Andy

There's quality settings at the top, try that maybe?

Worst way to watch it. Limited by your computer browser and codecs. I watch like this all the time with a 20m HDMI cable running from my computer to my tele, never had any issues.

Wilfully misinterpreting what’s been said. The point about Leicester was that they are proof that you can outperform Xg over a season, see even more so Man Utd in 17/18, so it’s not necessarily ‘inevitable’ that you will tail-off because you’re currently outperforming Xg. Xg is a useful metric, but it’s far from an exact science. So the one team that basically won the league in the most miraculous of seasons ever, against all the odds prove that it’s not an exact science. There’s always a statistical anomaly in everything With Leicester there were other factors that season that were influential in their success. They won with 81 points, which wouldn't be enough now. At the time, the bigger clubs were all in a state of some transition and that opened up an opportunity. They were also remarkably free from injuries, didn't have the distraction of cup runs or European games, weren't under the same pressure as the bigger clubs, and had players in Kante and Vardy who were far better than everyone was expecting. Being underdogs, I also felt that referees were treating them with some leniency. Aye, when you put it like that it would've been pretty amazing if they didn't win the league that year really. Can't believe I didn't whack them on at 1000/1.

I replied to someone on Twitter talking about Bruce. I mentioned xG and xPoints to highlight the fact that we're in a bit of a false position and was met by several replies along the lines of "Actual goals and points matter, give Bruce a break!!!", "That is the most ridiculous stat anyone could come up with - a pointless statistic", "Stop looking at stats and start looking at results". Twitter is full of fucking morons. I won't be commenting on anything again as I can't be arsed explaining how xG is actually a really good indicator and predictor of a side's true performance to some fucking imbecile. In all honesty, until the bad results are there on paper you're never going to convince anyone with statistics or predictors. Most formulas would've had us losing a number of games this season that we won or drew - they don't really prove anything and certainly aren't going to make people go "oh yeah, you're right" if they're of a different mindset. People will turn on Bruce, it'll happen, but it'll happen as a result of his performance in terms of hard wins and losses, not by people being talked into it. The more you try to convince people, the more they'll resist, especially when we're currently sat 9th in the league after a decent run of form and are 10 points clear of the bottom three by Christmas.

What about for the next 8 games? Sorry for not being a flip flop. The best time for these stats is after we've played those 8 games. If we pick up a reasonable points haul in them, which isn't impossible, you're just going to distance people further from the cause.

The most damning thing about Mike Ashley's ownership of Newcastle United is that, under his regime, a world class manager like Rafa Benitez can appear to have the same ability ceiling as a thicko like Steve Bruce.

Aye he's been shite in both positions in the past. There's a noticeable physical improvement, that's the main difference. When he first got here he looked weak as piss and like he was running through treacle.

Better footballer, but he's done shite all in the CL yet to put forward his case. Yet to see him play well against a top club in either european or international competitions.

Since the end of last season he's been excellent - probably our best player this season so far. He's always looked technically decent but he seems to have worked hard on his physical attributes and looks a lot stronger and quicker than he did when he first arrived. Positioning has improved massively too.

Not really yet, i mean despite being awful for months, they're 4 points from the play offs with a game in hand. They're bound to have a decent run soon, or hopefully have one like they did when they went down in the Championship and not win for love nor money Almost everyone one around them also have a game in hand as well. Doncaster I believe have 2 games in hand. None of this is correct. Are tables getting harder to read? Stifler's post was pretty much correct at time of posting tbf

Keep telling yourself that buddy It was broadly the same IMO. But last year there was faith that there was a season long plan. I disagree completely. Early last season we still didn't look so incompetent and unconvincing. We defended a lot more but at least looked convincing doing that. In any case Bruce inherited the team from the end of last season swapping in Joelinton and Saint-Maximin for Perez and Rondon. It's one thingto miss the goals the previous pairing had, but another to now not be able to pass the ball at all. We are so terrible now it's a joke. We were shite at the start of last season like, no amount of love for Rafa can change that. We had a spell before Christmas where the football was as bad as its been this season - Perez was getting booed, Rondon wasn't firing, Atsu was shite, the midfield couldn't pass water, there was a growing chunk of our fanbase who wanted Rafa out. We didn't really play well until January when Almiron came in and Longstaff forced his way into the side. None of that is really relevant to current performances and doest excuse Bruce's football as these good results are likely a short term thing, but it's untrue to pretend we were always brilliant under Rafa.

From what I've seen there are two main problems with Joelinton: 1) Steve Bruce 2) Joelinton Both factors are contributing to his failure here thus far. Bruce is isolating him and has no idea how to utilise him, but Joelinton isn't helping himself with his indecisive play and clear lack of both confidence and quality in front of goal. As I've said previously, he looks like he wants too much time on the ball to be effective at this level, nothing he does is either instinctive or decisive. He's far too slow at getting shots away when he's carrying the ball and constantly allows defenders to recover or keepers to set themselves, which is a huge deal given the pace of our league and one that foreign players who have these issues have historically struggled to overcome. With Steve Bruce managing him I can only see him getting worse rather than better as his confidence continues to deteriorate. I think he'd be a good player in Serie A, Ligue Un or maybe even La Liga but he'll always struggle in this league unless he can change his game completely.

barely even made it out for a goal kick.

You want to support another club genuinely if it gives you so much satisfaction to see the team get beat triggered. Fuck me, you're boring.

Saint Maximin is a much better footballer than Atsu like. He dribbled past more players today than I can remember Atsu dribbling past in his entire time here. Their end product is much of a muchness but in terms of getting us up the field and taking the pressure off a bit, Saint Maximin is hugely important for Bruce's "gameplan". The correlation between him being in the team and us picking up points is no coincidence.

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.