Squad & tactics (2025/26)

[Dr.Spaceman]

On 14/10/2025 at 15:26, Lucky said:

Assuming we’ll lose another of our top players at some point, what is the current realistic value of our squad?

 

And based on that, who could we afford to lose?

 

Any of them, assuming we replace them adequately, whether that's with one or multiple players.

[Myleftboot]

27 minutes ago, duo said:

                       Ramsdale

 

   Livramento   Thiaw    Botman    Hall

 

               Tonali    Guimaraes

 

         Elanga  Woltemade   Gordon    
 

                         Wissa

I’d be tempted to play Joelinton in place of Gordon.

[janpawel]

29 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

Any of them, assuming we replace them adequately, whether that's with one or multiple players.

 

Barnes and Joelinton are the ones who are the right age / contract length / contributers to the team / value to sell IMO

 

Barnes - 28 next summer, 2 years left, Gordon is preferred, and we need a different profile on the wings, with 1 making way for this 

 

Joelinton - 30 next summer, 2 years left, not as effective as he was. Feel like he's a big name and would be ideal for a Saudi move 

[Sibierski]

I can see Ramsey eventually be a LW option if Barnes was sold this summer. Then a CM high value profile targeted. Can’t see us going for a big ticket LW whilst Gordon is on the books. 
 

CM is the one we have to go big for this summer coming and move Joelinton on. Ramsey the rotation option, with Miley / Bruno / Tonali / Big CM that fits the new look profile moving forward. 

[500bhp]

It must be about one and a third seasons since our number 9 scored a league goal. Can't remember that happening before. 

[Infinitely Content]

Since our wingers other than Barnes aren't firing this season whereas our full backs/wing backs are two of our best players, and we clearly need to find a solution to either A) get more players around Woltemade for him to link up with or B) get Wissa in the team with him; I'd be intrigued to see us experiment with something like:





Of course it's asking a lot of Tino and Hall, and without a genuine rotation option for Hall and an aging Trippier, it makes it perhaps unlikely.

[Guillaume]

Presume Burn is going to miss the rest of the calendar year, any sign of Botman being fit, ever? 

If Krafth available? Presume Lascelles is fit?

Trippier due back any time soon?

[The Prophet]

Some good points made in this thread.

[Deuce]

Please try a 4-2-3-1 with Woltemade behind Wissa

[Myleftboot]

2 hours ago, Deuce said:

Please try a 4-2-3-1 with Woltemade behind Wissa

 No.

[Ronson333]

We should try more shots outside the box if teams are going to sit that deep. Villa have scored quite a few this season and Hall’s shot today was the only one we had from outside the box.

[Geordie Ahmed]

When the window closed I was happy enough with the squad but as the season has progressed I think we've got a fair few issues to sort 

 

Keeper

Full backs

CB

Wingers as they are largely underperforming 

 

[500bhp]

We must be at the point now where consider 'doing an Ange Spurs' for the rest of the season. Fuck the league off and go all in on winning the LC or FA cup. Accept we finish well below 10th and put everything into beating Man City, we can also beat Arsenal or Chelsea in a one off game. Gets us a trophy and European football. 

[TopL0ader]

On 27/12/2025 at 07:36, 500bhp said:

We must be at the point now where consider 'doing an Ange Spurs' for the rest of the season. Fuck the league off and go all in on winning the LC or FA cup. Accept we finish well below 10th and put everything into beating Man City, we can also beat Arsenal or Chelsea in a one off game. Gets us a trophy and European football. 

Worked out well for Ange though? 

 

League has to be number one if we're to compete not winning a cup just to enter the Thursday night club. 

[500bhp]

4 minutes ago, TopL0ader said:

Worked out well for Ange though? 

 

League has to be number one if we're to compete not winning a cup just to enter the Thursday night club. 

I disagree. Football is about winning competitions and we'll never win the PL, probably ever. 

 

The celebrations at Wembley in March were fantastic and never to be forgotten. I dont remember the same at SJP when we lost to Everton to finish 5th but 'won' the CL race. You can't compare the two. 

[TopL0ader]

1 hour ago, 500bhp said:

I disagree. Football is about winning competitions and we'll never win the PL, probably ever. 

 

The celebrations at Wembley in March were fantastic and never to be forgotten. I dont remember the same at SJP when we lost to Everton to finish 5th but 'won' the CL race. You can't compare the two. 

I'm not saying don't go win the cups agree 100% with the Wembley feeling and winning a cup... But to prioritise it over the Premier League, I am not sure that would go down well. 

 

Bruno, Tonali, Tino, Woltemade, Thiaw didn't come to Newcastle to win the League or FA Cup. They want Champions League! 

 

Prioritise the Cups means playing your 1st XI in the cups and not the Premier League as you can't have both. 

 

Also this would mean by your logic no point going all in in the ECL as we aren't going to win it! 

 

Money talks and the FA Cup and League Cup doesn't get us where we want to be in year's to come and by winning even the FA Cup doesn't entice new signings to the North East.

 

Completely respect anyone's views but for me Premier League is the cash cow, and we must prioritise that and improving our position in the table. 

[Sibierski]

Ange was fortunate to get to final of Europa and even win it. When you lose loads in league, it will be same in the cups eventually. You can’t just write off games, but you can certainly try different things in league with pressure off to a degree to see what may click.

[The Prophet]

[Lush Vlad]

6 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

So much underlying data saying we’re not that bad. I do think the result can massively impact how we as fans view players performances and the performance as a whole. 
 

Like we can dominate a game or be deserved winners. But concede a daft late goal and everyone is shite. Yet we can win or nick a draw in a game where we play badly and it’s often fairly positive. Said as much on here a while

back and I don’t think it is exclusive to us. Results can paper over the cracks. 
 

Using hindsight. I think the 5th place season under Pardew was an extreme example of this. We were often crap but kept getting results from moments of magic and wonder goals. Nobody complained much. I remember QPR at home I think it was. I went and we were horrendous. Won 1-0 off our only shot on target. Everyone goes away happy. 
 

Anyway, I digress. The eye test does say to me that we have gone a bit stale this season. Very easy to play against away from home and the attacking patterns are always so ponderous and predictable. 
 

Also the stats that keep getting shown every game about our record when leading and when losing is obviously playing on people’s minds. So it should, it’s hardly a recipe for success  

[The Prophet]

2 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

So much underlying data saying we’re not that bad. I do think the result can massively impact how we as fans view players performances and the performance as a whole. 
 

Like we can dominate a game or be deserved winners. But concede a daft late goal and everyone is shite. Yet we can win or nick a draw in a game where we play badly and it’s often fairly positive. Said as much on here a while

back and I don’t think it is exclusive to us. Results can paper over the cracks. 
 

Using hindsight. I think the 5th place season under Pardew was an extreme example of this. We were often crap but kept getting results from moments of magic and wonder goals. Nobody complained much. I remember QPR at home I think it was. I went and we were horrendous. Won 1-0 off our only shot on target. Everyone goes away happy. 
 

Anyway, I digress. The eye test does say to me that we have gone a bit stale this season. Very easy to play against away from home and the attacking patterns are always so ponderous and predictable. 
 

Also the stats that keep getting shown every game about our record when leading and when losing is obviously playing on people’s minds. So it should, it’s hardly a recipe for success  

 

Two things that I think we have lost that data can't capture is our box defending and our mental toughness. Some of the goals we conceded are so soft.

[andycap]

                Woltemade

Barnes.       Bruno.             Murphy

 

            Tonali       miley 

 

Hall.      Botman   thiaw.        Tino

                   Pope

 

If rafa had our squad I think he'd line us up like that. What do yous think? 

[Sibierski]

I do think we are not far off being good, it’s just what undoes all the underlying stats is the mentality part which we have all said since start of season (at least) is weak. The late goals / sitting off after starting well and going ahead / away form. All three of those will completely undo the good, and I will say most of the underlying stats will be heavily skewed by our home games where we are always on it and create some really good openings.

[The Prophet]

That data also suggests that we're desperate for a new keeper.

[SUPERTOON]

Don’t need data to tell us that mind.

[Fak]

1 hour ago, andycap said:

                Woltemade

Barnes.       Bruno.             Murphy

 

            Tonali       miley 

 

Hall.      Botman   thiaw.        Tino

                   Pope

 

If rafa had our squad I think he'd line us up like that. What do yous think? 

 

Wants the sack if he's putting Woltemade in goal