TRon

This is the conumdrum though. If we aren't a high scoring side, then the logical thing would be to make sure we don't concede goals easily. But the high press all action style we play is geared towards scoring goals not preventing them.

Seems the obvious choice since he did really well there in the cup win over Chelsea.

Longstaff has all the running and tackling skills required for a DM, but none of the skill. He wouldn't be able to resist the press effectively, he'd lose the ball, and he'd not be able to orchestrate from the back either. Ditto Joelinton more or less.

Schar is a cult hero at Newcastle, but he's had a very average season so far. He really does need a big physical presence next to him like Botman or Burn to function.

He gets into goal scoring positions regularly. At this point given no one else other than Isak looks likely to score he should in theory be one of the first names on the team sheet.

Any scenario where a Howe sides beats Liverpool....I'm taking it.

He did that tbf, and they were decent instructions considering any attempts at doing more than that saw him lose the ball. There was one point near the end where the ball was pinged to him and his attempt to control it ended up with the ball looping up into the air his touch was that bad.

The co commentators mentioned our poor quality of delivery as well. I realise that they aren't always good judges of a game but it's been pretty apparent anyway. Our football is not great this season. In our CL qualifying season we were playing consistently better and more impressive football, and that was with a less expensive squad.

Just addressed that again in the Bruno thread.

His issues have nothing to do with captaincy, his strength is also a weakness. He brings us time on the ball and often plays his way out of trouble. But his mate Paqueta knows he can get caught in possession and was on him in a flash, using his pace to close him down really quickly. I guess that's something you just have to accept as part of his game.

I missed the first half in fairness, but West Ham didn't look awful in the second. They were trying to pass their way through us with some aggressive intent, reminded me a bit of Fulham. Bowen was definitely causing us some problems, and as soon as I saw Soucek in the line up I was nervous he'd score. One of those pain in the arse players a bit like Antonio.

I'm just going to repeat what I have said earlier in the season. I am not going to criticise the lack of goals, that's heavily dependent on the output from your attacking players, and I'm not convinced we've got real end product across the front line other than Isak. But our game plan is front foot attacking which if it doesn't work leaves us open to counter attacks. So he has to fix that because it's a problem that's not going away. Either find a way to get this side scoring goals, or maybe sit deeper and play a more conservative style.

He was at fault for both goals, so no matter what he did right, pretty hard to overlook that.

Agree. We can criticise Isak for missing chances, but strikers will have spells where they miss chances, even Haaland is going through a lean patch by his standards. We need to be less reliant on one player and look across the whole front line for culpability. Not sure Barnes is the answer either unfortunately, he's looking increasingly like a one trick pony.

But that means Kelly is shit so we don't really win either way. Burn might not be the silkiest footballer but he does defend well and is important at set pieces. We shouldn't fall apart in one game where he is out, so it's an indictment of his replacements as much as an endorsement of his abilities.

When you look across the players we are starting with it shouldn't really be that much of a surprise though. Longstaff, Joelinton and Bruno have never been prolific, and neither has Willock since his loan season where everything he touched went in. Gordon was great last season, but Miggy had one great season as well, he needs to prove he's not a one season wonder. Barnes can score goals, but opponents know how he scores them now, they'll just show him outside every time. We really are relying on Isak mostly and it shows. Very risky throwing players forward if we don't have end product, it just gives opponents loads of space to punish us on the counter.

Yep. This is exactly the sort of games we were seeing previously which saw us drop to 12th in the table. Lots of disjointed attacking play, lose the ball and then be left wide open for the counter. It looked like we had put it behind us with the return of Willock and Longstaff to give us some balance, but we were back to the same chasing shadows as prior to the Chelsea cup win. What makes it worse, we had what looked a really strong bench, but every change seemed to make us worse.

The last thing they need is another midfielder who lacks pace tbh.

We don't need a replacement, Longstaff is there and we have fabulous winning stats when he starts remember?

We do try to keep playing a certain way tbf, but some teams know how to counter it, and then we end up looking non-plussed and don't really have any answers.

He did try and play him every week before he got banned tbf. It just hasn't really worked with Bruno has it?

He's not been let down, we've given him more money than we should have if anything, and ended up having to sell players just to stay on the right side of PSR. There's been laws brought in specifically to stop us making signings so I don't think you can say he's been let down. The way PSR works he's going to have to get used to selling players more readily and get used to the idea of buying unproven players with a high ceiling.

The problem is he doesn't look capable of even stand-in material. We've had Lascelles and Krafth come in and do a job when called on, this lad doesn't even look like a centre half. I'm sure he's better than what we've seen so far, but he looks like a deer in headlights at the moment.

Everyone can miss chances. It's the lack of threat otherwise that's the problem. He's hardly giving full backs sleepless nights with his trickery or deliveries from wide.

We've seen it in too many games this season. Push high, lose possession through poor control and get cut to ribbons on the counter.