huss9

whatever he achieves at newcastle, he'll owe a huge debt to rafa just for inheriting the well drilled back 5. and injuries to a centre half arent an issue as rafa left with such a great pool of interchangeable defenders that easily slip in and out of an established system.

Manquillo today. fucking immense. motm with Dubs. what a turnaround. (and no, its nowt to do with Bruce).

fuck me. Bruce got it really wrong today. waited till 70 mins for a sub when it was clear much earlier something needed to change. also to bring off Willems when Dummett was awful again on the ball today. lost any forward momentum on the left hand side after that. still, cant blame Bruce for the fact the we dont have a single player capable of taking a decent free-kick or corner.

shelvey's been barely OK rather than good during games - but he's popped up at the right times with important goals. Nolanesque.

he's like KK, and Sir Bobby in the respect that when they speak, you become entranced. you become enthralled and start smiling without even knowing it. all three just made you feel better. cf. Pardew, Kinnear, Carver, Bruce ..... just made you cringe and want to throw things at the telly.

3rd round fa cup tie is ideal for him.

bruce fucked up the central defensive line.

they're be loads of season ticket holders taking up the option and selling tickets to mates for £5-10 a game.

initially thought he may have been, but was half a yard onside on the replay.

the bloke's just immense. even more than HBA levels of cult status.

did well today. slowly but surely getting up to match fitness. much cleverer player than people give him credit for. also he's a leader and very vocal. in an ideal world he'd be no where near our club, but in the current circumstances he's a great option off the bench. what gayle and muto must be thinking watching joelinton though...

he's fucked up with ASM. admits he was fatigued and carrying a knock. to start him was a risk but to flog him for 90 minutes is indefensible. it was clear today he wasnt burning on cylinders and was playing within himself. but bruce is so desperately dependent on the likes of ASM conjuring up something out of nothing that he'd play him whatever. its all about the short-term rather than the bigger picture with him. also forced into bringing on Schar, and even then he proceeds to play him out of position.

"sunderland get battered, everywhere they go"

it's no joke. he'll definitely be looking for buyers for one of lascelles, schar or lejeune. and i think bruce will go along with it.

he'd been limping off and on for ages and really should have been subbed a lot earlier.

this guy is so fucking jammy. 2 shit team performances yet we come away with 4 goals and six points. unbelievable. found my self cheering again when we score. really want to like him, but its proving impossible for some reason - and it's nowt to do with Rafa.

needs to get schar back in on the right and dummet (or clark) out. would help us creatively no end.

complaining about their goal being disallowed (rightly for offside) but it looks as if that gillingham header in the first half crossed the line.

shite, but lucky. a lucky shite.

fabian, man. sexy as.

a lot of other keeprs would have tried to palm it out. he did well to grab onto it.

extended highlights on .co.uk didnt show bernardo silva's miss. was it on motd? we did ride our luck yesteday.

not sure about this offside thing with var. flag goes up and its natural for the defending team to then just relax/switch off for a second. linesman either just keeps his flag down or it needs to be scrapped for offside. saying that tough, lmao at pickford.

made up for some of his early season ricks today.

we really missed a ball-playing centre half today. dummet needs to be dropped for schar.