Love to see Southampton down, mainly because I ****ing hate mark hughes but the harsh reality is that he’ll most likely get pedalled long before the trap door slams shut with a nice big pay off.
If he can manage to relegate Stoke and Southampton in consecutive seasons I might buy him a pint or two
Lascelles and Shelvey have definitely got to work hard to get back into the team. Fernandez is un-dropable and Schar is playing great. Ki has made a big difference in the middle just by keeping it more simple.
He’s good on the ball but does not have an engine on him. Diame perfect fold for him. Shelvey must think what do I do now.
I’m a great advocate on keeping it simple. Hollywood passes look great in a world class team but for us it’s suicidal. Ki keeps it simple and I like that. Could we play a three man cm? One playing simple one playing complex and one playing hard as cook old school.
I think if we could have kept hold of Merino we would have. He went off the boil and needed more time to adapt but seemed to get homesick and want away instead. Fair play to the lad, we made money on him and I think people underestimate how hard it must be for some of them living in different countries and cultures. Cracking player, think he could have been great for us.
Nah bollocks - they are footballers, they live very comfortable lives and if they are lonely they can afford to fly their whole family and friends over to live there. Think he could have gone on to great things in English football but he took the easier option by going back to Spain, when he was struggling to get back in the team after a long injury.
This has never happened before to me but I appear to have a winning match thread - can somebody explain what happens next? Was there something about never going down the pub again?
Predictable result and performance. Burnley look very poor too. Good solid away performance. Diame comfortably MOTM. Fernandez and Schar were superb too. We should have sewn it up a lot earlier. I'd be half tempted to pick Joselu over Rondon if we weren't at home. Rondon was back to his lethargic best last night. You don't want to go over old ground but you really do have to wonder what Rafa was thinking shipping Mitrovic. Given how we play currently and how immobile Rondon is, you'd have Mitrovic all day long regardless of how good a fit he is in this style. He is better than Rondon at everything. Touch, finishing, mobility, work rate etc etc. I thought that home game may have energised Rondon, but no. Rondon was so bad that when Joselu came on, despite not achieving masses, I was instantly happier. The team looked it too. It says something when you are praising Joselu despite doing very little! We can really kick on now. We have a good run of games. I like the talk coming from Rafa. I said a few weeks ago he needs to get out of his negative mindset, knuckle down and get some points instead of moaning. If you listen to his chatter before the game he has done exactly that. Very positive, and has realised the error of his ways early season of going too negative and defensive. We are getting bodies into dangerous areas now. We are still a defensive side and take a very good shape without the ball, but he has released the shackles a bit. With that and a win or too has come the confidence to try to be a bit more positive from the players. All in all if you are Newcastle fan you have to be happy.
It was great little reverse and the body movement initially was excellent. Still a very frustrating player. If he could understand that after his initial control, he doesn't have to try those silly twists and turns which sees him run down more blind alleys than anything else. He does it regular down the sides of the box, the defenders know what he is going to do and just dispossess him with ease. He just needs to learn that possession is king at this level, and do what he did a few times and just slip it back to the winger or full back, then get on the move. Its frustrating because he has talent, its just a bit of football nous which is lacking.
He could also do with some strength training. Diame sneezed and he fell over on more than one occasion last night.
