Newcastle United promoted back to the Premier League

[Dave]

[Andy84]

Preston seem to have given up this season FWIW, also have injuries to key players and suspensions

[afar]

Preston seem to have given up this season FWIW, also have injuries to key players and suspensions

 

Good we need all the help we can get right now. 3-1 defeat at home to Norwich is not good, especially as they have been so good at home all season. Hopefully we get the Preston team that played us in the League Cup as opposed to the one that we were lucky in the end to beat at their place earlier in the season.

[Dave]

Preston seem to have given up this season FWIW, also have injuries to key players and suspensions

 

They'll try twice as hard as normal at SJP.

[Andy84]

Got battered off Leeds 3-0 and lost to awful travellers Norwich today 3-1, apparently have 4 fit defenders for next week.

[Ikon]

A loss it is then

[Guest chopey]

I would rather play Preston next week than Fulham

[U2]

 

 

A huge sigh of relief in a geordie accent heard right across the northern hemisphere.

[DJ_NUFC]

 

 

A huge sigh of relief in a geordie accent heard right across the northern hemisphere.

 

Do sighs sound different based on the accent of the emitter? Do geordie androids dream of electric geordie sheep?

[astraguy]

Even games fans believe we should win  aren't bankers every f***er wants to beat us even more so now to put the nail in our coffin

[joeyt]

Got battered off Leeds 3-0 and lost to awful travellers Norwich today 3-1, apparently have 4 fit defenders for next week.

 

Paul Huntington winner it is then

[Yorkie]

I do feel a lot better for the Derby goal, but even during our game today I was thinking about how Huddersfield's job is too great for them. Yes, we've been especially poor of late and it's made us all rightfully anxious - but the players have amassed enough points to afford these slip-ups.

 

We're limping over the line and it's not ideal, but nothing this season has been pretty. The job was to get promoted and I still think we will, then it's about the summer and making some crucial signings.

[beardsleymagic]

If we go up (hopefully), this terrible run of form at the end of the season might be the best thing to have happened. Seeing how bad we've been might actually convince Ashley more that we need serious rebuilding work done in the summer, more than Rafa just trying to explain it to him after a comfortable promotion.

Straw clutching I guess, but we have to live in hope.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I do feel a lot better for the Derby goal, but even during our game today I was thinking about how Huddersfield's job is too great for them. Yes, we've been especially poor of late and it's made us all rightfully anxious - but the players have amassed enough points to afford these slip-ups.

 

We're limping over the line and it's not ideal, but nothing this season has been pretty. The job was to get promoted and I still think we will, then it's about the summer and making some crucial signings.

 

So many times Huddersfield have squeaked a win. Logically a few weeks ago they were never going to beat our results by enough. Clearly it's more nervy than necessary, but that's still the case.

 

Can't say I'm not worried mind

[afar]

The aspect of our season, whether we go up or not, that I have been most disappointed with, is the area I thought we had a significant edge on our competition. The strength of squad. We've been hit with a lot of injuries to key players throughout the season, our leading scorer hasn't been able to stay fit since Christmas, Hayden for me has been a huge loss recently and of course we now see how much we miss Clark. But you have to expect injuries and suspension for a 46 game season, the problem has been that while earlier in the campaign we were coping really well with them, in the 2nd half we've struggled badly.

 

I'm sure the other teams including the champions elect have had injury problems, I just expected us with the resources available to us to cope better than them, obvious the squad is a lot weaker than we all thought and Rafa's rigid adherence to his formation along with some baffling team selections on occasion haven't helped.

[Dave]

The problem with squad strength is that our second tier of players, the ones that other clubs apparently look on enviously at, are actually pretty shite and/or simply haven't shown that they're above this level at all. Obviously I'm not his biggest fan but Mitrovic is a prime example. £13m international striker on our bench, scored in the Champions League etc etc. Fans and managers at other clubs look at him and reckon we're unbelievably strong. He's scored four league goals. Atsu, international winger on loan from Chelsea! Three league goals and no more than a handful of assists. Colback, a good honest pro with over 175 top flight appearances to his name. Actively makes us worse.

 

It's simply not good enough. All these players that have been playing top flight football for ages, and so few of them have actually shown why.

[afar]

The problem with squad strength is that our second tier of players, the ones that other clubs apparently look on enviously at, are actually pretty s**** and/or simply haven't shown that they're above this level at all. Obviously I'm not his biggest fan but Mitrovic is a prime example. £13m international striker on our bench, scored in the Champions League etc etc. Fans and managers at other clubs look at him and reckon we're unbelievably strong. He's scored four league goals. Atsu, international winger on loan from Chelsea! Three league goals and no more than a handful of assists. Colback, a good honest pro with over 175 top flight appearances to his name. Actively makes us worse.

 

It's simply not good enough. All these players that have been playing top flight football for ages, and so few of them have actually shown why.

 

Very true and another reason why promotion is so important to us. Without it the likes of Colback will continue to be picked week in, week out, like he has been by 4 managers now. We need to get out of this division and be ruthless with our squad shaping. In a sense just sneaking over the line as runners up may help, clears the thought that only small changes are required, we need a major rework, that's evident now.

[TheInfiniteOdyssey]

The problem with squad strength is that our second tier of players, the ones that other clubs apparently look on enviously at, are actually pretty s**** and/or simply haven't shown that they're above this level at all. Obviously I'm not his biggest fan but Mitrovic is a prime example. £13m international striker on our bench, scored in the Champions League etc etc. Fans and managers at other clubs look at him and reckon we're unbelievably strong. He's scored four league goals. Atsu, international winger on loan from Chelsea! Three league goals and no more than a handful of assists. Colback, a good honest pro with over 175 top flight appearances to his name. Actively makes us worse.

 

It's simply not good enough. All these players that have been playing top flight football for ages, and so few of them have actually shown why.

 

Dead on.

 

I also find it staggering that we have nobody from the academy that can come into this side. What's going on there?

[afar]

Brassler made a couple if starts mid season, I think had armstrong not been loaned out he too would have played a few and of course if  Aarons wasn't made of glass we may have seen a little less of Gouf this season.

[Andy84]

Brighton have put away the s*** at home, we've failed to do the same.  If we had this thread would be long closed. 

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

Brassler made a couple if starts mid season, I think had armstrong not been loaned out he too would have played a few and of course if  Aarons wasn't made of glass we may have seen a little less of Gouf this season.

 

Aye, Brassler didn't impress whatsoever, hence why he's not been seen again.

 

Barlaser only really played in the cups, though, didn't he?

[Greg]

Yes. Looked neat and tidy. Get him out on loan somewhere next season.

[mrmojorisin75]

It's important we go up winning at least 2 of the next 3 to ensure it feels like we got promotion instead of relying on Huddersfields results.

 

we just need to get up 

 

How you go up is important in terms of momentum imo.

Absolute bullshit (to use one of your own phrases). Rafa will tear this squad to bits of he stays, it'll be irrelevant.

[midds]

Huddersfield dropping 2 points is huge obviously but that late Derby goal doesn't make our performance and result at Ipswich any better or easier to take. The issues and questions that we all had at 5pm shouldn't be brushed under the carpet because of Derby's equaliser.

[ponsaelius]

Mitrovic has been a huge disappointment this season, and I'm pretty sure at this point he'll not do anything here, but to be honest he's not really been afforded a proper crack at it.

 

Carroll had scored 4 league goals by February in 2009/10, and he got played through a lot of average-to-poor performances. I could dig up posts, but lots of people didn't think much of him at all. Eventually he clicked into gear particularly when we started playing more expansively and he started scoring quite prolifically.

 

Rafa has been prioritizing results over patience with players. It's why Mbemba was binned after one mistake and Mitro has not really been given a run in the side. It's fair enough, especially since we'll go up, but I reckon the utilization of the squad hasn't been perfect as much as certain players haven't contributed. I'd say 50/50 in terms of blame.