Infinitely Content

He can be so much better. I think back to the Benfica game, where he was receiving the ball out wide and his first touch was him driving in-field and playing incisive passes through the middle. That's what he's capable of, and although that was an anomaly this season, we've seen it from him fairly consistently in the past. However when he receives the ball out wide and slows it down, he's a frustrating player as he doesn't seem to have the skill or subtlety to beat premier league defenders one on one. Barnes is actually much better at fashioning space for himself deftly, and that's before you mention finishing and crossing, two areas where Barnes is vastly superior. I generally agree with most in here though, that he doesn't seem in love with Newcastle United anymore and his head is elsewhere. I also don't love the aggressive, dramatised celebrations after his penalty goals either. It's easy to read between the lines and his emotiveness seems as much a "fuck you" to the fans whom have good reason to criticise his performances, as it is positive emotion of relief and joy.

Since our wingers other than Barnes aren't firing this season whereas our full backs/wing backs are two of our best players, and we clearly need to find a solution to either A) get more players around Woltemade for him to link up with or B) get Wissa in the team with him; I'd be intrigued to see us experiment with something like: Of course it's asking a lot of Tino and Hall, and without a genuine rotation option for Hall and an aging Trippier, it makes it perhaps unlikely.

It's a reasonable assumption and I think it's likely the case, however what would be more appropriate and astute is a minor, more subtle variation of the system which we've recruited specific players to play, rather than what feels like an almost complete abandonment of it to something which feels nondescript.

Unfortunately, I think he does somehow stand out like a sore thumb for the most part. In a generally poor team, he genuinely baffles and surprises me with how terrible he is. It's not even just the stray passes and lack of forward intent, it's even the way he looks on the ball, it's all so awkward and weird, he legitimately looks like he belongs nowhere near this level of football.

Nick Woltemarra

He needs a team who dominates the ball and plays most of the game with 7-8 players constantly in the opposition's final third, in the way Bayern or City do, even Liverpool ironically. It's frustrating watching him being asked to chase down players and contest mostly aimless percentage long distance passes, and occasionally trying to run onto stray balls and not having the pace to make it. We're a million miles away from being a team who can make use of his obvious talents.

I can't say I have a deep tactical understanding of the game, and perhaps he has his reasons, but I'm at a loss as to what happened to our press, to the emphasis on winning second balls in the opposition half, to the courage to apply pressure constantly? Granted perhaps you can't do it every 3 days, but surely you can do it in games like today, or come up with a closer variation better than the passive, sleepwalking brand of football we've played for the majority of this season.

Where was this fight during the game like lads, you fucking gutless fucks? Utterly pathetic from Howe to every single player today. Unacceptable.

Sunderland have been terrible today as well, yet somehow we've managed to be worse. It's been fucking pathetic.

Fancy trying to win a fucking second ball like lads?

We are fucking shit.

My tone was jovial, I just forgot the safety smiley.

True, please do excuse me when it's derby day and we're not at the races

It might be simplistic of me, but I just feel if we matched their aggression and intensity, we would cause major problems and build momentum in the game. That's what most of this team is built on and has thrived on for long periods in the past. Especially the likes of Schar, Gordon, Tino, Tonali... I just don't have a clue what we're trying to do most of the time anymore.

Passive as fuck. I wish we were still an enjoyable team to watch. We're so fucking dull.

No doubt that Mukiele challenge will be on their next compilation video ahead of the home fixture next year.

He's been absolutely hideous.

Elanga fucking baffles me. Genuinely doesn't look like a footballer at times.

He's seems quick enough to cope from what I've seen, but he's erratic in the challenge occasionally, something Elanga could perhaps exploit more than Murphy if he knocks the ball past him as he dives in. I'd still have preferred Murphy starting, but I'd say the same about both Barnes and Joelinton too, however I trust Eddie 100% to have a carefully composed plan.

Dreaming of a winner from Bruno today to enrich his already indisputable legendary status.

Leverkusen are tactically set up very well, they know we will struggle to cause them many issues when given possession, and unfortunately the way they're approaching the game reminds me of the team we used to be in our better moments and spells. I also really dislike Barnes being moved right to accommodate Gordon, it's happened every time Barnes has went on a good goal-scoring run for us. It must be somewhat demoralising when his replacement isn't as good as him certainly at present, perhaps generally.

We should go with our most physical possible team for this and spend the first 15 minutes just smashing into them. They have that Enzo lad in midfield who has nice technique but physically is probably one of the smallest and weakest players in the league, plus Xhaka who is hardly known for his physical prowess. Our centre backs should handle that Brobbey or Isidor easily if they play either of them as lone strikers as they've been doing. Would love Schar to play and step onto their midfield aggressively, but it will probably be Thiaw and Burn.

Slot is not a top manager, not even close in fact and I've been saying that since mid way through last season when they were strolling to a PL title, however in this instance, I think it looks equally bad, or worse on Salah's part. He's been dropped for two games after performing poorly most of the season and he's whinging in the media about it selfishly and narcissistically. No player can demand to be picked if they've played well below the standard required, especially one who point blank refuses to do any hard work off the ball which is essential when a team is struggling and needs to turn around their fortunes. He's an absolute child.

I've been thinking that, but I'm leaning more towards it being a confidence issue. He seems hesitant and likely overthinking everything, even before he took that curling effort at the Gallowgate, he seemed to spend an age sorting his feet out and it looked a bit awkward. At some point, the chances are he will start to play more intuitively and fluently, at which point I feel we will see a more assertive and decisive player.