Novocastrian

I've been watching the club since the early-mid 1980s and never really been one for individual players. Even as a kid I didn't really have any football 'heroes', the stand-out player on the pitch when I first went to St James' was David McCreery. I admired Beardsley, Gazza, Shearer and have always had a soft spot for the more enigmatic players such as Mirandinha, Ginola, Asprilla, Ben Arfa etc. I think Bruno may just be my favourite all time NUFC player, the way he casually dropped into a relegation battle and just grabbed the whole thing by the scruff of the neck. The mental fortitude, leadership and determination he displays every game. He's priceless to us now and hopefully he'll be our leader for the next 5 or 6 years.

Meh, he’s promising but there’s other options. Not bothered about this at all. His game would probably suit Serie A better than the hurly burly of the PL.

He’s a nuisance for defenders but I don’t even think he’s winning the physical battles. If he does get a head on it it’s rarely directed to an NUFC player joining the attack. As a ‘hold up forward’ he’s been mostly ineffective. A few years ago he was decent at getting on the shoulder of the last defender, looked a bit more mobile and direct. He’s Frank Pingelesque now.

Everton still right in this, would love to see them go down. Leeds are the consolation prize.

By my calculation we’ve beaten every team from 8th to 20th (apart from Watford who scored in 90th minute) in the last 3 months or so. We absolutely should be looking to challenge in the top 7 next season.

All of our issues today; failure to create chances and allowing Liverpool to carve their own chances, were largely self generated. I didn’t see a world class performance from Liverpool. Just a very good team rotating 4 or 5 first teamers keeping possession and controlling the game.

About time…

Not denying how difficult it is to play against a team like Liverpool but every time we’ve had the ball we’ve made bad decisions and given it away. We’ve not even posed them a problem yet which is disappointing.

Poor first half, we’ve been awful on the ball and we’ve not had if too often. ASM up front not working, we don’t seem to know how to put an attack together. This is Liverpool in first gear, we need to ramp up the intensity.

Wasn’t a foul unfortunately.

They’ve only won 2 league titles without Busby or Ferguson, the last one about 110 years ago.

I favoured trying Joelinton up top to allow Shelvey/Willock/Bruno a go as a midfield three but thought he looked knackered the other night. Thought he was a due a rest.

Mark McGhee against Bradford City circa 1989/1990.

Bit of a theme with us being the better team in first half and abject in the second.

I’ve never wanted or agree with VAR fullstop. Adds a bit of drama for the neutral though.

Fair do’s.

Honestly, the decisions where a line has to be drawn through several players looking for an errant toe or knee I’d consider onside. The offside VAR fundamentalists can fuck off.

Yeah it’s offside in VAR land, I think people get pissed off with its employment on marginal decisions where the human eye doesn’t pick it up and even several slo-mo replays and lines drawn are barely conclusive. It’s not what VAR was intended for.

Jesus fuck drinking out the bottle? Surely not.

Swap him out with Joelinton, at least he can hold the ball up and bring others into play. Bruno/Shelvey/Willock in midfield.

Must admit I’m getting a little bored of watching him run around and challenge for headers. Yes he works hard but it’s quite excruciating.

The badge changes are so minimal they’re barely noticeable although after comparing the before and after several times the new design looks a bit ‘fresher’ in my opinion. Either way, I prefer this to a radical redesign into some generic ‘circle crest’.

Just buy everything on Barrack Rd, student flats, business school etc. and promise to build them replacement state of the art facilities elsewhere in the city. Move the pitch across and free up space to develop the East Stand. Re-route traffic etc.

A plank of wood would have done better.

This is fucking gash so far, wish someone could get a grip of these games and show some leadership.