Ronaldo

I trust Eddie’s judgment on keepers given he watched Dubravka for half a season and replaced him first summer window with Pope, who has been brilliant. Can only conclude he really doesn’t think too much of Karius if he doesn’t get a game soon.

Pards. One of his last.

96/97 is one of my favourite seasons, Keegan’s departure aside. Final day of the season was absolutely brilliant: Us thrashing Forest and stealing 2nd / CL qualification, Boro and Mackems down. I vividly remember the walk from the Gallowgate to the Quayside and us being given Peter Reid monkey’s heed masks. Sun shining, party-like atmosphere. Then the next 2 seasons were absolute shit apart from the cup finals.

Who did Carver sign?

There’s no ‘them’ about it. It’s him, and his approach in a strategic context towards other interests is relevant. As Newcastle fans we should pretty much know that better than anyone.

The more I see of Dubravka the more I think the days of him being solid / average / mediocre are long gone. Even in our dominant days last season Pope would usually be called upon to make one top save per game. That’s more than likely ending up in the back of the net now and all before considering the deficiencies in proactively helping out the defence dealing with balls into the box. He’s a reactive keeper whose reactions look shot.

What ‘the board’ - ie Amanda and the other cuddlies want doesn’t really matter. Yasir doesn’t do failure. You’ve only got to look at the recent negotiations with the PGA Tour and the acquisition of John Rahm for half a billion. The man gets what he wants and any resistance he’ll just burn your fucking house down. Ruthless.

Yep.

We didn’t start like that. It just leaves us with a big problem on 60 mins if it hasn’t worked.

Not for endeavour he doesn’t. But nobody is saying that.

He must be carrying an injury. He’d benefit so much from us abandoning the inverted wingers and signing an improvement on Almiron though.

Losing 1 of the next 2 games isn’t a nice prospect.

No shit.

Not his fault tonight but you’re 100% correct dude. The goal is a lot bigger with him in it.

We did not approach that second half fantastically, in fact we got it completely wrong. It’s OK to be behind 100% behind Eddie and also admit his in-game management can be naive.

Atrocious and indefensible stat.

He should be living his best life with Trippier to link up with but he’s just all effort and extreme predictability / limitation this season.

Very sad, lots of effort and being back in the CL has been great but that was a carbon copy of the Liverpool game. Took the foot of the gas trying to sit deep and play counter attack and we’re just really poor at it. Tactically bossed. Something else in the final third badly needed in January.

Totally reliant on him for every piece of creativity. There’s nothing from anywhere else.

Give it a rest.

Beat me to it.

Winning the Europa is probably our best bet at qualifying for the CL.

Mourinho is toxic. Not the personality we need here to sustainably develop as a club. Tactically brilliant and ruthless with players, which is 2 things I’d like a bit more of, but no thanks.

Him too.

Miley looks more talented than Tonali? I like what I’ve seen from Miley a lot but that’s a typically outrageous take.