Novocastrian

We huffed and puffed but the management settled for mid-table when they didn’t bring in the inventive players we need in attack. Bournemouth snuffed us out and there was no-one to take a grip in the final third. Most passes outside the box were ‘I’m not sure what to do here, you have it’ followed by a hopeful punt. We lack ‘door openers’. Trippier did well holding that high position on the right.

The Chris Waddle effort off the post against West Germany in the World Cup Semi-final.

I’ve calmed down now, loving how the high press has unsettled these elite teams who are used to knocking the ball around at the back. They didn’t like it up them. Another 2 transfer windows and we’ll be able to match them for the full 90 mins.

If we are to prosper in this league we’ll need to work with the current ‘top 6’ and the sooner those clubs realise we are coming onboard, invited or not, the smoother those relationships will be. It looks like the ownership, in particular Amanda and Mehdad, are kicking off a hearts and minds campaign and the recent visit to Chelsea shows we are working on those relationships. Playing hardball with Man Utd over a 34 year old reserve keeper might be what we’d all like to do but it does us no favours in the future. This is realpolitik.

Never a red, an example of us being generally a yard slow than Wolves all across the park.

16 minutes ago, xLiaaamx said:

Why would we suddenly be looking for cast offs? 

Because we’ve maxed out our budget for this window? Whether that’s a self imposed limit by the owners or not it seems likely the Isak money (which may have been earmarked for 2 x players prior to Wilson’s injury) is as much as they want to spend for now.

Man Utd can fuck off after the Lingard debacle in January.

26 minutes ago, OpenC said:

Some people are just taking a while adjusting to not having to settle for Shefki Kuqi on loan I guess

 

 

 

Shefki Kuqi like Ronaldo R9 compared to Frank Pingel or Tony Cunningham.

Getting a feeling we aren’t going to pursue Pedro now. Think there was a bit more to do and now we’ve went for Isak we’ll leave this.

3 minutes ago, madras said:

I'd say now looking at Isak as the marquee player drops a lot of the need for Pedro, so the Pedro money can be used for RW or (R)CM.

That’s one approach but Pedro seems very advanced. Do we let Everton take over and fight WHU for Paqueta?

5 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

 

I couldn't imagine us getting Isak 2 hours ago so who knows what's possible at this point.

I think Pedro plus a ‘marquee’ player was always on the cards. Not sure they wanted to pull the trigger on an elite striker in this window until Wilson’s injury. We’ve obviously shifted the priority. Maybe we’ll come for Maddison next summer.

31 minutes ago, Lazarus said:

Wasnt there rumours a month or 2 ago that we would be back in for the Paq man in the final week of the window?

Before we were forced to bring in Isak to cover Wilson’s injury? Can’t see us bringing in Isak, Pedro and another £40m player.

Does this mean Paqueta’s not coming 

15 hours ago, Jinky said:

Jan Aage Fjørtoft  - there's a name from the past!

 

Swindon legend.....

Ooh-Ah Jan Aage!

10 hours ago, Happinesstan said:

Do you honestly think we just need to spend a load of money on players and we'll get there? If so, then maybe getting the bloke responsible for not signing anybody over £20 million was a wrong choice.

Our training facilities were about ten years behind PL standard, they're still working on those improvements. Although Howe tried to downplay it, it's undeniable that the ongoing work will impact the process.

 

Load of players? No, just two attacking players would do me before the window closes. I’d go for a CAM and a forward who can play through the middle or out wide. I’m sure the hierarchy will manage that before the window closes but it’s frustrating to be two matches in with no progress yet. Howe is so methodical when integrating new players we might be 8 or 9 games in before we have new players in starting positions. That’s my worry.

28 minutes ago, Happinesstan said:

We're aiming higher, but they've got a 2.5 year headstart, of which we've maybe made up 6 months.

Brighton have never spent over £20m on a player. We’ve already caught up, we now should be leaving them behind. They’re a good team but even this season we should be pushing ahead. 

1 hour ago, Happinesstan said:

 since being promoted alongside ourselves, Brighton have been actively improving, whilst we sat in a pool of stagnant kebab grease for 2.5 years. Have Brighton qualified for europe, yet?

Brighton are a tidy team, well organised, arguably punching significantly above their weight. Ashley didn’t even care about matching a Brighton who are very close to reaching  their ceiling. Are we trying to match Brighton or are we aiming higher?

8 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

Different projects though. Building up from the scorched earth at our place versus having to raze the shit to the ground and start over there and maintain their position.

Bad look IMO to be sat in the dug out when your team is 4-0 down. 
 

At the very least he should be on his feet, in his technical area, excoriating his team for the remainder of the game. 

2 minutes ago, Tiresias said:

 

I hope so too but that is oh if everything goes well and that is fine, I am more critical with someone getting furious at the board for one poor performance that resulted in a decent away point

It’s a decent point for sure. Brighton showed last week they are a good team. There’s still time, I just hope we can bring in a couple of attackers to mix it up.

1 minute ago, Tiresias said:

Seen someone on athletic full of rage saying club needs to spend to avoid midtable mediocrity as if just being safe midtable isn't the goal anyway lol. I agree we need a little more but raging as if the board are expecting us to be competing for top 4 already

A touch of hyperbole? I’ve not seen anyone say we should be challenging for top 4. We should, in my opinion, be challenging for the peripheral European places. We need to make improvements in the final third to make that happen and we’ve now played two games without any attacking reinforcements.
 

We finished mid-table last season and as such could reasonably be considered to be a year ahead of schedule now. 
 

Top 7/8 is ambitious but absolutely within the scope of this team as long as we can bring in a couple of quality additions. To not try and achieve that would be a dereliction of duty for me, considering the ownership group have ambitions to be an elite club.

9 hours ago, Lotus said:

From what little I’ve seen of Longstaff in a deeper role, he let players get in behind him too easy.

He’s a bit slow and ponderous on the ball, even Colback ‘sacked’ him.

8th as a minimum.

I can't see the window up to now as anything but underwhelming. Maybe the new owners will put something out of the bag but we are now nailed to line up with only Botman and possibly Pope as new players for the first PL game of the season.

Before anyone pisses their knickers, yes I know the window is still open but managers want players in as early as possible, Rafa would be doing his nut in now as he always wanted time to fully integrate new players.

Mark Mcghee V Bradford 
 

Yes, was at this game. Also remember a last minute winner against Oxford scored at the Leazes by Gavin Peacock to win the game 4-3.

I can’t see why Broja would come on loan when we have Wilson as a starter. I thought he was more of an out and out forward. Can he play wide. Didn’t Howe play with two strikers at Bournemouth (Wilson/King) albeit with one in a withdrawn role? Would both play together? He seems to want guaranteed game time.