KaKa

He's a wide man. Every time he gets the ball he wants to run at people. He's best placed to do that out wide.

At this stage of his career he doesn't have the discipline or subtlety to play the role being asked of him. He's dropping way too deep, and trying to do way too much in very crowded areas of the pitch.

It's extraordinary that at this level we would use a player this way. It's what you see at school boy level when a kid is just better than everyone else and he just gets the ball all the time wherever he wants, to run past everyone and try to score.

Cringe worthy stuff.

Newcastle United under Bruce are just so boring, I get nothing out of watching them apart from apathy, take Saint Maxim and Wilson out of that team and it's nailed on relegation

Boring is far too kind, as it leaves open the possibility that we are even somewhat effective.

We are incompetent and embarrassing.

It's been over a year now. Players are not showing any consistency. The team is not showing any consistency. Every game is STILL painful viewing.

ASM has been rendered ineffective, Almiron also, Longstaffs are long gone, Joelinton is now worth about £4, Fraser still hasn't really been worked into the team, Hendrick is already completely lost out there, Hayden is now on the bench and Wilson is now finally injured from chasing around for scraps every game.

But hey, we're 11th, so all is well in the world.

We aren’t that shit , these are just very good tbf.

 

Nah

 

We had 10-15min of decent football post conceding, then promptly fell apart and are lucky to only be down by 1. Again, no shape, movement, other than hoofball, ASM carrying the ball up the pitch while getting hacked to shit with one easily saved header on goal in 45min. Whew.

Nothing good we do is ever sustainable, and is all just happenstance.

The team just makes it up as they go, and so the majority of the time it's all just rubbish.

Would be interested to see how many times Max has given away possession, he seems to be reverting to his careless reputation that he had in France.

 

He’s being played in a position completely ruining his game. Of course he’s giving the ball away as nobody is within 40 yards of him.

 

A position he wants to play in

 

Completely irrelevant. If he isn't effective there, it's on the manager to play him where he is effective.

He only works wide left.  That way he can terrify defender.  Playing through the middle he doesn't have the space he needs. 

He's brilliant either side. In the two positions the manager is not playing him in.

Hendrick boils my piss so much.

 

Yep. He's fucking awful.

 

He and Longstaff are hiding in the midfield. Especially Hendrick, doing that thing where a player will make it look like they're trying to find space to make themselves available but really he's hiding in and around opposition players so he's not available to receive the ball and inevitably fuck up. So non-committal and lacking courage or responsibility. Worst thing is, despite the fact he does absolutely nothing in a forward sense, when the ball is turned over, he's somehow always behind play and chasing back.

They have a plan and know what they're all supposed to be doing.

We just go out there winging it. No matter who plays for us it always looks like this.

ASM drops so deep in this free role man. Just ends up being a 3-6-1.

The whole shape of the team just stinks.

We're playing 5 across the middle and can't keep the ball against a 4-4-2. Pitiful stuff

Hasn't he also got the best we've ever seen out of Rashford and Martial? And also brought Greenwood through well last season.

Pogba is the one guy really letting him down right now and the central defenders are bad, and we're not improved upon, which he wanted I believe.

Just doesn't look like he knows how to fit van Der Beek, Fernandes and Pogba into the same team

Should have just started Van Der Beek for one of Fred or McTominay in this diamond formation. Think he'll try that eventually.

Been quite a while since I saw Pogba justify his place.

He's been so terrible.

As soon as he felt that nick he threw himself down

Now technically Masuaku does make contact with him, but it had absolutely no impact on his balance at all and was really just an incidental brush.

Penalties have become so weird man.

Joe Gomez man ... always so dodgy.

I like Harvey Barnes. A lot actually ... but nah. Not having that.

Saint-Maximin in that Leicester team playing Rodgers brand of football alongside the likes of Tielemans, Maddison, Vardy etc and he would be a terror and far more of a threat.

Equally, Harvey Barnes in our team would not be the same player he is developing into either. Nowhere near. We'd all be calling him shite like we do all of our players currently.

Awful Leipzig, been powderpuff at both ends.

 

Been made to look bang average. Ole's tactics bang on in Europe again. Soaked up the pressure and hammered them at the other end.

 

OK champ.

 

Thought the tactics were good tbf.

 

3-5-2 against PSG, 4-3-2-1 against Chelsea, 4-4-2 diamond tonight. Almost as if he's planning the tactics for who his team is facing, madness.

God ... it's just so depressing in comparison to Bruce man.

The diamond looked fantastic for them with the different pairs of strikers they can use in it between Martial, Greenwood, Rashford and now even Cavani.

They also have a fair number of central midfield options to rotate into the three CM positions too.

Meanwhile Bruce is carrying on about how he needs time to figure out how to change from one formation and get his team using the ball to an even barely average level.

Urgh.

Toney Toney Toney has done it again.

Looks like he is carrying a injury

This is said every single time he doesn't have the best game

All style no substance, not a top level player, too good for us, but not much more.

Ooh la la!

He'll be alright. Liverpool will give us our money back for him when we go down.

Felt for this guy yesterday as he was very isolated. The continued hallmark of strikers under Bruce.

Yeah, we were supposedly playing two upfront ... but we weren't really.

As usual there was no shape or discipline, and so ASM was dropping into a midfield that already had three players in there, because we were unable to pass the ball well enough to get it to the front two.

This left Wilson upfront alone against 3 centre backs foraging for scraps and being crowded out and dispossessed of the ball.

Fun times.

I mean ... this guy is old enough to have seen Newcastle in the Champions League and competing with Man Utd for the title.

He can look at the table and see the likes of Everton, Villa, Southampton, Leicester going from strength to strength and leaving us far behind.

How can he try and pretend we're anything other than a disgrace right now. I just don't get it.

How can anyone watch Ralph Hasenhuttl's side, then watch Steve Bruce's mob, and think he's doing a good manager? There's no reason for Southampton to be that much better than us, other than the manager.

And doing it with a 4-4-2 that works well defensively and offensively. Southampton are run frighteningly well.

The players and managers that have gone through that club in recent history has been something else.

The players in the system they’re being set out to play in just isn’t working. Needs something to change the way they play.

We've now seen a 4-4-2, a 4-2-3-1, a 4-3-3, a 3-4-2-1 and now a 3-5-2 and nothing has looked effective or worked well this season.

We just sit deep and when we occasionally win it back, we lump it long or give it to ASM to try and dribble the whole team.

No idea what on earth is being done every single day in training. The team can't win the ball back or pass the ball consistently for more than 3 to 5 passes at most.

Prefer him in wider areas where he has more space to run at people all game.

Playing him through the middle, particularly in Bruce's anti football mess, is not going to work out well.

These jokers man

"You're right there with Man City, Spurs and Chelsea, you should be thrilled!"

Their positions are the break from the norm, and they'll hardly be in and around the stink the whole season like we always are.

Meanwhile the likes of Everton, Villa, Southampton, Leeds and Leicester continue to leave us further and further behind. Urgh.