Allan Saint-Maximin (now playing for Fenerbahce, on loan from Al-Ahli)

[The Prophet]

Playing with Isak will definitely benefit him. Hard to double up on ASM when you have another quick, tricky player through the middle.

[madras]

I was going mad with him first 20 or so. After we scored he suddenly found 20-30yd passes to Isak he'd never had in his armoury before.....even when players were on.

 

Having to rethink my 'probably get rid in the summer" status.

 

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by madras

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I thought he was good today, not perfect but was clearly looking to release Isak as part of the plan. 
 

No worries about him starting every week now TBH. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 hour ago, Keggy_Keagal said:

Thought Burn and Botman had the baby oil bandit well under control barring that early run and cross 

Someone called him an oily bastard behind me

[alexf]

I think he undoubtedly has lost some pace after some of his injuries. 

 

I think when he is up against faster players, Semedo today, Wan-Bissaka in the cup final, he looks alittle shy to take them on. 

[Lush Vlad]

8 hours ago, huss9 said:

think Maxi was playing within himself today.

 

I feel like I say it every week. It still feels like he is caught between trying to be a Howe player and playing his usual game. 
 

It results in him being even more indecisive than usual at times. At other times, him rushing the pass or shot. 
 

First half, on the whole. I thought he was great. Really dangerous on the ball at times and was finding Isak, Willock and Burn in space. 
 

Second half, it was easy to see why Howe is obviously unsure on him. In a 2-3 minutes spell. He lost the ball being a twat in a tight area when it was never on. Then didn’t track back. Then when he got back, he was miles out of position when Semedo overlapped and he just watched him. I think he was then heavily involved losing the ball edge of our box. That ended in a dangerous free kick for them. 
 

A bit like Isak. It looks like he is told he will get around an hour, he can’t do 90 yet. So he blows his load early and then really drops off. 
 

Despite what I hear a lot of people saying and what should be the case. I’m of the opinion he is better when he starts and a bit of a crap option off the bench. 

[MrRaspberryJam]

I thought he played canny. 

[KingArthur]

He was good yesterday. I think one thing Howe needs to make him understand is that he does not always need to try to go past 1-2 defenders. Just release it and make a run behind or something. He always wants the ball at his feet. It slows the play down and makes it more predictable. But he played great passes to Isak, and was not just going to cut in and shoot like often before.

[Tsunami]

Think he’s trying to become more involved in team play and less frustrating to play with. 
 

He has to stop the clever stuff around his in box. He gave the ball away by attempting a high risk turn on the corner of his own 18 yard box that lead to a really dangerous free kick and good save from Pope. You got to play safe in those areas.

 

[mouldy_uk]

I thought it was one of his more mature and effective performances, certainly releasing the ball better than previous games.

 

Desperately want to see him and Targett as that would give the opposition that extra headache which Burn just doesn’t give. 

[Lenny]

Ando has been better (naturally) since we've improved, but some of snipes really do grate. On the extended highlights, Raisbeck says "ASM producing a number of stepovers", to which Ando says "And going nowhere", despite him giving the ball to Willock to progress forward and us win a corner.

 

Fuck off with that shite man

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I know Ando has achieved cult status, but he gets on my tits.

[Rocker]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I know Ando has achieved cunt status, but he gets on my tits.

 

[Lush Vlad]

He is still held to ridiculous standards and despised by plenty of our fans.
 

Heard all of these around me yesterday. 
 

“Waste of skin.”

”Fucking shite. Useless.”

”Get him off and sold. He’s shit.”

 

[Nope].  

[sushimonster85]

On 13/03/2023 at 09:22, Lush Vlad said:

He is still held to ridiculous standards and despised by plenty of our fans.
 

Heard all of these around me yesterday. 
 

“Waste of skin.”

”Fucking shite. Useless.”

”Get him off and sold. He’s shit.”

 

.  

 

Heard similar stuff. Boils my piss. 

 

A) He is held to insane standards, more so since Howe came in and people now get on at him about his pressing/tracking back as well as the usual.

B) Short memories. Remember when Bruces' idea of tactics was 'give the ball to Maxi halfway inside his own half and pray.' He was the only bright spot in the darkest days. 

[Stottie]

The eye test should tell you whats going on, but Maxi passing stats this season and last season per 90 minutes played

 

2021/22 24 attempts per 90, 17 completed

2022/23 36 attempts per 90, 24 completed

 

For context and to indicate our improved possession,

Bruno 21/22 45 att, 38 completed, 22/23 53 att, 43 completed

 

So we have the ball maybe 20% more, but Maxi's passing the ball 50% in the average game.

 

In other news, Maxi has crossed the ball less than Matt Targett this season. Trippier's crossed it 256 times (!!!) The rest of the squad added together is 229.

Targett has crossed it twice as much as BDB in one fifth of the time on the pitch.

 

To go down the rabbit hole of stats analysis, start here.

https://fbref.com/en/squads/b2b47a98/Newcastle-United-Stats

[LV]

He doesn’t look like he can run as well as he did any more. Not as fast and as jinky as he was anyway.

Still did well, but he seems….. different. 

 

[magvicar]

Maxi's class half the time and a loose cannon the other half.

I think Eddie Howe's adding more to his armoury and making him more of a hardworking team player. It shows at times when he's on his game like against Wolves but there's still a few things to iron out and I think it's been difficult for Maxi to take earlier on.

 

I think he's starting to understand the full meaning of team player first and luxury skill when the time's right.

I think Howe's system has been a shock to a good few but most have taken to it after gaining the spoils from the hard work and seeing them come to fruition on the pitch.

I think Maxi is getting near full benefit from it now.

I think Anthony Gordon's likely got a bit of a shock as to how long it takes to get up to speed, the Howe way.

 

Remember before Howe came Maxi was the main man, basically running his show. Now we have much more than that.

[Kanj]

Would be awesome if Maxi learned to pass and move inside like Miggy does.

 

Use his absolutely brilliant ball skills to create something, if not working, pass inside and dart past the fullback into space. If not received, get back outside and get the ball back and create something on his own, etc. Would be deadly. 

[Papavasiliou]

I think the space he can create round the back of the defence just by dancing on the edge of the box is brilliant and with anyone other than BDB (or Dummett) playing LB we'd be seeing a fuck load more dangerous crosses going into the box from the left.

[The College Dropout]

Wish he would make more runs off the ball. Loves it to feet.

[Heron]

I'm a bit of a critic of his but thought he played well vs Wolves. Funnily enough, it was whenever he released it early, and even then he didn't do it as often as he maybe should have.

 

Still cannot help but feel it's all ifs, buts and maybes for him becoming a top drawer player like. He's got it in his locker, it's just whether he chooses to unlock it on a more regular basis, like he did vs Man City.

 

Think he could be a big player in these next 4 or 5 though...

[Gawalls]

On 13/03/2023 at 09:33, sushimonster85 said:

 

Heard similar stuff. Boils my piss. 

 

A) He is held to insane standards, more so since Howe came in and people now get on at him about his pressing/tracking back as well as the usual.

B) Short memories. Remember when Bruces' idea of tactics was 'give the ball to Maxi halfway inside his own half and pray.' He was the only bright spot in the darkest days. 

 

 

 

And wasn’t it just last season when he had more assists than any other Newcastle player? Now we find ourselves struggling for goals a lot and he’s changed the way he plays to not do that so much anymore.

 

Maybe he’s changed too much the other way?

[Stottie]

Statsbomb are big advocates of Maxi but even this is quite surprising.

Given the absolute quality of the other players as creators just below him here, there must be relevance to this. The mitigating factor may be the limited time Maxi has played compared to the others.

I've said it probably a dozen times, but if Maxi had better shooting boots, he'd be a 100M pound player. It's a skill that can be practiced to an extent. Wayne Rooney learnt to head the ball. The young Rooney couldn't do it.

[TRon]

He can hit the ball well, he has the power, we've seen that from previous goals. We also know he can jink his way into really dangerous areas of the pitch. It's just lack of awareness or judgement once he gets there which stops him from having far more impact. The extra touch, or the extra check back to fool his opponent quite often just give other defenders time to surround him and cut off the avenues to get the shot or pass off.