Miercoles

Should have been a red there

Easily our best player in the first half, though that's not saying a whole lot.

Let's go! Excited to watch this lad start today.

Crazy that there is not one CF on that bench, even if you really stretch your imagination. Whose the closest thing to a CF behind Wood in that lineup? Murphy? I guess in reality it's Joelinton but come on man. We don't even have a forward for the youth team right now do we?

If Jon Jones was a Newcastle fan it would explain some of his outbursts...

Yeah that's the key right there, and it's crazy that it did not seem like that was the case for over a decade. The last 15 years or whatever of constantly buying as number ten, playing him on the wing, saying he's crap, buying a number ten, playing him at CF, saying he's crap, buying a number ten, playing him on the other wing, saying he's crap.... God it was frustrating. So whenever I hear about a new number ten coming in I cringe a little bit, and "can play anywhere across the front three" is often a pretty optimistic interpretation. Still though, like you say we seem to have competent recruitment now so I imagine there is a plan here and I'm excited to get a new forward in so that we can bring someone on who isn't a huge downgrade in any of the front three positions, because right now it's a shit show as soon as you go to the bench.

So are we going to get sucked into playing a 10 as a lone center forward again? I have faith in Howe, but I obviously need more therapy to get over the trauma of the Ashley era...

I couldn't fucking believe it when I saw Ritchie ready to come in and left back. I've never been so happy to see Krafth lmao

This result is looking better and better man

He was fucking incredible today.

Agreed, he did really well defending but you could tell ASM was struggling without another threat nearby. Everyone knows Burn is not going to drive forward so they're free to double team Maxi.

Thought he should have come on today, the kind of game where anything that's just *different* could have made a big impact.

That clearance late, holy fuck. He made that look so casual, just juggle the ball off his hip and volley it clear, what in the fuck man. That's an own goal off the hip like that for most defenders, and he didn't seem fussed about it at all. Guy is just so damn smooth man.

Incredible sliding challenge in the six yard box to stop a sure chance late. Thought he had a good game all around, especially out of position, though it's hard to imagine him as a wing back

Had a bad game but still saved the day by clearing it off the line, it's a good sign when even your shit games are decent. Anyway this is the aberration, the whole team was misplacing their passes today, I don't think it's anything to do with Trips.

Pope was excellent today, two absolutely top quality saves.

How do you do a special one-off kit and STILL have it clash? Watching from home between the shadow and the kits it's not easy to tell who's who, definitely think that explains a few of the more egregious missed passes. Second half will be better.

Kluivert and Shearer in pro Evo, I forget which year but it was called "winning eleven 7" in the states, are what got me into NUFC in the first place, and football in general for that matter. That was such a fun team to play as because you weren't being a douchebag playing MU or Arse or Madrid, but you could absolutely beat those teams with shearer, kluivert, Robert, and I think Solano was on that team. Fun times just relentlessly hitting the bong and playing hours of pro Evo with your mates back in the day. It's a shame you can't recapture that as an adult but it's just not a thing any more. So yeah I have a soft spot for Kluivert too, even though I never even saw him in a match!

Etitike didn't sell me because he looked like another tall giraffe-type player that can't head the fucking ball. Absolutely exhausting to watch those guys you know. As for this lad my first take away is that the youtube video has a lot of balls not actually going into nets. Not great for me if the best clips you can find of a dude are a bunch of almost-assists. Tbf, I did not watch the whole thing.

Pulisic would be fun, it's always nice having a USA player in squad, it was cool when Yedlin was here even though he was never the best. He wasn't bad either for where we were at the time. As for Pulisic I'm not sure he's a massive upgrade, at least for the price he would probably command, he doesn't seem to have lived up to the promise he showed when he broke through a few years back. I mean he has to be better than Almiron and Fraser right? Or is he? Legitimately don't know any more, just because someone plays for Chelsea doesn't mean they're actually any good... What a shit post lol, just the ramblings of a USA fan in a boring meeting.

Did anybody else notice how much he was fucking with their goalkeeper? Hilarious. There was a moment in the first half where the keeper's trying to get some space to throw it and Wilson is all over him, keeper's going "what the fuck" and Wilson just shrugging at him like "what mate" - it was cracking me up.

Was thinking today about how much better this team is to watch right now. Just the pressing us such a huge difference to some of the absolute shit we have been served up over the last couple decades. Defend deep and hoof it field, hope something happens and then get back in your shell to defend deep again. Jesus Christ ten years of that shit like. Now as soon as we lose possession it looks like somebody kicked a hornets nest, it's just relentless until somebody on the opposition fucks up and kicks it out of bounds. One of my absolute favorite things to watch in this burgeoning Eddie Howe era is how many times the goalkeeper punts a backpass out of bounds under pressure. It's usually good for two or three a game!

Surprised this thread hasn't been bumped, this fella was immense today. Just so cool in the tight spots, he had a couple tricky 1v1 situations and both times he calmly dispossessed the attacker and recycled the ball, like "what were you worried about?" Really backed up Eddie's decision to start him in my opinion, was very good throughout.

Come on! He must have heard you lot.

I think Eddie has earned some trust after how he blooded in Bruno. We all want to see the shiny new toys but the manager probably has the best idea of all of us about how ready he is to do a full 90 minutes in the premier league.