Shak

I may be wrong but I don’t imagine that the competition for starting places in the Canadian team is particularly brutal.

It’s not just that they’d be rotated, either. I suspect that if we signed Delap and Isak stayed they’d be on the pitch at the same time quite a lot. Our system has looked as much like a 4-4-2 this season as it has a 4-3-3, particularly out of possession. Murphy plays far deeper on the right than Gordon does on the left, with our LCM being asked to do a lot of the hard work in covering the LB. Suspect Isak in that Gordon role playing off a CF would look dynamite. So rather than rotating with Isak, you’d have a situation where Isak, Gordon and Delap are sharing two positions, which with European football next season would mean more than enough minutes to go around for all three of them. I think on balance signing someone who is very versatile and can backup Isak while also being comfortable playing wide would be ideal, but if they go after Delap at the price he’ll be it’ll be because they think he’s going to add a lot to the team beyond being Isak’s understudy.

Buckled at the idea of Amorim identifying Longstaff as the player he needs to make his system work Surely nothing in that? Only thing is with how much of a squad overhaul they need and PSR being restrictive they might have use for someone who isn’t going to set them back much as a CM squad option while they spend money elsewhere? I just think that surely you’d be better off taking a punt on a young unproven player from abroad that has some scope to be better than what Longstaff will provide.

I think the idea would be to sign a more versatile player rather than a strictly backup LW. The issue is that Gordon and Barnes both seem like they can only play LW. In a world without PSR, us having Gordon and Barnes rotating at that spot would be ideal. But it’s still a balancing act in that regard unfortunately. I think if you sell Barnes (or Gordon… we’d get a lot more for him) you use the money to bring in someone with a bit more versatility. Ideally sign a LW who is also comfortable playing CF. Or maybe you sign a CF and use Isak left at times, though I’d prefer the previous option. Could sign another CM option with Joelinton playing left when needed. Osula seems like he’s better suited to playing wide rather than through the middle, left would suit him better too you’d imagine. Sanusi might be sniffing around the first team soon enough also. I think ideally we’ll keep him and have two very good LW options. But I can see the logic in him being moved on to give us PSR wiggle room. There's also the issue of how Barnes feels about it. He'll get plenty of football next year but when push comes to shove I think Gordon will be the one in the starting lineup for bigger games.

Think he will get an extended run at LW even when Gordon is back. Eddie is big on merit and the fact is that Gordon hasn’t been in the best form and then went and got stupidly sent off, something that was a huge factor in us being knocked out of a very winnable cup competition. Barnes on the other hand was most recently a significant cog in one of the most important victories in the history of the club. I think there’s still a decent chance Barnes gets moved on in the summer but right now it should be his position to lose.

I’ve seen a few people say Delap isn’t gonna move to us sit on the bench but I think he’d play a lot of football here. Obviously with European football there’ll be games when we need to rest Isak but I think there’s also plenty of scope for them playing together. Our system functionally isn’t very far from being a 4-4-2 at times, with the LCM getting very wide and Murphy playing far deeper and having more defensive responsibility than Gordon. I think you could very much play Isak off Delap, particularly in home games where we’re confident that we’ll be taking the game to our opponent. Two years ago when we had both Wilson and Isak fit and firing the ability to have the two of them on the pitch together was so often game changing for us. It’s entirely possible that Delap would rather go to another team where he has a clearer path to being the first choice CF, of course. When push comes to shove in the biggest games, Eddie is almost certainly going with Isak leading the line. If not Delap though, I still think a genuinely quality addition at CF is one of the most important additions we can make this summer. Think you’d probably be looking at Barnes moving on, then basically having Gordon, Isak and Delap rotating in the two positions. Joelinton can play left, Osula seems like he might be better suited to a wide role from what we’ve seen so far and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sanusi in and around the first team squad too. Ideal world we could keep Barnes and having cracking squad depth but he seems a logical PSR sacrifice to allow us to strengthen elsewhere. God it’s gonna be so nice if we go out and recruit heavily this summer, really excited to see what the squad looks like after the summer.

Man, what a day. Every single player was excellent, about as complete a team performance as you’ll ever see. For them to produce that in a game of such magnitude is an incredible feat, huge credit to them all and of course to Eddie too. It’s particularly sweet as it was likely the last chance for a lot of this group of players. We may go on to bigger and better things in years to come but this will always be special, the first trophy that most of us have ever seen us lift. It’s so fitting that players like Pope, Trippier, Burn, Schar and Murphy were in the team that did it, that players like Willock, Wilson, Krafth and (almost) Longstaff played a role off the bench. Even Lascelles being there, after how much he’s given to the club. A lot of players mentioned there will be gone from the club quite soon, and others will have diminished roles. But they’re Newcastle legends forever now. So happy for everyone on here too, I suspect the vast majority of you broke down sobbing at full time just like I did. We’ve been through a lot with this club. Saw some great teams with great managers that just didn’t quite manage to win a trophy. Saw some awful teams too, endured some dreadful managers. Had an absolutely vile human being cynically run our club into the ground for a long time, broke some of us along the way. Can say with absolute certainty that if it wasn’t for this forum I would have packed it in during those Ashley years. So thank you all for being here, I hope you all loved yesterday as much as I did. Howay the Lads.

Only time I remember is starting Isak left and Wilson central was at Leeds at the end of the season we came 4th. We were shite first half, went a goal down and Leeds missed a penalty. Lucky to get a point that day. The ability to shift Isak left or into a #10 position with Wilson up top was a huge weapon that season, but it’s something that worked well because we only started one of them and then sprung that for the last half hour or so. I’d very much like to see us target a CF this summer to give us that option again but Isak has been too good at CF to do that to accommodate a rusty and possibly finished Wilson. He’s a clear A also.

Aye it's like Bryan Adams never existed as far as some on here are concerned.

They've done it a few times earlier this year and looked good. The Chelsea cup game, Arsenal home in the league and then at Forest we had that setup and won all three. Biggest issue with it was it forced Gordon to the right, where he didn’t look comfortable. That’s not an issue for the final. Meanwhile Barnes has been in the fringes of the team all season, has struggled when he has got on and doesn’t work very hard off the ball, I’m not sure what he’s done to be worth starting?

Think we’ll start Joelinton LW with Willock LCM in the final, mind you.

That’s a real pity, the save a few minutes ago was top class.

Yeah he’s not a B because he’s not one of the best in his position by any means. But C feels very harsh as he’s better than a “solid PL player” too in my opinion. The gap between B and C is so vast, as a group looks like we’ll vote him as B- or C+ and that’s spot on IMO.

Aye, was gonna say this. Pretty big gap between being one of the best players at your position and being a solid PL player. But doesn’t apply to Botman, injuries are the only issue with him IMO. Fully healthy I think he is a chance to push on and be a potential A, but he’s a B for now.

Still annoyed that he didn't square it for Gordon, he had so much time to have a look and see if there was support arriving but never looked.

Fingers crossed

There's a pretty decent chance that the game will be meaningless for Arsenal, you'd imagine.

Trippier receiving the D from so many seems fitting, as it was his administering of the D to so many that has led him to it. Allegedly.

Stunned that there are so many saying C, a team full of players of his level would be absolutely fucked in the PL. Went for E, was stuck between that and D but ultimately I feel like I can make four fairly distinct tiers above Dubravka so went for the harsher option. Pleased for him that he's had a nice run recently but he's just such a poor shot stopper that I'll never feel comfortable with him starting games for us even as a backup.

The look of joy on your face as you momentarily celebrated Burn's clearly offside goal turning to familiar resignation will never leave me.

I think if we'd blown it I'd be legitimately considering just giving up on going to games. Full of confidence now, gonna get season tickets for me and @Beren for next year.

I think it was largely that Burn and Schar were awful on the ball. Was a mix of playing the wrong pass and just failing to execute passes that weren't that difficult.

We are no longer winless when I attend games! Those eleven minutes where we scored all our goals might be the best time I've had at a sporting event, just great fun. I reckon the losses and draws before this were all far less stressful, mind you. I've never been so certain of anything in my life that they were gonna score an equaliser with their last attack. Fucking drained after it

Every game of ours I've attended has been shite and I'll be at this so I wouldn't expect a classic, lads. Or a win for that matter. We might score though, I'm no @Beren.

Man the Glazers must love him so much