Holmesy

I imagine you could improve on that conversion percentage fairly significantly by signing players who can actually head the ball. Or even coaching players who can't head the ball, to head the ball. We seem to do neither but continue to hoy the ball into the box regularly.

He's only 29!! He should be looking for better than 3rd choice, even if we are the best club in the whole world.

Probably best!

They didn’t need to, that’s my point. They created 2 and we created none. Game over!

That’s kind of the point I was making. We did alright possession-wise but did nothing threatening for 95 minutes. Man Utd had hardly any of the ball, scored twice and soaked up whatever we had to offer. As I said, a tactical lesson. Having the ball and doing nothing with it isn’t “playing well”

Fair play to Man Utd, it was a tactical lesson that I really hope we learn from. What defines Eddie Howe’s reign is not what has happened up to this point, it’s what we learn from this going forward. We have No plan B and haven’t had all season. “Intensity is our identity” is all well and good but when you have no backup it’s just words. Physically we should be frightening but we don’t impose ourselves in that way. We just roll over. In all honesty, I expected us to lose today but I didn’t expect us to lose so gutlessly. This final came too early for us but going through 95 minutes with zero shots, given the quality of players we had on the pitch, is a massive disappointment. I really hope everyone who went today had an amazing time. I just hoped for something, anything to cheer about.

Absolutely shitting it! Great seats though.

Off to the pub with my Man Utd supporting mate. Hopefully I get to run his face in it later.

Different rules for Manure it would seem. Fucking red card all day long!

Yeah, struggling to be confident about this one, with Bruno out, Wilson doubtful and Liverpool off the back of an important win. A draw feels like it would be a decent result.

Fuck! Just read the news. Absolutely gutted!

Poor man's James Maddison and we're not poor

It looks like Eddie is trying to change his game going forward and it's not working. The key to getting the best out of ASM is to eliminate the weaknesses - the tracking back is a great addition to his game - and then let him do what he does going forward. Don't try to over coach it. He's an instinctive footballer and he's at his best when not being asked to perform a rigid role, hence why he thrived under Bruce. Sadly, I just don't think he's an Eddie Howe type of player but he'll go somewhere else and thrive.

Difficult to judge him without Bruno in the team because that’s where the intelligence in supply will come from. He was feeding off scraps all day yesterday and the movement around him was shite.

I do have a couple of criticisms and they’re valid. 1. We have no plan B. This could be due to lack of options on the bench but time will tell. We’ve become predictable and easy to defend against in recent games and we seem incapable of changing it up 2. Our lack of aerial threat is a big problem and it clearly isn’t being coached/worked on in training. Going more direct could be our plan B if anyone could actually head a ball In general EH is doing better than everyone expected but he’s not beyond criticism

He was one of 8 players who had a shit game today. Not really fair to single him out because he no worse than anyone else around him

Can’t remember a game where ASM has played worse than this.

We’ve assembled the tallest but most aerially impotent team of players I’ve seen in a while. All of that play down the wing for Trippier to put decent balls into no one. Coupled with absolutely zero threat from corners. I’d love to see the stats on our crosses to goals ratio. It must be one of the worst in the league. It’s my only criticism of us under Eddie tbh.

There’s 4 players on the right wing! WTF is going on?!

Plenty of time left but we need to fucking wake up! This is awful

As soon as you start managing a football club, it’s polarises you to an extent. He was loved as a player but once he turned us into a team challenging the status quo, he became a target for rival fans and the media. Towards the end, the masses were practically willing him to fail. SBR transcended that

SBR was one of the last true gentlemen left in what was becoming an increasingly toxic sport. He carried himself with unbreakable dignity and earned the respect of everyone as a result. Marry that with an amazing managerial record at some of the biggest clubs in world football. He was a one-off. Eddie is very similar in the way he carries himself but he doesn't have the personality of SBR and can't quite match his record...yet. Under Keegan, I think it was more the football we played that people warmed to rather than Keegan himself. We loved him but other fans didn't have that affection or respect for him.

That’s a bit embarrassing!

The words no Newcastle fan ever wants to hear

They've only had two years of it. We had 14. Fuck em!