Shays Given Tim Flowers

I hate it when we sign quality players.

I mean if the rule was if the part of your body that you scored the goal with was offside, you’re offside, that would be ok.

I mean mascherano wasn’t in the same bracket but would have played for any team.

TonAli

Souness and the quarter UEFA and FA Cup semi. also fuck me, a club competing for league cup (finalists) FA Cup, and champions league in near enough march. Christ alive.

Salah’s the best player in the world and Hall kept his involvement in the game limited seems wasteful and unnecessary to have a second player double up when Hall was superb man marking. It was clear as the game entered the final third Hall was told to push up more. Tonali makes a mistake that left Hall in a poor position. It’s not the approach that’s an issue it’s the execution by the players. Giving the ball away to Liverpool is pretty much the most dangerous thing you can do. Unfortunately giving the ball away is something our players have shown a real aptitude for.

As well as anybody for 60 minutes really promising.

Thought hall was superb against Salah for 60 minutes. Combination of fatigue and a clear instruction to attack more changed his performance in the last 30. Also plenty of times we were in behind on the right hand side last night and nobody attacking the near post.

Keep the defensive line deep, look to transition their possession into a rapid counterattack in midfield by pressing centrally and then engineer a 3 on 4 with the first or second ball played in behind. Hall to man mark Salah which denied Gordon of the overlapping run which free allows him to cut inside. Feel like the first para is why Gordon was played centrally.

I mean the post above says c minus.

Would agree with @Fak. The best value signing in recent memory and would be in the conversation for best ever signing.

C minus and trending downwards.

I think Howe can set the team up to beat these. Problem is, was and will be the quality of our players.

He backed himself to score. That’s why he’s had the goal scoring record he has. It was the wrong decision but there’s been plenty of times hes backed himself to score and in doing so won us points. I’d have been fuming if it had cost us on Saturday, but beyond it being frustrating in the game context it’s not indicative of anything.

Sounds like you’re defensive good buddy.

Can we have a list of 18 year old midfielders who have controlled a premier league game?

No but thank fuck he did because he’s live to danger and sorts it out.

Asymmetrical barcode is a beauty.

Its not exclusively our press. We have too many players who if they aren’t at 100% in terms of performance level just aren’t good enough to play for a side that wins most weeks.

Yeah, very inconsistent with his passing, often gifting the ball in dangerous areas. His positioning has been really slack and his industry in recovery is starting to leave a lot to be desired.

Also, don’t we all agree that we’ve got very limited options on the bench to change games? Really he has minor tweaks available in the main to change games. It’s symptomatic of having a thin squad.

All I would add to this is against Arsenal in the second leg we had a completely different plan A to how we set up in the league.

Many were saying Bruno was one of, if not the best, midfielder to play for Newcastle in the Premier League. If city were full strength would he even start? Would Schar, Burn, Trippier, Murphy, Dubravaka, Joelinton, get meaningful game time at Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea? The playing squad is a far bigger check on our position than Eddies managerial ability.

Pull me off and I’ll see what I can do.