Yorkie

Gave him a 7 in the match thread but on reflection he was definitely an 8; he was flawless and had lots of particularly good moments. There was one passage of play where we worked it forward really well and it culminated in him backheeling it for Elanga to cross; but he was central to the move from the very beginning. Maybe the same one from the incident @joeyt mentioned but can't remember. I felt we really had a foothold in the game for most of that second half and he was central to that. Amazing player. Don't think I've seen an engine like his one any other Newcastle player, ever. Obscene stamina.

I respect him for the persistence with the 3-4-3. It's been a long time since we looked dynamic with it (Chelsea at home, pre-sending off) and I'll always prefer to see us with the 4-3-3, but it's important to have another option, and the more we play with it, the more comfortable you'd expect us to look. And with three of our four first-choice CBs playing, we're always going to be a fucker to score against.

Very tidy and disciplined performance; good to see, and just generally good to see him getting games and grasping the opportunity. Hopefully he features against Bradford too.

I mean the formation was a very significant factor in us delivering such a solid display.

Don't think it's fair to say his teammates offered him nothing but it was slim pickings, obviously. I was impressed with him in the first half and he was involved in our best moments, including the pen he should've been given. He was pretty dire from that moment on though, I thought. It just bounced off him and when we had crossing opportunities he was invisible. Being glass half empty: it's a shame we're having to rely on him because I can definitely picture more games like that; people won't recognize he's a work in progress and get on his back. Being glass half full: he's clearly a talent and being thrust into the limelight probably won't do him any harm.

I'll accept 8 but you've gotta be scoring or assisting for a 9, surely. He was very, very good though. Arguably the most important player in us having the level of control we did, but I think there's an argument for the CBs as they bred confidence.

It's a cracking little point given the context, like. We've got away fixtures at Brentford, Everton, Sunderland and Liverpool following CL games this season. If we can recreate that level of solidity in those games too then we're worlds ahead of 23/24.

Pope - 7 Livramento - 6 Thiaw - 7 Botman - 8 Burn - 8 Hall - 6 Miley - 6 Tonali - 7 Murphy - 6 Woltemade - 6 Willock - 5.5 Particularly good to see Botman looking so sharp and assured; great performance. Those three CBs should be hard work for anyone to get through; looking forward to seeing more from Thiaw even if he's a wee bit clumsy, clearly. Feels a bit harsh giving Tonali a 7 because his industry and stamina continues to blow my mind. Should've done better with a shot on the edge of the area, mind.

They're absolutely massive absentees. Even Gordon, for all he's worse than shit if you read the match threads, those are the sorts of games he can pop up with a goal in, like he did in midweek, and like he did in this fixture a year ago. We looked really blunt but it's a work in progress and we've had a really important tool removed in the form of Wissa. I'm a bit concerned with just how non-threatening Woltemade looked, mind. Remove his first time control and you're getting absolutely fuck all, as was the case for his last 30 minutes on the pitch. Long way to go for him, it feels like.

No complaints from me. Bournemouth are again looking like a really strong side this season and we've really limited then with a heavily rotated line-up, in a formation that we're still finding our feet in. Thought we controlled it tbh. In terms of our attacking play, it's just going to take time this season, it really is. We lost our striker and the person we signed to replace him got injured immediately, meanwhile Elanga clearly has some way to go before he's fully trusted. Woltemade is an expensive project signing. We're not gonna score loads of goals in the first throes of this season so it's brilliant that we've looked so strong at the back.

Fuck off giving handball for that

Obviously a pen for shirt pulling but it's on the ref, not VAR.

After an ugly start and a very fortunate escape, we've settled and looked reasonably comfortable. Pretty much everyone is doing the job they've been asked of them to at least a 6/10. Operation Do Not Lose successful so far. First time seeing Wolt from the start and certainly encouraged by how he receives and controls the ball. Hopefully he's got plenty in his locker as a goal threat too otherwise we've paid £65m for not a great deal (yet). Definitely like what I'm seeing though.

Class that half the squad has got injured again now we're back in Europe. Already feels like a really defining factor in our season.

What's the point in the players doing those daft pronunciation vids if none of the comms pay attention to em?

Lovely bit of footy. Woltemade has some deftness, doesn't he?

Lucky as fuck.

Usual bag of shite down here so far. Come on, lads.

Am I missing something with Outtara? Why have they spent a truck load on him just to stick him on the bench?

Got a friend of a friend who is looking for someone who is: A: an NUFC fan based in the London area, B: going to the game tomorrow, and C: would be interested in doing some filming for Guinness If anyone is interested lmk.

McCoist's various isms are so annoying. Pretty done with hearing the bloke.

Daringly gone Dubravka ahead of Alison, transferred Mitoma in for Kudus. Salah cap. Looking forward to another week of scraping ahead of the gamewekek average.

Having a good chuckle at some of the items on the list of things I'd do for a point.

come on. Thought he was okay. His direct opponent was absolutely brilliant and even would've blocked his shot if he'd shot back across goal.

I think anyone digging him out for the team selection is being very harsh, like. The reasons for why we had to play Gordon there are incredibly obvious, and there is a universe where he doesn't play so poorly in that game. We needed him for the press and intensity and, tbf, he delivered on that score for the most part. I don't think there's any guarantee we win with Woltemade on the pitch instead. If we're being critical for anything then making so many changes at once would be it. Even if it was just three (as intended before the additional Thiaw one), it was too significant a change to our setup at precisely the wrong time. They were securing their foothold as we were trying to grasp the new shape. Really contributed to that long spell where we couldn't seem to do shit.