Smal

He was exactly what we’ve been missing under Howe today. Created so many attacks. Really good.

don’t need to rush anything here, just hold onto the ball. Villa didn’t have any pressure on our backline with 11 and they have even less now.

be interesting to see who has more of the ball here

it really is a shame that mad 5 minutes happened against City. If Wolves pick up these could get dragged into a relegation battle.

that's got to be his season heatmap. His heatmap against Ipswich was:

yeah, he often came out of his box to make a 3 with Schar and Burn in possession too. He's obviously not a good keeper at this level but it gives you a glimpse of how much better off we'd be with a keeper that can receive and pass the ball.

they play a really high line without any real pressure on the ball which is ideal for us. At the other end they make good use of the space between opposition defence and midfield. There'll be loads of goals. Hopefully we're clinical.

the TV stuff is jokes, man one of the games has been moved to accommodate fucking egg chasing. 4 games on at 2pm and none in the 12pm or evening slots

also now the best forward in the league for key passes (passes leading directly to a shot) and shot-creating actions (the two actions taken which lead to a shot, ie passes, dribbles or tackles) this season.

think this is understating it pretty heavily to be honest. In the league this season he has 0.21 goals per 90 played from an xG of 0.37 per 90 (or 3 goals from 5.3xG) which is really quite bad. I'm sure he'll be working on it but obviously need to improve massively.

if you are taking anything Howe says about transfers at face value you’re doing it wrong.

I don’t think Howe will have wanted to reward him giving a goal away midweek with more minutes yesterday tbh, which is fair enough imo. Howe is pretty harsh on new players like that but it has consistently worked out.

his pass for the Isak 1v1 sitter was unreal btw

irritating that the MOTD commentator mentioned media reports about Tonali moving back to Italy in January

he should be scoring a lot more goals at the back post, especially when Murphy’s in the team. It’s about timing of runs more than finishing half the time. Been really disappointed by his output this season tbh, but thought he played well overall yesterday at least.

Man Reds’ goal difference

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/newcastle-united-trigger-deal-for-ps15m-midfielder-wanted-by-leeds-as-january-transfer-decision-made-4911070

I think he'd have been a really consistently good PL player if Howe had been coaching him since he signed at 22. The limitation in his game are all in the mental side. He has good technique and physical attributes.

Longstaff already had a contract extension triggered didn't he?

Jesus doesn't love Guehi back :****(

really looks to me like he should be a number 10, or at least an 8/10 hybrid like a Maddison etc. Has such a good eye for the final ball and the technique to play it too. Could work alongside Brunali as well tbf.

really good and should've had a couple more assists. His finish for the goal was out of this world too, which is almost easy to forget given how good his assist was.

ah, if he'd just stayed in the net he'd have been fine

Hall so good. You just expect it now.

getting older and never playing will do that tbf