BShearer

we need to pull it back to 1-1 before HT. few shots would help.

ffs, wake up, this is Luton we cannot lose to these.

great results for us so far with Villa and MU both fucked up, lets make it count, howay the lads!!!!

Kalvin Phillips looking for a team that plays him. after sitting on the bench 99.9% of City games last 1.5 year he will want some guaranteed game time. City probably wants a permanent sale or at least a mandatory buy option in the summer. dont think we will touch him for these reasons.

problem is if this injuries keep happening in the speed of 1-2 players get injured every single game (sometimes setbacks like Isak coming back early...) we are totally fucked. by the time Barnes is back Almiron will be out for weeks. by the time Joelinton is back Bruno will be off for weeks. lack of rotation need to change when it is possible and physios need to earn their salary. I would like to see 3 incoming players in January but cannot see any serious money for it. we already had to do creative loan deal with Hall which tells me we are short of money due to FFP. and then we probably aint making that much from Europe either due to getting a horrible group and going out early even without some additional EL money. the way they share CL money is also depending on coefficients so we get lot less than likes of City, Arsenal even before counting the extra money they get from still playing and advancing. saw some chart we are only getting 30m pounds from CL, while likes of PSG, City are already getting close to 80m and that is growing still if they go far. we may have expected a bit more as in many different groups we would have qualified imo for next round or EL at least also would have had more wins than just 1 in 6 games and thats extra money too.

I wouldnt be against sacking off Uefa and Fifa to control football and have all their people of fat salaries doing not much but issue with new Super League is created by greed of a few top clubs who are already richer than most. there will be guarantees to the likes of Pool, Man Untied, Real, Barca to be in Super League despite if they are shit. for example Girona is leading La Liga, lets assume they win it front of much stronger clubs. currently they would be able to join CL based on merit even tho they would face same Pot4 as we did due to lack of past hostory in CL/EL. but in this new super league format they would not be playing the top of the super league they would play the Conference League equivalent of it despite winning the La Liga while ones behind them would be playing the Gold League just because. this would be a case of Newcastle winning the league and join EL while Man United finishing 4th joining CL kind of. and then if we do well in EL we can promote up to CL in a few years time. current format is a bit more fair even tho its not fully fair at all. let alone how the FFP rules in place trying to keep closed shop for top teams on already high revenues to stay on higher revenues while the rest can fuck off building higher revenues.

not many clubs had better away record last season. 8-8-3 away record was quite great, we were hard to beat, only lost all season to City away, Pool away and Villa away. we already lost 5 away from home this season (City, Brighton, Spurs, Everton, Bournemouth) and yet to go to Villa, MU, Chelsea, Pool, Arsenal.. partially explained by injury chaos and much harder schedule due to unreal CL/Carabao draws taking out lots of energy from the team last few months we knew wchedule will be a killer but our transfer window did not help us much in that regard for various reason next 5 away PL games: Luton Pool Villa Forest Arsenal this is up until end of February, quite hard to imgine we get 15 points all of a sudden, would sign 9 points right now in current form 4-5 is more like realistic. Howe will be tested tactically.

I was quite delighted with his work until this summer transfer window. the weeks of rumours about Szoboszlai and Maddison to end up with Barnes not great imo (while those strengthen our league rivals big time), while the Tonali one is a horrible transfer so far and we were played big time by his agent and Milan as well. wonder what the mood is when next time we chat to his agent. I wonder if he tell us us he didnt know about Tonali's betting issues lol. Hall is also an interesting one, not given much playing time despite the horrible injury issues in all department. Howe hates to rotate so once we have more defenders back Hall aint gonna play more than now which is also limited now. if he can pull some magic in January window that would be great I just cannot see money available for that apart from some loans. sell Ritchie and Targett to Al Ittihad for 75m each to make some money.

Villa and Spurs both have easy games this weekend, certain 3 points. Howe needs to beat Luton, simple as that so we can cut the gap a bit hopefully the round after that when we host Forest while Spurs visit Brighton and Villa visit Man utd. away tactics have to improve and we need to control the games more. clean sheet would be great. only one clean sheet in PL this season (vs Sheffield 0-8) away from home. that two games where we were not much better but had the lead in the games WHU away and Wolves away and we still could not make it count. important 4 points dropped there.

Away record has to improve asap. Luton is no pushovers so far at their ground but their squad cost less than Tonali.

last few minutes of PSG away and today game was a killer for us. lets go big on Saudi loan in January and have a go at CL places (4th ad 5th hopefully). if we have no CL revenue next year that again can affect our limits badly.

we most be on the phone to Saudi league of those loan deals from January. favourable loans for 6 months will be the only chance we get serious quality into the squad which is very much needed for a CL qualification for next year. it will not be every season that MU and Chelsea will be so shit. unfortunately Spurs and Villa all of a sudden look decent.

joke of a draw in Carabao not sure any team ever had a run like this to potentilly reach the semis. City, MU, Chelsea. and if we manage to win tonight I bet its Liverpool in semis rather than likes of Everton or Boro. the minimum we would deserve is us getting winner or P. Vale-Boro in semis, and have scouser derby in other semis. as long as we beat Chelsea somehow.

Certainly it looked a better window end of August than what we made of it since than. Even then I thought we only really signed 1.5 starter, Tonali is a start but Barnes I wasnt sure if he is displacing Gordon or Almiron most of the times will be in rotation with them. While Hall and Livramento are subs to offer better rotation that what we had behind Burn and Trippier. Barnes out injured big time, Tonali transfer so far looks horrible, we got played here, he did need a club to spend his ban, I can only hope he digs deep next season and repays us big time, there is also a chance he will cite being homesick and ask for a Serie A return in a year or two, going the "lon with option to buy" with us paying his salary, of course thats worst case scenario. Hall have not got much chance yet despite our horrible injury record. find that a bit strange, not even sure the it is a mandatory buy end of the loan. rivals had much better windows unfortunately, Villa for example, Spurs too. there was lots of talk of Maddison, Szoboszlai and Barnes, Maddison was quite good until his injury. Szoboszlai fitted in well with Pool too, not extreme good numbers but he has to play more of an 8. Rice added a lot to Arsenal, Mc Allister to Pool too. Villa, Pool, Spurs were all behind us last season, this season they have all good chance to be above us, most of it is down to good changes (Postecoglou) and good changes.

I am just worried we do not have serious sums to spend due to FFP this January. it will be creative loans from Saudi or not much imo. we already had to limit spending in the summer and we didnt get much out of all that spending either due to Tonali ban, Barnes bad injury and Hall played hardly at all so far. Howe needs to pick up our away form, at home we are a match to anyone, but we can go to places like Bournemouth, Everton etc and easily lose. next 5 PL away games: Luton Pool Villa Forest Arsenal surely we cannot be happy with like 4 points from these. given the last 5 was somewhat easier and we got 2 points only and conceding 13 in them. (2 or more in each) WHU Wolves Bournemuth Everton Spurs next 5 home PL games Fulham, Forest, City, Luton, Bournemouth, so that should be 4 wins at least imo and give a game to City too.

likes of Inter, Milan, Lazio, Napoli all will face a group winner in CL. I expect 3 of them to get likes of Bayern, City, Arse, Real, Barca which is 80/20 one of them maybe Socieded, Dortmund which is 50/50. as long as WHU, Brighton, Pool do decent in EL imo 5th is a CL place too. not that it guarantees anything because if we dont pick up our away form big time (with still to go to MU, Chelsea, Arse, Pool etc) we will be somewhere 7/8th anyway.

yes, thats how it looks like, Pot4 for us again if we make it to CL next season. but that does not mean another death group, we were quite unlucky with this year group.

Dale Johnson @DaleJohnsonESPN Newcastle join Man United in crashing out. The gap grows as Germany and Italy pull away -- and Italy keep a full bank of 7 teams. Only top 2 get a 5th place in UCL 1. Germany 13.36 2. Italy 13.14 3. England 12.13 4. Spain 12.06 5.France 10.42 so yes, all what we need is Arsenal, City going very far in CL now, semis at least Liverpool i way superior to 95% of clubs in EL, they should go very far as long as they dont opt to reducre their schedule and "opt" out from it to fight for PL title rather than having Thursday games every week. Brighton, WHU hopefully makes a good run until last 8 at least sending out Spanish, Italian or German clubs along the way. And Villa as per their current form should go and rip the third cup series apart. not sure its doable but maybe. Villa, Spurs, MU and us* are in absolute fight for 4th and 5th. we may need 5th to be a CL place if we want to get back next season. (*unless Chelsea somehow starts winning)

do we know if we gained enough coeff points to avoid Pot4 if we are back to CL next season? I still think 5th PL place is also will be a CL place (albeit MU and us being completely out of Europe is a big advantage for German, ITalian and Spanish teams) this group was rightly called group of death, I cant see any other group where we wouldnt have got at least 3rd.

put in a lawsuit against Milan. refund us for first year of his value.

extremely unlucky draw this group. same in Carabao. brutal bad luck to face Dortmund, PSG, Milan and City, MU, Chelsea in CL group and first 3 rounds of Carabao. add to that our brutal shit luck with injuries and the Tonali fuck up. all our CL opponents were seasoned CL teams, lots of experience, Paris game was a cheat ref keeping PSG in the tournament.

He will learn from these CL games. but he needs backing next window, Saudi loans need to arrive, 3-4 of them. big names.

fuck europa league, a clean schedule in PL can and hopefully will get us back to CL next season. this is where we belong.

now Dortmund to score one soon please

seems very hard to replicate last season away form: we were 3rd best away team with 8-8-3 record end of 22/23 season now after 9 games we are 16th with 1-2-5 record next 3 away PL games: Luton who is managing to make top teams suffer a lot a home Liverpool... Villa who is on an 8/8 home record so far this season just beaten City and then Arse too we certainly cannot go to these places and end up getting 0 or 1 point from these combined. would maybe sign 4 points now tho on current form/injuries. Howe needs to come up with a plan, not the same plan he had today or vs Everton..