Away Toon

Newcastle are set to terminate Issac Hayden's loan at Standard Liege with several Championship clubs interested in the 28-year-old English midfielder. (Football Insider)

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/dec/29/howe-pledges-to-stick-by-newcastles-high-energy-approach-despite-struggles

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/dec/30/eddie-howe-newcastle-sunderland-fa-cup-champions-league

He is I'm sure thinking hard about what to do to get us out of the rut we are in. We do have a distinct style of play which we very rarely vary from, intensity is very much our identity etc. Unfortunately when your players are injured or knackered this approach won't work as we are finding out. De Zerbi at Brighton is another manager with a very distinct inflexible style, playing out from the back at all costs, fantastic to watch when it works but painful when it doesn't. Managers need to be tactically flexible and inventive and most of all win games. Otherwise they lose their jobs.

Eddie definitely doesn't change formations and generally doesn't rotate never mind experiment. He appears after two years here to be tactically as inflexible as it gets.

Tonali knew and he didn’t tell us. As far as I know he hasn’t apologized either.

Put a defensive midfielder like Phillips behind him and he'll look a lot better as will Bruno.

It's a good question because Barnes for sure can only play LW and Gordon doesn't look good on the right. I've said it before but wide left is arguably the best position for Barnes, Gordon, Anderson, Willock and Joe Linton so who knows what the thinking is. Isac also seems to be good wide left as well. It's a conundrum that needs resolving.

Six defeats out of Seven and by the end of January something very ugly. Wonder how itchy PIF are feeling?

Gibbs White has marked Bruno when he needed to but Bruno certainly hasn't marked him back.

If we lose this is very much on the manager, picking Burn against Elanga in the first place is bad but then keeping him on for the second half, awful misplaced loyalty.

He needs to apologise

Parts of what he said are true, Howe has never won anything and Emery was our first choice.

Isak is class in pretty much any position but CF. One day the penny will drop.

Luton all over us and looking by far the better team. Time for Eddie to show us why he's so highly rated by most people on here.

Apart from Pope and Botman, this is us at pretty much full strength.

Not sure about that, he could just play like Burn does and just defend in his own half.

I don't blame Trippier for being knackered both physically and mentally, the blame lies with the manager who keeps picking him when it's obvious and has been for weeks that he's become a liability, and secondly when at least in the full back positions we do have options. I hope he get's the break he obviously needs as this is extremely poor man management by the coaching staff.

We had 22% possession against a shit Chelsea team. That does not win you many games unless you are fantastic on the counter which we aren't. And Trippier needs dropping, Howe can call it earning a well earnt rest if he has to. We actually have quite a few options at Fullback it's time to use them.

Hope you weren't being serious.

He's not a centre forward either so it's a bit of a conundrum that Howe needs to resolve.

1-0 up which would have been enough. We really have to learn to win games when it matters. Just naïve.

Running like a mad man yes, class no, he's been awful from an attacking point of view.

Too tired, too naïve.

Haven't seen that much of Ortega, but he looks as good as any goalkeeper I've seen passing out out from the back.