Shadow Puppets

By far

Newcastle-Online = “Howe really needs to set us up differently against Brighton. If we press them they’ll just play through us and we’ll be in for a long night. We’re the ideal opponent for their style of play.” Eddie Howe = “Hold my tea and biscuits”

Is Tindall getting stick? Isn’t it all just a fun joke?

Yep... I spotted that! Real emotion!

Neither… he was saying something about it earlier in the week but I wasn’t paying attention. Think he’s heard it at school. Either way, I thought it was class ?

? My little 8 year old lad was watching at home while I was at the match. He text me when it went 4-1 saying “Daddy, we’re in the jungle now”. I replied “what do you mean?” He wrote back “a win away, a win away, a win away, a win away” ??? bless him man x

I thought he was class tonight from the left, to be honest. Defended well too. Obviously it’s not ideal long term, but he did well.

What rumour?

I feel exactly the same today as I did in the semi final home tie against Southampton. Nervous as hell, but also positive and optimistic that we can get what we need. I really think people are overstating how good Brighton are and how poor we've been in the last two games. Plus, the atmosphere has the potentially of boosting us and deflating them as well. I'm excited but also bricking it.

While winning isn't absolutely essential tonight in terms of CL, I would say it IS essential from a momentum and mentality point of view.

I’m pretty sure Isak and Wilson will start like… but I reckon it could be with Isak as a number 10.

I'm sorry like... we need to be confident and let Brighton worry about us. We are 3rd for a reason... we don't just drastically alter our go-to game because of a fear for the opposition. We are at home, under the lights, with an incredible atmosphere and a very good togetherness... Brighton should be worrying about us.

We can do this! Fully believe that tonight can be an incredible night... get fully behind the lads and let's steer them home.

Don’t be posting shit like that man

Sunderland have been absolutely gash here like (cue them scoring in the next few mins).

People are definitely overstating how well Brighton played against a dejected Arsenal side / crowd, and overplaying how we played against a team and crowd battling to beat the drop. Thursday will be an entirely different game, with a huge atmosphere and a team (us) knowing exactly the kind of performance we need to put in. Brighton won’t know what hit them if the atmosphere is anything like it was for Arsenal / Spurs. No doubt they’re a good side, but we are better. I’m confidently going for a 3-1 victory.

What opta say is meaningless, as are bookies odds. Liverpool we knew would go on this run. We’ve had two results in a row that are a minor “blip” but we’ve hardly bottled it. It was never in any way “all but done”. We’ve still got it all in our hands, but even if we don’t make it to suggest that something is done with 6 or 7 games left to play is ridiculous.

It’s never been “all but in the bag” though has it. Most sensible people could see Liverpool’s trajectory, the fixtures list etc, and realised that there’s still some way to go. I still think we’ll do it, by the way, but it smacks of people getting ahead of themselves.

Everytime I think of Thursday I get that nervous feeling in my guts.

Howe has already said we’re aiming for 9 points, so let’s just fucking go for it. A draw against Brighton doesn’t really help us all that much… we’d likely still need two wins.

Well why don’t you think positively. If the fanbase walk into St James’ with an air of negativity on Thursday night, then we’ll suffer as a result.

Some spectacular negativity on this forum like… it’s depressing as fuck. You all need to get your confidence up. I pray the players and staff aren’t as defeatist as you. You’re acting as if we’ve had a major drop off in form. We gave Arsenal a good game and on another day would have come away with something, and Leeds was a very tough away game against an emboldened team trying to beat the drop…and we were still only a deflected goal away from winning it. We have it all in our own hands… we are more than capable of beating Brighton, Leicester and Chelsea. People writing off the Brighton game as if it’s maximum 1 point… it will be a hard game but we are absolutely capable of controlling a game like that. It will be one of the tougher games at SJP for sure, but it’s absolutely doable, especially with the atmosphere…under the lights. Leicester is absolutely winnable (if we don’t we don’t deserve it), and Chelsea is also a winnable game. Focus on positivity. We can do this in the next 7 days. We just need to stick together and make SJP an absolute fortress!

They can win all the games they want, providing Liverpool lose tonight and Brighton lose on Thursday.

But it pretty much is a must-win, no? (Unless Leicester get something tonight)