Novocastrian

No idea how that stood but we don’t often get the rub of the green.

Not celebrating this yet.

We look very like the 2022/2023 iteration of us so far.

Grass is either very long or pitch heavily watered. Need a bit more weight on the passes.

I do want us to take the cups seriously but we can’t afford to drop too far behind the early pace setters in the PL. Spurs and Liverpool have difficult away games today. Three points keeps us in touch.

Will the real NUFC please stand up! We’ve got a squad to deal with this twice a week programme. Give the kids a game against City and play our strongest team today and then give them a week off before Burnley.

Would seem a bit counterintuitive if we were inviting rivals like Liverpool, Chelsea et al. to come and take our best player off our hands next season.

I think they are becoming increasingly used in the PL and they’ve been widely used in La Liga for years. It would be interesting to understand any clauses. Only CL teams? Exclude PL teams? Only Real/Barca?

Wonder how the release clause works? I honestly don’t think he’s got the physicality to play for a Real or Barca. Could Chelsea invoke it? Seems strange.

Got his massive swad on a few crucial headed clearances. Shanked the ball out of play a few times when making a straightforward progressive pass. Suppose we can’t have everything.

They’re not great but we look a bit flat and we are lacking any invention when we have the ball.

We are giving it away far too cheaply. That’s on us, their press isn’t very intense.

This is turd, not seeing the point of Harvey Barnes at this point: Hope he scores 2 and shuts me up but he offers nothing apart from the quick one/two.

Well I for one welcome Everton's new cocaine smuggling overlords.

Anyone go to the Abbey Stadium for the away with Cambridge United in 1992 when we won 2-0 and Kilcline marked Dion Dublin out of the game?

It's unfortunate that he's better at the social media aspect of football management than he is the actual player selection and tactics. I hope the next manager has more of a grip on his remit.

Hardly a huge achievement for Southgate to get England into the 2018 semi-finals. Finish second in the group to Belgium and then beat Colombia and Sweden. Would have been outrageous to not reach the semis. Agree that the debate has been done to death but let's dispense with the 'one of England's best ever managers' trope. He's extremely average and limited, a corporate FA suit.

Watched Venezuela beat Uruguay 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier. In fairness, most of the crowd were laughing, if that had been Brazil or Argentina they would have started setting fire to things.

Attended matches in following stadia abroad, numerous games at Benfica, Sporting and Viking. San Nicola - Bari Sao Januario - Vasco da Gama San Mamés - Athletic Bilbao Estadio Centenario - Montevideo, Uruguay Estadio da Luz - Benfica Estadio Jose Alvalade - Sporting CP Estadio Antonio Coimbra da Mota - Estoril Praia Viking Stadion - Viking FK Siaka Stevens Stadium - Freetown, Sierra Leone

Must admit I wasn’t paying too much attention by the end but did Barnes contribute much? In my mind he’s only really effective running onto a throughball like against Villa.

IMO there’s been a drop in the quality of each of our last three opponents. From Man City to Liverpool to Brighton. We’ve looked all over the place and we’ve lost all three. If we played Villa next week I’m almost certain we’d lose. A lot of work for Howe and his team to do. A lot of self reflection required by the players as they’ve been very poor.

Midfield effectiveness today at pre-PIF levels.

Fucking joke.

Seen enough in 5 mins to conclude nowts changed. We need to change shape.

Joelinton tends to clatter people though, part of the fact he wasn’t originally a midfielder. There’s little guile in winning the ball, just monsters into players.