Matt1892

Murphy plays a horrible ball to Krafth that put us under pressure.

Fulham cutting us open than and had an extra man down their right. No sign of Murphy helping Krafth either.

Why can’t Willock and play there?

He is 25/1 to finish the top scorer in the Premier League, currently 3 goals behind Haaland and he has the best goals to minutes ratio of the top 20 highest scorers this season. Considering our run in those odds are decent.

We seem to be linked with young South Americans but that’s as far as it goes.

It is impressive that Brighton, Wolves and Bournemouth are in that pool. Ourselves, Man Utd and Chelsea not so much.

Compared to the run in last year where you had both Villa and Brighton as tough opponents going for sixth, the teams going for sixth this season are stumbling over each other to the finish line.

We played well tonight but Everton are a team that allow you to play well, they sit deep and constantly give up possession inviting the opposition to attack over and over. The disappointing thing is that we started the game really well, which was expected after carrying over the feel good factor from West Ham but we haven’t managed to retain that. There was a feeling that if we didn’t get the second goal we would regret it and that’s what happened. Ultimately, it was another game that we should have won and instead dropped 2 points in.

If Spurs qualify for the Champions League then joining them will be seen as a step up, even if only a small one.

I looked at December as being a congested month and January as difficult fixtures, but from February onwards we had a favourable run in for the rest of the season with only a few difficult games. I think it is fair to say our performances have been mixed since then, with a great result at the end of March against Villa which was unexpected. What I want to see from Howe between now and the end of the season is some consistency in both performances and results, as even with players out we should still be beating the majority of the team below. It isn’t as if they can play their best eleven every week either. Newcastle 4-4 Luton ? Forest 2-3 Newcastle ✅ Newcastle 2-2 Bournemouth ? Arsenal 4-1 Newcastle ❌ Newcastle 3-0 Wolves ✅ Chelsea 3-2 Newcastle ❌ Newcastle 4-3 West Ham ✅ Newcastle - Everton Fulham - Newcastle Newcastle - Spurs Crystal Palace - Newcastle Newcastle - Sheffield United Burnley - Newcastle Newcastle - Brighton Brentford - Newcastle We also have the rearranged game away to Man Utd to drop in.

You would compare them at the point of transfer though, as Rice is arguably worth more than his transfer fee and Caicedo’s value would have dropped.

Bottom of the league Forest Green being 0-3 up away to 6th place Crewe inside the first half hour is wild. Sutton United winning too, if they hold on it will be their fourth win in a row.

You didn’t, you highlighted the issue with changing would impact our press when we don’t effectively press anymore. Anyone who watches us play with the basic understanding of football can see that we hardly press the opposition. If you are in that much of a flap about it that the only thing you have left is name calling then maybe avoid anyone who has a different opinion to you going forward, especially when you struggle to articulate your point.

You just asked how we keep up the pressing as if it was a reason for us not changing things up, then when it is pointed out to you that we don’t press effectively anymore you claim it shows Howe’s tactical flexibility by stopping us pressing.

What pressing?

The option would be you drop the defenders back to make more of a low block, then you would look at dropping 2 of the midfielders to slightly deeper so you don’t create a space between them and the defence, then pushing the other midfielder slightly forward to link between them and the attack. It would give you a formation similar to Liverpool and Brighton then and would cut out a lot of the issues with being exposed at the back.

You are not the only one concerned.

Players being injured doesn’t mean he can’t change the tactics involving the players he does put out, it is absolutely ridiculous to think we can’t deviate from the standard 4-3-3 with a high line no matter the players we put on the pitch. If you have a keeper that you rely on to sweep allowing you to play a high line, then that keeper is injured and the replacement can’t sweep, you don’t carry on playing that high line, especially when you are shipping a high number of goals in the process.

Moyes taking Antonio off for Kelvin Phillips was their downfall, he tried to sit on the lead and their hold up play went out of the window at that point and allowed us to have one attack after the other. He only brought Ings on when they went behind, when a like for like swap was the sensible option.

We have had a favourable run in since we came out of January, this extends for the rest of the season apart from the odd game here and there. If we carry on with the same form since then we will finish with about 57 points, although there is no reason why we shouldn’t pick up more than that as our form from February to now has been hit and miss. The good news is there is no team playing like Brighton and Villa did last year chasing sixth and seventh spot.

Everton went through a period where they were galvanised by the points deduction but that didn’t last long, they haven’t won away since before Christmas and don’t look like turning it around. This should be a straight forward win for us.

What happened to Alex Murphy? He looked promising in pre season. A new CB and right forward needs to be our priority.

You are actually proving my point with this post, in that if a player is missing who has a particular skill set you play towards and the back up player doesn’t share that skill set, then you cannot keep playing the same tactics and hope they work.

I think the club should put the feelers out through an intermediary to see who is available and would be interested in joining in the summer. If we can’t attract a manager of quality then I would stick with him and hope he learns, although if we do stick with him then we need to be prepared to give him the whole of next season, rather than moving him on in November if next season starts like this one is going.

You are missing the point too, as nobody is saying that you should still be as good when your better players are out. Where he is tactically limited is where we set up with having a goalkeeper that sweeps up in Pope, meaning we can get away with a higher line, yet when Pope is out and replaced with a keeper that isn’t comfortable sweeping up, we still play with the high line and are done with long balls constantly.