TRon

Well, Howe is one of the more intelligent managers in the game, I would back him to find a solution sooner rather than later so yes, you are probably right.

Whoever plays today, we need to see some better cohesion in our play. Regardless of who's in the side we've had too little movement in front of the ball, and too much space between the midfield and forward players. From back to front the passing has been too slow, don't know what the reason is but we look lethargic compared to last season.

If he didn't want to come then there's not much point in losing sleep over it.

Well from what we've seen of Targett this season, he wouldn't really offer much more than Burn. Frustrating if Hall still isn't ready though, him and Livramento were two of our biggest signings this summer.

The back four played well from a defensive POV, but going forward there is still not much coming from the left side. You could argue it would be worth giving Hall a try to see if he can offer more bringing the ball out.

This. Take Bruno out of our team and put him in Man City's or Liverpool's and I'll bet he's going to look a bit better. Liverpool themselves have not been happy with their midfield, but collectively they still string together moves better than us. Bruno is quality, we just need to get enough players around him who are in the same bracket.

Sometimes easy to forget what it was like to have absolute gormless cunts in charge. We've been led by Steve Bruce, Pardew and probably the nadir came when John Carver was given the job under the previous regime. Now you can actually watch the press conferences and feel a glow of pride knowing your manager will represent the club in the best manner.

The new presenter on Sky trying to sound like Jeff Stelling is really starting to annoy me.

He barely gave us a kick in the earlier fixture, so got to be good news.

Just read some of the comments above.

I think the Bruno and Tonali could work as a double pivot if they both sat deeper, just not sure how they fit together if they are expected to bomb forward as well and press high as well. Do they have the recovery speed to do that? But I'm not the manager, it might be Howe just needs to get them understanding their roles a bit better. They are both technically good players, maybe it's just them getting to know each other's game that's needed.

He's playing too deep to be at his most effective IMO, he's not a natural no 6. Even for Brazil he plays alongside Casimero who is probably the more defensive of the duo.

Not that angry about the release clause, from the player's POV it's fair enough. It should have been about £150m in today's market though, there's quite a few clubs that won't think twice on spending £100m on a player of his quality.

When it comes to owners, it really is.

I haven't bothered reading back through the Willock thread, but when you think back to when we were at our best, we had Longstaff, Willock, Bruno and Joelinton in there. Three of those would be considered less than elite, but collectively they worked really well. That's not to say they can't be improved, but will take some time to gel with new players.

I was sceptical at first, but he's got them playing nice football as well so fair play.

Would you rather it was done to Sunderland?

I've been in disagreement quite a lot with TCD over football ideas in the last few years, but I actually quite like reading his stuff. It's just opinion about the game, at least it's never personal or pedantic stuff which can get boring real quick when it's delivered in all seriousness.

100% this. As for Liverpool, I am done with wasting energy on craving revenge on them. I didn't post for two days after that game, but it's behind me now, and I won't stress about getting something at Anfield either. We just aren't good enough yet, and that's ok. We have fallen into the trap of wanting everything yesterday. We don't really have any right tbh.

Definitely agree on the way the game has gone, the game felt a lot less cynical back in the 90's when Keegan took us on that magnificent journey under Hall. Not that Sir John was any less of a business shark, he certainly made a mint out of Newcastle, but at least he was our shark. But I'm not going to lie, I really do enjoy watching our football again, I feel far more pride in this team under Howe than when we were led by Pardew and Bruce under Sports Direct.

Agree. His first touch can be heavy and he's quite often rushed into making a mistake. He covers ground well so defensively he's solid enough, but he'll not be able to dictate play like Bruno does when he's on his game.

At some point we are going to need to introduce footballing defenders if we continue to struggle with retaining the ball and getting it up the pitch. You don't spend £30-40m on subs who will stay on the bench indefinitely.

Miley has a bit more finesse about his game, he seems to be able to make time on the ball which makes him look comfortable even under pressure. Elliott is a bit more direct and more threatening, but that also means he's going to find it tougher to get change out of top class defenders.

Very valid point. It seems like more or less all of those chasing CL places were after the same few players, and in the end Chelsea bought both of the highest rated ones. They aren't even in the Champions League.

Yeah. Obviously there are a few who are predictably OTT with the criticism, but I think most of the concern has just been about our lack of control in recent games. I was certainly happy with a point yesterday.