Away Toon

This above is the most important bit. Players should be warned away from social media in all its abhorrent forms, if they insist in interreacting with the various dickheads on there, don't start whining because you disagree with what you've just read. Bruno should know better and hopefully the club will tell him so.

Gordon is going to be left out for Barnes I hope we need someone who can score goals. There are no goals in a Joe and Joe combination or very little anyhow.

We don't seem to have any interest in buying a 6, not sure why as everyone else at the top in Europe has a dedicated defensive midfielder. In fact as it was mentioned above we don't have either a particularly defensive midfielder or attacking one.

Well apparently the temperature was 45C the other night, so it's hard to imagine the level will be very high.

Can't not see Villa scoring again so we will need another one at least to win, maybe two. We are losing out in midfield at the moment.

Lack of pace at the back and in midfield is a problem, but we knew that already. Watkins should have equalised.

Not that it cost us last season but we still have the same perceived weaknesses in the team and squad as we had then. Pope is probably the worst keeper in the premier league with the ball at his feet, we don't have a good attacking LB and most people aren't sure we have a particularly good LB at all. We have no defensive midfielder which means Bruno has to play there and that's a bit of a waste. RW options are limited unless Almiron goes mad again. Wilson is the only CF in the squad and although Isak can probably play as a Number 9 that's not allowing him to play to his strengths. If we can continue to press teams like we did last season and start converting more of the many chances we missed, none of the above probably matters.

Dewsbury-Hall looks a good player every time I've seen him play.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/05/investigation-after-57-world-triathlon-championship-swimmers-fall-sick-and-get-diarrhoea-in-sunderland-race

Barnes will score goals, there is no sign as yet that Gordon will.

Anderson was out best player again and will probably start against Villa. Gordon can't finish and will probably not.

If we were to bring in a progressive attacking LB like Tierney either Trippier has to stay back a lot more or in this case Tierney would have to. You can't have two attacking fullbacks up field at the same time unless you have defensive midfielders to protect the two CH's, in our case slow ones as well. We don't have a defensive midfielder in the squad and don't seem to be prioritizing one, so I'm guessing that Dan Burn stays and starts as LB.

Among the many problems with potentially selling Wilson is that we don't have another CF at the club. Don't make me spell it out for you.

Well Eddie's not scratching his head, he'll start Burn as usual and if he has to Targett.

Not sure selling him can be regarded as potentially making a mistake. Making a mistake would be keeping ASM and not being able to buy any other players this transfer window which is certainly what Howe is implying.

Probably Sardinia somewhere.

I'd rather have someone with end product and there is no comparison between Barnes and ASM.

Isn't Mouth of the Tyne stuff banned on here?

He's pressed well from the front throughout the 90 minutes in this game.

Willock scored 3 goals in 35 starts last season which is poor for an attacking midfielder. If he doesn't do better this season he'll be on the bench more often than not.

Better is subjective, however Barnes' effectiveness compared with ASM is not in doubt, his G/A is way higher to the extent that there is no comparison.

Looks like they want Barnes to play wide left and he's a much better bet than ASM. I don't know why we don't appear in for him.

Bit of HBA there plus a good right foot.

Leicester City want more than £50m for England midfielder James Maddison, 26, amid interest from Tottenham and Newcastle. (Sky Sports) Newcastle are considering ending their interest in Inter Milan and Italy midfielder Nicolo Barella, 26. (Independent) But Newcastle will target the signing of 20-year-old German forward Derry Scherhant from Hertha Berlin. (Telegraph - subscription required)

Obviously we need to strengthen and no doubt will, however how our transfers compare with our immediate rivals will be the key to how well we do next season. It's going to be an evolving situation but hopefully someone will feel like creating a thread to keep track of it. To start Liverpool have strengthened with Mac Allister and haven't lost anyone important, Brighton have lost Mac Allister. Chelsea have added Christopher Nkunku etc.