Infinitely Content

Juve's commemorative kit is stunning like.

Nice from Lacazette. Like the way he plays, think he could go on to be a top striker in this league.

Can see why City bought him. He's very good with the ball as well as being a really tough tackler. I think he's better than Mangala, who was someone else we were sort of linked with.

Fact of the matter is, Joselu and Gayle aren't scoring goals and aren't offering too much else to our game either, so giving Mitrovic a chance is hardly compromising a lot. It's kind of a case of what have we got to lose, as continuing with our current attack is going to see us massively short on goals. Maybe, just maybe Mitrovic can find some form, and tbh, I don't think he's had a fair run of games the entire time he's been our player, which is out of order imo.

My criticism of Rafa yesterday was due to his subs. We were having all of our joy in the game through long balls being won by Joselu and Gayle or Atsu trying to make something of them. To then remove Joselu and not put on Mitrovic in his place was just bizarre and wasn't playing to the course of the game at all. Mitrovic would have created chances for us yesterday, I don't doubt that for a moment.

They have looked good together on numerous occasions, probably most of the time they played together, which hasn't exactly been that many times with Mitrovic constantly in and out of the side the past year. Hope that starts to change soon.

Which saves were they? Tipped one over the bar that was going in and made an absolutely great save to hold a shot taken from close quarters by King or Wilson or think. Could have easily been a goal if he didn't hold it. I'd expect literally any keeper down to the championship to make both of those saves. We are talking premier league here, all keepers will make the regulation saves. It's the other stuff that sets them apart I was just answering the question of what saves, I haven't actually read the discussion. I probably wouldn't disagree with this.

Which saves were they? Tipped one over the bar that was going in and made an absolutely great save to hold a shot taken from close quarters by King or Wilson or think. Could have easily been a goal if he didn't hold it.

Good post, but the bit in bold is what stood out. I'm the same. Obviously nobody genuinely stopped caring or we wouldn't all be on here, or going to games, talking endlessly about NUFC. But there have definitely been numerous points in the last decade where upon losing I didn't feel much and I can't be alone. Even celebrating scoring felt hollow. I've definitely got that feeling back, nervous as f*** all match, can't face not watching the game and losing fairly ruins my week. Not helped by the games coming only once a week in this league I reckon. We're not good enough at the moment but at least I care. These ups and downs are what sport is all about, not just trudging along accepting your place and doing the bare minimum. Only one man is responsible for that turnaround, and though he won't get it right every time I'll always be grateful for it. Yeah spot on, the result and performance definitely changed my mood today and it was probably reflected in my posts on here after/during the game. It's something I'd like to change as it's pretty inconvenient having a Saturday become almost a write-off cause we didn't play well It was easier under Pardew etc as we were so rubbish I was more easily apathetic, but now I'm emotionally invested deeply again and it genuinely bothers me atleast for the remainder of the day.

Absolutely. (and yeah, stubbornness, is a word)

Aye, and Thauvin is now absolutely class. So hence our fans aren't always right. In fact a lot of the time they're too quick to judge and vocalise that live and online, and that can literally wipe out a players chances of improving. That said, the Thauvin and Murphy cases are very different, I don't think Thauvin really wanted to play for us, where as Murphy probably wants to play for us too much, to the extent his natural game goes out the window and it's all in his head rather than the body, instinct and rhythm he will possess as a pro.

I mostly agree with all of that mate, and I was very frustrated after the game too. He's certainly not immune from criticism and I'm sure he wouldn't claim to be so. He'll get it right I think, but little things like persisting with favourites is always going to backfire when you have a squad so limited in quality as we have.

Needs time and support. As I've said earlier in the thread there's a few factors that make this a really unique and challenging situation for the player, not helped by the fact we have started well and he's coming on for players who are largely playing well. Our fans have an ugly tendency to jump on a players back with complaints and groans in a match situation. That will kill the lad off and he's clearly a player with much potential, like Thauvin when he was here. So aye, let's try and refrain from the pelters. It's unwarranted entirely. If he looks the same after a year or so, maybe, but right now it's ridiculous.

Guess it comes down to what you see as enough. The way I see it he scores a tap in that is dubious and gets disallowed and therefore counts for nothing. And then doesn't do anything really of note aside from that. Even if that goal stood, the statement 'he didn't do much' is hardly a one that warrants an outraged reaction or is even all that disagreeable Anyway, I'm sure we both don't want to go back and forth with this all evening, so have a good'n Kid

And he's one of them. Our only attacking threat at times, carries us up the pitch, holds onto possession, makes something of nothing with a good first touch, has a cracking shot on him as shown today. To say he just runs quick shows a lack of understanding tbh.

Nah I'm judging him with his offside/onside 'goal' included. Didn't do much imo. As ridiculous a statement that appears to be to you...

Atsu is one of the last players we should be thinking about replacing tbh. He's doing absolutely fine he just needs genuine targets to aim for in the box which he doesn't have currently.

Is this because of his subs or something?

That's nonsense like, your criticism is with Gayle, not the officials. To me, if the officials decide a goal is offside, I move on and so should the player involved. Gayle had 90 minutes to score a goal deemed legitimate, and he didn't, regardless of whether you view his goal on or offside. Therefore my original post of 'didn't do much' is perfectly valid. Because he didn't do much, did he? f***ing hell. So because the ref disallowed his perfectly fine goal, that means it didn't happen and it's Gayle's fault. Flawless logic. I prefer to focus on what was in a player's hands rather than what was out. It's not his responsibility that the linesman deemed him offside, but it is his responsibility to then go and take the chance he had after that, and he didn't. Other than those two moments, he didn't do much/anything else in the game. So arriving back to my initial point, no Gayle didn't do much. f***ing hell I hardly called him worse than s***, I said he didn't do much. And he didn't. I'm out, you're nuts. It was in his hands when the ball came to him off the post and he had the chance to score and he took it. That happened. You can't just stop and start these things at your convenience and say he didn't do much in the whole match because he didn't do much AFTER and the disallowed goal, it's all or nothing. He didn't do much in the match regardless of the offside/onside crack. Do you think he did like? Cause' there's evidence that says he clearly didn't do much in the game and many would agree.

I disagree mate, I think Joselu, even though he was shit in possession, won a lot in the air and allowed us to advance up the pitch. When he went off nobody was doing that and we couldn't get out.

Best we have as a partnership in my opinion. Much better than Gayle/Diame from the first 6 months of the Championship. And with Joselu's confidence looking shot to bits, I don't see any other viable option than to give them a chance up top. But why Perez? I can understand giving Mitro a go beside Gayle Yeah sure why not, I just don't see one of them instinctively dropping off, but maybe Mitrovic could. He operates fairly deep for Serbia so he probably can do the job. I just want to see him in and around the box myself, he causes havoc and opens up space for Atsu, Ritchie & Shelvey to shoot. So important for us. Even if he doesn't score he can severely impact a game, which is why I criticise Gayle.

That's nonsense like, your criticism is with Gayle, not the officials. To me, if the officials decide a goal is offside, I move on and so should the player involved. Gayle had 90 minutes to score a goal deemed legitimate, and he didn't, regardless of whether you view his goal on or offside. Therefore my original post of 'didn't do much' is perfectly valid. Because he didn't do much, did he? f***ing hell. So because the ref disallowed his perfectly fine goal, that means it didn't happen and it's Gayle's fault. Flawless logic. I prefer to focus on what was in a player's hands rather than what was out. It's not his responsibility that the linesman deemed him offside, but it is his responsibility to then go and take the chance he had after that, and he didn't. Other than those two moments, he didn't do much/anything else in the game. So arriving back to my initial point, no Gayle didn't do much. Fucking hell I hardly called him worse than shit, I said he didn't do much. And he didn't.

Best we have as a partnership in my opinion. Much better than Gayle/Diame from the first 6 months of the Championship. And with Joselu's confidence looking shot to bits, I don't see any other viable option than to give them a chance up top.

Saying he "didn't do much" is hardly berating him like mate. You said he's our 3rd choice striker. Your whole argument is quite clearly based around criticising him too. Well yeah I am criticising him because I don't think he does enough. Same as Mitrovic, same as Joselu, same as Perez. Not sure why people are so quick to defend Gayle and not the others as much. Just reinstating some balance to the N-O

Saying he "didn't do much" is hardly berating him like mate. Saying he's worse than Joselu is though I prefer Joselu in the team aye, as shown today he wins things in the air and creates possession for us in the opponents half. Gayle doesn't. Aye but Gayle actually looks like he might score, which is the point of football Needs a target man next to him to look at all useful though. I'd sooner see the Mitrovic/Perez partnership given a chance. There's chemistry there and they are balanced as a pairing. Doubt we'll keep playing two up top so reverting back to 4231, Gayle becomes totally ineffective unfortunately.