Dr Jinx

Passing it around the back and comfortably keeping possession is something we haven’t done as a club in fucking years. It was beautiful to see. There is no way Lascelles is getting back in ahead of either of those two (if they are fit) We can see what he’s doing. He’s bit by bit improving the process.. now with this new foundation to build from at the back, we need to work on quicker transitions through the midfield. That’s where Bruno will come in when the manager thinks the time is right. And when Wilson is back.. (or someone new in the summer) it will change things again as there’s no way teams we’re playing against can play a high line or we’ll be in on them repeatedly.

He needed a rest anyway. He’s been hobbling around for much of the final 30 mins all season. Could have been a blow for us today but we got through with a good result. The manager is in a position now to start looking after the players. It’ll be good for us later in season so we finish strongly.

We also weakened Brighton so horses for courses. I’m not too troubled by what they are doing to be honest. We need to be looking above us now.

Main reason we’re doing well at the moment is that we’re matching everyone in the midfield. Even Rice today had a very tough game against us and was quiet by his standards. Physicality is a big part of that, J7, Shelvey and Willock are all 6ft+ players, Bruno is 5’10? Howe is probably asking him to improve upper body strength before he gets thrown in. He’s doing the right thing by him. But he should be getting more than 5 mins.

Get in!!!!!

Bring Murphy back to RB, get that plodder Krafth off. Bruno on and push Willock into the No. 10 role.

We’ll score

“Hey Kurt Zouma.. I wanna know how you kick that cat” ?

Joelinton 1 - 0 Rice

Like the start, not afraid to knock it around

HWTL

Rio has one of the most puncheable faces I’ve ever seen. I cannot abide the cunt and I think less of BT for giving him employment. He’s a clown.

Earlier in week I said the game would be won in the midfield. Nothing has changed as far as am concerned. Willock really needs a big game today to keep Rice quiet.

No he didn’t but that happens all the time, he was tired and was conserving energy.. made some good runs late in the game.

Where is this ASM info coming from? You’d think it would have come up in the press conference if he was missing for a few weeks.

I thought he would have been one that Howe would have played more but he doesn’t rate him much seemingly. Thats fine, there’s no drama to it. We like Miggy, he’s a good lad. It just never quite got going for him here. When he leaves here we won’t lose much money on him if at all. He’d be better suited to Spain or France

Would love to see him get a goal but his overall play is absolutely vital to the rest of the team. Before when we played a long ball to either clear the lines or to bring others in, it was too easy for the defenders we were up against. Not only were they clearing the ball too easily but directing it to team mates in midfield and back comes the pressure. Wood causes a bit of panic with defenders, they just go in to be first but nothing is directed and our midfield are picking up the second ball opportunities. Marry that with the emergence of Joelinton, Willock regaining some sort of form and Shelvey seemingly finding fitness levels he never had, we’re so much more competitive in the middle now.

Wouldn’t like to say it’s a good time to play these, indifferent results or not, these lot are levels up compared to Leeds, Everton and Villa so we will need to raise our game to stand a chance. Bruno will have trained a good bit now and the efforts we’ve put in recently, maybe a shake up is needed. 4-5-1 with ASM and Willock playing wide, Bruno, Joelinton and Shelvey in the middle. Leave the back alone, Burn did enough to ensure Lascelles misses out.

Here’s an idea. The Utilita Arena is closing with a new venue being built on the quays in Gateshead. The current owners haven’t announced what they’ll do with the site yet. There’s plenty of land behind it to build whatever size stadium you’d want. Keeps it in the city. You can just picture the aerial shots with the stadium and the bridge in the background. Only issue I could think of is flooding risk but that’s a long shot. Wouldn’t need to move while was being built etc.

Is Robbie Fowler wearing a rug?

Borussia Dortmund’s stadium sort of looks like if ours has been built properly.

You’re thinking in the here and now, you haven’t factored in all the future development that both the Reubens and PIF could make in the area. And about the metro, the station is over towards Strawberry place? Do the tracks run under SJP? The Camp Nou only goes down 8 meters below ground level but look what they can fit in there, they have a 100k capacity stadium that looks smaller than SJP from the outside.

It’s simple, you dig down. The Camp Nou isn’t massive from the outside but inside the pitch is down below the normal ground level. You don’t need to knock down anything listed nearby. Just need to ensure there’s adequate drainage systems in place for heavy rain.

The main issue is that our new journey has barely got off the ground and the stadium is at capacity. We could probably easily fit in another 15-20k providing we’re moving up the table and Europe is a thing again. If we want to be considered the biggest/best club in the world at some point, we need to have a stadium that matches those clubs. If it took 2 years to rebuild SJP, would anyone accept a ground share with either of the “local teams”?

It would take a lot of persuading but I don’t see why the council wouldn’t re-zone a portion of land if and it would be quite easy to support why it would be in the areas interest. Ground share would be an issue but there’s more options, somewhere like Murrayfield could be an option. It’s a 2.5 hour journey. Surely something supporters could put up with while a new stadium is built?