gbandit

Shame, injuries may have slowed his progression but I really like his game

Howay man, I know you’re joking but the lad already showed his true colours and although he’s mostly been fine for them, he’d command a proper fee nowadays from a club that has taken the piss out of everyone in football and faced zero repercussions. Hope he’s on their books forever à la Sterling

Never want to be reminded of his existence, was my all time footballing low when he was here. Shouldn’t have come in here in all honesty

18.2%, remarkable he’s still in a job

I think he’s got excellent feet, excellent vision and excellent weight of pass. I think he’s got major flaws in his movement in the box both in the air and on the ground and I think he plays far too deep all the time in the striker role. He is a very clean striker of the ball but his natural instincts are to take a touch. His lack of pace is an issue in the league especially. Personally, I think he’s got the potential to be an absolutely amazing 10 and amazing 9. He’s still very early on in his development and yet we’ve seen some of those qualities already. What he needs is a lot of work on his movement and reading of where to position himself. This is all stuff that is training-oriented. His actual instinct technique and ability is amazing and he just needs the right coaching for it to develop further. I do think the pace is an issue but it can be mitigated with better quality on the wings by stretching teams more. Ideally, id like to see him play as a 10 but I think Howe will only want him as a 9 and he will get the coaching he needs to be a top 9

Build the team around him is the solution. You don’t pick up a gem like this and say we’re the problem so off you go. The solution is creating a team that works with his strengths

My gloom is less about us as a club, and more about the state of the game. That’s what’s instilled more negativity in me that I can’t shake. Think it’s probably coloured by my general perception of the direction the world is taking on multiple fronts

Genuine TV perfection

Sometimes I wonder if it’s just me getting older and transitioning into that timeworn classic of thinking things used to be better. However, I’ve never enjoyed watching football less than this current era. Not talking just about Newcastle but the whole game, VAR, the off-the-pitch influences, how refereeing has gotten worse over time, teams setting up in exactly the same overcoached ways and players being taught to be robotic rather than use any individual flair. Just feels an all time low for football as a product, which is ironic give the amount of money in the game, and clearly not surprising at the same time

Wouldn’t sell for £100m

Howe’s not going to be able to convince the board to fund a striker or a RW given the outlay in the summer for those positions, at least not for players who are ready to play. The only potential players we could bring in this window that could actually play this season are defenders. Genuinely worrying given how poor we are at attacking teams

I know they were tiring but we looked noticeably more fluent carrying the ball forwards after he came on

Woltemade is definitely good enough. Wissa isn’t. I do think Wolte needs a lot of work in the striker role but he can be a striker as well as a 10, even though he’s a much more natural 10

Wissa has had a particularly poor cameo

Was shite was from Wissa both to be off and not to battle better for it

Think Joelinton’s actually been pretty good on the ball today, just very good in the box going for goal

Tell trippier to fuck off please

No one attacking that properly

Our attacking approach is so poor. When we have the opportunity to be more direct we almost always look for the slow pass out wide instead, allowing teams to get their shape solid and more people behind the ball

The amount of ref calls for Keepers and defenders flopping on corners is out of hand. The game is a complete joke nowadays

Great cross from Elanga

Who the fuck is helping Hall there

Trippier at RB is such a weakness for us now, it’s genuinely sad

One of Tonali’s worst games

How does Jow not score there? What is he doing today in the box? That is appalling