Newcastle United 2-1 West Bromwich Albion - 12/12/2020

[Guest reefatoon]

It’s not arguing mate, it’s good to hear people’s opinions. For me Hayden and Shelvey just doesn’t give you enough. Hayden likes to sit deep, but Shelvey wants to sit even deeper and just launch it all the time. We are screaming out for someone to get that ball and drive up the pitch with it, or to get up there and support the attack. I think for me all our options are just safe, unremarkable workers that don’t offer anything with the ball. Basically they are all too similar.

[Awaymag]

Get Deli Ali in on loan  and then drop Shelvey.  The guys legs have gone and he slows down our attacks

[TRon]

It’s not arguing mate, it’s good to hear people’s opinions. For me Hayden and Shelvey just doesn’t give you enough. Hayden likes to sit deep, but Shelvey wants to sit even deeper and just launch it all the time. We are screaming out for someone to get that ball and drive up the pitch with it, or to get up there and support the attack. I think for me all our options are just safe, unremarkable workers that don’t offer anything with the ball. Basically they are all too similar.

 

Agree with that. You can count the times Shelvey makes runs into the penalty area in a season on one hand. Hayden's the natural defender of the two, and even given that midfielders are expected to do their stuff at both ends of the pitch these days, I think Shelvey should be doing a lot more. He is just not mobile enough for the modern game and that's why the good teams are not interested in signing him.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Get Deli Ali in on loan  and then drop Shelvey.  The guys legs have gone and he slows down our attacks

 

We have experimented with the one-man central midfield.

[Rod]

In fact I think that's a bit of a mad shout tbh, Reefa.

 

Shelvey's weaknesses are obvious but between him, Hayden, Fraser and the Longstaffs - there's smatterings of quality and steadiness. There's only Hendrick who's total s****.

 

Anita and Colback as a midfield pair was relegationariffic too, though obviously the average quality was bumped up by the presence of Shelvey, Wijnaldum and Townsend. Sissoko had totally lost interest obvs.

 

Fraser isn’t a central midfielder bud. I would rather have Nolan, Barton (even though I am not a fan) and Guthrie ahead of the longstaffs and Hendrick like, so for me that set of midfielders was better than what we have now.

 

Thought you were on about the midfield as a whole. If you're only on about CM then I'd probably feel even stronger. The CMs in our two relegation seasons were a disgrace. Hayden and Shelvey are a solid midfield pair.

 

I'm arguing for arguing's sake though really. The area needs major investment and I've said several times that, had Rafa been given the resources he deserved, I wouldn't have been surprised if we'd blown a significant amount of the budget on that area. It can transform a team. Shelvey was the last significant purchase in that position; since him we've brought in Hayden, Diame, Ki, Merino and Hendrick for about £12.99 altogether, and only one of them is any use to us right now. It's been a horribly neglected position, particularly when you consider Jonjo's colossal limitations.

Rafa knew what we needed.  Merino would have been perfect in Rafas team.  I also think he was trying to get Sean Longstaff to learn that role.  If Rafa had been given a modicum of funds we would be looking good for the future.  Unfortunately Ashley is still the owner.

[Conjo]

I understand Merinos desire to move on. He moved from Dortmund to get regular game time, and to then be sidelined by fucking Shelvey and Diame (granted in good form) I'd be getting restless pretty fucking quick too, but man I wish he had kept his cool for a bit longer and stayed on.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I understand Merinos desire to move on. He moved from Dortmund to get regular game time, and to then be sidelined by fucking Shelvey and Diame (granted in good form) I'd be getting restless pretty fucking quick too, but man I wish he had kept his cool for a bit longer and stayed on.

 

Yep, also we should have managed the situation much better.

 

At the end of the day there’s absolutely no reason to stay at Newcastle if you have other options. 

[Guest reefatoon]

You get the feeling we were always a quick stepping stone for him to get back home. don't think he had any intention on staying any longer than was necessary for him. Can't blame a young kid for that though.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

That was basically the pitch to new signings... come here and we’ll sell you to someone better.

[Guest neesy111]

He would've got homesick at some stage.

[huss9]

also he did lose form after his back injury.

[Pilko]

Diame was incredible from pretty much West Ham away in December onwards that season, he was quite rightly picked ahead of Merino. Amazing as well considering how shit he'd been up to that game, I remember Everton at home when we lost and he played as a number 10 he was absolutely stinking.

[Lenny]

Diame's transformation was quite incredible.

[Conjo]

Diame's transformation was quite incredible.

 

I'd love to see an interview with him about this. I'd love to hear what he thinks about that spell. Why he thinks he played so good, and why he thinks he wasn't able to replicate that form any other period of his career. It's not like what he did on the pitch was luck, like purple patches average strikers can find themselves in. He was bossing the midfield on a consistent basis for months against high level opponents. It's not like he was getting carried by his team mates, as he was the one that did the work to enable his team.

[Kanji]

Diame's transformation was quite incredible.

 

I'd love to see an interview with him about this. I'd love to hear what he thinks about that spell. Why he thinks he played so good, and why he thinks he wasn't able to replicate that form any other period of his career. It's not like what he did on the pitch was luck, like purple patches average strikers can find themselves in. He was bossing the midfield on a consistent basis for months against high level opponents. It's not like he was getting carried by his team mates, as he was the one that did the work to enable his team.

 

Honestly, he was one of the most dominant midfielders in the league over that period. I'd joke with ManDoon[/member] that Diame had either found the fountain of youth or was on some awesome PEDs because it defied any logic.

 

In any case, we were witnessing a nearly on-England form type Shelvey too with Diame and Merino was taking ages to turn from the back injury. It was weird he left when he did because the following season he could have cemented his spot in the team (maybe even with Longstaff) under Rafa.

 

But no issue with him, he had every reason to leave and I'm sure he will move on to the very top Spanish clubs in short order.