Conjo

I doubt these people were expecting him to play a more significant role than an option on the bench. I certainly wasn't and was happy to keep him around for another season. As a starting striker though….not so much

Seeing as we looked to be playing the most basic 4-4-2 imaginable, it'd be interesting to see what he sees as going back to basics Will he go back to Rafaball next match and hope the majority of players remembers how Rafa set them up against Spurs?

These words and name don't work together. Will be interesting to see how PL bends the knee for China if f.ex a player or pundit says something deemed as damaging to Chinas reputation.

It's the same with cross country skiers in Norway. All of them have asthma for some mysterious reason.

Early days, but safe to say that WBA, Fulham, Newcastle and Burnley (edit: and West Ham) will be fighting for survival for a long time this season, if not until the end of it. Other likely contenders will be Villa, Southampton and an outsider that I think will struggle (at least compared to last season) is Sheffield United.

I dunno. A lot of the things he did during his good spell was individual moments of brilliance, things that shouldn't necessarily be reliant on a specific system. Search "This is Why Manchester United Needs Sean Longstaff !" on youtube. He tried and did things he simply doesn't do anymore, and he looks in better shape/sharper then than he does now. To me it seems like it was either a purple patch, or his injury has affected him a lot and hasn't gotten back to the physical shape he was in back then. It was so much fun watching him. The "old" Longstaff did everything. Was good in the tackle, could spray the ball around just as good as Shelvey, was really good at creating space for himself under pressure in order to pass the ball, had a mean shot, excellent crossing technique. I don't see how these things can get so much worse just because he plays in a less structured team.

It’s as simple as that Our best team doesn’t have Joelinton in it. You might as well argue that we should have put the ginger Pirlo in the team with the remaining best players to get the best out of him. You have to do what’s best for the team, not what’s best for an individual player. What’s best for the team is Joelinton sitting on the bench and more capable players out on the pitch. I don't think anyone is "envisioning" Joelinton in that role at the expense of Almiron. However some want to see what Joelinton can add to the team in such a role, as he's never been given the opportunity to play in the role he had success with in Germany. Don't see what is so outrageous about that. ASM/Almiron/Fraser are all interchangable so there's definitely room to add Joelinton for a few matches to give him a chance to prove himself. There’s literally a post that Kanji’s post was in response to with a team lineup envisioning just that. The point is that we have better options, that you would need to drop, for the position where you might get the best out of Joelinton. Maybe I misunderstood. I thought he meant he would like Joelinton given a chance to prove himself in that position, not taking anyone's place by default. If he's given a chance in a more favorable position and shows us why he cost £40m then he would be part of our best 11 and should start as a result, no? If he's never going to be used as anything other than a lone striker then I agree he might as well be loaned out or sold as he should be behind Wilson, Gayle and Carroll in the pecking order.

After his season with Wigan he played a grand total of 25 matches for 7 different clubs in the years 2010 - 2015 before retiring.

It’s as simple as that Our best team doesn’t have Joelinton in it. You might as well argue that we should have put the ginger Pirlo in the team with the remaining best players to get the best out of him. You have to do what’s best for the team, not what’s best for an individual player. What’s best for the team is Joelinton sitting on the bench and more capable players out on the pitch. I don't think anyone is "envisioning" Joelinton in that role at the expense of Almiron. However some want to see what Joelinton can add to the team in such a role, as he's never been given the opportunity to play in the role he had success with in Germany. Don't see what is so outrageous about that. ASM/Almiron/Fraser are all interchangable so there's definitely room to add Joelinton for a few matches to give him a chance to prove himself.

Difference is that for loans (generally) smaller clubs pay bigger clubs to loan players. With a buy back clause the buying club will get more back than what they initially paid. If a selling club decides to exercise a buy back clause then presumably the player has done very well for his new club so it's a win win for them that they have gotten value for what they paid and made money off of him. As college dropout says, it's also better for player development so all in all, miles better than loans, even though it is a (way more expensive) way of hording player talent.

I pity the guy man, he's in so much trouble at this club, he's just lucky the stadium's are still empty. God help him Fairly sure I read criticism of Gillespie, Krafth, Yedlin, Ritchie and Longstaff in this thread too.

He’s trained with them for a week ffs. Unless this is a piss take post. Not saying he will be, but that performance, for a player with such a reputation was awful. If he continues like that, he will be, is all I'm saying.

Havertz looks like an early contender for this years big flop. I take it he's being shoe horned into a position he's not familiar with but still, awful tempo, slow, poor passing and shooting.

Aye, comparing a 28yo international with a 22yo and 20yo still taking their first steps in the game - of course Hendrick looked better. That's the challenge both the Longstaff brother have to contend with - displacing the likes of these senior pros Agreed, and I hope they succeed in doing so. Time is running out for Sean though unless he has the eternal talent syndrome Ameobi had. He turns 23 in a month so it's critical that he manages to force himself into the side this season.

He's also played 30+ matches in the PL the last 4 seasons for a team that has done better than Newcastle, and is a full international. I think it's safe to say he is better than both at the moment, not just based on this 1 game. Longstaffs still has age on their side I guess.

Your avatar needs a fishing rod rather than an ax He's not wrong though, based on last their performances last season. Hendrick played better than Matty vs Man Utd which was the best Longstaff performance last season.

It didn't make things harder for him that he was up against Cresswell who had a shocking (even by his standards) game. One of the few fullbacks (worst starting FB in the league?) we'll come up against that are actually slower than Hendrick. He seems like a decent enough player, more suited centrally. He'll probably be able to keep the ball in the team, but if asked to create anything out wide against better and faster fullbacks he'll struggle massively imo.

Good start. Captained Salah, had Auba and Wilson as well. Werner, Havertz, Justin and three wolves players still to play.

He looked quicker than he did at the end of last season, which was a pleasant surprise. Good debut.

Hard to knock him when he assists and scores, but over the course of a season he won't be much more than your standard Matt Ritchie/Joey Barton type of player. I wouldnt be opposed to him getting the nod central ahead of the players we have at disposal there, but he should never start ahead of a fit Almiron/ASM/Fraser, but clearly will because Bruce.

You can only beat what is in front of you and all that, but West Ham really is the gift that keeps on giving. Oh, and:

You've had since Newcastle signed these players to get over the fact that Bruce will not use the formation or set of players that makes most sense to 99% of people that follows Newcastle and football in general. This was completely predictable and will be what you will have to live with if you watch/follow this team this season. That being said, the opponent is West Ham so there's always the chance of a jammy win or boring draw.

There was talk about it trying to be revived and we would only hear next if it was successful or failed. This is it. I feel like the PL has been trying to save face and Ashley has called them on it. The takeover/fit and proper test process was never formally withdrawn as far as I can remember. Granted, haven't paid much attention to club affairs for a few weeks.

I've never watched much of Bournemouth, but I always had the assumption, probably based on something silly like FM stats, that he was a player that relied a lot on his pace. Got to see a few matches at the end of last season and was surprised how slow he seemed to be. Didn't play particularly well either, although same could be said about their whole team. His injury record is not being questioned due to his last two seasons, but the three seasons prior to that where he missed 10, 18 and 25 matches. He'd still walk into this team though, whether it's on one or two knees.