Stottie

Sheff U were unlucky on the first, which was a common sense handball, if not a "rules of the game" one. Not lucky at all with goals 2 and 3 though which clinched the match. Goal 2 is a penalty for holding if BDB misses. You could call holding on several different players. Goal 3 was a free kick after that "orange card" challenge. The trip on Gordon should also have been a penalty. I think the scoreline and performance will write a new history of the season for Sheff U, but it took Man City and Spurs late winners to beat them. Credit to our lads for dispatching them so easily.

https://x.com/xGPhilosophy/status/1705997786183840219?s=20 After this weekends games, I think that puts us 5th in xG, 3rd in xGA. So pretty much the same as last season.

Fulham away last season on steroids this. Just what the doctor ordered!

I suppose the big risk (emotionally) is Liverpool buy him with monopoly money they get from Saudi for Salah. Him going somewhere else wouldn't bother me anything like as much. The money many Saudi clubs are getting though is from PIF. As things stand, FFP will not let PIF spend the same on NUFC even if they wanted to. However a 70M+ profit on Bruno would go a long way in changing that. Perhaps we would become the "world's richest club" after all. The FFP shackles would certainly come off. Just a thought, but if Brighton can lose a manager, all his staff, a sporting director, and many of their best players and keep on rolling, perhaps we should not become so attached to a midfielder, even a clearly brilliant one.

Butter fingers on crisp packet hands.

Gordon (normally our most accurate passer after Botman), Tonali and Burn all had under 70% passing accuracy vs. Milan. That's the entire left side. There were also numerous miscontrols and lost tackles across the whole team. https://fbref.com/en/matches/19789895/Milan-Newcastle-United-September-19-2023-Champions-League It sounded like it was quite hot and balmy during the match. Some of our lads looked knackered at the end.

The other comment about Howe is we had less possession but allowed them far less in the second half. There is a huge difference between the first half and second half stats. Whatever adjustments were made worked and helped us get a result.

With a ref letting lots go, RLC on Bruno multiple times, we needed Joelinton on the pitch. He was a big miss. Part of our game is counter-pressing, losing the ball and winning it back in good areas, but we were not physical enough to do it in this game. Or on other occasions so far this season. Willock would have helped too. This is on top of the obvious need for relationships to develop between new additions like Gordon, Tonali, Barnes, etc. and their team-mates. This will take time. The main thing though, like the City away game, is that we restricted elite opponents on their own pitch to mostly half chances. I wouldn't expect much more than this until we are more established as a CL team.

Great result! Completely outplayed but it's a learning experience. Hung in there and defended well. Bruno and Pope MOTM.

C'mon lads, create one more chance and see if we can steal it.

Twenty to go. All to play for. Anderson on for Tonali. Howay the Lads!

With this ref, I'd like to see Joelinton playing. Milan very rapid on the attack. They're cutting through us better than anyone I've seen us play competitively since Howe's first half season. Some great movement from Theo and Leao, a level above what we normally play. We've hung in there though and it's still all to play for.

Desparately searching for the "like thread title" button. As for the game, give it a go and see what happens. It'll be emotional for him, so I hope Sandy has a good one.

After the five hardest opening fixtures anyone can remember, we are fourth in the league in xG against. Pope's not been on top form, so actual goals against is higher. Two unlikely finishes from Nunez, who's missing easier chances against everyone else, didn't help either. Our defending against Brighton was more uncharacteristic error-strewn than systematically poor. We lost the midfield battle, but everyone does against Brighton. We've struggled a bit to create, but c'mon, Man City and Brighton away. Our group games in the CL Group of Death may prove easier. I expect more goal involvements from Barnes and Gordon as we learn to use their talents.

He did indeed. He's completely league proven, and showed it in this game. We just need to make the most of it. fwiw, despite the stat quoted when he was signed, he also beat his man several times and can clearly dribble a bit. Not many of them fabled Harvey Barnes 1-2s yet, but as with the crosses, give it time.

Great result. Now above Man U and Chelsea, so someone else's struggles can be used to fill column inches. First clean sheet in what seems like an age (minus Leicester home)

The key factor with Harry Kane is not where he's playing but whether you have runners ahead of him when he drops deep. Spurs did this mainly with Son. Kane has incredible #10 skills, better than Sheringham was. He gave us a football lesson from #10 in that first Howe season. I seem to remember both their fullbacks scored in that game.

The latest article in the Athletic suggests our summer recruitment was driven by the biggest dropoff from the first 11. So Tonali for Bruno and Livramento for Trippier. Tonali can also likely play alongside Bruno, given more than four games' time to settle of course. We've had a couple of bad results, the freak loss to Liverpool from that position and the error-strewn game at Brighton. Ten Hag lost 7-0 to Liverpool last year but still finished above them. Shit happens and you just have to move on.

I think the "old Newcastle" is gone, and has nothing to do with why we didn't beat 10 man Liverpool, but nothing would be more old Newcastle than selling Bruno for less than Caicedo went for to a club below us in the table.

It was mentioned in passing during the Liverpool-Villa game earlier, but last week Allison made eight saves, the most he ever has in a single match for Liverpool.

I hate to take anything away from Ferguson, who's a good young lad and really coming on, but our defence for that second was like the parting of the Red Sea. Christmas come early.

That's all true. It's not Trippier's side but I understood our approach against Liverpool because Salah is about the best there is on the counter and them going down to 10 doesn't change that. The issue is that if Trippier stays back, what other creative patterns do we have? He's a huge part of our play. Almiron doesn't cross it. Bruno has also done good work for us in the right half space with Trippier nearby. Those loopy passes to Almiron in behind etc. As Kanji says, hopefully its just an opponent based thing and won't be an issue till we play Martinelli and Arsenal.

Just my own concern but Trippier's not getting forward anything like as much as before. We've gone from a team that hits loads of crosses to one that hits very few. The Villa game started with two goals from crosses but we've not seen many since. Almiron's biggest chance against Liverpool was from a Joelinton cross.

Yes, their goals were very much created by us, albeit in a backdrop of them controlling the ball. Isak should have worked the keeper when through 1x1 or off the Tonali cutback. The Guardian usually winds me up but their match report this time is written by Jonathan Wilson and talks more about us than them. This often happens when the established big clubs are involved, but I don't think that is such a factor here. He heaps praise on Ferguson, but admits the second was unchallenged in a laughable amount of space. Like the Villa 0-3 last season, it's only one game and what matters is how we react and adjust.

Poor today, much worse than against City or Liverpool and more concerning because of it. Its a bogey ground to start with, and boy did it feel like one today. Lots of poor performances across the pitch, so no point in singling anyone out and maybe lucky to escape with 3-1. I presume Brighton have another gear they can access when not being handed gifts like today.