TRon

Woltemade in midfield in a Tyne-Wear derby

There's my biggest concern right there. I just don't feel enough of our lads have it. Hope they prove me wrong tomorrow like.

He should start, but I don't expect him to get much change against a low block. But then I think Wolt will get even less.

Points wise it's definitely possible. But we just don't have enough genuine quality up top to go on a winning streak IMO. I'm not even thinking about the defence, since I do think we have the players at the back if we can just cut out the mistakes.

When you get hammered 7-2 it does change. Not permanently of course, it's just one game. But if I see Juventus getting battered 7-2 I will think a bit less of them. But then next campaign they might beat Barcelona 2-1 and reputation restored.

That's a weird take. I was thinking about our standing among fans worldwide, not sponsors. It's fans that give clubs stature beyond their own borders. I don't enjoy us getting hammered 7-2 going global personally, but that doesn't mean I think it will collapse us as a club. We have built a pretty good reputation in Europe over the last few years, this is just a bad day.

Because if you want to grow your club to superclub levels then impressions matter. Otherwise why bother trying to grow a global brand?

Not to mention NUFC is not the only asset in the PIF portfolio. Mandy did a great job providing a public face for Newcastle in her stint, we need someone to take that role, and it's cloud cuckoo land to think it will be Yassir.

Getting hammered 7-2 is an embarrassment in anybody's book. That's the score the rest of the world sees at full time, how well we played in the first half isn't going to be what's remembered. We did compete admirably for three quarters of the tie, and this was a great advert for Newcastle United. But that final drubbing in the last quarter wiped us out as contenders, that's the memory most outside of the club will take from it.

That's the worrying part. You would think someone on the coaching and recruitment staff would have a better idea of where our players heads are at, and likewise for the players we were scouting. I don't think Isak getting his head turned should have come out of the blue, and the same would be the case for Tino, Hall and Tonali this coming summer.

We know that's how they are going to set up, there's not much going to surprise us. We just have to be patient and play our way in.

he moves around too much on his goal line before he even knows where the ball is going.

That would be a massive indictment of our transfer dealing considering they only got promoted last season.

He always seems to make a movement which leaves a huge area of the goal exposed. Nothing that obvious immediately, but it happens in a lot of goals we concede where you think he had no chance but then watching the replay you think, why did he dive out of the way?

City are doing it from a position of strength as an already established superclub. It would probably be a lot harder throwing the book at them.

The way to win against these is to play football and let our superior technique come through. Same way as happened yesterday when we tried to go toe to toe with Barcelona. In the end they had better players and that played out in the final score.

Thought the disappointing thing about was how our heads dropped. Showed a lack of character I thought, and it's maybe a reason why we give up goals so easily.

We need to buy potential replacements for all our biggest assets, so add Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento to that list. Hopefully we'll not need to use them until it suits us, but better safe than sorry.

It's a shame we've conceded so many points through late goals, because there's definitely going to be a pretty shit team qualifying for the CL this season. Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea and Villa all look pretty ordinary. Feels like it's a battle of who will be the less shit.

Right. I don't know why people get so flustered when talk of selling him gets traction. It's his own camp which is pushing it. Personally, he's one of my favourite players, even with the sometimes sloppy passing. His engine and combative nature make him a real leader on the pitch. Would hate to see him go, but if he's looking at a move then just make sure we get a really good fee for him so we can buy a replacement.

I'm sure we'll try, but he's coming into the last year of his contract this summer. We might just have to take what we can get, or use him for the final year if we don't get a good enough offer.

I thought a big part of our win was we didn't chase the game too much for a change. We were prepared to sit deep when we didn't have the ball, and also prepared to pass the ball around and keep possession when there wasn't an obvious ball on. We still looked to get in behind when the opportunity presented itself, but we weren't rushing it. It worked really well for us considering the team we put out.

Two good reasons to watch MOTD

7th is definitely still on.