Dr Jinx

All gone a bit quiet on this front. He's nowhere to be seen in the training photos so i'd say he's still a few weeks away maybe. We essentially have 3 free ones coming up before Burnley. would it be mad to risk him when the job is done?

I can’t see how you can keep a player who is club captain but not play him. It’s probably not good for morale to keep him but give the armband to a new captain either.

You have to be cold when making the decisions Eddie Howe will have to make.. 

Can he keep Shelvey another year? Sure he can but let’s look at the situation, Bruno can do everything Shelvey can and then some..

Short passing ✅ 

Long passing ✅ 

Tackling ✅

Pressing ✅

Except he’s more progressive. And he has that sudden burst of pace to get in ahead of other players that Shelvey just never had to begin with. So that’s the dilemma, keep someone in the team when you have another player who can do all the same things, but better. Or drop him and bring someone in who can make an impact.

What about ASM, I think it’s been shown that Joelinton can be just as effective out wide.. he might not beat players in the same way as ASM but he’s capable of driving the ball forward and then plays a simple pass. ASM will rarely do this, (although he was better in 2nd half against Norwich)

Willock is probably worth a place in the side, but I sort of have a feeling of square pegs, round holes with all of our midfielders.. there’s no combination that looks totally balanced.

Longstaff is probably the worst of our options there but we also need players who aren’t going to kick up a fuss when not playing.. that’s definitely him. 

I think Targett is just fine for the role, but if this Lodi chap is that good and they don’t want anyone else getting in this summer they might make a move.. but I think if that was unlikely Howe would be more than happy with Targett.

You have to remember, someone else is also calling the shots transfer wise. Ashworth will be talking directly with the owners so he’ll have to try and match their aspirations too.

I have a feeling the sudden resurgence of the team has given them the confidence to make a go of it ahead of schedule?

Looked like Courtois ducked out of the way of it 

Lovely goal 

27 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

Just me that absolutely despises the last sentence of that tweet? How the fuck does Freddie Paxton know that 

He doesn't, all bullshit rumours with a pinch of salt.

When you think if who’ll be leaving, maybe could be a busier summer than first thought.

While I agree Rashford is a top lad, that’s just an opinion on his personality. You have to separate the football side of things and the facts are that he’s been part of this absolute debacle at Man Utd, not even just been part of it.. he’s one of the more senior players in that dressing room. Like almost every player in that squad, he’s damaged goods right now.

We’re not going to get some great deal from Man Utd either and his wages will be massive compared to even our top earners right now.

I think we’ll push the boat out on maybe 3 or 4 serious upgrades this summer from France/Italy/Spain and make Targett permanent, but EH won’t upset the squad too much.

Midfield will stay similar enough next season with Longstaff leaving perhaps, I think maybe one player to come in who will help us keep possession more? If rumours are true we’ll sign a keeper.. I think Lascelles will make way for someone better at CB.

ASM is going to need to make changes to his game or his place in the side will be someone else’s and we’ll need someone better to come in on the right. If Wilson plays every game (unlikely.. but..) he’ll get 20+ goals

I don't think we'll ever see Aramco on anything other than a stadium name where we're concerned. It makes sense that they would sponsor F1 but who's going to fly into Newcastle airport and see Aramco over the training ground and think.. "hmmm, i must go and buy a few barrels of oil"

Tourism makes most sense, especially on our jersey and that's the ultimate sportswashing.

Burnley doing their best to throw the game away early doors.. error after error 

9 minutes ago, HawK said:

I seem to be coming in with an unpopular opinion in every thread I enter at the moment, but I think he's the most effective right-sided attacker we have on our books - above Ritchie, Almiron and even Fraser. His direct involvement in both of Joelinton's goals aside yesterday, he's a player who can carry the ball and is a good outlet for us.

 

We've yet to see Willock have a run on the right, and if we do end up signing someone like Paqueta, I can certainly see him given a go there instead. Until then, happy for Murphy to continue there.

That’s the way I see it too. He gets into good positions, his pace is an asset here, especially with Bruno playing balls through like yesterday.

He’s not as good at pressing as Fraser but he’s far more incisive with his movement.. plus he’s also not really ever had a run in the side, I think he deserves more time.. whether he’ll get it or not is another thing.

You could edit either that video or the Pearson kid one and splice in the audio from this scene and it wouldn’t be out of place.

It would not surprise me to read about that chap being on the register at some point in the future.

He gets trashed quite often but his stats probably have his end product at a similar level to ASM or Fraser, even with the lack of minutes compared to them.

I forget about that club for months at a time.. all my negativity in life is still directed towards Steve Bruce to be honest.. but my god are they a toxic bunch on that board. I mean, this thread is usually somewhere on the first or second page of this board, but it has quiet spells thankfully.

They post about us more than they do their own club.

1 minute ago, Thomson Mouse said:

Commentator insisting that Murphy was shooting for the second goal 

It looked that way on the replay in fairness.. their player got a block in and it just went that way towards big Joe.

If this lad is to be our Foden, we should get him in the squad asap. If he’s good enough, age shouldn’t matter.

Target going forward is not the issue. As he’s not really been allowed to.

His job is to cover for ASM who will repeatedly lose the ball for every successful carry he does. This puts enormous pressure on a left back to carry that extra responsibility in games, that won’t be lost on Eddie Howe.

If an agreement with Villa is in place, it’s a no brainer.

Aye we need to sign him up, but shock horror.. maybe just maybe, Eddie Howe wants two competent left-backs to compete and push each other for a place in the team.. imagine trying to sell that idea to Mike Ashley 

Wonderful! Well done to every single one of the players and staff.. unreal effort.

Rio missing the drugs test back around 2002/3, or maybe it was later.

Heard from a reliable source at the time that the FA and club were putting huge pressure on the PL to make it go away, but they had to compromise on an 8 month ban.

Probably the lesser of two evils if they had of thrown the book at him like Mutu (around the same time). Was exact same situation.

3 minutes ago, neesy111 said:

 

We just discussed it before, it's correct.

Mental.. are there any actual doping controls in football? Surely someone would be following up on that?

29 minutes ago, ManDoon said:

Liverpool have to be juiced, they simply have to be.

I was browsing another forum over the weekend and they had a thread about a disproportionate amount of asthmatics in their squad..

Can anyone confirm or debunk this?

He's a 25 million Daryl Murphy/Sibierski hybrid. Good lad though and he's won us points since coming here. Very happy to have him as one of 4 options for next season.

Next season it would be nice if he was the option to bring on if we're trying to see a game out etc..