Lotus

Those quote from the Athletic seem to say (to me) that the Newcastle recruitment team had identified Guehi from before when Mitchell arrived. 

Jota is pretty good in there air too. He’s also proved himself at a higher level. Not that Barnes couldn’t, just the opportunity hasn’t come up.

He didn’t do much vs Spurs tbf but I think that fact he was on the field changed their shape a bit. 

He’s like Jota but perhaps just a level or so below. 

I don’t think the problem is that they have too many Ajax players there. They don’t have enough.

That will fix it. Froggy will agree.

Yeah, the way Bruno and Sandro are pinning their 2 capable CMs back, leaving Maddison as the man to press JL, a mismatch if ever there was one, was very nice. Really hope that was a planned thing. Props also to Burn for that reverse ball.

Also, rewatching it, double props to Murphy for holding his run, it’s on a split second before but JL hesitates and Murphy senses that.

Perfectly weighted pass from JL. Surgeon with a scalpel, that ball.

Hope he gets some good experience and grows as a player so we can assess his value either to the squad or the business.

p.s. I have no problem flipping cheap younguns for profit. It will be an avenue stream we’ll need to absolutely take advantage of.

7 hours ago, 80 said:

Obviously we're aiming to change this, but right now we're the wrong team for him, really. In terms of showing him at his finest.

Been thinking this but was reluctant to post it 😛

Our style could change into something quite different but on the basis of most of last season and our games so far, as great as he is, we’re wrong for each other.

Think we could really do with a striker who can hold the ball up for a lot longer as we’re very slow to support them. Would help us get up the pitch. 
 

 Anyway, let’s see if we start to play more towards his strengths 🤞🏼

He’s improving bit by bit each game. He’ll get there.

Was surprised he didn’t come on. Someone who could find a teammate with a pass would’ve steadied us through some of those rocky moments. 
 

1 minute ago, huss9 said:

must be hard for him and miggy knowing they're invariably going to be made scapgoats.

think he mentioned it in a recent interview.

That is very sad. Imagine a childhood dream becoming a nightmare in a team that’s doing alright ffs. 
I’d rather he was on the bench but I want him to stay if he’s happy. 

Surprised at a lot of these comments. He kept us in the game!! With all he had to do are people really digging him out over that? He saved the follow up shot! 
I can’t imagine what the score would’ve been if we had Vicario in goal….

I think he’s a decent enough footballer with a great attitude to running.

Reckon he’d probably play better football at a club where he’s not terrified of making mistakes. That’s a shame. I really like him.

Was really feeling bad for him for the first 5 minutes or so. I could tell it really hurt him how he was playing. Was soooooo happy for him for the assist. Thought he was going to go for goal, I actually fancied him to score. He showed great awareness, pace and strength for that set up. Top character.

Tino’ s defending is largely a joy to watch.

Think we’re missing Trips playmaking though.

In time I hope Hall will provide that but he’s got some learning to do.

I really hope we can improve on our performances before the results catch up with them.

Everyone we’ve played so far has moved the ball noticeably better than us. 
I don’t expect tikka takka (or want it) but being able to play 7 or 8 consecutive passes or at least cross the half way line now and again to relieve some pressure would do wonders for my nerves.

We’re pure winging atm.

I read the Athletic article.

I want to believe the journalists have credible contacts at the club but I don’t remember them having much genuine inside info before now.

Without meaning to state the obvious, I very much doubt that they’ve managed to talk directly to Eales, Mitchell or Howe (not that they’re claiming to have done so). But those 3 have the clearest view of the ‘accident’. I’m loathe to speculate too much without direct quotes regarding specific matters from all of them. Something I doubt we’ll get.

It’s behind us now. Let’s see what remedial action is taken over the next couple of opportunities. 
 

Fwiw, from what little ive read about PM, his affect will only be felt once we have the significant funds raised by selling a star player and he’s reinvested it in a few project signings.

2 hours ago, Peder75 said:

On the other hand we have Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Gordon, Barnes, Livramento and Hall as either new or improved (closer to prime) than two years ago. Yes, I included Bruno there because I think he is one level above so far this season than he was two seasons ago, due to him being captain and taking larger responsibility on the pitch. In my eyes, the team we have today is stronger than two seasons ago, even if a few players are worse.

Agree that we have not looked good so far, but if we reach what I believe is our standard, it will be a good season.

You can imagine the team is stronger but until they get the same result, they aren’t.

My point was though, I think we’ll have to play differently than our old ‘run all over them’ approach because the league has wised up.

I did see some evolution at the beginning of last season before it went a bit pear shaped.

Looking forward to seeing what our overall approach and philosophy will be. 

1 minute ago, Bimpy474 said:

 

For the RW we did, but unfortunately the PSR rules killed that for now with us having to sell Minteh.

? Wasn’t the Minteh sale to satisfy last years accounts? Would still leave us with £££ for this season.

I feel any criticism of Mitchell for this window is pretty invalid. We have no idea what his scope and remit is/was for this window. Even if he was just tasked with negotiating for Guehi, multiple reports seem to suggest Palace have upped the fee as it’s gone along. Mitchell may have had a very hard ceiling put on him by Eales/Board and just couldn’t match it so was looking for wiggle room. That is also conjecture and that is all any of us have at this stage.

4 minutes ago, stozo said:

Who is going to Al Nassr and will presumably be paid somewhere north of £250k pw. So a total non-starter. 

Silva then (who’s meant to be replacing him at Leipzig).

Diomande, already been offered out at less than his release.

Yeah, I agree with many on here. Why we haven’t switched approach to finding a young player, only needs to be better than Krafth (at his unfavoured position) and develop them.

Same for RW. Can’t be hard to find players with more potential than Murphy. Develop them, developing players is meant to be the thing EH is best at.

One thing that has bothered me a bit is the idea that, now we have no Yoorup, we’ll be the same team as 22/23. That was 2 seasons  ago….the players aren’t the same. Wilson, Trips, Schar, Miggy, Burn. They’re not a year closer to their prime, they’re a year further away from it. Willock was crucial that year, last year a right off and this year he already has (I hope) a minor injury. I’d also be astonished if Miggy went on the same kind of scoring run, I’m sure we all would.

Add to that, we don’t surprise teams with the high press. They’ve all seen it now and largely adapted. I’m not sure we’re even the best in the league at it tbh. Other clubs have realised you can be very disruptive by just ‘running a bit faster and jumping a bit higher’ (to quote Pardew). 
We haven’t made the best use of our footballing talent so far. Last year was difficult, that’s completely understandable. But the players have that season more in the minds and patterns of play than the season before.

So far this season, we’ve played Southampton, Bournemouth and Forest and looked the less fluent and cohesive team by and large. We’ve had spells but have not dominated the ball, possession and attacked the way you’d expect us to with the ballers available. Even with 10 men I thought we’d keep hold of the ball a little better. I’m certain Chelsea, Spurs, Villa, Brighton, Manu would have had more of it.

As (i think Madras said) we look rusty and a bit ‘off’. I’m not particularly worried because I think we could be easing into it slowly. Whatever our pattern is going to be, it’s not yet evident, very early days though. But just expecting it to be the same as 2 years ago with the same results is blind faith imo.

Would expect inconsistent performances from him for a couple of months then i think he’ll settle into the team and we can see what he does for us.

He’s been out so long  it’s understandable if he’s patchy for a bit. Hope he’s not obvs and just hits he ground running but would be unfair to judge him harshly if he doesn’t. Thinking EH will protect him if he has an off game anyway.

I would be puzzled if our team had such a had finely tuned and delicate dynamic that there was only one CB in all of world football that could improve us.

That could be a possibility if we were a team of utter galacticos who had won everything and swept all those before them. 
But, there are better and more productive squads that seem to find themselves in a situation where they have a choice of players to attempt to sign and can make compromises.
 

Given the fact that most people accept Guehi is not even better than Schar (currently) it does seem strange that we are so focused on getting this particular player.