King HTT III

He can feel a bit better this morning with his boy’s team beating my boy’s team (3-2, last minute winner for them, we were 2-0 down).

Just please win, not arsed with how well we play or not, just win.

The English media are shit houses full stop and definitely xenophobic, but we do have a lot of French players in our game who are black so when they do get some stick it’s going to skewer things. I’ve been to France loads, and it’s a far more xenophobic and racist country, not that these things should be excused here in the U.K. ASM doesn’t get stick because he’s French and black or one of the two, it’s because, as I’ve said, fans know how good he can be and are desperate for him to show it all the time, every game and let’s face it he’s meant to be one of best players so the expectation level is say higher than it is with a Longstaff. Most of the ranting is mainly online anyway, at the game he’s massively supported as are all the players.

I’m over it now, let’s hope it’s a blessing in disguise…

Why say dare I say it if he was white then? You make many valid points, but people aren’t on his back because of his skin colour/nationality or would be more patient or whatever if he was white/not French. Robert was one of our best PL players and got way more stick. Again he’s largely supported, he’s just such a frustrating player/individual and fans just want to see the real ASM every game because if we do, well, we have a great player in our team.

Every mate of mine who criticises ASM are desperate for him to do well because they like him, but growingly get more and more frustrated with his fitness issues, his falling to the ground and taking an age to get up antics and his inability to perform to higher levels consistently and he should too because he has all the talent in the world and the world is his if he wants it, but you have to question does he?!

He’s OK as a third choice back up striker, but ultimately we still need another quality striker given Wilson is fragile fitness wise and Isak is coming back from a lengthy lay off. Do that and we phase him out/send him out on loan. Ideally he won’t be here next season along with a good number of others. I’ve defended him loads in the past, he’s obviously a good guy, but last night every spect of his game was unacceptable for what we paid for, which albeit come down to certain circumstances we were in at the time, but he’s one player Howe hasn’t improved or he’s been able to manage what is expected of a striker and that’s goals. That was a poor, poor performance against L1 opposition. Sheff Wed’s forwards put him to shame last night and again, it’s not acceptable. He’s not getting many starts this season, and last night against such a level of opposition, you try and take your chance and show, aye, I can be relied on.

Aye it’s not a race thing, fans know what he is capable of and fans in general are fickle. If he doesn’t perform every game to the maxi of his ability he will get some flack, but let’s be fair fans have largely been very supportive of him on the stands. Robert got stick, so did Ginola, Waddle before them for example.

His work rate last night was piss poor, ambling around, not attacking the box when we got forward with any urgency and just an all-round casual display.

Another thing with Bruno I’ve noticed is how he uses his toes a lot to make passes, that is as Brazilian as it gets. It’s a unique technique. He did several toe poke type passes short and long last night, such a great style. I know loads of coaches and they say a toe poke pass can be more effective than using your instep, side foot etc. he rolls the ball a lot as well. I love his style.

Slide pass? Bruno is great at playing a clipped ball, doesn’t over hit it, plays it into space, to his man and it seems perfectly placed and weighted, I think regarding his passing that’s his forte. Trippier has the same kind of passing technique too.

Clipped ball?

You can tell he is a hard trainer as he looked super sharp, but it’s really time we moved on from starting the likes of him even against a L1 side in a cup competition.

Allan Saint-Anderton

He was much better when moved to the left.

I don’t want to hate on any of our players really because they all seem canny players and I do believe they give their all, well now under Howe. But starting the likes of Murphy, Wood, Lewis, Manquillo who had a good first half to be fair, Ritchie, and even Longstaff and Lascelles isn’t going to cut it if we want to be a top team. They all need peddled in reality. Isak, out for a few months, showed more class and movement than Wood in his cameo for fuck’s sake. Bruno showed instantly and Trippier when they come on the gulf in class. Having that back 4 made Botman, an outstanding player, look dross. It’s not good enough and as a club we now need to start thinking like this because you can guarantee Man City wouldn’t accept a Lascelles or a Ritchie or a Lewis or Murphy or a Wood even when they were first starting off on their trajectory. Thanks Ashley, big couple of transfer windows ahead obviously!

Positives is that, even though most are shite, got some game time which lets face it when you have a squad they need, that and hopefully it reinforces the desperate need to bin most of them and bring in some quality players to replace them, even as squad players. Wanna be a big team, a big boy, win things? You can’t be starting half that shite even in a cup game against L1 level opposition. Fuck FFP, Chelsea and Man Utd seem to have done and of course PSG, City and Barcelona just to name a few clubs.

Aye full credit to them, they were superb and so was their game plan, god knows what ours was, our pressing game was missing and towards the end we were just rushing everything and hoping something would stick from set pieces. I’m happy for the Geordie lad in their team and the Sheff Wed supporter on here and I really like Darren Moore, who was harshly let go at WBA IMO. It’s good to see a black manager doing well in the game, and let’s be fair, they are a pretty decent sized club with a rich history. I hope they get promotion.

I’m annoyed mainly because I now care and if we get a home tie, it’s a chance to drag myself to a game with my boys.

Shocking tonight, outpaced, outmuscled and his passing was awful. Maybe the intensity of the season and how many games he’s played caught up with him.

SPEND!

At least one Geordie is in the 4th round…

If he’s at my boy’s match tomorrow he’s getting a slap, followed by a kiss and a cuddle of course. Play our strongest team against Leicester please Edward.

I’m finished with him which is ironic as he can’t fucking finish, put to shame by a L1 CF tonight, absolutely one of the most inept CF displays I’ve ever seen and I’m not being hyperbolic. He fell over in their box trying to win a header because he totally misjudge the flight of the ball for fuck sake.

Unacceptable to be losing against a L1 side despite how great they were. Most of our fringe players did fuck all and we now need to be ruthless and just get rid of the dross left over from the Ashley era and Wood can fuck off as well, a blind dog would have put that away. Same old Newcastle going out the cup in the 3rd round to lower league teams.