Newcastle United promoted back to the Premier League

[afar]

Not a chance everyone else will keep it up, we're on course to be fine at the moment but just need to keep improving. Norwich I think will keep up and around the top, think Huddersfield will drop off possibly next year though. Their high press style always does well early in seasons then fitter and deeper squads than them get exhausted by Februaryish. Other teams will race up the table later. We have the squad to keep the pace going, things we need to be concerned about are our goal scoring, I think we aren't putting away as many chances as we are getting. Fitness of Shelvey is also important as don't think we have another creative central mid.

 

Looking around us, Brighton really flying right now, great result today beating Sheff Wed (whom themselves have been on a great run).  Brentford being held at home by Wigan was a bit of a surprise and stunted their recent progress. Bristol City and Birmingham winning yet again to keep the presurre up. Leeds are on a great run too and Preston are another side on the rise after a poor start. Norwich just keep winning it's relentless by them, despite not always playing great from what I've read, lets face it they were awful against us and very fortunate to even be in the game despite nearly winning. I don't know what to think of Huddersfield, they seem to be another team that just always seems to do enough, that home loss to them may be a huge blow to us come May.

 

One thing is certain , this time around is going to be much tougher for us and we absolutely need to invest in January.

[Ikon]

There's still like 42! points to play for this year. A few of the teams down the table will find some form soon and steal points from the current top 5-6, definitely. Hopefully not from us.

[afar]

I know I'm being a little obsessed now but one thing I always look at as an indicator just how good teams are really doing is GD, we are far ahead of anyone on that score, which when you factor in the QPR and Reading results it's hardly surprising. What is a little though is Huddersfield and Norwich only have a +6 difference, despite winning 8 and 7 games respectfully . That suggests they are just sneaking one goal wins, that kind of form is far harder to maintain. Huddersfield's 14 goals score is woeful for the lead club, that's barely over 1 a game and Forest, Burton and Wolves amongst others have scored more than them.

 

We are top scorers thanks largely though to 3 games.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Fairly confident we'll go on a bit of a run now and take the lead before xmas. We've taken 25 of the last 30 points available and the fixture list looks quite favourable. Time to engage steamroller mode and grind teams into the dirt.

 

Easy to forget this, other than the first two games which we didn't play well at all we have lost once in our last 10. Pretty confident it won't be long till we are top and stay there.

[afar]

Fairly confident we'll go on a bit of a run now and take the lead before xmas. We've taken 25 of the last 30 points available and the fixture list looks quite favourable. Time to engage steamroller mode and grind teams into the dirt.

 

We only have 22 points. Think you mean 22 from the last 27 available which is still an impressive haul especially when you factor in 2 cups on op of that during the run.

[midds]

You're right. Included a cup win.

[54]

[Ronaldo]

I think we had 24 points from our first 13 games last time. Gotta think we'll be better off than that in 2 games time.

[Tubestationatmidnight]

Will start to pull away in these next set of 6 games. Longer Rafa is here the better we will be.

 

10

[54]

I think we had 24 points from our first 13 games last time. Gotta think we'll be better off than that in 2 games time.

After gameweek 13 we went on a 9 game winning streak, which we could arguably do again from now, given our upcoming fixtures.

[afar]

Think we need to make the following additions in January to make sure we bounce straight back up:

 

Need some cover for Shelvey, think Will Hughes would fill that role perfectly, surely he's attainable with Derby having the season they are right now.

 

Danny Ings would be a great additional to our strikeforce, we could use one more that has a proven record, not sure if he's still out of favour at Liverpool, if he is he'll be attainable if we are sitting at the top of the league by then.

 

If he is insistent on playing with just one up front then we have to upgrade Diame, not sure what's out there for number 10's but that the weakest link for me in the team right now.

 

If he doesn't fancy Lazaar (which appears to be the case right now, based on one bad game) then he really should find a better option than Paul Dummet (having said that Paul Dummet playing 90% of our games is not going to be a reason we miss out on promotion if he does)

 

Other nice to haves would be another winger (although the fact that Atsu played so well at RIGHT wing and we have Aarons coming back for a brief spell until his next injury of course means we may have enough cover there) and another more defensive midfielder to ensure we don't have to play Colback if he rests Hayden.

 

 

[astraguy]

We just need to get the shots we have on target in the net, Its embrassing  how many we have but fail to put it

[Yorkie]

Meanwhile we've got the best goal difference we've had in absolutely eons.

 

It's such a cliche but I'd be more worried if we weren't having said shots/creating said chances.

[mrmojorisin75]

We just need to get the shots we have on target in the net, Its embrassing  how many we have but fail to put it

 

aye, every game i've seen so far we've failed to put away key chances...if gayle starts finishing regularly we'll walk this division

[Stottie]

Meanwhile we've got the best goal difference we've had in absolutely eons.

 

It's such a cliche but I'd be more worried if we weren't having said shots/creating said chances.

 

Yes, our situation looks more sustainable than Huddersfield who've won 8 out of 11 despite only scoring 14 in those 11. Whoscored says they are third bottom in the league on shots taken per game. Teams generally don't go an entire season winning 2-1 (five times for them so far) or 1-0 (twice).

[joeyt]

 

 

 

If he doesn't fancy Lazaar (which appears to be the case right now, based on one bad game) then he really should find a better option than Paul Dummet (having said that Paul Dummet playing 90% of our games is not going to be a reason we miss out on promotion if he does)

 

Think it's far too early to say Rafa doesn't like Lazaar

 

[TRon]

We just need to get the shots we have on target in the net, Its embrassing  how many we have but fail to put it

 

aye, every game i've seen so far we've failed to put away key chances...if gayle starts finishing regularly we'll walk this division

 

It's just been the last few games tbh, it's not exactly an insightful sample size. We could go the next few where we are banging in every chance that drops, like against QPR.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Yeah before that we wasn't creating all that much, although I'm going to choose to believe that it's just a general development of the team and we'll continue to create chances going forward.

[TRon]

I'm still open minded whether we need a proven striker. Gayle is one in many ways, and Murphy had a decent record at this level. I was never that sure how many Mitrovic and Perez would get, they've still got to prove themselves IMO, no matter how promising. But then we will probably be getting more goals from Ritchie and Diame in the coming months, not to mention Shelvey. Then you add Atsu into the mix and it's not as bad as it's seemed in the last couple of games.

[Yorkie]

I wonder what our 'goals to chances' ratio was against QPR. Was Villa much different? Didn't we have about 400 shots against the former?

[mrmojorisin75]

Yeah before that we wasn't creating all that much, although I'm going to choose to believe that it's just a general development of the team and we'll continue to create chances going forward.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Yeah before that we wasn't creating all that much, although I'm going to choose to believe that it's just a general development of the team and we'll continue to create chances going forward.

 

 

 

 

[louistoon]

I'm still open minded whether we need a proven striker. Gayle is one in many ways, and Murphy had a decent record at this level. I was never that sure how many Mitrovic and Perez would get, they've still got to prove themselves IMO, no matter how promising. But then we will probably be getting more goals from Ritchie and Diame in the coming months, not to mention Shelvey. Then you add Atsu into the mix and it's not as bad as it's seemed in the last couple of games.

 

I don't think we need one to go up but I think the Gayle - Diame combination is definitely our weak point. With the amount of chances  our midfield have been creating if we had a top class striker up there we'd be killing teams. However while the issue in the first few games was that we were not creating much from open play, now I think the issue is more to do with creating chances but not finishing, which is a step up at least.

 

To play as a striker in this formation I think you need to be a very well rounded player, and I'm not sure Gayle will have that when we get to the prem (although he does seem to be improving in the role) as I see him as the sort of player who needs to play alongside a more physical CF

[TRon]

I'm still open minded whether we need a proven striker. Gayle is one in many ways, and Murphy had a decent record at this level. I was never that sure how many Mitrovic and Perez would get, they've still got to prove themselves IMO, no matter how promising. But then we will probably be getting more goals from Ritchie and Diame in the coming months, not to mention Shelvey. Then you add Atsu into the mix and it's not as bad as it's seemed in the last couple of games.

 

I don't think we need one to go up but I think the Gayle - Diame combination is definitely our weak point. With the amount of chances  our midfield have been creating if we had a top class striker up there we'd be killing teams. However while the issue in the first few games was that we were not creating much from open play, now I think the issue is more to do with creating chances but not finishing, which is a step up at least.

 

To play as a striker in this formation I think you need to be a very well rounded player, and I'm not sure Gayle will have that when we get to the prem (although he does seem to be improving in the role) as I see him as the sort of player who needs to play alongside a more physical CF

 

Your basing that assumption on the basis of two or three games though. If you watched the Man/Stoke game on Sunday you'd assume Man U strikers don't know how to finish, they could have scored 6 in the second half alone. Same was true for quite a few of the premier games this weekend tbh. Then there's Ritchie who I thought would have scored a hatful at this level, yet he's been hitting shots straight at the keeper or getting them blocked by defenders. But I still think he'll score plenty this season when his luck turns. I don't see any reason why I should write off Diame and Gayle as finishers at this stage either. Especially since Gayle is one of the division's leading scorers so far despite the poor finishing.

[54]