Newcastle United (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

Sheikh Mansour rolled into town 16 years ago and since then we have been on a football journey way beyond our wildest dreams.
When we don’t win I often post on here that it is impossible to win all 38 games.
We’ve had a tough start with Chelsea and Newcastle away plus Arsenal home. Lost Rodri,KDB, Oscar and Nathan to injury as well as Phil being ill.
To be near the top considering all the above is great in my eyes.
Very good point at Newcastle.
Love this club.
1st sentence is the one thing a lot of fans forget. I wish we would drop this "doomed without Rodri" mindset, he's only played 45 min against Brentford and 20 min against Arsenal, that's on top of other key absences and we haven't lost yet.
 
Explain where he fits in midfield.

When Kevs fit Kev will play

When Gundo is fit Gundo will play

When Kovacic is fit Kova will play due to Rodri injury and Kovacic is our only recognised 6.

Foden played last season since we had no Gundo so we could play a midfield of Foden and Kev when Kev returned. But Gundo is here this season.

I’d like to be proved wrong, as Foden is one of our best players. But I just don’t see Pep dropping none of Gundo or Kev for Phil in midfield, maybe out wide
Gundog should be a backup only even if Rodri is out
 
Of course he will
Thing is, proper quandary now for Pep, as he won’t start both Kev and Phil in midfield, no chance without Rodders. He didn’t even like starting them together in midfield when Rodders was available!

But Savio is our best winger, imo, but needs to play on the right, which is where Pep needs to play Phil if he’s going to accommodate both Phil and Kev in the starting line up.

Pep might even have to be brave enough to properly play a 3-2-4-1 where instead of an inverted fullback it’s actually a double pivot in front of a 3.

We could then for example try to play:

Eddie

Akanji
Dias
Gvardiol

Kova
Bernie

Savio
Phil
Kev
Jack

Erl

I’d be interested to see it given a whirl, certainly against lesser opposition. No chance he’d play that against a top 6 side.
 
Explain where he fits in midfield.

When Kevs fit Kev will play

When Gundo is fit Gundo will play

When Kovacic is fit Kova will play due to Rodri injury and Kovacic is our only recognised 6.

Foden played last season since we had no Gundo so we could play a midfield of Foden and Kev when Kev returned. But Gundo is here this season.

I’d like to be proved wrong, as Foden is one of our best players. But I just don’t see Pep dropping none of Gundo or Kev for Phil in midfield, maybe out wide
Totally disagree. We were a different threat when Phil came on for Gundog who was utter shite yesterday
 
Totally disagree. We were a different threat when Phil came on for Gundog who was utter shite yesterday
we were but i can still see his point on Pep using the more senior Gundo/Kev over a Foden/Kev pairing. It was always gonna be on the cards as soon as Gundo was coming back regardless of fans preference. Pep has his favourite toys.
 
It was the same with both Rodri incidents last week though. Hard to see from most angles but he got a deliberate dig in the ribs in the very first second, very clear and totally undisputable if you get to see a view from the camera behind our goal. Same with the one that crocked him, very innocuous but deliberate and obvious when you see the right camera angle. I know the ref can't see those, but VAR can and I thought that was the whole

It was the same with both Rodri incidents last week though. Hard to see from most angles but he got a deliberate dig in the ribs in the very first second, very clear and totally undisputable if you get to see a view from the camera behind our goal. Same with the one that crocked him, very innocuous but deliberate and obvious when you see the right camera angle. I know the ref can't see those, but VAR can and I thought that was the whole point?
It used to be you may, on match of the day or the big match a look at a dive…maybe. We’re now capable of seeing events from all sorts of angles, when I say we I mean them we still get at best 2 options but usually one. Var could almost referee a game and the man in the middle would or could be told to blow, the slight delay would be no worse or different from the post delay on analysing we have now. However that’d be rubbish as we’ve all grown up to see the game from 2 teams a ref and linesmen, so let’s keep that format but we’ll put var in to reinforce the decisions and actually let you see the call at times is f**king nonsense but that’s what you’re getting because we are just infallible. That’s maybe a bit ott but I just cannot get this Var carry on for anything other than offside. It’s not that’s is a bad or poor tool to have it’s just not being used properly by those who are using it. Or maybe it is.
 
Think it's fair enough to look at games 1-19 as the period when Pep works out his best formation and then around January/February we hit on a particularly strong combination that we stick with until May/June time.

Our record after 19 games vs 38 games in each Pep season tells basically the same story over and over. If we're still looking a bit disjointed and toothless around the time the CL comes back we can start to worry but until then...

16/17: 39 points, 39 points (finished on 78)
17/18: 55 points, 45 points (finished on 100)
18/19: 44 points, 54 points (finished on 98)
19/20: 38 points, 43 points (finished on 81)
20/21: 41 points, 45 points (finished on 86)

21/22: 47 points, 46 points (finished on 93)
22/23: 42 points, 47 points (finished on 89)
23/24: 40 points, 51 points (finished on 91)


Out of the eight full seasons Pep has completed at City, five of them have seen us pick up more points in games 19-38 than we do in games 1-19. All five occasions that this has happened have come in the last six years.

Safe to say we've got a big hurdle to overcome this season with Rodri not being available, but by December we won't be looking at games and thinking "If only Rodri was here" because it'll be up to the world class players we have to get the job done.
Ha ha ha that centurion season was fucking bonkers! 55?from 57 points - was it the Everton home game we drew?
 
we were but i can still see his point on Pep using the more senior Gundo/Kev over a Foden/Kev pairing. It was always gonna be on the cards as soon as Gundo was coming back regardless of fans preference. Pep has his favourite toys.
Don't think it's just a case of Gundo being one of "Pep's pets".
Gundo is obviously more experienced than Phil, but he is also more accustomed to keeping the ball and better defensively.
Both KDB and Phil try to create something special or magical.
Unfortunately, Pep will seldom if ever play KDB and Phil together in midfield, with Rodri injured.
Pep doesn't have the same faith in Kova to be the only defensive midfielder, as he did with Rodri...
 
Don't think it's just a case of Gundo being one of "Pep's pets".
Gundo is obviously more experienced than Phil, but he is also more accustomed to keeping the ball and better defensively.
Both KDB and Phil try to create something special or magical.
Unfortunately, Pep will seldom if ever play KDB and Phil together in midfield, with Rodri injured.
Pep doesn't have the same faith in Kova to be the only defensive midfielder, as he did with Rodri...
Phil/ Kev and Stonesy for me!

Bottom line is if you don't win the ball back quickly and often enough on the deck AND in the air we won't be dominating games like we do when Rodders is there
 
Thing is, proper quandary now for Pep, as he won’t start both Kev and Phil in midfield, no chance without Rodders. He didn’t even like starting them together in midfield when Rodders was available!

But Savio is our best winger, imo, but needs to play on the right, which is where Pep needs to play Phil if he’s going to accommodate both Phil and Kev in the starting line up.

Pep might even have to be brave enough to properly play a 3-2-4-1 where instead of an inverted fullback it’s actually a double pivot in front of a 3.

We could then for example try to play:

Eddie

Akanji
Dias
Gvardiol

Kova
Bernie

Savio
Phil
Kev
Jack

Erl

I’d be interested to see it given a whirl, certainly against lesser opposition. No chance he’d play that against a top 6 side.

Really hope sentiment doesn't hinder Pep this season which must be very hard when there is so much respect and trust the game can catch even the best out. Bernardo is included in this also in my eyes potentially too.

Seeing Cole Palmer and Morgan Rodgers at Villa these guys are fresh, ultra hungry and quick as fuk. Also were Blues. Random link I know just throwing it out there.
 
Explain where he fits in midfield.

When Kevs fit Kev will play

When Gundo is fit Gundo will play

When Kovacic is fit Kova will play due to Rodri injury and Kovacic is our only recognised 6.

Foden played last season since we had no Gundo so we could play a midfield of Foden and Kev when Kev returned. But Gundo is here this season.

I’d like to be proved wrong, as Foden is one of our best players. But I just don’t see Pep dropping none of Gundo or Kev for Phil in midfield, maybe out wide
I'd drop Gundo in a heartbeat. He's been God awful. How can you possibly propose him playing over Foden?? News flash, Foden and KDB was our best combination in our final stretch to the title.
 
Really hope sentiment doesn't hinder Pep this season which must be very hard when there is so much respect and trust the game can catch even the best out. Bernardo is included in this also in my eyes potentially too.

Seeing Cole Palmer and Morgan Rodgers at Villa these guys are fresh, ultra hungry and quick as fuk. Also were Blues. Random link I know just throwing it out there.
Yeah, tough watching Cole, felt like we got decent money for him however I always thought it was more to do with Pep not wanting to bring another talent thought whilst he was still nurturing Phil. Got to say Cole is right up there and I’d have loved to see the pair of them together.

I also fully agree about the sentiment bit too, he’s trying to get Gundo back up to speed but you could see yesterday that we can only have one of them in the team, just too slow. He needs to bench Gundo for now and use him sparingly for 30/4% mins here and there.
 
I'd drop Gundo in a heartbeat. He's been God awful. How can you possibly propose him playing over Foden?? News flash, Foden and KDB was our best combination in our final stretch to the title.
we dropped the LW to get it that combo though, think on the west ham game they actually both started as 8s with wingers.

might need another shuffle of formation to get them all in,
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top