Yorkie

Howay Osula.

Lot of encouraging signs, not least the two goals. Pressed effectively and well-balanced. Lost momentum after goal 2 and Chelsea started easily crowding us. Feel like we need to continue forcing the issue where we can because if we give them loads of the ball they'll force more chances.

https://x.com/NUFC/status/1851696831224234149?t=WhpL7wZ0LgzhN_F5Z3gXOQ&s=19

Desperate to win but glad Bruno is getting a rest.

Were the coaching staff incompetent imbeciles when we were one of the very best sides in the country and taking points off Europe's best in the CL?

Obviously it's a concern, what do you think I'm debating here? Us being deficient at set pieces doesn't mean our staff are lower league cloggers.

Separately to the 'do we or don't we need a 10' debate, you're listing teams who have much less in the way of restrictions and a far greater margin for error when it comes to transfers. Comparisons to City, Arsenal and Liverpool is pointless at the best of times, they're so far ahead of everyone else in every metric. I accept that but I believe that the squad has the ingredients to make changes. The squad isn't in amazing shape but I don't believe it's a mess.

NUFC 2022-24.

I thought the central point was that "Tindall clearly doesn’t have a clue," and is a "lower league wind up merchant, not someone who should be remotely responsible for anything tactical." Weird how these people are befitting of these labels now, whilst we've hit some ropey form, not when we were enjoying two of the best seasons in recent memory.

Anyone think Newcastle might be a bit out of form atm?

I don't agree that 4-3-3 is the only formation we can play and the fact we don't have a traditional number 10 isn't that big of deal. The other two points are what I said. I don't think it's in a complete mess. It hasn't been for the last two seasons so I don't see how it suddenly is now (discounting the theory that suddenly loads of players have suddenly become much worse).

Think I've answered that above. Barnes is a really good player and has already delivered in some big moments for us.

Only Joelinton is anywhere up to scratch in that position and has been a crucial member of the midfield. That's besides the point though - the issue is that we didn't sign a RW in January or the summer. The Barnes signing is absolutely fine, just undermined by the lack of investment thereafter.

I might eat my words but I don't think it is. There's one really significant gap (backup CF, because Wilson doesn't count) and two areas where we've got quality issues (RW and CB). Those issues are enough to cause a domino effect of problems but I feel that even one decent signing would've settled things down a bit. If it becomes clear that Schär is done, Bruno is burned out, Isak wants to leave, Pope's shoulder has buggered him and Tino and Hall aren't what we thought they were going to be - I'll change my view. But there's a lot of ifs there and maybe, we're just a bit out of form. Which happens.

Can't understand what the mystery is tbh. ASM went, leaving Gordon as our only LW, who was also expected to fill in at CF to relieve Isak and Wilson. Barnes was a quality goalscoring winger available at a competitive price so we signed him.

I can live with him doubling down and trying to make it work at this point. Obviously it's not working right now, but there's such an abundance and variety of attributes across those three individuals that it should work given the right instructions. It's early in the season and it's not like we've been beaten by some mugs; Chelsea are annoyingly good with arguably the best attacking midfielder in the division. If we're sat here in a month's time and it's still as dysfunctional then you really will have to doubt his judgement.

Joelinton has never looked comfortable in a deep midfield position. If it's a double pivot then he can't be involved; I'd sooner see Miley there tbh.

Thought his sweeping was absolutely top notch and he claimed crosses well, one unnecessary punch aside. He's made some very big saves in most games this season too. Agree with everything @Lush Vlad says about yesterday's goal. Schär is on the wane by the looks of it, not helped by having zero competition (see Isak, A.) I won't go as far as saying "he's the least of our worries" because he's not perfect and an upgrade in that position would make a big difference. But I'm comfortable with him in nets, like. That goal wasn't the norm.

All just so painfully inevitable. Will be interesting to see if RvN is an actual candidate for the job.

I'm sure there will be some rotation and tbh that wouldn't hurt even if it were a league game. Hoping for a mood turning performance and result.

In the past 12 months our record in that time is: W22 D10 L17. Almost all of the time in the top 8. Winter was ropey and we had some frustrating defeats last season, but some brilliant wins including some total hammerings. We quite obviously haven't been 'absolutely shite' for a year, that's just total baseless guff.

I mean this is just basic nonsense cryarsing. Why come out with it?

Nah, we haven't. We were rubbish by all accounts at Fulham and got at least a half at Wolves, and I'd be tempted to pin that adjective on most of today as well. But other than that we've been average-to-decent, and equal parts clinical (early on) and wasteful (now). We've got tenth and a cup run all over us this season, imo.

Yeah, he fucked it up but it wasn't like anyone was actually stationary. You can see from the replay that he doesn't pick his head up once; very poor really.

Even then we only did so because Chelsea went into their shell and let us have the ball. And still we couldn't build any actual momentum. Limp as fuck, same as the league fixture there last season.