KaKa

Villa are so impressive.

It’s literally mental how garbage we are compare to every other team in the league bar Sheff Utd!

And still got schooled by Sheffield United.

The Villa counter attack looks like it will get them goals today.

Can't believe Villa play today and have to then turn around and play us on Saturday, and they'll still batter us

Gave the ball away to Arsenal leading directly to goals in both games against them recently. Good timing.

The difference in intensity.  Wow!  I don't even remember it being that visibly obvious. 

 

Now most the players seem unfit, uninterested and unable to break into a sprint. 

 

The drop down in levels is really astonishing. As much as we all rate Rafa I don't think the quality of his management was even fully appreciated when he was here.

 

Because he was messed around so much with transfers, we never really got to see him really shine as far as really getting high up the league, and so he was dismissed by pundits and even some fans as not doing anything special.

 

I think now we've been stuck with Bruce for a year, who has spent so much money and has made the team look immeasurably worse, the drop off is really becoming so glaring.

 

One of the most recent tifo football videos had us bottom for intensity. Apparently the worst Premier League team in the last 5 years. From Rafa to that in 18 months.

We apparently have analysts at the club. Do you think they are monitoring any of these sorts of things and bringing them to the manager's attention? If not, what on earth are they there for?!

The difference in energy from then to now is frightening

 

And yet there are people who have consistently said there was no difference between Rafa's football and Bruce (even on here!). I really can't even begin to grasp what they were watching.

 

I posted a few weeks ago that the Man City home game in 2017-18 labelled Rafa's Newcastle as this shockingly bad to watch defensive anti football merchants: a game where we were a newly promoted side playing against a Guardiola managed Man City who were looking for their 18th successive league win and would eventually win the title with 100 points. We had around 18% of the ball, lost 0-1, but we almost snuck a result: Aarons had a chip cleared off the line, Gayle should've shot but instead dived and he also had a header go narrowly wide. But think back to the coverage and reaction from that night, Neville's commentary, post match interviews, tweets, even posts on here. The label stuck and that's what is clouding Neville's judgment I think. We did it against Chelsea at home in 2018/19 too, should've drawn the game but lost to a late own goal yet the coverage from Sky lambasted Rafa for it. Those games and how they were portrayed by the likes of Neville, Redknapp etc is the yardstick that they compare Bruceball to what we played under Rafa and because of it they see no difference, or even argue that the former is better.

 

Its bullshit.

Yup, it's embarrassingly poor stuff from those so called pundits. I mean it's just so pathetically lazy, and they say it with such self assuredness and arrogance.

In Neville's case in particular it really does make it quite easy to see why he failed so badly at Valencia, and his time there was such a farce. His team had the same stench of incompetency as Bruce's Newcastle ones.

That Maddison clip doesn't even feel like an interview.

Guy is just genuinely enjoying talking about how much he is loving his football and working with his manager, team mates and the analysts to become better.

We are so far away from that with our players it's frightening.

But hey ho ... "let's play"

Longstaff pressing so intensely and quickly to win that penalty against Man City.

Now he is considered a plodder that can't run. Incredible stuff.

The difference in intensity.  Wow!  I don't even remember it being that visibly obvious. 

 

Now most the players seem unfit, uninterested and unable to break into a sprint. 

The drop down in levels is really astonishing. As much as we all rate Rafa I don't think the quality of his management was even fully appreciated when he was here.

Because he was messed around so much with transfers, we never really got to see him really shine as far as really getting high up the league, and so he was dismissed by pundits and even some fans as not doing anything special.

I think now we've been stuck with Bruce for a year, who has spent so much money and has made the team look immeasurably worse, the drop off is really becoming so glaring.

The difference in energy from then to now is frightening

And yet there are people who have consistently said there was no difference between Rafa's football and Bruce (even on here!). I really can't even begin to grasp what they were watching.

The way Antonio just barged that West Brom player

I love that man. Running back type stuff

It's just so disturbing how much better than us every other team looks.

5 at the back ditched

Man ... we are going to get abused if Arsenal pick the team I expect them to 

Carroll and Wilson tonight boys

I think this will be a narrow Arsenal win. They struggle on front of goal, but we'll sit in and invite pressure.

 

If Arsenal start a front four of Lacazette, Aubameyang, Smith-Rowe and Saka, as well as Tierney playing at left back then we will get destroyed.

 

They look very very good when those 5 are on the pitch at the same time. Thomas Partey is also back and adds a lot of energy and dynamism to their midfield.

 

If all those feature it could be very bad.

 

This Arsenal team don’t destroy teams, I expect us to lose, but it will be by the odd goal I think.

I think this will be a narrow Arsenal win. They struggle on front of goal, but we'll sit in and invite pressure.

 

If Arsenal start a front four of Lacazette, Aubameyang, Smith-Rowe and Saka, as well as Tierney playing at left back then we will get destroyed.

 

They look very very good when those 5 are on the pitch at the same time. Thomas Partey is also back and adds a lot of energy and dynamism to their midfield.

 

If all those feature it could be very bad.

 

You're being overly kind to Arsenal here. Those names look great but the football they play isn't.

 

They play the same sort of (anti) football as us most of the time. If a team opens up against them they can look better and more dangerous. If teams sit back like we do they haven't got a clue what to do.

They've only just started playing all those together and it has improved them a lot when they feature.

See the West Brom game as an example where they dismantled a manager akin to ours.

I think this will be a narrow Arsenal win. They struggle on front of goal, but we'll sit in and invite pressure.

If Arsenal start a front four of Lacazette, Aubameyang, Smith-Rowe and Saka, as well as Tierney playing at left back then we will get destroyed.

They look very very good when those 5 are on the pitch at the same time. Thomas Partey is also back and adds a lot of energy and dynamism to their midfield.

If all those feature it could be very bad.

Yeah, couldn't believe he mentioned the canteen. Typical

He's now whining about the virus again, as the reason why the team has been struggling

Steve Bruce has revealed some of Newcastle’s coronavirus victims have been “goosed” by the illness.

 

Skipper Jamaal Lascelles and fellow defenders Federico Fernandez and Emil Krafth are among those who have been struck down, while striker Allan Saint-Maximin has been out of action since November 21, with the virus still having an impact on the club.

 

Asked if the ongoing situation was getting him down, head coach Bruce replied: “I’m not getting down about it. I know how difficult to handle players and staff who have had it. They are absolutely goosed, some of them. That becomes the problem I’m faced with. It’s a difficult thing to manage.

 

“All of a sudden now, the canteen is closing, we might be thinking about dressing rooms to close again, all of this where the protocols are very difficult to adhere to.

 

“We can’t have a team meeting, we can’t have a video analysis meeting, we can’t do this, we can’t do that. It becomes very, very difficult.

 

“The most difficult thing for me is we were struck down a month ago and we are still suffering. We have still got our best player arguably (Saint-Maximin) struggling with it and it’s been seven or eight weeks.

 

“We’ve got people like Fede (Fernandez), arguably the best pro we’ve got on our books, struggling with it, still. That’s the difficult thing, that people don’t understand.

 

“Most people are OK, but some aren’t and it becomes very difficult. The captain, for example, couldn’t raise a leg at 45 minutes against Arsenal. He was in a state.

 

“It has been a difficult situation and that’s what I get down with.”

 

Saint-Maximin in particular has been a huge loss to Bruce, whose side have been desperately short of creativity during an eight-game winless run they hope will end at Arsenal on Monday evening.

 

Asked about how costly the Frenchman’s absence had been, and if that showed the Magpies had become overreliant on him, Bruce said: “Have we become overreliant? We’ve been without him for weeks, so I can’t really answer that.

 

“Have we missed him? One hundred per cent, yes, of course because he can give us something which gives you that spark in the last third, if you like, and playing on the counter-attack, we’re not quite the same when he’s not in the team.”

;D

I would end up hurting someone if that was me. My goodness 

Wow. Nice. Was so worried he would come here and ruin his career.

Man! That would have been legendary

I know Pep loves rotating but Foden is in the the form of his ,ife surely he's got to just keep playing him

 

Definitely not saying that because he's in my fantasy team

Pep loves winding up fantasy football players. Awful human being.

I don't think he meant that but if he did that's unbelievable

 

Hard to see what else he could have been going for.

Yeah, he definitely meant that. Great awareness.

Smart finish ...

Looks far worse than it actually was. It's undoubtedly a shit challenge but the fact it's caused the player to go flying in the air makes it look way worse.

Azpilicueta really sold it too with the histrionics after.