Parsley

Also means that Shelvey will have to be more disciplined as the deeper of the two.

Anita I reckon. Wijnaldum alongside Shelvey, Perez into the hole.

The main thing that gives me hope going into this fixture is that we have generally performed best against teams which have sat deep and afforded the midfield time and space to play considered passes forward - West Ham, West Brom, even Arsenal away due to the amount of respect they showed us when they were out of possession. If Allardyce's plan is to defend deep and counter-attack (as I strongly suspect it will be), then Shelvey and Wijnaldum should be able to dictate play quite freely. When this has been the case in the past, we have often looked dangerous; hopefully Sunday will be no exception.

Armstrong visited Rafa off his own bat apparently.

Our lack of potency going forward is more down to a lack of confidence than anything else imo. We created several good openings last night - Mitrovic/Sissoko's coming together in the first half, Sissoko's pullback in the second half for Townsend, Perez's shot into the side-netting, Mitro opting to leave Janmaat's cross for de Jong etc - which, at the very least, would have resulted in shots on target had our players been less tentative when it mattered or executed the proper final ball. In that regard, Perez was the only player who should be exempted from any blame. I don't think there is an endemic problem with our attacking play - it's a confidence issue which Rafa should hopefully be able to rectify fairly easily.

Koeman thought it was a 'clear pen'

He was ponderous on the ball and looked off the pace for the first 50-60 mins or so but just about got away with it. Got better in that regard as the game went on. On the whole he was probably better than Anita was at CM imo.

Why on earth is Shelvey letting that bounce ffs. Amateurish.

Application's been there but we've been poor on the ball. Leicester are the last team you can afford to cheaply cede possession to.

He's been a liability so far.

He just played a lush chip over the top for Mitro in fairness.

Moussa you fucking moose.

He won the first header mate.

fuck sake.

Colback screws wide. Honorable mention to Sissoko barging Kante over in the build up.

Good chance for Perez that.

Oh God, the hope is killing me.

Stelling's just playing devil's advocate. Generally speaks fondly of all the clubs in the north east.

Cmon Dave, paste the story man your slipping [emoji14] It's not up yet, just seen the back page from tomorrow. That's higher than any La Liga manager besides Lucho and Simeone (Zidane is on less than that, for example). Luke Edwards reckons it's only £2 mill in the Telegraph. Allardyce was on 3 at West Ham iirc. Still pinching myself over this by the way. Been grinning to myself like an absolute nutter since the news broke.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/mar/11/rafael-benitez-newcastle-united-real-madrid Good piece as always from Sid Lowe on Rafa post-Madrid. Love that little anecdote of him managing his local school team

Confirmed! http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20160311/rafa-benitez-confirmed-as-newcastle-manager_2281670_5411873

Hughton?

Absolute rank amateur. Farcical management of a situation demanding decisive action, and not for the first time. One of the chief reasons behind the malaise that NUFC currently finds itself in as far as I'm concerned. Even Llambias would probably be an improvement.

As frustrating as this all is, sacking McClaren surely has to be contingent on a replacement being ready to take over.

Rodgers was very good at Watford FWIW.