louistoon

That team needed clearing out. Big names but a fucking shite team that had been heading towards relegation for about 3 seasons.

I mean in the rotational system that we'll be using. None of our players will be starting every game

Totally potty idea, he should be blooded with late bench cameos when games are already won. The goal this season is promotion not to experiment beyond what is necessary. Was just about to say this. Mental idea. Guess it's just a difference of philosophies. Applying your method, in my mind, just delays the process. This isn't some 16 year old academy player, so we shouldn't spend 6+ months easing him into things to see if he is up to it. He has a much higher skill ceiling than Dummett, so a couple of bad performances is worth it in my mind if he gets up to speed quicker for the sake of our long term results this season. It showed yesterday that we can get results even if he doesn't play particularly well, so why not persist with him for a few more games even if his performance level is inconsistent/poor? Because Newcastle United is a meritocracy not an old boys club and Dummett has been playing better than Lazaar? Dummett gets too much stick on here. Really frustrates me how much time we give to new signings on here while perpetually writing off our current XI. Within the last week I've seen posters on here suggest Diame is better than Sissoko, Ritchie is better than Townsend and now Lazaar should be starting ahead of Dummett after one game during which he was by all accounts awful against a second string Wolves side. I'm not saying we should write him off but going off last wednesday's game he doesn't sound ready yet and he needs to earn his place.

I get where you are coming from, we've taken too many losses already, but we are still trying to figure a few things out in my mind. We need to first and foremost work out how to approach games, the way we set about things at QPR as opposed to Derby and Bristol was completely different, we got spectacular results from the approach at QPR but at the same time we were efficient and came away with the result we needed at Derby and Bristol playing in a completely different manner. We got it wrong at Fulham by being too negative, Huddersfield are a good team that took their chances at SJP, for me the Wolves was the most disappointing as that was a game we should have won comfortably, a self inflicted defeat down largely to the way we were set up and the personnel choices. We can batter teams in this division, we have the quality to do that as we showed against QPR but sometimes you have to be a little cautious and conservative. Since the Fulham game, Rafa has got our away setup right each time, we are probably ahead of the objective away from home 3 wins out of 4 is an excellent return. I honestly didn't expect us to lose more than 2 games all season at home before the season started especially when we factored in how dominated we were at the tail end of last season on our own patch against superior opposition. So the home form is a bit of a concern right now. Rafa needs to take what is was that made the QPR game so good and translate that into a way we can play at SJP moving forward and keep doing what he is doing away from home. On paper this was always the toughest month of our fixture list, I'll be more than happy if we come out of it in the top two, if we win the next two games (which we are more than capable of) that's a guarantee and I think we are on schedule. don't see what all the fuss is regarding how many defeats we have its points that are important, and we are only two behind Norwich.

I guess notions of not becoming another 'big' club stuck in the championship, which is where they're heading.

Can't see why he couldn't have been pressing for a game here instead of Gayle or, especially, Pérez. You can't teach the finishing instinct and composure he has. Really hoping he comes back in January and Rafa shows some confidence in the lad. Perez, Mitrovic, Gayle and Murphy all have more experience at this level, if he had stayed here he would have had nowhere near the opportunity. No one was criticising the loan at the time because he's never played in this division before, and if he had stayed he would probably still be getting 15 minutes here 20 minutes there. The best thing for him is to go to Barnsley and score goals, so when he comes back he'll have a legitimate claim to be starting. If he comes back in Jan with 8-10 goals to his name he should be starting alongside Mitrovic.

Wouldn't mind us going in for Judge again in January, he'll only have 6 months left on his contract. He can play central as well and I think Diame's spot needs more competition.

If he comes back in January with 8-10 goals to his name he'll have to be involved.

And also, for all the people slating him for not scoring his chance, at least he got himself into a position to have a shot at goal, which Gayle was unable to do during the whole 90.

This is a thing with Newcastle in general though we have been like this for years and it takes time to change a losing mentality. I think in a lot of ways it is difficult to compare previous rafa teams to Newcastle, as this is an entirely different challenge to anything he's had since before Valencia. True we should be the best team in this league, but instead of taking control of a functioning team in the top half of the league we're a newly relegated team suffering after years of mismanagement. Add to that a complete squad overhall and its going to take time to get to the level Rafa's teams usually play at. There are going to be mistakes and it will take a degree of experimentation to find out who should be playing where.

Is that after today's match? Unbelievable stuff to come out with in the press if that's even true. Wtf. Obviously not as it was posted at 8 AM this morning. No one was complaining about this after the QPR game

Diame has done very little so far. I also think if we don't get an early goal, or go behind, players start getting a little nervous. QPR aside we've not scored all too many goals from open play. I think we need to be starting Mitrovic especially as players like that are useful if a team isn't playing well as he can hold the ball up better. I'd like to see Diame dropped and Gayle and Mitrovic playing together as I think Gayle would benefit a lot from playing alongside a more physical forward.

Which is exactly why we needed to spend money on a winger in the transfer window. We already have Gayle, Atsu, Ritchie, Perez, Aarrons and Gouffran. I'd much rather have another centre forward and play Gayle out wide or in Diame's position. [/quote/] That you pards? Oh f*** off Gayle is not great as a main centre forward that much is clear, I can't think of one really good game he's had in that position. I would have a lot more confidence with him playing as a wing forward, where he often played for palace, or playing off someone like Mitrovic.

Which is exactly why we needed to spend money on a winger in the transfer window. We already have Gayle, Atsu, Ritchie, Perez, Aarrons and Gouffran. I'd much rather have another centre forward and play Gayle out wide or in Diame's position.

this commentary is atrocious no bloody idea whats going on

Jesus wept

... Or the over confidence of fans after one 6-0 drubbing is being hit a little bit

indeed. No way in a million years that was a fluke

Sorry like but what have you seen of Ritchie that suggests he is as good as Townsend? Hasn't even bloody scored yet except for his pen. I do worry people expecting us to get promotion and then automatically finish in the top half of the table are massively underestimating the size of the job here and are setting themselves up for a lot of dissapointment

Cieran Clark with a goal and an assist

Barnsley have scored 2 more than us

fair play to the Barnsley manager for substituting both strikers at 0-0 away to wolves. Will be interesting to see how they do this season I've always had a soft spot for them.

Draw would be the best result, or a huddersfield win imo in the long run Brighton will be more dangerous. Just checked and Huddersfield haven't finished in the top half of the championship since the 99/2000 season. Only one team in the top 6 (Sheff Weds who finished 6th) last season had a comparable record.

I bet we all work in some sort of IT or data analysis field