alexf

How has he not passed to the open player there. Pretty criminal if you don't score.

His growth in such a short time here is really exceptional. Actually glad from a selfish Newcastle point of view that he got a rest over the international break because he looked back to his energetic best today. Great goal and assist.

Loved Tripps and Schar making sure he didn't lose his cool at the end there after the Caicedo foul. You can tell the squad know he's a hot head ?

Excellent. Considering the number of players we are missing, the fact he was able to slot in and look first team ready is a massive plus. Hopefully he won't be required massively this season so that he can be eased in due to his age but it's also good for his development for him to experience these sort of games so early in his career.

Do love a thumping Lascelles goal. Don't see many other players attack headers like him and they always feel really satisfying to watch.

Fantastic today I thought. Helped that Cucurella is complete bobbins in my opinion and clearly a weak area that we targeted. He feels like a really senior player for us now, who never hides.

Can see that two week break for the majority made a big difference. Night and day levels of energy. But also big help having Isak, Bruno and Almiron (having gone off injured last game) back. This team keep defying expectations even when depleted. I just hope we can find a way to get though to January.

Possible same scenario for Isak now. Surely can't play the 90 today and again midweek. But who the hell comes on for him.

Yeah thought same, and two players that weren't even on international duty.

Agreed. I don't see the sense in that. Surely any of our outfield younger players are better options off the bench than putting three keepers.

Never been a clearer example of club bias swaying someone's opinions. His whole argument gets more and more moronic purely because he can't accept a decision went against his team.

To the Simon Jordan's of this world that use the Mark Hughes analogy. I call bullshit. Howe has already massively out done anything Hughes did as a manager. His feats with Bournemouth alone, but even then, the way he kept us up from a seemingly impossible position when he took over, finishing 11th no less. (Was a record recovery wasn't it?) Then to do what he did last season and get top 4 was astounding. He will be with us a long time, unless there was some extreme unforeseen downturn in form over an extended time.

On one hand, it seems lucky that they are getting this now compared with last year , as they only stayed up by 2 points. On the other, if it's only £19.5m over the threshold and you have circumstances like that one with 'player x' it shows the farce that is FFP. Other teams dare to be ambitious and have a go and make the odd transfer cock up and they are in the mud. Whereas a team like Man U can do things like ditch a £70m £300k a week player like Sancho and it not affect them at all. I mean it would be like if we plummeted down the league this year and it meant we were over our FFP allowance because we banked on being atleast top 8 but because we lost Tonali who we spent fortunes on we under performed. I mean maybe that's he problem, you have to be smart like I hope we are being and not find yourself in a position like Leeds '03 where you have to get top 4 to break even etc.

Yeah that's their best performance under Poch and played with alot of intensity. Our squad will be more or less the same as the weekend except Bruno and maybe a half fit Isak. Can't see anything but a loss personally but hope I am wrong and we turn it on being back at home.

The players just didn't help themselves. I can understand his frustration despite the easy get out of injuries, which he refused to us in his post match which is refreshing amongst the shite u get from Arteta etc. But yeah it felt for the first time almost all the players adopted the victim mentality for the first time since all these injuries and just all looked like they were running in treacle. I get that it will be physical exhaustion aswell but I think they all played mentally tired from the start. That led to some awful decision making etc. Some of Trippiers passing across the back etc was awful. Longstaff just slow on the ball and just flopping over as he likes to do and never getting the free kick because it's too obvious. Schar was abit like he was in the Bruce years where his head seems to drop and then makes some lazy passes and poor decisions. There was just loads of lazy flicks and playing passes into dangerous errors resulting in counter attacks etc. Eddie was right to be annoyed, we made our own lives alot harder for ourselves. All that being said it's totally understandable and in some ways surprising it's taken this long for some of the players to hit the wall. Hopefully they can recharge enough to improve the performance Vs Chelsea, adding Bruno and Isak back will help massively ofcourse also. Just need to avoid reaching the low point of having Ritchie play ever again ?

Not to be a doom monger but I can't see this team..even if we can add Isak and maybe Barnes back soon being able to overturn the likes of Chelsea, PSG and Man U in the space of a week. It's possible and Eddie will have done amazing if he can get some results, but yesterday we were clearly stretched too far. All our better remaining senior players looked physically and mentally shattered (Trippier, Schar, Longstaff, Gordon, Joelinton, Willock). Add to that the need to play people like Ritchie, who have no business being on a premier league pitch in 2023 it was embarrassing watching him. Also the young lads like Hall and Miley and then Parkinson etc, who didn't disgrace themselves by any means, especially Miley who did well under the circumstances, but we are throwing them in at a rough moment and hoping they survive, which is not ideal for their development. I fear we will have a tough end to November and December. However once we start getting players back and likely drop out of europe unfortunately, maybe even the carabao. I think we will go on a strong run towards the back end of the season and it will be us chasing down the top 4 or 5 this year rather than being chased as we were last.

Looking forward to the return fixture in Feb where hopefully we have the bulk of first teamers back. They will be facing a completely different beast.

Oh I agree. I just assumed Eddie wouldn't have brought Gordon on that earlier unless enforced. But I guess maybe you are right perhaps he saw it wasn't working tactically aswell.

Don't think he would have been withdrawn that early without some kind of injury (even if it was just precaution). Assumed he would have played until atleast 60-70mins

You can't tell me we wouldn't have faired better in these last two games if Isak, Tonali, Botman and maybe even Barnes as fresh legs off the bench, had been fit. The first three mentioned atleast were bought for these exact games. So to not have any of them and worse to have fatigued and young players filling in everywhere. Yeah no judgement from me. Free hits for Eddie as far as I'm concerned. If we had lost with our full squad available and fit and healthy then fair enough maybe we could have a few criticisms but hopefully they players that have experienced these games got to learn something from them.

Thought Trippier was uncharacteristically poor. Gave the ball away loads. Got beaten 1v1 plenty. Looked really uncomfortable on the left aswell. But worst of all, that cross leading to their 2nd goal. Thought the rest of the team tried hard. Longstaff looked abit lost out there and the game was abit too quick for him, maybe fatigued. Felt sorry for Eddie. He was desperately trying to move the pieces he had around to make something cohesive but he just didn't have enough options to tinker tactically. A few injuries to far and fatigue for the guys that have played so many games. Worry for the Bournemouth game. 9 times out of 10 we beat them comfortably, but they are playing us at the best possible moment for them as this feels like it will be the weakest lineup we will have all season. (Fingers crossed, injuries start to ease after this). That being said, one more big effort from the lads can hopefully get us to the international break with 3 more points.

Seeing the way players bold face lie and claim for fouls, corners, throw-ins etc in my 5-aside league, I have a lot of sympathy for how hard it must be for referees.

Best guess ---------------Pope-------------- ----Trippier--Lascelles--Schar---- Livramento-------------------Hall --------Longstaff---Bruno------- Willock------------------Joelinton ---------------Wilson------------ ?????

Maybe 5 at the back and wingbacks system?

Really? Ok I'm happy to be corrected but it just reads wrong to me. I thought surely it should be are?.