alexf

Betis look better than anything Man U or Spurs had to face in the apparently more superior competition.

Yeah was the only downside of that final day that these guys also got to benefit and finish above us aswell. Want them to suffer and be consequenced but they never will be.

Used to love abit of Betis back in the old revista de la liga days. Where the fuck did Isco go for about 5 years? He used to be quality for Madrid and then suddenly pops up and looks decent again for Betis.

Yeah when he's laid back and quiet he actually comes across quite likeable. But it's almost like he ramped up the loudness and incessant laughter originally to cover his lack of football knowledge and then once that "character" was established he had to double down. The clips of the CBS show are him at his worst , "Brest...hahah", "who's your favourite on the show" etc. just pretty juvenile stuff. However I'm 36, I bet kids probably love him. He is young enough to just about get away with it, however Carragher on there is pretty embarrassing. Trying to keep up with Micah's level of loudness and silliness but it leads to things like his famous "loyal...not to Malick" moment which was just super awkward.

Yeah watching back some of his performances earlier in the season compared to any of his games after missing that Liverpool league game and you can see the contrast. His athleticism and agility were different levels. As much as the rest of the media have jumped in the Isak train this year, I still think he's actually underrated. Because his numbers aren't matching his ability. Like last year he is playing many times hurt/fatigued and it's affecting his level of impact. If we can get suitable backup and be able to rest him correctly when required and not play him when he's clearly only about 30% fit, then his numbers are going closer to Salah and Haaland levels.

I wonder if there was a rule for these circumstances where a team can decide if they want a red card or to give a goal to the opposition, how many would choose goal? I know we would have certainly with Pope against Liverpool two years ago. I think Arsenal and Lehmann back in the 2006 CL final etc. I think going a goal down is far better than playing the majority of a match with ten men.

Cb's are difficult to rate like that I find. We give ours alot of protection most of the time through our midfield. But when you see them get exposed there are few worse than Burn and Schar and possibly Botman (post injury so hard to judge), when they are left 1v1 etc. Whereas if an Akanji or VVD or Saliba etc are isolated they can hold their own most of the time. So whilst I appreciate our CB's for their individual qualities, I do feel they can also be a weakness if we ever open up too much and try to be more attacking.

Also has the freedom of the Newcastle boardroom it seems too, am I right?

I guess we haven't had chance to see it under Eddie as we have never had much of a squad outside of 12-13 core players. But history tells us he never likes to change his back 4 unless to go back 5 for the odd game and generally never changes a winning team either. So yeah I think it would require him to trust the squad and not be afraid to rotate.

Here's a question. So obviously we lack squad depth etc. But I see a slight issue that I don't know the answer to. Say we signed Guehi and Mbeumo and the went straight into the first 11. Great, we have upgraded two positions and then it also means we have more depth in that Murphy and Schar/Burn are available to step in when needed.... However as we have seen, most players need sharpness and regular matches to play at their maximum. So if a Burn or Schar become a bit part player at their age, we can't expect the same level of performance as we have seen this year if they need to step in at short notice to cover injury or suspension. Similar to how bad Longstaff has looked in comparison to when he was playing week in and week out and to a lesser extent Willock, although his performance drop I would put mostly due to injuries. Not sure what I'm getting at here as clearly we need depth, but I'm just saying the players we drop to the bench, won't be as useful as they are now in theory.

Hope he hasn't been pretending to prepare for the summer all year, only to reveal in the end of season meeting that he's done fuck all, just to sabotage us

Mbeumo makes too much sense for us not to try for him. Would slot in pretty seamlessly.

nah im saying it does look like that in the clip above but from the other angles I saw it doesn't seem like there was a full on tread. Keeper certainly didn't react like he'd been stood on.

Don't think he did tread on his hand from the other angles. Just appears that way in the angle shown in that clip.

Would be the most predictable outcome.

I think alot people's expectations for this window are already at such a height that it's going to be difficult to match. We obviously will still have limitations and if they go too big now then it's going to just mean another set of zero activity windows like we have just endured. Really hope we get some depth as we're pretty desperate going into next year, but I'm not expecting too many high profile names to walk through the door.

Was rewatching some of the extended highlights on the YouTube channel and one that stood out was the home game against Arsenal in the league. He played right wing with Joelinton on the left. He was fantastic and looked really dangerous there. Put in a great shift defensively aswell as the assist for the goal. So can't for the life of me understand why he never played there again it seemed, not even briefly to swap sides I game. Surely there must have been some agreement between Howe and him or he threw his toys out the pram and said he didn't want to play there. Something had to have changed. But I maintain I think Barnes left and him right would be more fruitful than the other way round, especially if Murphy wasn't on the right. Anyways. Hopefully comes back refreshed next season because when he's good he's very good. Just go back and watch some of the earlier season highlights and it's easy to drop that recency bias and remember there is a good player there.

Sorry should have clarified, I'm not claiming I want this, I'm assuming this is the club/Howe's thinking as we have been getting linked with a new goalkeeper since last summer. Maybe we're looking for a new number two but the fact we were after that Marmadashvili that Liverpool signed I would assume we are after a new number 1. Again I don't think there's any issues with Popes shot stopping, sweeping or claiming corners. He's one of the very best. But it seems perhaps the club wants to maybe cash in potentially as Howe keeps saying trading is a necessity nowadays and also perhaps they prefer to go down a route like arsenal did by switching to someone like Raya.

This might sound harsh but I also wonder if the only reason he managed to stay fit is because he wasn't playing many minutes. His body was never really stress tested other than maybe the Arsenal game and he seemed to run out of energy after about 15 minutes. I wish him well and think he could be perfect for a newly promoted team for example, if he was able to play and get his sharpness and rhythm back. I just think as soon as he goes back to trying to play 90 mins week in and week out, his body will fail him again.

I do find some of the stuff he talks about in interviews sounds good but the reality doesn't quite match up. Like his whole penalties thing. He talked a good game and scored a couple but then he took that one at Everton and it revealed his whole system was flawed and it was just complete chance if he scores as he doesn't even look at the keeper.

It's the logical sensible step to take to cash in. We all have bemoaned not doing so with Wilson, Almiron etc in the past. However if we did do that, we have to accept there might be a tricky period of adjustment when a new keeper comes in. I wouldn't be shocked if anyone we got was an inferior shot stopper as Pope is excellent in that regard. However we would hopefully gain in other areas like being able to pass them the ball without it being an absolute panic every time. Like Pope though and would prefer he stayed and moved into the no.2 role long term but in a PSR world he would probably still command a decent fee for us if we sold this summer.

Just going back to thinking about the game. It's been a common theme sometimes that any teams with fast athletic players cause us problems. Thought it in advance but was hopeful it wouldn't be an impact, but that N'Diaye caused us real issues by just being faster and more technical than our players. There couldn't get the ball off him. Beto alone just kept taking Pickfords long punts and getting the better of all of our back 3 no matter who he was up against. Was a real problem for us. Botman looked like he did last season when he returned from the first knee issue, just too slow and immobile to cope with 1v1. It definitely looked like our players were running on empty after a long season and maybe nerves got the better of them (which was surprising after we've turned up for big games quite often in recent times). But have to remember we were basically playing with 10 with Isak's lack of mobility. The 433 would have been better to start with in hindsight but who knows, the players could have easily played just as poorly no matter the formation due to the tension in their legs. Won't dwell on it now that it doesn't matter. But hopefully it's just evidence Eddie can use to help push through the signings he needs for squad depth next year.

hope he doesn't read this forum.

I hope he's not having to say all this stuff publicly because there is any doubt Mitchell and the club aren't fully committed to doing business this summer? The club and Howe should be totally aligned and in sync you would hope.

Sorry yes I forgot to edit. Yeah Sandro was his usual determined self trying to drive us forward and was pick of the rest.