Novocastrian

Away crowd doing us proud.

Burn!

Fucking pathetic.

Classy CB in his pomp.

Was in the Scoreboard that day. From memory Kevin Brock scored a lovely free kick but we might have already been 0-4 down at that stage.

Burn 50p head as usual.

We look knackered, in body and mind.

No idea what formation we are playing, it’s a total pot mess.

Had two wake up calls in last 5 mins. Need to get a grip of this shit now.

A bit too frenetic at the moment. The wastefulness with the ball continues too.

We normally play three.

Willock’s on the bench, arguably only missing Joelinton and Tonali from the first 11.

Defending this season has been shocking. We are letting in at least 2 goals a game. We are this bad defensively.

Maybe some confusion around the definition of terms. If rushing off your line to blast a ball into Row Z makes you a ‘Sweeper Keeper’ then Pope maybe deserves that monicker. He’s more decisive than Dubs who generally misses the window for action and then has to stay on his line and narrow the angle. Pope’s forays out of the box, or anytime he has the ball at his feet, aren’t contributing to any attacking endeavour though. I’m generally peering through my fingers when he attempts to kick the ball.

Dubs hasn’t had an easy ride and he’s suffering a bit from the structural issues in the midfield and the knock on effect to the defence. We’ve conceded a load of goals recently but not that many can be pinned solely on him. One thing I’m not having is Pope as a ‘sweeper keeper’. Are we sure? He’s probably the least equipped GK I’ve seen for a sweeper keeper role.

Didn’t they court Rafa for a while?

Can’t stand Arsenal but I’ve got Saka and Saliba in my team.

Fuck both of them, hope they get hammered.

We won’t finish top 7 if we keep conceding at our current rate.

Now get Tino on.

Lovely placement.

What on earth is the defence doing?

We’re there for the taking.

I honestly wouldn’t put Pope in the sweeper keeper category. Only two players I worry about on the ball are Burn and Pope. Pope outside of the box is the stuff of nightmares.

We are too fragile at the back, I’m confident we’ll score again but not confident they won’t score too.