HaydnNUFC

Same tbh. Feel the only reason he's getting in the side is because he's the only fit left footed centre half we have. We need Dummett back like, as saddening as it is to say.

Him and Lejeune. Another stinking legacy of Lardarse.

I'd play him as the most advanced midfielder in a 3 tbh. Don't see him as a number 10 at all. Especially when we have one who has barely been played there in Almiron.

Aye. Posted about it before but pundits and fans alike have taken that game and have applied it to the entirety of Benitez' tenure here. It's bullshit. We had won 1 game in 10, not won at home since October, were a newly promoted side with a bulk of Championship quality players and were facing a side who had won 18 out of 19 games, drawing the other, and slapping sides left, right and centre. We stayed in the game and might've gotten something had; Aarons not had a chip cleared off the line by Otamendi in the first half, Gayle's header just being saved by Ederson or Gayle diving in the box instead of pulling the trigger late on. Same with the away game against them tbh: Murphy pulls it back to 2-1 with a while left, Diame then bulldozes into their box and has a powerful shot saved. It was hard to watch but it bore results, especially in 17-18. But because pundits on TV, the main ones, are only on for our games that involve the big 6 teams they only see us against the big 6 teams. They don't watch us play Southampton, Huddersfield, Burnley; sides that we saw the best football against. They take those game-plans against the top sides and think it was like that for the whole of Benitez' time here. Fuck off.

If he sticks with the 3-4-3 that worked v Brentford I'd go; Dubravka, Schar, Fernandez, Clark ( ), Fraser, Shelvey, Hayden, Lewis, Joelinton, Wilson, Maxi Could swap out Fraser for Manquillo tbh but that might be a tad too defensive. We're at home to Norwich City at the end of they day, we have to win. Murphy is an option too but he was one of the poorest overall v Brentford in what was a good team performance. Lewis needs to grasp this chance should he get it. I really like Joe Willock and think he will come good eventually but he may need to take a back seat for these games. We simply have to pick up 6 points in these 2 games and we can't afford any passengers or anyone that looks like being a passenger.

Bruce aside games against these used to be canny mental. 6-2, 3-2, 4-3, 2-2. Not just the scores but the games themselves were played at an outrageous speed.

Howe can make a difference, we saw it against Brentford. We deserved to win and Darlow being a spacka was what only prevented us from doing so. Yesterday is a fixture I'm not going to judge Howe on, his first game in the dugout after not being at any of the training sessions running up to the game. Not an ideal scenario. Rafa would sort our defence out which is what we need tbf. But Everton look absolutely dreadful, Rondon looks finished and he's constantly playing him and plodders like Iwobi. Not that I'm judging Rafa on this stint at Everton alone, he certainly is terrible at choosing jobs. Should never have taken this one.

Letting it bounce there, schoolboy stuff from Jorginho.

I can't see the ball in the Leicester game. Either my stream quality is shit or that ball is shit.

Scratch that, 2-1 Leicester.

Watford 1-1.

That's incredibly harsh imo. Since he's signed he's only made 25 appearances, all under Bruce. At Norwich he was seen as one of their batch of good young players along with Buendia, Cantwell, Aarons and Godfrey. Liverpool were strongly linked at the time we signed him. All 4 played huge chunks of their relegation season in 19-20, if that's a barometer for some reason. Lewis is one of those who has massively suffered from the quality of coaching under the Steves. There was an article in the Athletic back in late July or early August about him and a quote from it that stuck in my mind which underpinned how much players like him suffered under Bruce was 'there was feeling at the club that Lewis would've benefitted from 1v1 defending drills in training but his education regarding 1v1s came during matches'. That is fucking appalling, especially given that it was an area of his game that needed massive improvement. There's still a player in there imo. He's 23, and has had the tutelage of Steve Bruce to cope with. But he needs gametime as he won't get any better sitting on the bench. And given how useless we've been defensively and things coming down Ritchie's side he cannot be any worse, and he'll only improve now that he'll actually get decent coaching under Howe and his backroom team.

Games until January. Can't see Brentford getting dragged too far into the shit given those fixtures. This 3 fixture window coming up for us is huge, Norwich, Burnley, Leicester. We can make ground up on Watford, Burnley and Norwich if we pick up at the very least 7 points. 9 would be superb and doable. It's also worth mentioning that our 3 games in January are Southampton (a), Watford (h) and Leeds (a).

He'll go with the 3-4-3 that played v Brentford I think. Lewis and Fernández in hopefully.

Saw plenty v Brentford. 2, arguably 3 errors from Darlow cost us their goals. We deserved to win the game and that cost us. Arsenal away is not a fixture I'd judge Howe's credentials for keeping us up on.

Worst bit about that shite justification was 'Wilson is off balance'. Aye, he was off balance because a cunt come in and full pelt barged into him.

Simply just have to win.

Yeah. Has to be 6 points to give us a chance.

We were at least 2 Darlow errors away from deservedly beating Brentford. Dubravka back is good, and we'll be more attacking at home in games like that. Where we looked good.

Simply have to beat Norwich and Burnley. We were never getting anything today.

Look at the @.

It's a fucking wind up ya clown.