Gallowgate Toon

Hall has popped up in midfield quite a bit already this season. Think it's just a pattern thing we try on either side. Definitely agree Tino looks weird there though - did do a lovely turn yesterday in that slot but also lost it other times.

Pope Tino Schar Burn Hall Bruno Tonali Jo Gordon Isak Barnes Ideally, you'd bring in Willock from the start but I think it's more than fair to keep him as a bench option over the next few weeks.

I don't think performances so far have been great but also not that bad - we've had good chances in most games, this season, imo. It is in interesting that our games have largely followed the same pattern since Southampton though; start well for the first 20, become weirdly passive & messy for the next 20-30, finish well enough. I thought yesterday's first 'quarter' was our best yet. We looked back to our old selves in many ways - energy, rotations, good build-up patterns - but just couldn't capitalise due to a lack of quality as they sat deeper. We then seemed to lose a bit of impetus & confidence and it became open. Confidence is obviously fragile but I'm just not convinced we look fit enough yet - it's so important to win battles regardless of 'tactics' and we feel a second slower at this, at the moment. Well, that and technical quality balanced across the team is lacking when we're under the cosh. Tonali really could be such a help here - Longstaff's game just isn't great in tighter areas and never will be - but there are other balancing acts in the team we need to figure out on this front too.

Having competition with Tripps is fantastic for him. While Trippier has had good impact off the bench, we were hardly that great with him starting against Forest, so I don't think it's that simple. They're 2 very good tactical options to have throughout a season, like. I'd love to see Tino with Tonali & Gordon playing ahead of him.

He's had fantastic output in the league for years & years. Weird treatment of him, he's currently undroppable imo. The types of bangers he already has for us is absolutely insane, like.

Love the bloke but I think he's overthinking things at the moment.

Think we've approached the final third fine but we're not firing there at all. Almost like we should be playing our sharpest forward in the final third. Howe needs to be proactive. One of Tonali or Barnes on at HT at the very least.

Unless he has a knock, that's a very poor decision re: Barnes. It just sends a really poor message and is entirely counterproductive. What motivation is he going to have to perform if there's no consistency to him starting? I'd get it if our other wingers were class but it's Murphy and Almiron ffs.

Just caught the press conference. Some of the journos are absolutely desperate & shameless Hope and Bird being the worst. Horrendous framing of questions.

Surely CONTROL FREAK, TRAINING GROUND TYRANT Eddie Howe would be furious some fitness bod is encroaching on his BELOVED training ground grass?

Genuinely curious, which of his teams has won anything while he's been there?

Talking about overpaying for some of your current players is an interesting way to go about things. Referenced himself in the third person. Giant red flag.

Howe has spelled it out quite plainly over the last week - we aren't equal match fitness across the team yet. You can't really adopt constant pressing if you're carrying anyone, they all need to be on it. Gordon is a massive press trigger for us and he's the least sharp of them all.

Quality attacker, like. Could easily be a consistent difference maker against 3/4 of the league's defences.

Fantastic result after a tough week. Another sign we're still not 'old Newcastle', Howe has developed a resilient team.

Didn't everyone want him to be less tactically predictable last season? Seems like he's managing a few things that stop us from trying plan a, so we've gone for something else.

Absolute engine on this lad, man.

Was shocked he wasn't hooked.

Feels to me that he doesn't have confidence in our fitness/sharpness so we've reverted to countering. We looked so slow to me today reactions-wise. Lots of dallying, delayed play.

Not mad at Hall not starting this. Great option from the bench and also a handy midfield option should we need it. Shocked at no Sandro but 2 starts in 5 days might've been a bit much. Barnes and Gordon

What are the big deals to his name? Feels like he's become well regarded for finding lower cost gems which feels like it'd be easier to negotiate/see through.

I think Howe knows the biggest lift he can give the fans going into this is Tonali. Harsh on Longstaff after his penalty heroics and steady enough start to the season but this is a massive game for us.

It's too early to say with him really - I'm just happy for him that he's likely to get consistent game time. That video of him looking at our fans on Weds was pretty sad, tbh.

Weirdly confident we'll get another positive result. 3-1.

Kelly is a genuinely good pick up as long as he's fit - he's a good footballer, potentially very good. I expect Osula will have a quiet next few months but feel he'll also surprise us in the second half of the season onwards. Outside of that, it was bad. 2 positions outlined as key and neither filled, somehow ended up with a bizarre keeping situation. 3/10. Lascelles and Botman aside as we'll likely see neither until 2025, I still believe we have a first team that's extremely competitive. While a few clubs have been busy, I'm not they're much stronger in terms of actual quality. Maintaining good fitness will be key for us, as obvious as it sounds.