St. Maximin

He shouldn’t and won’t be under pressure for a long time, but needs to take account for this. It should be a routine win amongst a tough run, but it’s made it incredibly hard for us and now we’ve got really tough away fixtures. Our inability to break down defensive teams is coming back to bite now. But I at least expect us to defend properly Can only assume Livra had a knock, otherwise he’s had a howler there.

Got us knocked out of Europe too. Ridiculous that a fairly slow centre-back thinks he can dribble through teams like Messi.

Presumably the club like the idea of wishing in different languages. I imagine Karius can speak English too.

Pretty sure that’s the Russia flag upside down on those sleeves #sportswashing

I’ve seen Howe get stuck for in-game management but tactically I tactically I think he’s largely brilliant in addition to his man-management. It’s more the selections that seem to concern me. You can’t keep picking the same teams, often for a full 90, with the fixtures we’ve had. Even if Howe doesn’t ‘trust’ the youngsters, it’s backfiring as we’re losing games either way and becoming more knackered in the process. No way did Gordon look fit enough today also. Also I don’t know how much of a day he has, but the summer transfer activity wasn’t quite right. The Hall loan was weird and we don’t need another full-back. We need to offload instead of adding new players to sit on the bench, even if that means loans. And I’m sure he’s a great leader to have around, but no way should Matt Ritchie be getting near a Premier League bench in 2023/24.

There’s clearly multiple things going on, but surely age isn’t helping him maintain consistency in amongst a busy schedule. The guy was terrific only a couple of months ago and he hasn’t just all of a sudden become too old in the last few weeks, but as has been mentioned he’s past his peak and naturally will find it harder to maintain high level performances consistently especially with a busy fixture list. The schedule might ease, but he’s not getting younger. Not unusual for players to go from being around their peak to back-ups/playing in weaker leagues within a couple of years for players early to mid 30s. At the end of the day he’s 33 and imo has done remarkably well to perform at such a good level when many wide players are way past their best by then. Whatever else is going on for him, I hope he gets the support he needs.

Like a young Davide Santon.

I don’t rate Southgate as a manager but not buying the hatred though. He definitely seems like a good guy. I do see people defend him by saying international football is often defensive though and I don’t really agree. You could say France were a great save off winning their second successive WC despite being dull to watch, but nobody would say it wasn’t working. In contrast Southgate’s style clearly led to our failure to win on home soil in 2021 imo. And more recently Argentina won in 2022 through playing entertaining football. I don’t think many would have seen them as best ‘on paper’ before, but they didn’t resort to cautious play as it probably wasn’t playing to their strengths, like with England it wouldn’t either.

A bit tongue-in-cheek I admit, but if we talk about how well Southgate has done based on his record, we might as well be praising Bruce for comfortably keeping us up two years in a row.

I’d agree that Drury is cringe thinks he’s a poet, but I’m not buying the hate here. Despite all that, even though I can’t exactly say why, for me his style is just really effective for huge games and perhaps even his more cringe moments help make games and moments more memorable.

VAR causing confusion again and tbh I’m not entirely sure what goes on in the officials’ minds half the time, but it’s certainly causing some drama and talking points. We all love it deep down.

It’s cringe chanting I agree, but a load of Newcastle fans on a night out drunkenly showing warmth to some Saudi tourists isn’t really the same as being an apologist for KSA’s human rights record surely? What should they be doing - lecturing them about their views on homosexuality and women?

I think he’s excellent personally and easily England standard, which makes it even more frustrating he’s not playing for his club. As far as England goes, I’m more frustrated with the message it sends by Southgate to pick players who are not playing club football (or at a high standard) and (unsurprisingly) also not performing for England when they get on - both to the players and those in-form who could be selected instead, Newcastle players included. It seems Southgate doesn’t want to experiment when he has the perfect opportunities to (between tournaments) and sticks with his favourites who “never let him down”. Eventually he’ll need a bit more than simply not being let down, with the fans expecting higher.

I agree and I’ve clarified my view above but I just don’t think anyone has said that. You have to bear in mind the context here being Keegan’s recent comments, rather than someone just out of the blue having a rant about women commentators because he heard one on the TV and didn’t like them.

Just came across that way from your previous reaction mate. But anyway I know I’m being pedantic here and it’s wrong to say you prefer people of a certain gender (as with race, sexuality etc) doing something, but I think the intentions behind those kind of claims aren’t bad even if they shouldn’t be expressed like that.

You actually haven’t. Saying someone shouldn’t commentate or will automatically be inferior because she’s a women is without doubt misogynist, but nobody has said that. I don’t agree with Keegan or his supporters here, but some of the reactions haven’t been proportionate. It’s of course possible I’ve misinterpreted quotes, but no need to get angry mate.

Typical of here, you see something differently and get bluntly attacked for it.

No. Thanks for kindly explaining why I’m wrong though.

“Nothing misogynistic about preferring male commentators to female ones .” I don’t think that’s misogynistic at all if someone can’t help but prefer the male commentators that are available to the female commentators, assuming it’s based on their commentary.

I don’t agree with Keegan but as others have said it’s not helped by the way he’s said it and it’s likely a response to a question. He could probably have said the reverse for women’s football too if that helps. His opinions shouldn’t change our opinion of him or many other people for that matter. People who come from a different generation see the world differently, whether we like it or not, which won’t necessarily make them stupid or bad people. What’s all this about preferring male commentators to female commentators being misogynistic though? It’s one thing to say they shouldn’t be allowed to or will automatically be worse because they’re women, but I’d wager most people here would put few, if any, women as their favourite commentators? That’s not to say things might not change over time.

I think Southgate is very shortsighted and lacks a ruthless approach, on and off the pitch. He has plenty of time between tournaments to build for the next one, giving young and in-form players opportunities to embed into the team as well as manage regulars properly. It’s one thing if a player performs better for England than club, but it’s another if they don’t play at all for their club. Maguire’s most recent performances are no surprise here and this is where he should be giving the message you can’t be a long-term benchwarmer (or play in Saudi) if you want to keep your place. Sends a bad message to everyone really. His defence is players seem to never let him down, but maybe that’s not enough and we should be looking to win something? I’m glad the general narrative has shifted from us being proud of our brave losers. Watch us get to the next WC and he still doesn’t know how to fit Foden into the team in a position he supposedly doesn’t play for his club while picking players who never play anywhere for their club.

Great footballer, shame he can’t defend though.

Man of many talents. 0-19 off 3 overs and out second ball against me in 2018 mind.

I am joking - was just referring to the imaginary pressure some of the media had made up after a brief spell of disappointing results against strong sides! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66760555 The man is and always has been a delight.

Good win today, hopefully takes the pressure off him a bit.