Infinitely Content

Most Sheffield Wednesday fans wanted him gone, they were s*** all season under him. They had just had a great season though, and had a real identity to their play. Half a bad season is absolutely ridiculous a time to turn on a manager who raised their game so much, especially given they would hardly have the pick of the bunch when looking for a replacement. They seem worse off without him now whilst he's proving he can get an average team playing good stuff at Swansea.

Probably end up at Everton. That Martina is terrible and Baines seems finished.

Who if any would you take from either if one/both were to go down? Shaqiri? Tadic? Ward-Prowse? Bertrand? Redmond? Boufal? Lemina? Some okay names in there on paper at least.

Sheffield Wednesday were crazy to let Carvalhal go like. Obviously easy to say in hindsight but he gave them a real identity that I see as so valuable and is so lacking in football in this country in general. Always knew you were playing a decent footballing side when coming up against his Wednesday team and they look shit now.

Scores again

John Egan is a full Ireland international and crucial squad member for a top 10 championship side. That's noteworthy I'd say. Fair point on Ferguson though I had forgotten about him.

I think the fact of the matter is that if it's to be made compulsory, people will get used to it and it will become an accepted side of the game - regardless of how much people dislike it at present. I also believe most of us would be happy with it if it was seamlessly done consistently, it's hard to argue with as a concept, but the current implication & example of it has shown it's ambiguous & ugly sides.

What's it done of note? Henderson and Pickford? Leadbitter, McCartney, Hourihane, Bridges, Waghorn, Egan. Nothing great sure, but better than ours I'd say, some solid enough players in there. We have Dummett, Carroll & not a great deal else.

Spurs look very poor in midfield without Dembele in there.

The decision to award the pen was right like, what made it a foul was the continued contact inside the penalty area and not just the initial jostling out of it.

Class game Who said VAR would remove the drama from the game? Adds to it if this is anything to go by, pure comedy. I'd hate it if this was a Newcastle game mind...

Can't be true. Only Newcastle benefits from poor officiating. Lucky mag bastards.

I don't think it's fair to solely judge him on goals and assists. It's a harder stat to get accurately, but I'd guess he has contributed integrally to many goals this season via starting moves off from deep putting the other team on the back foot with a long, accurate pass. Creating chances we simply wouldn't have had without him & his passing range in the team. Just because he is not there finishing the chance off or providing the cross, it's unfair to say he has not contributed to our goals scored this season.

This. Maybe it's a football fan thing but all I know for sure is that Newcastle fans have a tendency to heap criticism and contempt onto a specific player in quite a self-destructive (in that it goes against the best interests of the club) and also blinding fashion. To say Shelvey has had only one good game against Man Utd is absurd. He had one exceptionally good game against Man Utd and many other good games across the season, regularly contributing to our best play. He's our best player with Lascelles and that is barely even up for debate. The fact some fans remain unmoved in their opinions despite lots of evidence suggesting their disliking of Shelvey in a footballing sense is made up on largely false grounds is mad to me, although hardly unsurprising. I for one hope he's back as soon as possible as we quite blatantly have a better chance to succeed our goals this season with him in the squad.

Saturday suggests it is 50-50 though. Great pass for the first goal is offset because he's not fit enough to track runners. Maybe so. He done plenty of other good things in the match though, and whilst the two you have pointed out led to goals for & against, I think what he brings to our general play over the course of 90 minutes is worth something too. He's integral to nearly everything we do offensively and players are always looking to give him the ball, that counts for something I think and shouldn't be erased because of a mistake. Fair play if you see it different though.

He was having a very good game. It's a constant trade-off with Shelvey, he's the best player on the pitch regularly but has 5 minute lapses of focus; which when playing to such fine margins as we are this season - you often pay for them. For me he still starts every game like, some will disagree with me here and see it more as a 50/50 split, but I believe the good work he does remains to outweigh the bad. What he brings to the table when on it is not found much outside of the top clubs and I treasure it personally.

Aye

New South Shields badge for next season. http://i66.tinypic.com/zkj0c3.jpg

Ah, fair play. I agree Merino should be comfortably ahead of Hayden in any situation whether it's closing out a game or chasing a game. He's the better defensive & offensive player from what I've seen. Hayden seems to have went off the boil a little given we became used to his industrious, 7/10 displays. I still think he can be a useful player under Rafa.

Good words from Mitro, glad he's feeling at home there. He seems to have had the same effect on the Fulham supporters as he had here when he arrived, and it's a massive credit to the guy's attitude and want to do well not to mention ability.

The Mitro-moaners said he wasn’t good enough to get goals in the Championship. So now that he is doing so with relative ease it can’t be ‘only the championship’ now. Can’t have it both ways.

Thing is, who should Merino replace out of Diame and Shelvey, when Merino hasn't looked that great since returning from his injury? I think it's fair of Benitez to be leaving him out as much as he is, which is not to say I don't rate Merino highly - as I really do, he's probably my favourite player of the three, just clearly wasn't performing as well as the other two in a midfield duo.

Nice finish in such a congested space, reminded me of the types of finishes Demba Ba used to execute on the regular for us.

Yep, De Gea has got to be more solid there, but only because I consider him one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Hellish power on the strike, and a fantastic pass from Hazard to set Willian away. I wish we scored goals like that