KingArthur

True, Chelsea is a mess. But would he be more than a rotation option in our team? He is not better than Willock/Joelinton or Bruno, so would fight for the third spot with Longstaff, who has clear weaknesses, but is using 30-40 million on Gallagher the best option to upgrade Longstaff? Not sure about that.

That might be, but hasn't really shown anything at Chelsea. I remain sceptical until I see him having a second decent season.

I really don't see the point with Gallagher. He is decent yes, but somehow reminds me of Ross Barkley. High risk high reward, because the price would be ridiculous. If he costs 40 million or something we better not go anywhere near. 20 million maybe, but young English player from top EPL team? Not going with that price. Too expensive, and having a good engine and working hard is not something you pay 40 million for.

And I would guess Ritchie and Lewis (younger Longstaff? Lascelles?) are out of the door come summer.

I am pretty sure Dummett is needed for HG-rule? How many players we have that are not club trained? Lewis has sell on value, and neither of them will play much + Dummett's wages are most likely a lot less.

Was the ball going to Weghorst without the hand ball? If it was, then it certainly was not denying obvious goal scoring opportunity.

I cant see the point of Jimenez diving. He might get a penalty and sending off for Pope, but if he stays up it's a certain goal. Might have been not that big of a contact, but I think ref just bottled it. A bit like in Leicester-Chelsea with the first minute red card. I would say Jimenez did not lose the ball / was not going out of the play.. But seems like some disagree and thats fine. I think these even out in the long run. We suffered from VAR against Palace

It is a clear red for Pope and penalty. Jimenez is 100% scoring that and it is a clumsy collission, but still denying a goal scoring opportunity.

He was good yesterday. I think one thing Howe needs to make him understand is that he does not always need to try to go past 1-2 defenders. Just release it and make a run behind or something. He always wants the ball at his feet. It slows the play down and makes it more predictable. But he played great passes to Isak, and was not just going to cut in and shoot like often before.

That is true, but we will be there every season soon enough anyway

I don't think us finishing top 4 this season is a must like some see it. We will invest big next summer anyway, but if we get to UCL we are going to need 5-6 new players to that squad for Europe alone. Our squad is paper thin. Top6 will do for me and constant progress. Teams like Chelsea and Liverpool are spending a lot more than us and they are desperate for CL football and money. We will get there for sure in a year or two.

Trippier has been awful today.

It is ok if 1-2 guys talk to the referee, but when he gets surrounded, specially with VAR with people claiming handball or red card it is just annoying. Just like crowding the guy taking penalty. Everyone outside of the box except the shooter and goalie, and yellow card if goalie starts some antics. Ridiculous that it takes 2-3 minutes to take a penalty these days..

In theory yes. But A) will he be fit B) if he plays and gets automatically new contract for like 80k/wk, that hinders our transfer dealings a bit next summer...

I think we have started to play "badly" during last few weeks because opponents have started to sit back and have given us the possession. Bournemouth really didn't press and before their goal our passing was very slow and predictable. After the goal we upped the tempo a lot. First half of the season we pressed high up on the pitch and got a lot of breaks high up. Now teams like Bournemouth, Palace and West Ham are quite quickly launching it behing Burn and Trippier. With Bruno we can open up spaces more and push the opposition deeper, without him we lose the ball too much in too dangerous areas. Especially Willock, ASM and Burn. Our squad just lacks quality in key areas. We really need a ball playing midfielder in place of Longstaff or Joelinton. Both have great engines and are great at winning the ball back, but neither are very good at opening up defences.

I think we are going to be 5th or 6th. Drawing too many games. Spurs are not great, but have a better squad. Liverpool and Chelsea are far away already.

I must be the worst player ever in this game. Again I have Watkins and Tarkowski (and Dier still to play and score most likely) on the bench..

English is my third language, so maybe uncomfortable is not the right word. I think "not his greatest strength" would be better. Not saying he is poor on the ball. Sorry if this was misunderstood.

True, and missplaces passes like today. But his job clearly is to be more creative of the 2 centrehalves. Try to play longer pass to left wing, behing for Wilson or step out with the ball. Botman plays deeper and easier. Driven pass to Trippier is good one of course. We will see this better against Liverpool or City when they most likely will be pressing high. Love to be proven wrong. He is superb in the most important task, that is defending and had Antonio who is really strong handled well. I love the guy. Just noticed that he keeps the play pretty simple.

No, just comparing him to Schär. Doesn't want to use his right foot, which puts him under pressure unnecessarily. He is great defender and was good today (again). He just was sloppy on the ball, but we were poor with the ball as a whole. edit. For example, doesn't like to step out with the ball from the back, again comparing to Schär. Don't understand why saying this makes people react so angrily? It's not like I say he is poor. Just comparing him to Ake, Blind etc. who have played as a full back even.

For a Dutch that has played at Ajax, he is surprisingly uncomfortable with the ball. Huge difference to Schär, who to be fair is great.

He just seems to play totally different game than rest of the squad. Doesn't make runs behind, isn't waiting to play combinations etc. Waits for pass to feet and starts dribbling. He has the ability to be great, but doesn't seem to have the footballing brain. Breaks my heart to say that because love the guy. I guess he will be sold next summer.

He offers very little to our possessional play. Doesn't link up very well or come to collect it deeper, but just offers to run behind. He is effective poacher in the box, but I would say he is one of the reason we are not scoring much. Or his lack of form is a big reason.

33-year-old from Finland. Saw the UCL game against Feyenoord from Finnish Tv for some reason, cannot recall if it was highlights only, but I guess it was full match. Just somehow started to support from that, and of course couldn't see the games very often, but managed to talk my dad into paying for football channels so could watch almost every game. Have seen pretty much all the games since 2005. First and only time that I have seen Newcastle live was at Craven Cottage during Rafa's Championship season. Huge and loud away support btw. Of course we lost 0-1... Been reading this forum for a long long time and nufc.com match reports and other interesting thing. Took me a while to figure out what "wor" means lol. edit. I was staying at Edinburgh the season when we played Europa League with Pardew, and was hoping to get to game that weekend, but of course we had EL game that Thursday and the game got postponed to Sunday, when I was flying back already.. No one supported Newcastle where I am from. Father thought Shearer was a great player obv tho, but all were Arsenal, ManU or Liverpool fans, and pretty much still are here. Souness' time, Kinnear, Bruce, Carver. Through a lot of shit for team thousand miles away. My local team plays in black and white also, so funny coincidence.

Mitoma seems skilful, but damn that final pass has been awful