Shak

Great win, Howe is class man.

Amateur hour again, seems that we could easily have just waited until the summer and spent a month on this before pursuing any new targets. Miss the old regime on days like this.

I've always thought the PL should have a rule that the away fans have to be placed directly behind the goal at one end of the field. At ground level. Would be great for atmosphere.

Jesse Marsch? Jesse Darsch is more like it.

Love to see Joelinton get the armband for a few games.

Didn't see the game yesterday but I did think a huge part of the reason we looked so good at West Ham was that Burn and Schar are so comfortable on the ball. Lots of times in the first half it was just those two knocking it back and forth and they were always a willing outlet for the midfielders to play back to and restart the build up. It really allowed us to take the sting out of the game, quiet the crowd and stop West Ham from ever getting going. I'm not sure you can ever play like that with Lascelles in the team tbh, he's just so very limited with the ball at his feet.

A bag for me A bag for you Let's get wrecked on bags of glue!!

Harrowing stuff, this

You'd hope that ultimately Bruno will take Shelvey's place. Willock has had some struggles but is still only 22, there's a lot of room for growth as a player there. Shelvey meanwhile turns 30 in a week and his athletic limitations are only going to get worse in the coming seasons. In the short term we could see Bruno play Willock's spot if needed though, looks a very capable all rounder who can fill a number of roles. Once the fixtures start coming thick and fast I expect we'll see plenty of rotation.

Seeing glimpses of the player he could have become since Howe came in. Lot of ability there, he really could have been a quality player IMO.

Fairly hilarious that we've signed this guy and then our 3 CMs have all played fucking immense since then

Great point that. We weren't hanging on either, fully deserved. Really can't wait to see this team with three top class attacking options.

Was horrendous, so much space there.

Literally run himself into the ground, apparently.

They were people from on here. Luckily I was a Shak in Peace.

I made the mistake of pointing this out in a pub full of Geordies once. It was not well received

I reckon he'll get one or two but he doesn't look up to much, does he? Lot of money to pay for a guy who will hopefully be 3rd choice striker next season but I do think just having him as a focal point the last few weeks has been important. Maybe next year he'll be useful as an extra striker off the bench when we want to go more direct? He doesn't look particularly great in the air from what I've seen of him thus far, mind.

You ever feel weird hating the inhabitants of a town you've never been to? I feel like I should but I don't, really

Incredibly impressed by how much of a transformation he's overseen in the way we play. CBs who are happy to keep the ball and play around a little. Players who make runs to create space for others in the final third. We actually look like a team that does things in training during the week to help us in games. Mental. We look so much better for it defensively, too. Lot of people worried about him not being who we needed at the time given our defensive struggles but not just conceding possession immediately when you have it is so important. Villa game was a great example. We didn't just retreat and put everyone behind the ball the last 10 minutes, we actually kept playing and the result was Villa never got a sniff. Hopefully we can go on and get a result today but this is hugely impressive stuff nonetheless IMO. Really exciting the prospect of seeing this team with some quality in the attacking positions. Wood, Fraser and Murphy are all pretty pedestrian at this level and yet we're still producing some good stuff.

Drawbacks of playing in such a low division, just can't have technology at that level.

Fuck yeah Willock! Been our best player.

Disappointing to give away such a soft goal given we've looked really tidy so far.

It looks a bit grim but having Burn and Targett in there does give me some confidence. I'd expect most of the game to be played in our half but I do have some faith that we'll make it difficult for them and will actually have some sort of plan in place to effectively counter attack. Be great to nick a point here.

Poor Pip ate some doozies back in the day.

We're not putting a turd in someone's soup, Mike. OK?