Andy

Villa fans on Villa Talk seem to think Duran was a yellow and Joelinton was a red. I understand every fan has a bit bias, but how anyone who has ever kicked a ball in their life can come to that conclusion is beyond me.

Joelinton man, why give them something to even look at? Stupid.

He 100% has control over what he's doing there btw. He kicks his leg forward. It's definitely a deliberate motion.

Alex Ferguson levels of analysis of Newcastle vs Villa We've dropped back since scoring to try and catch their high line IMO.

Give him 30 seconds and no defenders, he randomly turns into Emmanuel Rivière

Just thinking that too. Very assured on the ball.

Fair play to Eddie, he's found a way to make it tick again. We look so much better with the adjustments to the midfield. This had banana skin written all over it, but we've dispatched them incredibly comfortably. Beat Villa and all of a sudden we're in a great position to push on.

Willock out for 6 weeks with bad Kicked Football injury

Murphy reminding me of Zidane today

I think people tend to remember Shearer at the end of his career. At Blackburn in particular he was miles ahead of Isak, and that isn't a knock on Isak by any means.

Turned into Luuk Dr Jong in those situations, except with less shot power

Joke that they still haven't got the semi automated system up and running

Thought they weren't meant to check handball in the build up unless it's by the player who scores? Unless they've changed that now

Pretty embarrassing that we're still below Man City in the table, but hopefully we can pull within a point of them with a good performance here

Anyone else ever look at Matty Cash and think "prime Cafu"?

He's probably earned some leeway tbf They are just completely devoid of confidence and, understandably, struggling to replace the best player in the world who they've built their entire system around.

I'd feel more confident if we were going to the Bernabeu tomorrow This one just has classic NUFC 2024 away performance written all over it.

It's ridiculous. Equally ridiculous that some parts of the media talk about Maresca like he's performing miracles.

I don't think we're referring to the same discussions. I don't even remember arguing with you about it, although I'm not saying it didn't happen My mindset has always been that you play your best midfielders. For me, that meant Tonali coming in to the team and finding a way for it to work, which is what has ultimately happened.

I disagree with this. Bruno is in the team regardless. The switch to the teamsheet that needed to be made (and that I was clamouring for) was Longstaff out, Tonali in. That change is the sole reason we've been able to accommodate Bruno moving to the right. No other player could sit centrally like Tonali has, particularly Longstaff. Howe hasn't dropped Longstaff for Bruno, he's dropped him for Tonali.

The argument being made earlier in the season, by a lot of people, not everyone, was that in the games where we won, we did so because Longstaff was on the pitch. The statement "we were winning when Longstaff was on the pitch" may be true, but it evidently wasn't the reason. I had at least one lengthy argument on here that removing Longstaff from the team and adding in Tonali (which is what has happened, regardless of the positional switch) was a no brainer. People were saying they couldn't see what Tonali offered that Longstaff didn't because he wasn't changing the game in 30 minutes cameos where we were losing. It's absolutely no surprise that finding a way to build the team around the best central midfielder on our books has seen a tangible improvement in both form and performances.

These arguments were always stupid tbh. Just ignoring all nuance and any other variables that could affect performances and results, and plumping straight for "LONGSTAFF PLAY TEAM GOOD, TONALI PLAY TEAM BAD"

Draw a red rectangle covering the full length of the pitch. That's what it feels like his heatmap should look like today. Everywhere.

Great to see. Being effective on set pieces can be the difference between a good few league table positions, there was really no excuse for how bad we were at them given how physical our team is.

He's probably trying too hard to impress due to the limited minutes he's getting. Showed glimpses of being a handful, particularly when he first came on.