Hanshithispantz

Hopefully he accidentally lays out Joselu so we can get Gayle on.

Yah, shit goal aside - which is becoming worryingly frequent without Lascelles - we've looked comfortably shit, which is how we looked earlier in the season when we were picking up points.

Anyway, hopefully we have an actual striker on the pitch before 80 minutes.

Without Lacelles you just poke the ball into our box and automatically score.

Matt Phillips looks like Stanley Mathews.

Joselu actively ruining our attacks now

Jacob Ben Afree

Merino's been the square root of aids so far.

I think Mitrovic has comfortably looked the better forward on every level personally like. I can only assume that there's some next-gen manager shite I'm not seeing. Some instructional workrate thing that makes Rafa moist but which my ignorant eyes just cannot see. I'm not being flippant there either, Benitez obviously sees something in him. I don't think it's as petty as him simply not liking Mitrovic.

I think he's looked OK in general play in a couple recently but there was like a period of about half a dozen games where I honestly cannot remember him doing a single thing bad or good.

As a team I think that's nearer to achieving what we've done well this season. I'm just going to have to accept that Joselu is undroppable for some reason.

We might as well make it 5 in a row.

Reminds me of the Cabaye video

One of those Japanese women will probably be shagging it so I wouldn't feel that bad for the little fella.

Elliott Yedlin Lejeune Clark Mbemba Shelvey Merino Ritchie Perez Murphy Gayle

He played like 3 games. EDIT: 420 minutes. So 3 starts and a total of 4 and a half games.

And I'll happily accept I was wrong about saying Gayle is shit. I was speaking out of frustration after a match. He's not shit, he's just not clearly better than Mitrovic to justify Gayle starting and Mitrovic not. Fair enough, I've maybe missed some of your posts like.

I don't think anyone is saying people who shout for Mitrovic are blindly affectionate now though? 2 months ago maybe but even UncleBingo (who coined the term 'Shitrovic') is saying he would be playing him now. In the past couple of weeks I've seen people (you included) arguing that Gayle is shite though whilst trying to justify Mitrovic's goal record. I'm not saying either is better than the other, it's hard to judge given how clearly unfit Gayle was at the start of the season and how little Mitrovic has played recently. I would start Gayle purely because there's a raft of evidence that he's the sharpest goalscorer we have and when teams are playing utter shite they're usually your best bet for a goal (see Sunderland and Defoe).

Joselu should be dropped but I really cannot see what Gayle has done to be finished with so quickly when the only alternative is someone who isn't a natural goalscorer by any stretch of the imagination. I like Mitrovic too, but like in the relegation season we cannot afford to have him as our main striker when we're playing so shit, he just doesn't score enough.

You're warping his statistics though, he made 12 sub appearances on top of that. It's massively disingenuous like so you cannot be that confidant in your own argument. You may as well point out that he has a goal every 70 minutes this season which comfortably puts him as the greatest Premier League striker ever.

It isn't hard to see how warped the stats are when they suggest Mitrovic could directly be involved in 10 goals in our next 11 like.

Is that not an old quote?

He's looking full on sexy Columbian drug kingpin nowadays. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/14/15/1A2A83DB00000578-0-image-a-24_1479137961395.jpg

I'd still start Gayle like (Perez behind). As a poacher he's still the most likely to score goals and there's nobody we can trust more to finish off the few chances we create. I like Mitrovic but there's no evidence him or Joselu could even go halfers on a goal.

Missed a sitter, yet again! Perhaps he should start wearing his Serbian shirt under his Newcastle shirt? he was on the pitch for about 20 mins, and had a shot blocked. Fair play tho we should stick with the dude who tried to slide a shot in for no apparent reason and hasn’t scored in forever that was tragic