KaKa

Not sure whether he's a Pardew player though.

Pardew would have played Colback ahead of him 100%

This guy man

Shelvey is in trouble

Strong, quick, good in the air, wins the ball, fantastic passing ... has come right in and does not look out of place one bit.

He is a stud.

Amazing ... we needed that badly this week man. Phew!

Love this result because Bilic was running his mouth leading up to the game with some really patronising comments about us.

 

Eeejit.

 

What he say?

“They (Newcastle fans/Rafa Benitez) are not happy with the transfers but they spent more money than we have spent in this transfer window, if we are talking about net money.

 

“Okay, they maybe needed more to improve because they came up from the Championship.

 

“It is a big club, they were all buzzing.

 

“Newcastle won the league (Championship) and it was ‘now we are going to rule the world’, or whatever.

 

“Maybe they tried…I think they tried.

 

“What I think happened is that they tried but maybe they were unable to get those targets that they wanted. Like we did last year, for example.

 

“Maybe they were thinking too big and those players, they didn’t want to come.

 

“However, I don’t feel that they are not an ambitious club, Newcastle, with Rafa Benitez, who basically lifted them up.

 

“I feel we need someone to boost our team and quality. That’s why we also offloaded some players to get the budget for him, or for another player in that position.

 

“They are not easy to get but we are doing our best and hopefully we will do it.”

We've defended really well so far this season

It's crazy really. Rafa's organisation is legendary.

We never look haphazard and ragged no matter who we're playing. Well not with our first team anyway.

Love this result because Bilic was running his mouth leading up to the game with some really patronising comments about us.

Eeejit.

So do we think we'll see both Merino and Shelvey in midfield? Hard to see Merino being dropped.

 

Think if we play Joselu upfront we could potentially go 4-3-3.

 

Drop Perez, have Hayden holding and Merino and Shelvey in central midfield.

 

I know i have said this before but IMO Rafa won't do that. Relies too much on the wingers, not enough mobility around the striker and will lead to the striker being isolated due to the midfielders in question not being comfortable in the final third.

 

Fact of the matter is we need an attacking midfielder we can rely on, quite obviously none of them are good enough.

 

Yeah, you're likely right that Rafa won't go for that.

 

In any case a pairing of Merino and Shelvey would work if we stick with two. Merino is fantastic defensively and his work rate is great.

 

I'd prefer we keep Merino and Hayden. It's worked well today, and Shelvey doesn't deserve to walk straight back in.

Can't argue with that at all really. You're 100% right. Merino has to be undroppable in any case. He's fantastic.

Happy he scored because that previous miss was really poor

What a clutch performance from the boys today man. Absolutely massive going into the international break.

I'm delighted!

So do we think we'll see both Merino and Shelvey in midfield? Hard to see Merino being dropped.

 

Think if we play Joselu upfront we could potentially go 4-3-3.

 

Drop Perez, have Hayden holding and Merino and Shelvey in central midfield.

 

I know i have said this before but IMO Rafa won't do that. Relies too much on the wingers, not enough mobility around the striker and will lead to the striker being isolated due to the midfielders in question not being comfortable in the final third.

 

Fact of the matter is we need an attacking midfielder we can rely on, quite obviously none of them are good enough.

Yeah, you're likely right that Rafa won't go for that.

In any case a pairing of Merino and Shelvey would work if we stick with two. Merino is fantastic defensively and his work rate is great.

Hayden is coming along very nicely man. Superb partnership with Merino today. Fantastic young midfield pairing.

So do we think we'll see both Merino and Shelvey in midfield? Hard to see Merino being dropped.

Think if we play Joselu upfront we could potentially go 4-3-3.

Drop Perez, have Hayden holding and Merino and Shelvey in central midfield.

How did Merino pick out that pass??

The guy is quality man. He's so strong and good on the ball.

Mbemba has been great at left back man. Has really allowed Atsu to be much more of a danger by supporting him and getting him the ball.

Two goals have come directly from Ritchie's effort in pressing and winning the ball back.

Matt Ritchie man take a bow sir. Yes!

Woooooo! Hooooooooooo!

Love Ciaran Clark man!

Oh man ... had to score there! So nerve wracking.

Perez can be so annoying man.

Think that ball was moving all over the place to be fair to Elliot.

Cannot believe how good Clark has been for us man. What a signing.

Atsu is such a potential threat on the counter. Need Yedlin back to offer the same on the right.

Mbemba is doing a great job of actually playing forward passes to him. Dummett is often so frustrating in that regard.

Someone far post there and its 2-0.

Yeah. Should have been a tap in for Ritchie really.

That flick round to Perez from Joselu. Love that link up play. So badly needed.

Merino reminds me a bit of Michael Ballack

Chilled out man.

"Chilled out man"? What?

With the struggle we've had getting jabba the hutt to spend money I wish Rafa would have gone for more young players with potential like Merino in other positions also.

He's such a great manager for coaxing the best out of these young players.