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What exactly did Moyes do wrong? He took over in the middle of the season with the club in freefall and in the relegation places, saw them to safety over the rest of the season, and then promptly left.

McBride was good. As was Landon Donovan for the brief time he was here. Claudio Reyna’s time was cut short by injuries but he clearly had what it took to play in the PL. Same with Stu Holden. Geoff Cameron was a competent defender for Stoke for a few years. I’ll go to the grave defending Yedlin as a PL-quality fullback. There really haven’t been a ton of players to make the jump from MLS tbh Thing is they were ok the names being mentioned but not a massive success which when your paying the reported 24 - 30 million for is what would be required Only for Newcastle, if we are being honest, though. This club's competitors are spending 20+ million on reserves and young players. Leicester spent 75% of Newcastle's transfer record for a 25 year old that would exclusively be their reserve keeper.

Maybe but I still say the money being quoted for him is just stupid for a player playing at that level. I do think you’re slightly undervaluing MLS. What standard would you say it is - maybe championship at best possibly lower? It is of course lower than the Championship, which is a powerful league flush with funds at this point, but there is talent that can be acquired there. Outside of the top four or five leagues in Europe, you will not find players that are consistently playing against a high level, at least not compared to the standard in England. Everywhere else is generally very stratified with a fairly shallow pool of talent. With the DP rules (2 or 3 players on each club with wages comparable to the upper echelons of Europe) and the crisp American dollars (along with accompanying American lifestyle), it is not difficult to attract very good players to MLS, especially young players from Latin America, such as Almiron. I believe there are a good number of players currently in MLS that could make the jump to a stronger league, but as mentioned above, the league is funny about selling its players and the ones from smaller nations will struggle for work permits if we are talking about England.

For a massive side with many tall and robust players Man U are really poor at defending balls into the box. Both goals were really poor to concede. Chelsea did not create much of anything else.

This is annoying, because I am sure I have missed several obvious players off the list: Oblak, Ozil, Owen, Okocha, Odegbami

Playing him upfront can be a serious handicap sometimes. He plays like he is scared of scoring goals, no confidence whatsoever. The chance when Ayoze played him in was a pivotal moment in the match. Any forward player of decent quality (Vardy, Iheanacho, Maddison, or Ricardo for example) either has a shot at goal (that may beat the keeper or cause havoc from a rebound) or tries to square to the player in the centre. Joselu just hesitates until a defender can take the responsibility of shooting away from him. A team that struggles to create chances cannot afford this. The two strikers the club dumped in the close season had serious deficiencies, but neither of them were scared to attempt the primary role of their position.

I don't believe he left.

Leicester are better player for player, of course, but they finished three points and one place above Newcastle last season and sold their best player away. This is not some insurmountable challenge, especially at home. Bournemouth tore them apart a couple of weeks ago. The decline in performance from the end of last season is incredible, and for that much the manager needs to take a large share of blame.

Yedlin got called Kenedy and Lascelles there, pretty impressive given one of those isn’t even playing. Yedlin has been three players and Ndidi has been Morgan on several occasions. These people do not even look similar to one another. Rafa is often absolved from criticism, and I do not mean to condemn him, but this team has no idea how to attack. There is no pattern or cohesion to their play going forward whatsoever. They just sit back and hope something will happen for them at some point.

This is miserable rubbish. The performance is rubbish, and the one chance they have had, the striker is scared to shoot. The commentator I'm watching continually confuses the black players on both teams. Just an unpleasant experience.

I think Gray is out which would be the only positive if Dummet also misses the match. Hopefully, they play Ghezzal, the Poundland Mahrez who was rubbish in France and is still rubbish. I would hope Rafa would put Clark on the left, rather than Manquillo.

I think they are a better side in general, tbh. NUFC have a far better manager and Lascelles is better than any of their defenders, but that is it. I watched the match yesterday, and the combination of Vardy, Maddison, Iheanacho, and Gray were all very quick, and sharp and difficult to deal with, the opposite of NUFC's attack this season. Gray and Vardy were great value, but are both England internationals and Kelechi and Maddison are 21 years olds that cost fifty million pounds between them. There is a difference in quality going forward, at least. The key will be to take the chances presented, so Rondon, Joselu, Perez, etc. will need to step up. Their defence is very leaky and slow, and they are their to be countered, especially if you can bypass the two midfielders with balls down the side of the centrebacks, who cannot run. None of their fullbacks can defend at all. There will goals in this game, imo. 2-2. Sorry but nobody thinks that Lascelles is better than Maguire, apart from you and the most biased NUFC supporter. I watch a good amount of Leicester for Ndidi and Iheanacho, and one can see why Maguire is rated highly, he has great physical presence and is very good with the ball at his feet, but I believe Lascelles is definitely better as a pure defender. Maguire is really quite slow, prone to make bad errors and out of position fairly often, imo. Maybe they have just not found a good partner for him, because Evans and Morgan accentuate his faults instead of covering them.

I think they are a better side in general, tbh. NUFC have a far better manager and Lascelles is better than any of their defenders, but that is it. I watched the match yesterday, and the combination of Vardy, Maddison, Iheanacho, and Gray were all very quick, and sharp and difficult to deal with, the opposite of NUFC's attack this season. Gray and Vardy were great value, but are both England internationals and Kelechi and Maddison are 21 years olds that cost fifty million pounds between them. There is a difference in quality going forward, at least. The key will be to take the chances presented, so Rondon, Joselu, Perez, etc. will need to step up. Their defence is very leaky and slow, and they are their to be countered, especially if you can bypass the two midfielders with balls down the side of the centrebacks, who cannot run. None of their fullbacks can defend at all. There will goals in this game, imo. 2-2.

Just came on against PSG.

I saw him at the Nigeria-Argentina match in Russia. He didn't have a great match, and we shut him out pretty well, but he still managed to dispatch his one chance from openly play with ludicrous ease, and should have scored a brilliant freekick, if not for the fingertips of our young keeper. It is incredible the way that he can influence a match so sharply, just with the gravity pull he has on the defence even when not playing well, and how his quality effortlessly shines through when he is given the opportunity. I am definitely the opposite of this, probably because of the footballer I was growing up. All power, no skill. That goal when Yeboah just chests it and takes two touches at pace before smashing it in from distance is one of my favourite goals of all time.

It is incredible that the opinion around the international performances of Messi and Ronaldo has changed so drastically because the likes Higuain and Palacio missed golden chances on the biggest stage, while a rubbish player like Eder struck his team to glory as Ronaldo watched from the side.

its always the excuse new league new country new language its bullshit if youre a decent player you can play whether its England, China or Timbuktu its football its not applied brain surgery Tino Asprilla turned in a man of the match performance against Boro after stepping off a flight from Colombia only a couple of hours earlier Everyone seems to make excuses these days for our players ineptness If Muto is "inept" after four second half substitute appearances in the league, I do not know what we will call you for posting rubbish day after day for interminable amounts of time. I agree that it does seem like he is in contention with Perez and the wingers for playing time, rather than Rondon and Joselu. I am not sure, if Rafa is trying to get him to adjust to the league before putting him upfront alone, or if this is how he intended to use him when the purchase was made.

Away matches in Africa remain a difficult proposition regardless of who you are playing. In the qualifiers this weekend Clarence Seedorf began his tenure with Cameroon drawing 1-1 in The Comoros, Ghana lost 1-0 in Kenya, and Senegal were held to a 2-2 draw draw in Madagascar. Nigeria played on an abominable turf pitch, but were able to knock it past the fat pastry chef keeping for The Seychelles three times, so a productive weekend in that sense. I think the Nations League will be brilliant for Europe, btw. It will be a great benefit to replace pointless money friendlies with somewhat competitive high-level football

Ganso went to Amiens.

He’s making millions of pounds to play football, his partner doesn’t have to work ever, he can even hire a whole army of nannys and servants to look after the whole family. Or else just use a f***ing condom the babies can likely come in his mid-30s once he’s set for life. It’s a poor excuse. It doesn’t matter how much money a person is making, if they’re a good father he’ll want to be close to the kid. This includes waking up numerous times during the night.. Newcastle is just a job to these players. Work will always come off second best to a newborn. But we mere mortals do think about our career when planning a family. My work comes second to my kid but I made damn sure that I had progressed up the career ladder in my 20s to the point where I now in my 30s I had all the necessary promotions so that I could work my job doing flexible hours etc so that my work life balance was not adversely affected. Kenedy is still very young. This year is his big chance to cement his position as a credible Premier League player and create opportunities to either get a new Chelsea contract or go elsewhere either way doubling his salary and creating better opportunities to be successful. At this moment (well 40 weeks before) he decides to have a baby. It’s pure stupidity. How the hell do you know the ins and outs of his personal life or understand the mindset him and his lass were in when they decided to have the kid? As someone who also had a child in his twenties, I will testify that it is highly unlikely that Kenedy had made some type of big "decision" or plan before getting his girl pregnant. He was probably just living happily and freely, resting after a long day of hard work; listening to music, reading a book, and eating some plantain chips as he readied for bed. Suddenly, his phone blared with a seemingly innocuous late night call from his girl. Every aspect of life changed from that moment. Fwiw, the real problem with Kenedy is that there is no replacement for him in the side whatsoever. He has been complete rubbish in the last two matches (didn't see last night but the highlights were damning), however twenty-two year old flair players are rubbish fairly often, almost by definition. In an ideal situation, Rafa could drop him while he sorted himself out and push him to work hard to bring more consistency and work rate to his game. In reality, I don't think there is a player he can bring in to legitimately replace Kenedy unless he shifts Perez out wide. He'll probably start the next match because his dynamism is massively important to the side. I think he'll improve, as his ability is self-evident, but it is worrying to be so reliant on someone who has been so poor thus far.

It is possible to play defensive, counter attacking football without allowing the opposition the ball to the point that you only have 15 percent possession and are unable to get out of your half for large stretches of the match, especially whilst at home. Teams manage this every single weekend in this league, and have done so for years, even at great financial disparity. To Benitez's credit, the team was fighting for the entire match and could have stolen a point, so it wasn't a bad performance by any means. I just don't understand the tactics. Chelsea are a relatively weak team defensively. When we actually put pressure on that back line, Joselu was able to jog past David Luiz, who was standing completely still for some unexplainable reason, and easily nod it into the goal. It would have been nice to see more of this.

Why always Newcastle? I am just settling in to spend a couple of hours browsing and watching the football match after a long week of working and showing around extended family and the first thing I learn is that the captain and best player has fallen out with the manager and that the best midfielder is also missing for seemingly unexplained reasons. I hope the plan is not to sit in a shell around the 18 yard box, as it was when Rafa set up with five at the back against Manchester City. The best way to get something from this match would be to attack the defensive vulnerabilities Chelsea have shown since going to four at the back under Sarri.

Keep the ball down.

Arsenal are no better than the likes of Leicester and Everton and those are the sides they will be fighting with this season. The players en masse are not good enough, and they have an inferior manager than before.

Zohore is terrible.