Newcastle Thread - 2022/23

[Mick_]

Totally agree about Bruno. He's a great player. He's dangerous.
Howe I feel is a stop gap until u get an elite manager. You'll be challenging for silverware from now on and I'm sure you'll win something sooner rather than later.

I think our recent form is a great challenge for Howe, he can either prove he's the right man for the job or he can fail and never get another chance like he has now. So far he's done well, it's now uo to him to step up and prove he's capable of change when things don't go his way.

 

[Mick_]

Get a striker, and you will be just fine.
That simple

The way things are going, we could bring in a proven striker and he'd sit on the bench behind a struggling Wilson.

 

[toffee balls]

The way things are going, we could bring in a proven striker and he'd sit on the bench behind a struggling Wilson.

Get to the end of the season , finish strong and go again.

it will happen.

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

We've really fallen off a cliff over the last few weeks and Howe has to take some of the blame for that as he has favourites who he would probably play even if they were injured. We've lost our last 3 games 0-2 and I think all of those games remained at 0-2 because the opposition were happy with that scoreline. If we'd scored 2 yesterday, you would have scored 4.

My opinion of our starting 11 yesterday is:

I’m fine with Pope starting every game as long as he’s fit as he’s the best we have in his position but I have no idea why Dubravka was back on the bench yesterday.

Trippier is no longer delivering and hasn’t since the World Cup. He gets easily beaten for pace and his crossing has dropped off massively as he doesn’t often beat his first man, his passing is also sloppy for somebody with his experience.

Lascelles played better against Man City than I expected and he’s OK to cover for Schar who is OK but his passing can be wayward and he’s a bit light in the challenge, he seems to pick up a head injury at least once every game.

Botman is fine and we should build our defence around him, even though he’s put the ball in his own net two games in a row. He’s had no option but to try and make a block, he’s been unlucky.

Burn has no pace and the turning circle of an aircraft carrier. He’s been quite solid when he can play on his outside which is his left foot but that’s gone recently because he’s been found out and is being targeted. He offers absolutely nothing going forward I think he’s realised that he can’t get forward. Targett has returned to fitness and he really should have started yesterday and I will be very pissed off if he doesn’t start next weekend.

Joelinton is fine in the centre of our midfield as he covers so much ground and helps build up play. He’s now banned for the next 2 games so that probably means more of Longstaff.

Bruno is head and shoulders above anything in our team, he makes us tick and is being let down by others around him.

Longstaff is really garbage and a waste of a pair of underpants. He can’t tackle, he’s slow in movement and in thought. I don’t know if anybody has noticed but he ends up behind play when he goes to make a challenge because the game has moved on and he’s aiming for where the ball was. He gets into good positions as times but needs to much time to think, he doesn’t have an instant reaction. Willock is better than Longstaff at everything he does and should never start on the bench while Longstaff starts.

Gordon hasn’t played enough for us for anybody to work out how he’ll do going forward but I don’t think he should have been brough into the starting 11 in place of Saint-Maximin who didn’t deserve to be dropped yesterday.

Wilson has gone right off the ball since the World Cup and should not be starting for us until something changes with him. He had Covid before the World Cup and hasn’t been his normal self since although he looked to be improving against West Ham.

Almiron is back to his normal self and I hope that we’ve given him a new contract to keep his value. He’s unlikely to ever repeat his early season form and we should take money for him if we get a good offer.

My starting 11 yesterday would have been Pope, Trippier, Schar (if fit), Botman, Targett, Joelinton, Bruno, Willock, Gordon, Isak, Saint-Maximin.

Howe has said that he can’t change a winning team, we’ve now lost our last 3 and he’s made some strange selections. He played Anderson against Liverpool, the kid has done nothing at Newcastle to suggest that he should be starting games in our midfield and it was no surprise when we were so poor against Liverpool, Gordon would have been an obvious starter.

Against Man U we should have started Targett for Burn, Willock for Longstaff and Isak for Wilson.

Eddie is under a bit of pressure from a small number of fans and he’s bringing it upon himself because of his team selection. The players will get the blame if he picks our best 11 and get nowhere, he’ll get the blame if he keeps picking his favourites regardless of their performances.

I think that's a fair assessment there. My wife is a Geordie and I always watch out for the Toon and chat with the fans when I'm up there.

To be honest, I think Howe is getting that team playing well above where they probably should be. I think we've all seen teams who set off at the start of a season and fly, but then they get found out as the managers get to see more of the team etc.

He didn't have a good game yesterday, but Guimaraes is your best player by a mile. I think he wasn't fully fit to be honest. You need to build a team around him which is what you're doing I think. He will be the player who can make any striker look good with his passing. I also thought that, overall, the defence looked very solid but let's be honest there's no one who can live with KdB/Foden/Haaland/Grealish/Bernardo/Gundogan attacking - they are just too good. I thought though when it was 1-0 if you'd had got a chance in then it might have been quite tight.

I don't think you can really judge the team playing away against us and also last week in their first final for years against United. I think the team has it's limitations which we can see but you're moving forward and I think once Howe has reached his max level he will be moved on and you'll bring in a Conte/Ancelotti etc type manager and that's when the big names will come in. However, if Howe can get you European football and a Cup final this season that's good progress I think.

I hope the Geordies can push into the top 4, it will make the league more exciting. Good luck for the rest of the season!

 

[Mick_]

I think that's a fair assessment there. My wife is a Geordie and I always watch out for the Toon and chat with the fans when I'm up there.

To be honest, I think Howe is getting that team playing well above where they probably should be. I think we've all seen teams who set off at the start of a season and fly, but then they get found out as the managers get to see more of the team etc.

He didn't have a good game yesterday, but Guimaraes is your best player by a mile. I think he wasn't fully fit to be honest. You need to build a team around him which is what you're doing I think. He will be the player who can make any striker look good with his passing. I also thought that, overall, the defence looked very solid but let's be honest there's no one who can live with KdB/Foden/Haaland/Grealish/Bernardo/Gundogan attacking - they are just too good. I thought though when it was 1-0 if you'd had got a chance in then it might have been quite tight.

I don't think you can really judge the team playing away against us and also last week in their first final for years against United. I think the team has it's limitations which we can see but you're moving forward and I think once Howe has reached his max level he will be moved on and you'll bring in a Conte/Ancelotti etc type manager and that's when the big names will come in. However, if Howe can get you European football and a Cup final this season that's good progress I think.

I hope the Geordies can push into the top 4, it will make the league more exciting. Good luck for the rest of the season!

I agree with all of that. Eddie has done really well to improve some of the players that he inherited. I don't know how opposition fans see Joelinton but I love the bloke. He never gives up and he could have easily given up on us when Bruce played him as a forward, he struggled but he never hid. He covers so much ground and he does it with ease, a couple of strides and he's flat out and covers so much ground.

Bruno picked up an ankle injury a few games ago and he's turned it again in the League Cup Final so he might still be having a problem with that, he might need to just give it time to heal.

0-2 against you isn't a bad result, especially when compared with how we've performed in the past. I just don't think some of our players are justifying their starting positions.

I don’t even mind us dropping the points as I want you to win the league, I would rather the league winners were from the North but not Liverpool or Man U. Man U fans are the most arrogant set of fans going and I hate them, although less than I hate the mackems.

 

[horlock_was_super]

Walking back from the Beach Cabin in Los Cristianos yesterday, the Wife and I met a group of 10 Geordies. Booed us then wished us well and hoped we will win the league.
Agreed that their time is to come all of them agreed that City are being hounded by the red cartel. Yes they’re finding the msn against them now but, one fan base is seeing it for what it is progress?

 

[SebastianBlue]

 

[5 Hit Gibbon]

Was there not one year when we played these at home when they announced over the PA that we had run out of chips? Not sure if I'm going senile, but I'm sure I remember it. I can't fathom why that would be announced over the PA though.

 

[Mick_]

Our next game will be massive and I hope that we have as many players fit as possible because I really want us to beat Man U. I hope that we play the following:

Pope.
Trippier.
Schar.
Botman.
Targett.
Bruno.
Joelinton.
Willock.
Gordon.
Isak.
Saint-Maximin.

I think that's going to be the best 11 that we might have fit at the time. After that we have 3 away games at West Ham, Brentford and Villa and those 3 games could go either way. I think the crowd will be up for the Man U game and the players will probably want to gain a little revenge for the Carabao Cup defeat. Hopefully you'll beat Liverpool and Everton take at least a point off Spurs then we'll be third top on goal difference.

 

[Barcon]

Was there not one year when we played these at home when they announced over the PA that we had run out of chips? Not sure if I'm going senile, but I'm sure I remember it. I can't fathom why that would be announced over the PA though.

Yes and there was a Geordie on here at the time that took a lot of shit for eating all the chips ; )