Andy

What is he meant to be, then? His only qualities that I've seen are holding the ball up and winning the odd header, but even they're lacking at the moment. His passing isn't great, has no pace, can't dribble or beat a man for shite, wants too many touches, has little to no invention... I'm not sure what kind of player he's meant to be if not a target man. He doesn't have the attributes to play any other role in this league.

Might as well just hoy Gayle or Muto up top. Joelinton is offering nowt at the minute as a target man and his confidence is clearly shot, at least Gayle manages to be in the right positions for the odd tap in every now and then.

Ridiculous that if we had a Demba Ba type in our team we'd probably be chasing top 4 at the minute League is absolute gash this year.

Carroll isn't the answer, but I find it hard to believe that people think Joelinton offers more than him. Thought the latter's performance as a lone striker was absolutely dismal again today.

Poor performance but 17 points since the hammering by Leicester is a decent return like.

That's true for the end of last season when the front three clicked, but not before that. We played some awful football before Christmas last season too - not quite as bad as we were in the first half on Thursday, but not far off. The difference with Rafa, to me, was that you always had some faith that it finally would click even if it ultimately took until the very end of his reign for it to happen. I don't really have any faith in Bruce making us gel like that.

This is how deluded our happy clapper fans are. We won't be going for the throat mate. When was the last time we even had close to 50% possession? We'll sit back and hoof the ball to Carroll. Bruce just won't know how to do it any other way. Watford at home. Wolves wasn't that far away either. So in one match out of the 15 played so far we've managed 50% or above possession. Yeah we'll be going for the throat. That isn't just a symptom of the Bruce era tbf, you're going back a good while since we had a team capable of controlling possession.

Fair play to Shelvey for that second goal like, didn't think he had it in him to jog half the length of a football pitch.

He was clearly injured before he even scored like. Couldn't sprint all night. was limping very early on if not from kick off.

Because he thought it was offside,that's his job ffs They're meant to keep it down for marginal decisions now like. Not adapting to VAR in that sense.

shocking by the Sheffield Utd players that. Absolute basics to play to the referee's whistle.

Excellent play by Shelvey to play to the whistle.

This is bollocks though. He was a joke when he came on at Villa. Even worse when he came on at Chelsea. This is one of the club’s low points. Starting a player who’s only here because he’s a Geordie. Like the arsehole managing the team. I don't rate Carroll at all but I honestly don't see how he can offer less than Joelinton recently At least Joelinton can move and stay on a pitch for more than 70 minutes before being injured. Oh. Glad we put down that £40,000,000 then, I was starting to doubt him. not the point..neither are good enough, sad it's a discussion really. Well exactly, it's swapping turd for cack, I don't really see why people are getting their knickers in a twist.

This is bollocks though. He was a joke when he came on at Villa. Even worse when he came on at Chelsea. This is one of the club’s low points. Starting a player who’s only here because he’s a Geordie. Like the arsehole managing the team. I don't rate Carroll at all but I honestly don't see how he can offer less than Joelinton recently At least Joelinton can move and stay on a pitch for more than 70 minutes before being injured. Oh. Glad we put down that £40,000,000 then, I was starting to doubt him. Also, as someone who avidly doesn't watch our matches... How do you know?

Has he though? How many times has Joelinton worked the keeper recently? At least I can think of Carroll's volley a few games ago which forced a good save, a header or two on target, in much less time on the field... Again, I don't rate Carroll and haven't since he left us the first time, but sticking with Joelinton week in, week out is a complete waste of time as he isn't offering anything and his confidence is visbily dropping by the match

Yea, nowt to do with how Bruce uses him or owt He's got no pedigree for scoring goals whatsoever and is visibly indecisive and lacks instinct or any form of threat. As said many times, it's very obvious why Rafa didn't want him - he isn't a premier league goalscorer and never will be, in any team, under any manager, no matter how he's used.

This is bollocks though. He was a joke when he came on at Villa. Even worse when he came on at Chelsea. This is one of the club’s low points. Starting a player who’s only here because he’s a Geordie. Like the arsehole managing the team. I don't rate Carroll at all but I honestly don't see how he can offer less than Joelinton recently

Don't really see the problem with AC starting like. He'll have already contributed as much as Joelinton in recent games just by standing on the turf in the warm up.

A team like Man City ? How did that end. Worst than last season. A team like Spurs ? How did that end - we robbed them even though they were gash. A team like Man Utd ? How did that end. Could've easily gone either way. We didn't dominate and they missed a good chance before the young Longstaff pulled your mate out. A team like Bournemouth? How did that end. Could've easily been a draw. Same as WHU who almost came back from 3 down. We've not dominated a full game all season. Can we now talk about how Norwich, Leicester, Villa etc went? Or is that against your rules? Howay man we all hate Steve Bruce, but you could look at any team's results over the course of a season and point out what could've happened differently to change the scoreline. You can't take every decent result away from the players.

To be fair, it's always going to take a bit of luck for us to get a point against City regardless of their recent form.

It may be bad but our goal difference is still much better than the clubs occupying those bottom spaces though, to be fair. The "goals for" column is the key one. Teams that can't score get relegated, as the cliche goes, unless you're AC Milan 93/94 in which case you get a pass.

McClaren W8, D8, L18, Bruce W4, D4, L6. McClaren was struggling at Derby, had already turned us down, had bombed his previous 2 or 3 jobs yet we still appointed him. We were a shambles under him, some of the performances were mind blowing. It will turn for Bruce but for now he’s actually exceeding expected results. Aye, McClaren pretty much objectively had a better set of players than Bruce as well. Think it says more about the managers that preceded the two rather than their individual ability when gauging over so few matches though.

Aye, I understand apathy or even antagonism towards the regime, but I can't get behind celebrating when the other team scores like. Even more so when it's one of the plastic, money clubs like City scoring. Pretty much where I am. It's very easy to celebrate (only a mental 'ha ha' for me, no jumping around) when you view the club as Sports Direct United rather than Newcastle United. I sort of understand that perspective but it still seems odd to me to keep watching, if I legitimately wanted us to lose every week and no longer considered the team in black in white to represent Newcastle I think I'd probably give it a miss until I felt differently. To continue watching seems masochistic at best.

Who's getting worked up? Just feels a bit cringeworthy that people continue to watch the matches just to celebrate when we concede or lose. If the club is that far gone for you maybe there's better things to be getting on with? Covmag and stiff to name two. Anyhoo, as far as i know it isn't a bannable offence so on we go. If it's the best use of your free time then carry on, aye, by all means

Who's getting worked up? Just feels a bit cringeworthy that people continue to watch the matches just to celebrate when we concede or lose. If the club is that far gone for you maybe there's better things to be getting on with?