Coffee_Johnny

It’s like having a brick wall across our goal ?

Corrected.

He’s our second best performing PL manager. You’re using a skewed lens.

Written by a Makem, loved by Geordies!

Wonder how many will end up at Man Utd?

Me too. Love it and one of the first tunes I learned to play (on whistle/flute not guitar). Not least as it is easy to play (Blaydon Races is even easier). Though it is actually called Going Home ?. ‘Twas just the theme to Local Hero—nice film but nowt to do with us/North East, whereas Going Home is very much about us—Mark Knopfler going home.

Standard rumour mill output I suspect. People speculate and the speculation gathers momentum, we all are drawn to ‘no smoke without fire’ kind of thinking. Bottom line on this, nobody, who is talking, knows anything.

FA Cup draw has been/is going to be kind to us. The football gods owe us one!

TTD syndrome. (Terminal ‘Tache Disaster)

Yep, re-read but still might useful to state the bleeding obvious context ?

Is that the way Howe’s team played n the victory over Arsenal this season? (1-0 H) or the May 2022 2-0 H win? What about Man City in the League Cup (1-0 H)? or the narrow loss to them (0-1) away? Or the 3-3 H draw last season? Or even the 2-3 loss this season. We’ve scored six in three home games to ‘that’ side. How about the two victories against Man Utd this season (3-0 A and 1-0 H)? Or the away draw (0-0) and home victory (2-0) over them last season? What about the 4-1 H defeat of Chelsea? Did the 2-1 A and 6-1 H victories over Spurs last season count? Or the last two home demolitions of Villa? (5-1 and 4-0)? Even the 1-2 loss at home to Liverpool when we had 60% possession and 23 shots. Or do you think Howe’s tactics in the last game and the disappointment of not beating teams at home recently in some way wipe out the past performances and just show that this is the Howe/NUFC way? We’ve seen some amazing performances, and despite the ‘he only plays one way’ baloney, of course he/they are flexible tactically and will cut their cloth according to the opposition and the way we think we’ll get the best result. And of course it is not always going to work. Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal are absolutely top class teams who we can still only aspire to be like. Ourselves and Villa are in the conversation with Man Utd, Chelsea, and Spurs. Even in the best case scenario we’ll be hovering around top third for an another season or two. Howe is our second best PL era manager in terms of points return. He will be the best by the end of next season. Just settle in and enjoy the ride.

Here’s me just thinking you had friends everywhere! ?

Young Clarky coming on. Think I’ll switch allegiance to Liverpool now. So nice not really giving a fuck!

Feeling a bit wistful about being at last year’s final and jealous of those there today. Find myself wanting Chelsea to win, which is absolutely a first for me!

Without any insider knowledge, I find myself confident that (internal bust ups aside) Eddie Howe will be our manager next season and until at least the first few games of 2025/26. Only information/history to back that is that is when we have parted company with our other ‘high performing’ managers, i.e. those with a bit of credit in the bank. And he still has the second best PL record in terms of points per game. Above Robson and behind Keegan.

As the dust settles on yesterday’s humiliating defeat/reality check, we are sitting in 8th place, 7 points behind Man Utd in 6th, and at risk of both West Ham and Chelsea (who each have a game in hand) overtaking us. However, taking into account the relative difficulty of games across the season, we are only 4.4 points away from the points we may have expected to accumulate to be on track for a sixth place finish (using PL points for sixth in an average season). There are 36 points available. If we continue at the same Points Per Game as the last 26 games (1.31 PPG), we would end-up with around 53 points. In order to hit the 62 points usually enough for 6th, we would need 25 points from 12 games; so 2.08 PPG. If that sounds completely unachievable, then it is worth remembering that our PPG for the last 12 games of 2022 was 2.33 (won 8 and drew 4). Last 12 of 2022/23 season was 2.0 PPG (W7 D3 L 2). Not directly comparable, but it at least shows that under Howe, with a lesser squad if we get players back now, we have had runs which could realistically give us a 2.08 PPG return or better for the remaining games of this season. These consist of only one ‘Tier 1’ team (Man Utd away), four Tier 2 teams (Chelsea and Brentford away; Spurs and Brighton at home). Four Tier 3 teams (Palace and Fulham away; Wolves and West Ham at home). Three Tier 4 teams (Burnley away; Everton and Sheffield Utd at home). I think we can get 25 points or better from those 12 games. So I’m not giving up on some kind of European involvement next year, at least not just yet.

Welcome back bonny lad. And it is just me or does Joe look like he’s aged 10 years!? Short crop and perv tach defo not suiting him.

He’s been, more specifically his lack of pace and decision making, responsible—or most responsible—‘for another two goals in last couple of games also. He’s been little short of his standard since he returned. Doesn’t take much of a percentage drop to cease being an asset at this level. Let’s hope it is a blip and with a bit more protection in midfield and more of the ball he can find the groove again.

Did look like him/his hair. Is that the security guy (bald head Rob the right, glowering at camera).

Can’t spot myself. Was hoping for a ‘green/yellow away top’ moment! (I may have been too busy still waving my keys at a Makem builder…).

Bee Geezy!

Gameweek 26 Villa 2-0 Forest Brighton 1-2 Everton Palace 1-0 Burnley Man United 3-1 Fulham Bournemouth 0-1 Man City Arsenal 2-2 Newcastle Wolves 2-0 Sheff United West Ham 1-2 Brentford

Harder than the Matterhorn, that handsome hunk of Swiss granite!

I’ve added Keegan’s second spell to his overall record as our manager. Still leaves him best overall performer, points per game (PPG) wise but only just. Should Howe’s team accumulate 31 points from the remaining games this season (title winning form admittedly…) he would become our, relatively speaking, best ever performing PL manager with a PPG of 1.77. Unlikely, but point is he is already outperforming Robson and it is easy to forget how good a job he is doing overall.