kenlau88210

a very open game which suits us

Miley should have squared the ball

Miley doesn't have the pace and agility to deal with elite wingers, asking way too much of him at RB

Hoping for a miracle 0-1. We have plenty of pace, see if we can stay solid defensively and nick a goal

it will probably be 5-4-1, Tonali and Ramsey in the middle, Willock LW

I think Tonali was most at fault there. Rogers was well covered, and Buendia was his man. He just sacked it off and gave him all the time and space to pick his spot.

I am happy that Barnes has been in great form and scoring goals, but let's not rewrite history. In the 2.5 years of his time here so far, there have been many times Barnes started and was really ineffective. He was often seen as a one-trick pony just trying to cut inside and shoot, and teams knew well and limited those opportunities. I wouldn't mind seeing Gordon and Barnes swap positions more often, but I am not as convinced as most of you that swapping is that magic solution.

No doubt we are lacking technical ability, especially when compared to the top teams. But the issue is not helped by PSR and our lack of pull in the transfer market. We wanted Pedro and Ekitike, but got rejected.

Our team without Isak clearly has very little cutting edge. We rely heavily on our physical play and set pieces, because we can't create much, especially when teams sit deep. Gordon plays better for England most likely because he has better players around him there, whereas he is quite heavily relied upon here to create something out of nothing and teams double on him to nullify him. I do think it has a lot to do with tactical setup. He often picks up the ball in a deep position to help progress us up the pitch, whereas for England he tends to get into the final third more easily to shoot or pick a pass instead of trying to beat his man every single time.

As a right-footed LW, he does use his left foot reasonably well. There are recent examples of him crossing with his left and assisted (e.g. Miley's goal v Leverkusen), he also nearly scored with his left in that game if you watch the highlights. In yesterday's game, he cut back to his right and crossed and nearly assisted for Miley's chance. His chance creation per 90 is about the same as Bruno and Murphy at around 1.5 to 1.6 I think he has been putting up mostly 6-7 out of 10 performances recently, though he is often being singled out for our poor performances. The elephant in the room is that he is disliked for openly supporting or sympathizing with Isak

Him and Woltemade were ball watching and didn't track Watkins closely. Trippier was the man tracking Watkins for the corner, but in the 2nd phase of play he moved back to the right side

He is a great promising player no doubt. Played some good passes, nearly scored and good in possession as always, but he was caught ball watching and left Watkins unmarked for the dagger.

So nobody talks about how he just switched off and gave Buendia all the time and space to shoot?? Just watched the goal again, and I think that was absolutely inexcusable. There was no other threat distracting him, he just decided to sack it off and watch Buendia score that curler

i don’t know why so many people here think Barnes on the left and Gordon right or dropped is the solution. Barnes has been here for 2.5 years and I have seen many times even on the left he was anonymous and offered little. Teams know he likes to cut in so these days he doesn’t get much space to shoot. And come on, have some respect and give credit to Gordon. He has 6 goals and 2 assists in CL, a total of 8 G+A which is 2nd only to Mbappe.

Great today indeed, and seems to be back to his best. Really solid defensively, and his passing is a big plus.

Gordon scrapgoated every time we lose. Barnes is far worse today.

We are beaten fair and square by a better team. I don't think we played badly by our standards. We lack creativity and cutting edge, which we frankly all know well.

Fair result. All the possession but created few real chances. Simply a lack of real quality

Wonderful

Good to have him back. At least he can press hard, got some physicality, and eager to take on a defender

Hard to imagine tbh. This is Newcastle we are talking about. We are miles below the level of the elite like City and Arsenal

I think you are massively underrating his performances for the past 12 months before this recent not so good spell, and also oblivious that Bruno had long been mediocre before his recent goal contributions in the past 2 months

Although I don't think he has been spectacular based on his overall performances so far this season, he certainly has been very efficient with his G/A output. His corner taking has been a pleasant surprise.

At this rate, I will soon have to call him Lionel Hall