Chris_R

Probably because he is the manager? However briefly, however transient his tenure, right here and now and for the last 3 games he's been (and still is) the manager. So that's what we're judging him on. Seems fair to me. Plus people's expectations aren't high - Just put the right players in the right positions and press the opposition a little. You don't need years of top-flight managerial experience to do that. Literally ANY of us could do that. He's failing at the absolute basics. Not the basics of "management", the basics of being able to recognise who our best XI are and what formation to play. Absolutely no management "skill" is necessary for that, none.

He's not getting abuse. Abuse would be saying he's a cunt, we hate him, etc. That's not happening. People are just saying that he's not up to the job and is making horrific decisions in terms of personnel, line-up, tactics and formation. There's nothing remotely "abusive" there, it's just a critique of his professional capabilities running (however briefly) the team we all support on the forum about that team's progress. I don't doubt Jones is a decent bloke and likeable, and I bear him no ill-will as a fellow human being. I just don't want him anywhere near the first team of my football team if he cannot tell that what he sent the players out to do in the last 3 games was diabolical.

We're almost certainly not. However every player with an agent and a contract up for renewal will be getting the "Newcastle are interested" stories going in order to push the renegotiations on and boost their wages, even if we've never heard of the guy.

If this was the summer, the only one I'd want to keep is ASM. But it isn't, and we need to be realistic about how far our alleged £200m could go. Buying an entirely new XI might be tricky as that's only £18m per player and that could be difficult to improve us on that budget. So after the winter transfer window, we're going to have to "settle" for a few of the existing squad. In the starting line-up, I'd keep: Dubravka Willock Almiron ASM Schar Bench would be: Darlow Lascelles OR Fernandez Hayden Lewis Joelinton Manquillo Wilson That feels INCREDIBLY harsh on Wilson, who is our second best player, but he's made of glass and we're going to need at least 2 strikers to haul us out of this, relying on him alone as a single point of failure up front is suicide, as the rest of our strikers are shit. So striker will be a position we recruit for, so will we buy a backup to him? Or will we buy someone for him to be backup to? Probably the latter. No point spending precious funds on backups when we're looking up at (ultimately) European slots so me benching Wilson is a reflection of what I expect our transfer policy will be moving forwards - I'd be astonished if we buy ANY squad players, it'll be new 'purples' from now on for the next 3-4 years with those being upgraded becoming the bench. I'd still expect Wilson to play a lot though, either from the bench or rotating in, or starting whilst the new man settles in. That leaves us lining up something like this.... My concern there is that we'd be looking for 3 defenders and 2 CMs which although we desperately need them, that may be too much to change at once. So maybe we keep another DC, we know under Rafa that our defence can be solid and so maybe one of Lascelles or Fernandez could stay in the first XI too. Probably Lascelles, because he's a better athlete and has more pace. I do rate Federico, but I think we'll need someone who can run back there alongside Schar who'd be my first choice. In which case we're looking for 5 over Christmas: DL, DR, MC, MC and SC. With an alleged £200m to splurge, that gives us a generous £40m per position (average) to get what we need, which I'd be confident we can do and would keep us up with a decent manager like Howe and the rest of the squad supporting.

Yeah I thought he looked good when he came on, however he seems to lack the acceleration that you need to play wide. Everyone gets a clean slate starting from when we appoint a new manager though.

I'm trying to comprehend why Wilson is in goal. Absolute fucking lunatics that do teams that way round, honestly just put the goalkeeper at the bottom like a functional human being?

People who do teams upside down with the goalkeeper at the top, the striker in goal, the left-sided players on the right and the right-sided players on the left. Clear sign of being an absolute psychopath if you do that.

Gonna have nightmares about that term for decades.

Plot twist - Charnley runs the social media accounts.

Fine, he doesn't cut it as a manager. But what's the excuse for the team selection? Or formation? Or lack of pressing? You don't need to be a "manager" to put the right 11 players on the pitch and tell them to press the opposition. It's a fundamental failing. Literally any of us could've done that. Any of us.

That was a very decent finish, not easy at all.

I'm not a football manager, and I can see what is wrong. Same with a hundred others on here. It's not about him being a mini manager, ready to be plucked from the vine. It's about his ability to observe and critique a football match as a functional human being.

Jones clearly happy with how its going....

Everyone on here can see what needs doing, yet I imagine we'll start the second half with no changes at all.

This. Excusing Jones because he's "not a manager" is ridiculous. Jones could tell them to press Jones could pick a better team and formation If we got the basics right and at least played the right players in the right places and didn't surrender possession in its entirety, I could accept us "not improving", but we're actually loads worse. It's absolutely basic stuff that a hundred people on here can see who also aren't football managers, so the fact that Jones can't is damning. At least get beat having a go, not like this.

True, but 3 DCs and 2 wingbacks mean there isn't anyone IN midfield. No wonder we're swamped and overrun. Couple that with a complete refusal to get forward and no wonder we're getting beat, have no shots and have about 30% of the ball.

46 passes in a row by Brighton. We never touched the ball for 2.5 minutes. Fucking hell. Jones should be sacked at half time. This is inexcusable. Absolutely appalling.

Look at the difference, in the rare occasions we get the ball Brighton press us and we shit ourselves. We just never press. We just sit off them and let them do whatever they fucking want. It's disgraceful.

We're absolutely fucking rank. Literally defending a 1-0 defeat. Jones should be catapulted into the Tyne for setting them up like this. I'd not even let him on the bus home.

That's a penalty, no problem with that. Issue is that we've YET AGAIN got the wrong players on the pitch and are just camped in our own box playing for 0-0. Let's see if our plan now is to defend a 1-0 defeat, or if we actually have any mechanism or plan to get up the other end?

Need to wait until we get the ball before he can judge us, so it might take longer than that.

Shelvey? Fucking hell.

This. If we play the same as the last match, we'll get the same result. You can't beat teams by refusing to attack them.

It was the reason it collapsed at Celtic, apparently? Where did he think the club was based when he applied for the job? Has he only just looked at the map? Did he confuse us with Newcastle under Lyme? Does he want us to move the club to the south coast for him? The geography argument makes no sense at this stage of the process. Not to say it isn't true, but it's ridiculous if it is.

We're suffering 'Long Bruce'