Newcastle United 1-2 AFC Bournemouth: 18/04/26 @ 15:00 (No UK TV)

[Wolfcastle]

Now would be a better gage. Marcelino and Tomasson looked good in pre season. Its not like not experimenting is working either.

[Wallsendmag]

23 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Preseason and friendlies are the times to experiment. We are fighting for every point possible and they will pick the players they think have the best chance of achieving that. 

 

We aren't going down and we aren't getting into Europe. It's a total dead rubber. He needs to do something different to what he's been doing as it's not working.

[Chicken Dancer]

21 minutes ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

We aren't going down and we aren't getting into Europe. It's a total dead rubber. He needs to do something different to what he's been doing as it's not working.

Agree with this mind. Seasons basically done, would be asking a lot to get into Europa and the Conference isn’t worth qualifying for (quite literally) and I hate myself for saying that. 
 

Get Woltemade up top with Ramsey, Tonali and Miley behind him. It can’t exactly be much worse. 

[Yorkie]

It isn't a dead rubber by any metric. Literally no one between us and sixth is particularly consistent and it's not too late to build a run at all. 

 

There'll come a point where it's dead rubber but this weekend is nowhere near it. Brentford and Fulham play each other. It's the Merseyside derby and Sunderland go to Villa. De Zerbi's home debut against Brighton. 

 

We win and just a couple other results go our way and suddenly it's interesting again. 

 

People too caught up in the optics of 14th imo.

[Chicken Dancer]

4 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

If we win all of our remaining games

If this happens, I’ll personally hunt you down, break into your house and perform the best fellatio known to man on you. 

[Yorkie]

Just now, Chicken Dancer said:

5 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

If we win all of our remaining games

If this happens, I’ll personally hunt you down, break into your house and perform the best fellatio known to man on you. 

 

Sounds great but you're right; I deviated to a different argument but forgot to delete the sentence. Edited now.

 

Clearly we won't win all of our remaining games but it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we put a decent run together.

[Andy84]

Bruno could be back 

[Myleftboot]

2 minutes ago, Andy84 said:

Bruno could be back 

Hope we don’t rush him back out of desperation.

[PauloGeordio]

1 minute ago, Andy84 said:

Bruno could be back 

[Yorkie]

4 minutes ago, Myleftboot said:

Hope we don’t rush him back out of desperation.

 

Have been expecting this since 4pm on Sunday tbh.

[Wallsendmag]

10 hours ago, Yorkie said:

 

Sounds great but you're right; I deviated to a different argument but forgot to delete the sentence. Edited now.

 

Clearly we won't win all of our remaining games but it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we put a decent run together.

 

There's literally nothing I've seen in recent games to suggest that we'll put a decent run together. After Saturday it's Arsenal away next.  Honestly I admire your optimism and I sincerely hope that you're right and I'm wrong but this doesn't look like a group of players who are ready to roll up their sleeves and go on a run now to finish top 6.

 

The only way I could possibly see it is if we do as I suggested and changed around tactics and personnel because the way things are currently, no chance at all.

[Gawalls]

11 hours ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

We aren't going down and we aren't getting into Europe. It's a total dead rubber. He needs to do something different to what he's been doing as it's not working.

He may as well take this opportunity to try different things

[PauloGeordio]

22 minutes ago, Gawalls said:

He may as well take this opportunity to try different things

[500bhp]

30 minutes ago, Gawalls said:

He may as well take this opportunity to try different things

 

Yes something really radical like making that double substitution of the wingers at 50-55 mins instead of 65-70 minutes just after the opposition have equalised. (Sorry for this post Eddie!).

[TRon]

4 hours ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

There's literally nothing I've seen in recent games to suggest that we'll put a decent run together. After Saturday it's Arsenal away next.  Honestly I admire your optimism and I sincerely hope that you're right and I'm wrong but this doesn't look like a group of players who are ready to roll up their sleeves and go on a run now to finish top 6.

 

The only way I could possibly see it is if we do as I suggested and changed around tactics and personnel because the way things are currently, no chance at all.

 

 

One thing I'll be looking for tomorrow is a team full of players that want to be here next season. If the likes of Gordon, Tonali and Livramento have their heart set elsewhere, Howe should be able to field a team that will give 100%. If that's genuinely them then fair enough, but tbh, they haven't looked like it in the last few games. There's been moments in a few games where they look like they've switched off. 

[TK-421]

Problem with these last 6 games, and expecting the players to give 100% (as they rightly should) is that a number of them will have an eye on the World Cup, and some others an eye on the exit door.

They'll have seen what happened to Ekitike this week, and as much as it was a freak incident, I reckon it'll play on some of their minds.... Mr Gordon, I'm looking at you.

Thats why part of me would see the last 6 games as a bunch of dead rubbers (do we really want conference league?), and we use them to try new things, different formations, play Wolte and/or Wissa again, give some youth a chance, etc.

Or maybe we just use them to try and reivigorate/reinforce 'Plan A' and we get some half arsed performances from some players who want to avoid potential injury.

 

 

Edited April 17 by TK-421

[pinkeye]

I would take Conference League at this stage.  We could win that and it is another trophy to add to our small collection...   

[TheEntertainer]

I'm always baffled by the 'don't want conference league' line of reasoning, we haven't won a European competition for nearly 60 years and that's eminently winnable as you've seen by how English clubs have done in recent years. It's also a much lower standard particularly early on which lets you rotate the team, try things and give promising youngsters game time which you basically can't really do in almost all of the domestic competition unless you just accept probable defeat. I honestly can't see the negative unless Howe just insists on playing his strongest 11 every single game and burns us out which I'd very much doubt in the group stage. 

 

European football is great as well and some of the teams in the Conference league aren't the usual big names which for me is really interesting to see what else is out there and get to see some new places and teams. I just can't see a negative to it unless we just manage it really really badly, which I guess is possible, but we really shouldn't. The whole point of every season is to try and achieve the honour of competing on the continent as a reflection on your domestic success, it seems mad that we don't want the reward unless it's the very best one. There's an argument that the current system has made the competitions less attractive which I get, but European competition is still what we should be aiming for every season no matter the level. 

 

I don't think we're going to finish in the top half of the table mind, but I'd love it if we did! 

 

 

Edited April 17 by TheEntertainer

[TK-421]

I was more thinking 'we' as the club, and from an SCR point of view where the allowance is reduced to 70% in any European Competition, so its not like your making up the difference in competition revenue. Though this first SCR season we may be allowed to overspend without penalty.

Then theres the added fixtures again, which Eddie has proven he can't deal with, without it affecting the league form. Unless we can have a fantastic summer transfer window to boost the squad sufficiently.

As for giving youngsters a chance early on vs playing strongest team - see Carrierbag 2nd leg. 6-1 up and only Alex Murphy got a proper run out.

[TheEntertainer]

2 minutes ago, TK-421 said:

I was more thinking 'we' as the club, and from an SCR point of view where the allowance is reduced to 70% in any European Competition, so its not like your making up the difference in competition revenue. Though this first SCR season we may be allowed to overspend without penalty.

Then theres the added fixtures again, which Eddie has proven he can't deal with, without it affecting the league form. Unless we can have a fantastic summer transfer window to boost the squad sufficiently.

As for giving youngsters a chance early on vs playing strongest team - see Carrierbag 2nd leg. 6-1 up and only Alex Murphy got a proper run out.

Yeah there's a real risk we wouldn't rotate properly given recent history, I'd still rather be in it than not though. 

[TheEntertainer]

If Bruno is back we actually have a really strong squad for this, no real excuses, only missing Joelinton and Schar and probably only Joe would start given everyone else is fit. 

[TK-421]

3 minutes ago, TheEntertainer said:

If Bruno is back we actually have a really strong squad for this, no real excuses, only missing Joelinton and Schar and probably only Joe would start given everyone else is fit. 

I guess it just depends how the players approach it, especially based on recent results.

Last season, we were on a 9 match winning run, this was the 10th, at home, against an Injury hit side down to their last 11-12 players, and they blitzed us pretty much from minute 1.

And Bruno played and scored.

But, hopefully we can see a reaction from Newcastle at some point this season. Can't we?

[Jonas]

Had a dream about it last night. Will absolutely kick myself if we come from behind to win 3-2 and Howe and Tindall have a mock pushing match to illustrate a bad decision by the referee.

[TRon]

3 hours ago, TheEntertainer said:

I'm always baffled by the 'don't want conference league' line of reasoning, we haven't won a European competition for nearly 60 years and that's eminently winnable as you've seen by how English clubs have done in recent years. It's also a much lower standard particularly early on which lets you rotate the team, try things and give promising youngsters game time which you basically can't really do in almost all of the domestic competition unless you just accept probable defeat. I honestly can't see the negative unless Howe just insists on playing his strongest 11 every single game and burns us out which I'd very much doubt in the group stage. 

 

European football is great as well and some of the teams in the Conference league aren't the usual big names which for me is really interesting to see what else is out there and get to see some new places and teams. I just can't see a negative to it unless we just manage it really really badly, which I guess is possible, but we really shouldn't. The whole point of every season is to try and achieve the honour of competing on the continent as a reflection on your domestic success, it seems mad that we don't want the reward unless it's the very best one. There's an argument that the current system has made the competitions less attractive which I get, but European competition is still what we should be aiming for every season no matter the level. 

 

I don't think we're going to finish in the top half of the table mind, but I'd love it if we did! 

 

 

 

 

 

Agree on the conference league snobbery. It's not CL but at least we keep some kind of profile in Europe. I would think the hierarchy want it just for that. 

[Andy84]

When people say the conference

league doesn’t help us financially I always think who cares. We’re fucked either way with the restrictions.  It’s a way into a higher competition the following season and a chance to win a trophy.