but when you lose half your squad, and they are all key players, citing the 7th highest wage bill is a bit ingenuous.

I don't expect much from this game, O'Neill seems to be able to set his sides up to make us look bad even when we are in better form than currently. Don't expect this to be any different. I'd be delighted with a flukey 1-0 win.

Aye, please drop this 7th highest wage bill nonsense, it was discredited yesterday and should have been left to die a death unless the poster is on the wind up.

He's not that type of striker. FWIW, neither is Mo Salah. I was watching him up front yesterday when we were in possession and his movement was still good, he was hanging on the shoulders of defenders, looking to get played in, but our football was too shit and it never reached him. Maybe we need a different type of striker, but I still think he's class, and we just need a better supply line.

Aye that's how it looked to me.

Then we should recognise them as such, but when I see valuations and expected transfer fees for some of these championship players I think we are maybe a bit deluded.

I really don't see how anyone can just ignore this. For all we know, Tonali and Barnes might not have even improved us that much, but chances are they would have. Also just being able to rotate would have surely have won us points that we've dropped late in games on a lot of occasions. I've been critical of Howe's reluctance to throw younger players on the pitch at times when we've been flagging, but you can't really judge him on a season where half the squad has been out of action.

Nice to see him get a glory night. He's always been a proud Newcastle player, and it was pride which made him leave when he became no 2. He's been a good keeper for us when we were a struggling Premier side, we've just moved on and need a CL class keeper now, which he is not.

What actually annoyed me the most about him last night - and for a few games recently - has been how slow he has been to bring the ball out. He is our ball playing CB, so it's surprising to see him dwell on the ball for a few touches without actually going anywhere. You'd expect that from Lascelles, not someone of Schar's quality. Very lazy performance.

Yes, that means they should match us for effort, but by the same token, they get paid a lot less, so they shouldn't be able to match us for quality.

Above all else, he's a very good footballer, we need more of these type of signings to kick on.

That's not really much of a compliment tbh. But he is coming back from a long layoff, might be as @madras said, he is just a bit rusty.

We are really missing those attributes, and he's a better footballer than people give him credit for, but it does show up the mediocre standard of the rest of our midfielders. Longstaff and Miley are hardly waifs, both are six foot plus, but both lack athleticism and physicality. Miley makes up for it with other qualities, and he's just learning the game, but we need proper midfielders who can cope with the top teams.

Let's be honest, he's still far from being a top level player. But at least he can do the basics, and I'm afraid the other right wing option can't.

I wonder if there was one person on here who thought he was scoring that pen?

To give him credit, at least he can bully lesser teams. Some of our players (not looking at you Sean) shit their pants regardless of how bad our opponents get.

Too soon.

no Moar Murphs. Loved you all along Miggy.

Even before the penalty miss his game was really tentative and nervous. He's not a young kid, I'm worried he's got a Longstaff mentality, not going to lie.

Add Tino to that list, he was great when he came on.