Smal

Yeah, I've wanted to keep him in the team but you cannot play like that and expect to start the next game. He was poor defensively but he really hurt us in build up today. Can't be shit at both of those things I'm afraid.

At least with Eddie you can expect good things to come out of this. They will identify the faults and work on them.

That was absolutely tragic from start to finish, like. Not sure what we've been doing all week but everything was wrong.

Howe did say we'd be having a lot of rest this week and not much training... but we don't look to have benefitted from the rest at all.

We are absolutely nowhere near them in midfield. Pressing structure is all wrong.

Would do this but keep Murphy on for Gordon. He's a significantly better player unfortunately.

Yeah, just stand offside Ant. That's fine.

No threat in behind again. Wilson on for a midfielder at HT.

Not sure why that's a yellow like

Sven looks shaky today

Burn . Anything but that there, Dan.

In his first season he was definitely good enough and was performing at a high level, though ofc not worth £80m. Something's obviously happened with him mentally during his time at the club. He's been an absolute mess since then. You are still mostly a counter-attacking team that sit fairly deep tbf. Third lowest defensive line actions in the league ahead of only Bournemouth and Forest.

Watkins is having a purple patch, I don't think he's at the same level as a fit Wilson at all. Think we're forgetting how good Wilson was earlier in the season - there's a reason he was in the England squad.

Rio Ferdinand is such a dumb cunt, like. Imagine picking Watkins ahead of Wilson or Isak in any scenario.

Will be interested to see how our midfield gets on. Longstaff's been great but they're our best 3 individuals, undoubtedly

Maguire used to be good

He's pretty much as good at passing as Partey is imo and Arteta is a good coach so will improve him further. Rice has never had a particularly amazing coach in his career, so there'll be loads of room for improvement with him. His passing is underrated anyway because we don't see the best of him for England - he has an 87% completion rate despite attempting a lot of medium and long passes. A club like Arsenal will probably be desperate to phase Partey out. It's not good for the brand.

They've been linked with him for a while and it's his most likely destination imo. He'd be a great fit there and could replace Partey or Xhaka in their XI.

Some City fans on another forum were saying the other day that he’s been their best defender and possibly even their best player overall this season, which seems mad considering who’s up front.

Maybe City will decide that they don't need Ake and we could get Gvardiol

If Gvardiol goes to Man City then Ake might be available. He's been tremendous this season though so maybe not.

He's not in that he's not all about running and fouling, but Thiago is still extremely capable defensively and is a very good presser. Maddison... is not.

Probably ok actually. Burn into CB and Targett at LB was extremely solid for the last 5 months of last season. Wilson to replace Isak is not a disaster either.

Maddison is basically the antithesis of a Klopp midfielder. I can't see that at all.

From the mirror: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/declan-rice-transfer-newcastle-howe-29709304?1=